To Tee or not to Tee, that is the question

After my horrendous medal round last Sunday when the 40 mph side winds took it's toll on my limited ability to play a decent tee shot into a head wind and into the side wind, I went out today and decided that on all par 3s less than 160 yds, I would just hit it off the deck and see how it went. There was a breeze out there today, but nothing like last Sunday when my trolley bag got blown over about 8 times, even with the brake on! I had always believed that if you can tee it up you should, but I have noticed that most of the better players don't use a tee on par 3s. I found today that my timing was pretty good and I hit the green on nearly all tee shots, whereas when I've used a tee in recent times I've found I seem to hit it way too high and wide and the accuracy just goes to rats. What do the rest of you do I wonder and should mid/high handicappers always use a tee or is it personal preference?

I will use a very low tee for par 3's when using longer than a 6 iron. For anything shorter I will sometimes use a low tee, but usually just knock up a bit of turf and put the ball on that.

Wasn't it Nicklaus who always advocated using a tee even with short irons/wedges?

If I'm right about who it was, he apparently said tht the game is difficult enough without passing up the opportunity to gain whatever advantage you can get.

I can *maybe* believe that very good club golfers can be happy just playing it off the deck but in my experience I have found a little elitism from frankly average golfers who have convinced themselves (if nobody else) that they are too good to require a tee peg with a mid-to-short iron

I nearly always use a tee, even with short irons. Had started not using one with the short irons but "got away with" a fat hit last week and decided that a very low tee just gives that small margin for error.

Tough words Davie - what I have found in my experience is that the majority of players, average or not, use a tee peg on all tees regardless of hole length, following JN's maxim - he also proposed first hit it long, then learn how to hit it straight and I'm certain it worked for him!

I suspect the players who like me will just knock up a bit of turf, have been playing for many years and just got into the habit. I certainly do not feel any 'elitism' when I do it, I am just used to teeing everything lower than modern fashion and clubs dictate.

When playing with persimmon headed drivers, regardless of the loft angle, which did tend to be steeper than modern clubs. I and all the people I ever played with would only have the tee at about half an inch, maximum three quarters. We did not see the benefit then of using a peg when playing a wedge and most times I still don't.

Sure sometimes I will chunk it, but no worse than skying it. So I do not believe it has anything to do with an inflated opinion of my capabilities, more a habit!

Davie, I too have followed JN's philosophy for many years and not only he, but I'm pretty sure Nick Faldo has advocated amateurs using a tee every time. However, I hit the ball really solidly earlier from the deck and I've not been doing that even from a really low tee; I've either been skying it or carving it or hooking it embarrasingly wide of the green more often than not. Today, for the first time in living memory, I hit the green (or the fringe) on all four par 3s on my home course without employing a tee. Now that may be a flash in the pan and the next time I play I might very well thin one or chunk one and immediately think 'damn should have used a tee' - which I bet is exactly what happens to a lot of mid/high handicappers and they relent and go back to using a tee. I'll bet you a pound to a pinch that nearly all the single figure boys hit it off the deck though on virtually all except for the longest par 3s.

I always use a tee, why pass up the chance for a perfect lie you don't get them often and the tee is a place you can do that everytime.

That's exactly what I meant Mav.

Sorry if OS or NST thought I was accusing them. My words were "in my experience". Having never seen OS or NST play, I couldn't possibly accuse either of them of "elitism". It was the people I have SEEN doing it (or at least most of them) who I was levelling the accusation

I agree with Davie.
When I could play this game properly [many years ago], in bounce games I would usually play short holes off the deck, mainly to intimidate my opponents
I would seldom do this in a tournament unless I was playing into a strong wind.

I agree Mav, it's always good to have a perfect lie. I just don't necessarily agree that a tee peg gives you a 'perfect' lie when using a wedge etc.

DTW - I don't feel that intimidation came in to play either - from memory, everyone I played with hit off the deck with the shorter clubs. But they would always view the hole and conditions first. To be fair, nowadays, most people I play use a peg all the time.

So I stick with my answer - I always use a tee peg for the longer par 3's but seldom for the shorter ones. Conditions could change that answer mind you!

I'm with Mav, it's all a matter of judgment and I know I'm more likely to chunk a wedge off the deck than get underneath one with a low tee.

Have just laid a lawn and was thinking about this while doing that.

