Which tees are the right ones for your game
Multiply your driver carry by 28. Most amateurs play a course two sets of tees longer than the one built for them.
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 6,400 yards asks for a drive and a mid iron into most par 4s. A golfer who carries a driver 190 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, and it is why so many rounds fall apart coming home.
The rule of thumb that works
Multiply your average driver carry by 28. A golfer carrying it 190 yards belongs on a course of about 5,300 yards; 230 yards suggests around 6,400. The arithmetic comes from the Tee It Forward campaign, and every published test of it 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. Most golfers report the course feeling like the one they see on television for the first time.
The objection, and the answer
Moving forward feels like a concession, and that feeling is the whole obstacle. It helps to remember that a professional hitting a drive 300 yards and a 7-iron from 175 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 handicap purposes. England Golf, Scottish Golf and Wales Golf all publish those values 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 British 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 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.
