Playing From Different Tees

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By Carl T

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  1. Carl T

    Carl T
    Little Rock, AR

    I play with a large group of golfers who compete in teams, best two balls a hole against the other teams best two balls a hole. We play for a small sum and teams are randomly selected by the throwing up of balls. We also consider handicaps. Best team score wins the pot. My question, when two players with identical handicap compete with each other from different tee boxes that have a course rating of two strokes different, what handicap does the player that moves up play at ? Player A and B have handicaps of 13 from the White Tees but if they move up to the Black Tees their handicap drops to a 12. If Player A plays from the Whites and Player B moves to the Black, does player B play at a 12 or a 10 because the course rating is exactly 2 strokes different ?

  2. Bomber3

    Bomber3
    Lake St Louis, MO

    Military
    Didn't you already answer your question..."Player A and B have handicaps of 13 from the White Tees but if they move up to the Black Tees their handicap drops to a 12.
  3. Carl T

    Carl T
    Little Rock, AR

    Barry B said:

    Didn't you already answer your question..."Player A and B have handicaps of 13 from the White Tees but if they move up to the Black Tees their handicap drops to a 12.

    No. I ask the question because according to the USGA when players play from different tees you are essentially playing two different courses. The players handicap has to be adjusted for the difference in the course rating between the different tees. In the above scenario the difference between the two tees is course rating of two (White C.R. 71.6 Slope 136, Black C.R. 69.5 Slope 132, = 2.1 rounded off to two strokes difference. If player A and B have a handicap index of 10.7 they would play as an 13 from the whites and as a 12 from the black. But when the two players play in the same competition does Player B play as a 13-2 =11 or as a 12-2= 10 when he moves up to the blacks ?
  4. ISplisgardt

    ISplisgardt

    To me tee box distance doesn't matter. The only thing it does is make you hit a 7i instead of an 8 on the second shot. I shoot no different. Only thing is sometimes I can reach par 5 in 2 but I lay up most the time anyways
  5. Dino J

    Dino J
    Burnaby, BC

    Hi Carl, ... if I understand your question correctly, yes. Player A (White Tees) plays with a course handicap of 12 whereas Player B (Forward Black Tees) plays with a course handicap of 10.

    Player A gets a net difference of 2 strokes (1 stroke per 9-holes). For a best ball, you will be having to figure out which holes Player A gets the extra stroke over Player B (based upon the handicap ratings of each hole).
  6. Carl T

    Carl T
    Little Rock, AR

    Dino J said:

    Hi Carl, ... if I understand your question correctly, yes. Player A (White Tees) plays with a course handicap of 12 whereas Player B (Forward Black Tees) plays with a course handicap of 10.

    Player A gets a net difference of 2 strokes (1 stroke per 9-holes). For a best ball, you will be having to figure out which holes Player A gets the extra stroke over Player B (based upon the handicap ratings of each hole).

    Dino, see my response to Barry B. I think you are saying that if Player A plays from the Whites as a 13 and Player B moves up to the blacks he has to take 2 strokes off from a 12 an play as a 10. That is what I am thinking also but it is a little confusing and wanted to get some input for a correct way of playing this way.
  7. Dino J

    Dino J
    Burnaby, BC

    Dino J said:

    Hi Carl, ... if I understand your question correctly, yes. Player A (White Tees) plays with a course handicap of 12 whereas Player B (Forward Black Tees) plays with a course handicap of 10.

    Player A gets a net difference of 2 strokes (1 stroke per 9-holes). For a best ball, you will be having to figure out which holes Player A gets the extra stroke over Player B (based upon the handicap ratings of each hole).

    Sorry Carl, I misread the initial sample handicaps. Let me try again. :-).

    Player "A" - plays from the White Tees (13 Handicap), Player "B" - plays from the more forward Black Tees (12 Handicap).

    This means that Player "A" will get a 1-stroke advantage over Player "B". Again, where that stroke comes into play depends on the handicap ratings of the holes. If you look at he scorecard, you should be able to figure out which particular hole the stroke is attributed.
  8. DV

    DV

    With all due respect, situations such as this and golfer sandbagging is why I will never play handicap (net score) golf.

