Pick the tees that match your carry
Multiply your driver carry by 28. In thirty degree heat, playing a course two tee sets too long is a health decision as well as a scoring one.
Far more amateurs play a course too long for them than too short, and it is the easiest thing in golf to fix. The right tees make a course play as it was designed and make a four-hour round possible.
The arithmetic nobody does
A course of 6,000 metres asks for a drive and a mid iron into most par 4s. A golfer who carries a driver 175 metres is left with 165 into a green built to receive a 7-iron, on nearly every hole. That is not a test of golf, it is a test of endurance, and in thirty degree heat it is a test of endurance twice over.
The rule of thumb that works
Multiply your average driver carry by 28. A golfer carrying it 175 metres belongs on a course of about 4,900 metres; 205 metres suggests around 5,700. The arithmetic comes from the Tee It Forward campaign, and every published test shows the same two results: lower scores and faster rounds.
What changes when you move up
Approaches come from distances you can actually hit, greens hold, and par 5s become reachable in three comfortable shots rather than four uncomfortable ones. On a firm summer course where the ball runs, moving up also brings the fairway bunkering back into the position the architect intended it to occupy.
The objection, and the answer
Moving forward feels like a concession, and that feeling is the whole obstacle. A professional hitting a drive 300 metres and a 7-iron from 155 is playing a proportionally shorter golf course than most club members are.
Handicaps still work
Under the World Handicap System every set of tees carries its own course rating and slope rating, so a score from forward tees converts correctly and is fully acceptable for your GolfLink handicap. Golf Australia publishes those ratings course by course.
Mixed groups and combined tees
Nothing requires everybody in a group to play the same tees, and the round is better when they do not. Many Australian clubs now publish combination courses that mix forward and back markers hole by hole, which gives a sensible test to a group with thirty shots of spread.
Try it once, properly
- Work out your average driver carry, honestly.
- Multiply by 28 and find the tee set closest to that length.
- Play one full round from there and record the score and the round time.
Almost nobody who tries it goes back, and those who do at least made the decision with a number rather than out of habit.