I, like everyone else, will consider each shot, taking in to account the shape of the hole, lie of the land, wind direction and speed, security underfoot and personal preferences. Then the decision is taken where to tee up from, whether to tee high or low, or in my case whether to tee at all. If the shot calles for a tee, I'm not precious about this, I will use a tee. If not, then I won't.

I do not believe there is any intimidation or showing off there. However, I will concede that there is definitely a certain amount of 'one upmanship' or if you prefer a 'beat that' attitude. But isn't that what matchplay is all about? And we always used to play matchplay, never strokeplay unless in a competition.

Tee every time for me. Good enough for Nicklaus; good enough for me .

Depends, if I'm in between clubs I might well just drop it and hit the longer of the two clubs in question. 90% of the time it's tee'd up though.

Unless it's a 56 degree or 60 degree (which is clearly v unlikely) I always tee it up

Unless I need to keep the ball extremely low (like today) where I did hit it off the deck


Hit my one of my first lob wedges of a par 3 today, 130 yards, landed it about 110 yards and ran up (very very downwind)
To only 6 feet

Missed the putt though

If its a pitching wedge or 9 iron shot, i play it of the deck, if 8 iron or better then always a tee peg.

Sorry also par 4s into strong wind then will hit the 3 wood of the deck.

i prefer to hit all irons off the deck. tee's are generally cut pretty tight so getting a perfect lie isn't a problem. i just prefer to think of the shot being like any other on the course - it means i don't double think when faced with a long iron on the course. not an elitist thing by any means, just think keeping it simple works best for me. got a 17 deg hybrid which i use a lot on par 4's between 390 -420 yards. that's the only club which gets tee'd up on tee and occasionally used off the deck for second shots on par 5s when not in range with an iron. i practice both shots regularly.

Ban_bam - that's exactly the way I've been thinking in the past couple of weeks and I've noticed both Matteo and Luke hitting mid-irons off the deck into mid-length par 3s today. I've also noticed that on the short par 4s, a number of them are using very low tees and either 3 woods, 4 woods or hybrids. I don't think it's macho not to use a tee on a low - mid par 3 either, I actually think you get a more consistent strike and are far less likely to carve it or duck-hook it than you will hitting an iron off even a low tee, especially when the wind is above 15 mph.

my bad shots tend to be straight pulls or pushes - not as destructive as hooks or slices i see a lot of people let go when teeing it up more than a few millimeters. i'd say the main thing for me is just keeping it like any other shot on the course.
i tend to tee up the hybrid no more than half a centimeter, probably less, but if i want to play a wee draw if often lift it up a bit more to make sure i feel like i'm hitting it 'on the up' rather than squeezing it.

i'll find a stub of a tee lying around and use that, just, just above ground level, ie still just sitting in/on the grass. and that's for every iron. hybrid or 3 wood aren't much higher really (couple of mms). i see it as giving myself that perfect "sat up" lie which, for me, gives me confidence.

I will pretty much always use a tee. And I think that 95% of amateurs should also be doing so. My reason being that the centre of gravity on an iron is not on the bottom rail and most players fail to hit it much above that. That's typically seen as their swing bottoms out at impact and not after impact.

Using a tee will allow them to get the sweetspot on the ball leading to a better strike and greater consistency.

You only get a perfect lie once per hole (even on the putting surface the ball sits in a small depression due to its weight) so not to take advantaqe of that is plain daft.

At the Dubai Desert Classic Par 3 Challenge last year, i watched many pro's - Lee Westwood and Tiger Woods amoung them - tee it up for almost every shot, and the average length around that par 3 course is only about 140 yards.

you dont hit low shots just by not taking it off a tee. You hit them by playing the ball back and taking the spin off the shot. Always use a tee...golf is hard enough. Go with JN's words of wisdom...he might know a thing or two about golf!

not saying JN is wrong. i just find personally that i am more consistant and comfortable over shots by reducing the number of variants i have to face on the golf course. every shot is different enough without having to alter my swing plane by 2-3mm every time i tee off / hit off the fairway. maybe if i was digging it out of fluffy roughy lies more often i'd be more comfortable with a tee'd up ball [!]

taking the ball further back in stance and reducing spin = altering swing plan? *bonkers*

Only hole I don't use a tee is our 130 yard par 3, I find I get too much spin when I hit a ball off a tee with a wedge.

spin control *nod* need to consider spin control on all short irons - but you can zip it off the deck as much as off a tee...you obviously are using the deck shot to reduce spin...not a bad idea but you could reduce spin off a tee as easily.

