Tee it up on Par 3s?

[MtlJeff]

i use a tee for Hybrid, 3 wood and driver

 

never for irons. I like replicating it as if i'm hitting my second on a par 4 as others have mentioned

[TheWoat]

I remember reading a Golf Mag article on Reteif Goosen, and I think he had the second best stroke average on Par 3s over the last 5 - 8 years, so he gave advice on how to improve your Par 3 scoring. One of the things he mentioned was to use a tee and it has always stuck with me... the other advice I liked to was use enough club since most of us hackers do not fly the green.

[ezra76]

Obviously tee it up. If you think you get more spin or something stupid that I've heard people say before off the bare ground, try hitting out of a perfect lie in a fairway bunker. Why does the ball spin like mad, because there is space to catch it perfectly clean. Same thing with a slightly teed up ball. Plus I'll look like an a** if hit my 4iron fat as cho momma off the bare teebox and need 2 scoops of sand to fill it. Then have to yell "heads up!!" while my playing partners are walking to thier balls on the green whilst I hit an 8i in for my 2nd.

[Schilly]

It is interesting that people have a tendency of hitting it fat on par 3's.

[mat562]

To be honest, one reason I would possibly start using a tee is to fend off the inevitable 'why don't you use a tee?' questions whenever I play with someone I don't know. Invariably, some bloke off 25 who is a frustrated Butch Harmon in between selling insurance or working in a bank is champing at the bit to tell me how wrong I am by not using one and give me the benefit of his experience.

 

I played 9 holes with a chap a few weeks back who nodded knowingly - after watching me stripe a 6 iron to a yard on a par 3 - and then went on to describe how he hits the ball twice as high and about 30 yards further with his irons when he uses a tee versus when he doesn't as evidence of his thinking. In fact, his own differing ballflight observations were the lynchpin of his 'You Should Use A Tee' argument. He was a bit crestfallen when I suggested that that was because he only generated about as much clubhead speed as 10 year old girl with a sore arm and, when he was hitting that 4 iron off a 1" high tee, he was essentially hitting it like a good player hits a driver and clouting it on the upswing - which was the only way to get any sort of proper launch angle on it with his modest power.

 

I know it was a bit cruel but after half an hour of listenng to The World According to A Bloke off 16 for the best part of 45 minutes my nerve ends were fraying a bit. I didn't actually phrase it quite as it is above; but you get the idea.

 

Honestly, there are a lot of good arguments why you should use one, but having tried it in the past and not noted any advantage whatsoever, I'm sticking with my off the deck line of thinking. I'm lucky enough to play off very good teeing surfaces at my home club and have no dramas hitting off a good fairway lie either. I can understand that a player may get slightly more spin off a tee versus a good fairway lie (albeit, certainly not less) but for me, the difference in spin, trajectory and carry is negligible. Being a man who takes jumbo-sized divots with most clubs, I also like the resistance of hitting into turf and using even a very low tee runs the risk of the ball being caught high up on the face - maybe a groove or so Johnny if you're reading this - and producing a poor result on the odd shot. My favorite surface to hit off is actually greasy hardpan, which allows me the best of all worlds. If I'm practicing, I always look to find a nicely trampled tight bit as it's a surface I love hitting from, being a steep swinger. I can understand perfectly why someone with a shallower attack much prefers a grassier lie - or a low tee - though.

 

Ultimately, science aside, I just do it because it makes sense given the amount of balls I've hit off turf in all my years of playing and practicing, and the fact that I'm comfortable with it.

[ezra76]

It is interesting that people have a tendency of hitting it fat on par 3's.

 

Hey, I'm only a 9cap, I have a tendency to hit it fat everwhere. Using a tee is an advantage for me as opposed to not using one. I'm not risking those dings on my propensity to hit an iron fat.

[gir2]

Always.

[Schilly]

It is interesting that people have a tendency of hitting it fat on par 3's.

 

Hey, I'm only a 9cap, I have a tendency to hit it fat everwhere. Using a tee is an advantage for me as opposed to not using one. I'm not risking those dings on my propensity to hit an iron fat.

I'm in that boat too. I just know that for me I have played many many par 3's without a tee, and honestly I hit them fat more often on a tee box with out a tee than in the fairway without a tee. I think there is a strange psychology there.

