Golf forum

Dear All,

I wish to start a topic on the conditions of Tees at most golf courses in this country.

I for one, am continually getting frustrated that most courses seem to disregard the condition of their tees. They either slope away from you or too you. I want to see the conditions of tees improved. It is okay for low handicappers to identify what the slope in your stance is going to do for your shot, but us high handicappers struggle with this.

I would like to see flat tees on every hole and would like people to add in their course reviews wether the courses achieve this. This is a major part of a golfers round. After all, you hit off them 18 times in every round!

Please help me to improve the state of play for all of us and add this concern into your reviews. I would not wish to play a course that has sloping tees any more and if they do, I will make sure I never return.

All of you out there, let me know if this a concern of yours aswell. If you think, you hit 18 balls off of tees, that equates to 1/4 of your shots for the round. Dependent on where it lands, depends on how much you add to your round. Please let me know your thoughts.

Dave,

I can only agree with what you are saying. Its one of my bugbears as well. The amount of times that i have played a course that is immaculate in every other way only to be let down by the Tee conditions.

It seems that Tee condition is a second thought for most (public) courses that i have played.

Glad im not the only one who gets the hump about it! 

D 

Danny,

Thanx for your reply.

In my opinion a tee should be a square green. The same attention should be paid to the quality of the tees, as to the greens.

Let's hope there are a few others who agree with this and then we maybe able to do something about it with our reviews.

Wayne,

I am talking about all tees in general.

Where I come from, its drinks all round if you don't reach the ladies tees, which can be quite hard on some holes, when for men its a par 5 and for women its a par 2 :-)

Hence my fanny the other day, but when Santo next tops the ball 50cm, but off a tee this time, then he'll never live it down!!

Anyhow, back on topic, I also dislike sloping tees that look like rugby pitches. I will add the state of the tees to any course reviews I do.

Jonathan,

I appreciate that, many thanx.

Dave,

I agree & that was one of the reasons why I decided to join a private course. All 18 tees (ladies, mens & medals) are immaculate.

The problem with most muni tees is that they suffer mostly from lack off 'etiquette'. The amount of times I saw people taking 4-5 practice swings & each time taking a huge divot & not even thinking about replacing the divot was amazing.

Imagine if you were a green keepers & had to replace/ repair these every day?? It would be too time consuming & too costly.

This may be why not a lot of time & effort is spent on getting them level or perfect.

John.

John,

I understand you expressing the belief that is only true on non private courses. Trust me this is not the case. I played two members courses this weekend and both had the same problem. I will not be going back to one of them because of this.

I am looking at becoming a member again of a golf club near me but i will not be doing so if the state of the tees are bad. Maybe the course prices should be changed and not called green fees because that is exactly what most clubs pay more attention too. I say let the green fees cover all green parts of the course, from TEE to GREEN.

Matt,

The tee should be flat, full stop!

The fairway should be however they design it, we all expect to hit off a down slope, up slope, side slope, in slope, out slope, whatever slope you want.

We all know the greens are going to have slopes but they should also have flatness, so you allow for the slope.

BUT tees should be flat!!!

I stand tall and shout from the highest parapet, or golfing buggy.

"All greenkeepers, please do us the kind service, Sort your tees out!"

Jonathan,

I agree with you, it is though when they design a course, they think of where they can put the fairway, then place a green at the end, oh and then, after having forgot, then place a tee somewhere.

A golfing experience should be the whole course and nothing but the course. Tee to Green.

Nice to see you on 12.1, makes me feel sad because when I was a member, before moving north, I was on 11.7. Oh those days were very far behind me this weekend :-(

The hillock effect I presume comes from the centre of the tees getting more use and then having too much top dressing added to only that section of the tee when it is repaired.  Whenever the tee markers are moved, and repair is carried out, the whole of that  tee area should be top dressed and rolled whether damaged or not.  This would keep the area flat and not result in a ridge running the length of the tee. 

This should happen whatever the standard of course and then all tees would be flat.  The only difference would then be the amount of grass cover with clubs with better players possibly having a better covering as less or less severe divlts being taken.