Horses for course though

Yep, agreed, I just find that off the deck I get just the amount of stop I need on that hole.

............and don't call me "nod"

(joke - sorry, I have a Leslie Nielson, Naked Gun type sense of humour!)

goldwolf wrote:Yep, agreed, I just find that off the deck I get just the amount of stop I need on that hole.

............and don't call me "nod"

(joke - sorry, I have a Leslie Nielson, Naked Gun type sense of humour!)

Shirley thats an airplane joke

'Twas indeed LJ, but Naked Gun was much better than airplane!

I didn't use to use a tee when hitting an iron with my old irons because the sweet spot was very low and putting it on a tee meant that I was often catching the ball fat.

But with my new irons (3 years old) the sweet spot appears to be higher and therefore I always use a tee.

Nervous?
Yes
First time?
No, I've been nervous lots of times...

I use a very low tee with my 4 iron/hybrid/3wood! Anything else i just sit the ball on a nice bit of turf.

Has anyone ever seen Laura Davis play? She never uses a tee even with her driver, just knocks up abit of turf and away she goes.

I love the way some of these things go -

"do you use a tee?"
"no, i like to reduce spin and hit it lower from the deck"
"you could do that by moving the ball back in your stance and using a tee"
"yeah but i like to do it by hitting it off the deck"
"ok but that's bonkers, you could do that by changing your whole view on it and doing it how i do it"

Ha ha......

Tigerw12 wrote:I use a very low tee with my 4 iron/hybrid/3wood! Anything else i just sit the ball on a nice bit of turf.

Has anyone ever seen Laura Davis play? She never uses a tee even with her driver, just knocks up abit of turf and away she goes.

That's because she can't get down to put a tee in the ground she's so fat. She's got one of those rubber suckers on the grip of her putter to get the ball out of the hole too.

I always use a tee, even off the fairway

Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Captain Oveur: I can't tell.
Rumack: You can tell me. I'm a doctor.
Captain Oveur: No. I mean I'm just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can't you take a guess?
Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?

Classic

Always use a tee...even with a sand wedge. It helps me strike it well

Yads, the best one is -

"My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We're coming in from the north, below their radar"

"When will you be back?"

"I can't tell you that. It's classified"

Brilliant!

MPB - agreed

Amongst may others, this made me laugh too......

You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon
as possible, we've got to get them to the hospital. . .
Elaine : A hospital . . what is it?
Rumack : Its a big building with patients, but that's not
important right now.

Maybe the ones that don't use a tee, just can't afford them.

JN rules. Always use a tee whenever you can. If you sky them off a tee, its a swing fault not the Tee's fault.

SetupDeterminesTheMotion wrote:Maybe the ones that don't use a tee, just can't afford them.

JN rules. Always use a tee whenever you can. If you sky them off a tee, its a swing fault not the Tee's fault.

That's a coincidence, whilst watching Edfors at the 13th yesterday, I notced he picked up a broken tee off the tee and used that. Presumably because he was too tight to use his own.

Yadsendew wrote:

SetupDeterminesTheMotion wrote:Maybe the ones that don't use a tee, just can't afford them.

JN rules. Always use a tee whenever you can. If you sky them off a tee, its a swing fault not the Tee's fault.

That's a coincidence, whilst watching Edfors at the 13th yesterday, I notced he picked up a broken tee off the tee and used that. Presumably because he was too tight to use his own.

I tend to use a broken one for irons and 3 woods. Why use a full size new one for a short shot?

SetupDeterminesTheMotion wrote:Maybe the ones that don't use a tee, just can't afford them.

JN rules. Always use a tee whenever you can. If you sky them off a tee, its a swing fault not the Tee's fault.

why would i waste any of the £300 odd quid prize money i've banked this year on tee's.
i'm enjoying investing an appropriate amount of it in lessons to keep up the high quality of ball striking off turf!

i also use broken used tees when teeing up the 2iron hybrid. usually they're ones i've snapped when using the driver, though i have been known to recycle those others have "forgotten" to chuck in the tee-bin.