The tees you should play, and why May is different
Multiply your driver carry by 28, measured on a monitor over the winter. And remember that May plays a set of tees longer than August.
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, which matters when the season only gives you twenty-five of them.
The arithmetic nobody does
A course of 6,600 yards asks for a drive and a mid iron into most par 4s. A golfer who carries a driver 200 yards is left with 180 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.
The rule of thumb that works
Multiply your average driver carry by 28. A golfer carrying it 200 yards belongs on a course of about 5,600 yards; 230 yards suggests around 6,400. The arithmetic comes from the Tee It Forward campaign, and every published test shows the same two results: lower scores and faster rounds.
Spring changes the answer
In May, on soft ground and in cold air, your carry is shorter and your run is nothing. A course that fits you in August is a set of tees too long in May. Nobody moves back and forward through the season, but knowing why the course feels longer in spring is worth a club on every approach.
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. Most golfers report the course feeling like the one they see on television for the first time.
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 posts normally to the Golf Canada Score Centre. You are not cheating your index and you are not making it easier to win.
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 Canadian courses now publish combination tees 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, on a launch monitor over the winter.
- Multiply by 28 and find the tee set closest to that yardage.
- 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.