    DV
  9. pulplvr

    pulplvr
    Spring, TX

    Military
    Dino, you're almost right. The USGA has a formula to account for the difference, but it is based on the slope, not the course handicap. Also, in the example, if Player A is playing from the whites, he has a course handicap of 13, not 12. It is possible that Player B, playing from the blacks will have a course handicap of 10, but it could also be 11, depending on the differential in rating of the two tees.

    You could also have "B" play at 12 and give "A" additional strokes , playing from the whites. The number of additional strokes, again, is based on the differential of the two tees rating/slope.
  10. Dino J

    Dino J
    Burnaby, BC

    pulplvr said:

    Dino, you're almost right. The USGA has a formula to account for the difference, but it is based on the slope, not the course handicap. Also, in the example, if Player A is playing from the whites, he has a course handicap of 13, not 12. It is possible that Player B, playing from the blacks will have a course handicap of 10, but it could also be 11, depending on the differential in rating of the two tees.

    You could also have "B" play at 12 and give "A" additional strokes , playing from the whites. The number of additional strokes, again, is based on the differential of the two tees rating/slope.

    Hi ... I understand what you are saying.

    The difference is that I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that Carl had figured out the course handicaps for each particular golfer (which of course is based on cr/slope from the different tees) AND I assumed that they were playing some form of match vs. medal play --- which is why the importance of figuring out where and when the stroke comes into play.

    A pure stroke play/medal play competition would not care where the stroke comes into play as it is merely calculated on on the gross scores. My error is that I automatically thought that they were playing a form of match play (like Wolf, etc.).
  11. Allen L

    Allen L
    Clarington, OH

    HI Carl, I'll just relate to you the most enjoyable friendly group that I play in. Everyone is over 60, about half the field will be over 70, and there is always a couple guy's in their 80's playing. Field is usually 30 to 40 players. Everyone puts in $5. Its stroke play by the rules. Handicaps are not used. We play from the front tees, a game at about 5,500 yards. Low score and ties wins the purse. Tradition has it that the winners buy beers for everyone after the game. No one dominates week to week, everyone has fun.
  12. Carl T

    Carl T
    Little Rock, AR

    This is a confusing question. I asked our club pro and his answer was a little different then the above answers. I was still not satisfied so I googled the USGA rules on players playing from different tee boxes. Also my GHIN app that I recommend all golfers use will tell you the handicap for all of your playing buddies for any course and any set if tees for that course. Our group which will range anywhere from 6 to 15 golfers play as teams best two balls per hole against the other teams best two balls which take in account the handicap for the team score. We play the ball down and play by the rules for the most part as an exception would be a mulligan on the first tee. Our group sometimes will have players playing from three different sets of tees due to handicaps ranging from a plus 1 to a minus 22. What I found is that your handicap index will determine your handicap from any given tee. So if player A & B both have the same hcp index for the white tees 71.6/136 and their index is a 10.7 their hcp is a 13. If player B moves up to the Black tees 69.5/132 his handicap goes down to a 12. That is only a one stroke difference but the yardage from the whites plays 6500 while the blacks play 6000 yards. A 500 yard difference. The USGA says that to make up the difference for the 500 yards between competitors is that you have to then take in the course rating between the two tees. In this case it is 2.1 strokes which you round off to the nearest whole number which is 2. So to be fair and to have a level playing field Player B would have his hcp. of 12 reduced to a 10 or player A can have his hcp. raised from a 13 to a 15. It can be one or the other but the bottom line is a 3 stroke difference when the Player A and B play from different tees. If you have a situation of three different tees you still apply the same scenario as you did from two different tees. There is a mathematical formula to determine your handicap for any course and tees in according to your handicap index but it is so much easier to use the GHIN built in calculator to figure this all out. Player B will have to determine if by moving up to the closer tees to make the course a little easier to play is worth the 3 strokes difference he will be playing with against Player A.
  13. Chris92009

    Chris92009
    Ohio

    We require all players to play from the tee box if they participate in the competition. Period. It is not worth the hassle.
  14. Dino J

    Dino J
    Burnaby, BC

    Chris92009 said:

    We require all players to play from the tee box if they participate in the competition. Period. It is not worth the hassle.

    Chris ... "touché" -- yet, many of the informal competitions (eg: amongst a group of friends) do what Carl is suggesting. I do agree with you ... if you play then its all from the same tees ... you almost need an Advanced Accounting Degree to track and sort the handicap/stroke situation otherwise!

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