Half a Dozen Sets of Tees

[Craig_Rokke]

Are there any respectable courses out there that offer six or more sets of tees? How many choices do we really need?
Three or four, and in a few select cases five, strike me as very adequate. The Ocean Course, which stretches to to a windy 7400+ yards of challenging  resort golf has just four.

I recently spotted one course on the internet that proudly mentioned their 6 teeing options and it got me thinking that
few courses offer that many, & the ones that do probably have a strong correlation to excesses in other areas of the course's design. In their case, that was true.

[Brent Hutto]

The Ocean Course has more than four tee boxes on some holes, IIRC. They probably don't bother to have more than four sets in play on any given day because as you point out it quickly gets silly beyond that.

[Adam_F_Collins]

I've always thought more than 3 was overkill...

[PThomas]

why not lots of tees?

if you build a course today your back tees might well be 7500

I can easily see sets at 7000, 6500, 6000, 5500, 5000

why not let people of all skills try and play?  it can help increase the numbe rof players I think

[Jordan Wall]

Victoria National

[Tyler Kearns]

I think we need to differentiate between the number of tees and the number of tee markers. I can see infinite variety in six tees, but six sets of markers would be a bit much for me. Think of the many angles and the variety in day-to-day set-up. If I came across two ideal forward tee locations, each offering a separate challenge for those playing them, I would not shun away from building both.

TK

[Doug Siebert]

Six tees:

http://www.stoneybrookgolffm.com/stats.html

They got 'em in the UK, too:

http://www.theplayersgolfclub.com/scorecard1.htm

[Matt_Sullivan]

5 or 6 sets of tees can make good sense. I've seen it done like this

Blacks (6500 metres)
Golds (6150 metres) -- low cappers
Blues (5700 metres) -- low to mid
Whites (5300m) -- mid to high
Reds (4900m) -- ladies
Silver (4500m) -- juniors

Can work ok, since the golds become the "back" tees for all but the local pros and the reds and silvers serve very worthwhile purposes

You see it on courses in areas that get a lot of rainfall (eg SE Asia) because when it is all carry the courses can play real long and a variety of teeing grounds can help

[Kevin Pallier]

So long as the length of the tees vary - three should suffice.
1. Championship tees
2. Mens 'Club' tees
3. Womens / Juniors...etc

[Steve Lang]

 

6 at Jacobson/Hardy Course at Redstone in Houston

Tees
 
Tees Yardage Rating Slope Par
  Men's Ladies' Men's Ladies'  
Black 7508 75.9  N/A  133  N/A  72  
Gold 7069 73.4  N/A  128  N/A  72  
Blue 6517 70.9  N/A  121  N/A  72  
White 6084 68.6  75.6  118  127  72  
Red 5531 65.8  71.2  111  123  72  
Yellow 4911 63.0  67.7  103  117  72  
 


Additional Comments

 

[Chris Kane]

Any more than two is overkill.  Back tees and forward tees, and have the tees at the front of the back tees for regular play.

[Craig_Rokke]

6 at Jacobson/Hardy Course at Redstone in Houston

Tees
 
Tees Yardage Rating Slope Par
  Men's Ladies' Men's Ladies'  
Black 7508 75.9  N/A  133  N/A  72  
Gold 7069 73.4  N/A  128  N/A  72  
Blue 6517 70.9  N/A  121  N/A  72  
White 6084 68.6  75.6  118  127  72  
Red 5531 65.8  71.2  111  123  72  
Yellow 4911 63.0  67.7  103  117  72  
 


Additional Comments

 

Steve-
I do see the logic in 6 sets, with those yardages.
You certainly don't want to go from 7500 to 6500 with nothing
in between. The lowest yardage tees make sense for a good junior golfer option. Then again, though, they could play from the reds.

[Jimmy Chandler]

Any more than two is overkill.  Back tees and forward tees, and have the tees at the front of the back tees for regular play.

While I agree that 6 sets of tees is unnecessary, calling more than two tees "overkill" is ridiculous.  Chris, are you a low handicapper that doesn't care about the enjoyment of the game for people who cannot hit the ball a long distance?  Remember that the average golfer cannot carry the ball over 200 yards.

Take a typical upscale daily fee type of course, where the tips play between 6700 and 7000 yards.  Where are your forward tees?  If they are longer than 5700 yards, many women and seniors will be miserable.  So where do I, as a mid-handicapper, play this course? I cannot enjoy a round from 7000 yards, and 5700 yards will probably not challenge me (plus my friends would ridicule me for playing from the same tees as grandma!).

I think 3 or 4 sets of tees is perfect -- 4 for a more difficult course, especially one with longer forced carries from the tees.

I guess it comes down to what is your goal when designing a course: if it is to challenge and please all your golfers, 2 tees will fail to do this at all but the easiest of venues.

[Robert Kimball]

The Ocean Course has more than four tee boxes on some holes, IIRC. They probably don't bother to have more than four sets in play on any given day because as you point out it quickly gets silly beyond that.

From my memory, our caddie said that there are some "hidden black tees" on some of the holes which can stretch the sucker out to over 7800 yards. Not sure if it's urban legend, but I guess we might find out at the PGA.........

[PThomas]

and what's so difficult about having lots of sets of tees?  hell, if it has to come to just putting down tee markers on the sides of the fairways, just do that!

[Steve Lang]

 

Craig,

The new tourney course at Restone has 12 tees i counted on the 16th par three... most across an abyss and rest about 30 yards left, along a left flank ridge to the green..


At WCC we typically have 4 (red, white, blue, & then black tips).. on East (ol TPC) they had 3, though they're snuck in some new red tees for ladies and some green tees for seniors who aren't man enough to play from reds.. I've lately taken to playing some with Ms Sheila from her forward tees to work on short game.. much more fun to walk and talk and then quicker to have all players tee off together than game from different tees.. where you may meet at fairway location.. she'll come back to the "whites" for almost any course but draws the line at about 6200 yards..

Perhaps more important issue in this era is whether you're playing and entering scores for handicap from tees that are truly rated.. often this is reason handicaps don't travel well to other courses..


 

[Mike Hendren]

I consider RTJ's runways to be ingenious.  Unlimited elasticity, easy maintenance and intimidating from the back.  All you need is one "box."

Mike

[PThomas]

Craig,

The new tourney course at Restone has 12 tees i counted on the 16th par three... most across an abyss and rest about 30 yards left, along a left flank ridge to the green..

even I will agree that seems to be a bit much:  12!

[Jason Topp]

If you want a hole to play as a driver and 6 iron, I come up with the following aproximate hole distances:

500 yards - Tiger Woods
400 yards - me
300 yards - my father
200 yards - my mother

With this spread, it seems the options are as follows (1) multiple tees, (2) ignore Tiger and/or my mother, (3) reject designing any hole for a driver and a 6 iron.