[buttuh]

Ok so for the people who like to imagine par-3's as 2nd shots and therefore you don't use the tee, would you use the tee if you were playing in a competition? I can understand not using the tee if you're trying to practice, but in competition, wouldn't you want to hit off of a perfect lie? BTW, I've yet to play at a golf course where the tee box is perfectly flat and well groomed.

[Ezgolfer]

I don't use it with a short and mid irons. I have a steep angle of attack and have hit the tee after or during hitting the ball which closes the club face a few times .

I do use tee for a three wood , long irons ( more of a sweeping action ) or hybrids .

[skinny99]

Bobby Jones said if you can use a peg than to use it! Who am I to disagree with him! IMO Todd

[MtlJeff]

Ok so for the people who like to imagine par-3's as 2nd shots and therefore you don't use the tee, would you use the tee if you were playing in a competition? I can understand not using the tee if you're trying to practice, but in competition, wouldn't you want to hit off of a perfect lie? BTW, I've yet to play at a golf course where the tee box is perfectly flat and well groomed.

 

i'm one of the people who said that

 

In competition i would still not use one. I've put countless hours into hitting balls off the ground. Any change in launch angle may throw off my yardages a bit. I've grooved my swing without using one, and being somewhat superstitious i'm not about to change

 

most of the courses i play have pretty good tee boxes. Even the public courses

[yoonie]

Which do you prefer- a perfect lie or a good one?

[Alefty]

If you don't use a tee it is psychological on your part. At the very least you could just put the tee all the way in the ground. I wouldn't necessarily tee it UP but I'd always use a tee when allowed by the rules.

 

Of course I can't argue with results and if you hit it within a yard every time without a tee I guess you don't need one, but all the top pros use tees when they are in the tee box.

[jirizarry]

Being allowed to use a Tee is the one free gift in golf. I never pass on a free gift.

 

 

+1!!!!!!! :yahoo:

[mat562]

I wouldn't use one, no.

 

The whole point of not using one is to maintain consistency when I'm setting up to the ball. I don't use a tee on the range and I can't use one on the fairway - so using one on the tee would mean doing something different, which makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

Same line of thinking when I'm playing competitively. I can't see the logic in doing something different 'just because' a round is supposedly of greater importance. I just do the same as I usually do and get on with things.

 

As for the condition of the tees; if a tee really is ratty, I'll use a very low tee. But the majority of teeing grounds on which I play my golf are perfectly adequate for hitting a shot from the turf - both in terms of the quality of the grass and in terms of how level they are. If you can't find a piece of turf that's sufficiently well groomed and which is level enough not to have your mind whirling about how uneven it is on an average par 3 teeing ground, you've got problems over and above those of the golf course's conditioning IMO. What on earth do you do when you get a lie in the fairway where it's a bit tight or the ball's an inch below your feet? Have a panic attack and shank it into the woods?

 

You can move the ball about until you find a bit of turf that provides a lie that's every bit as perfect as you get with a low tee. That's what I do. Some people here make it sound as if people who don't use one are masochists who put the ball in divots and what-have-you.

 

I don't hit all my iron shots to three feet, but it doesn't disprove the theory. People who always use a tee still hit poor shots too - which also does nothing to prove the theory that you'll always fare better with a tee than without one.

 

Go with what works. And after 20-odd years, I know what works best for me.

[cake1979]

Go with what works. And after 20-odd years, I know what works best for me.

 

Well said, as usual. Personally I always use a tee, but it's easy to understand the argument behind not using one. If you have grooved your swing for an eternity without it, do you really need one? So much of what we choose in this game is based on personal preference. Do what feels right.

[turbo4door]

Funny, this is something I've been toying with in my head lately.

 

Seems I hit everything WAY short if I use a tee on a 3. No idea why, its a mental thing I guess. I still do it, and usually wreck my scorecard....

[iteachgolf]

I only tee up my 4 iron. Everything else goes shorter off a tee due to hitting the ball too high on the face especially with blades.

[Sean2]

always use a tee. the only time you can have that perfect lie. plus, a lot of the course have dirt tee boxes...wouldn't want to hit off that w/o a tee.

[Honcho72]

I had an issue with hooking my tee shots when I tee the ball up on the par 3's. Now I hit the turf a few times to raise a little area and tee the ball up on top of it. It sits up just a bit an no more pulls with the irons. If do tee the hybrid up on the longer par 3.