This is why more golfers should play off the forward tees

Golf is a tough game. If you doubt it, just ask anybody who plays. It can be the most frustrating of sports. Just when you think you have it cracked, it has a habit of jumping up and slapping you in face. Hard. Very hard!

You will not need me to tell you that one of the most common complaints among players is slow play, the often funereal pace of play. I know from my own experience that it can often take around five hours to complete 18 holes. There are many reasons for this - taking too long to look for golf balls, failing to be aware of faster players behind you, failing to hit a provisional after driving into thick rough, the weather, medal play, a lack of basic etiquette.

Oh, and the fact that so many of us seem to be obsessed with playing from the championship tees, playing our courses to the maximum length. It’s a macho thing, of course. And it goes without saying that when we play from the back tees the game becomes even more difficult and our scores often soar.

There is an answer. It may not be universally popular but why on earth don’t we play more of our golf from the forward tees?

Why more golfers should play off the forward tees

I am member at Dunston Hall Golf Club on the outskirts of Norwich and from November until the end of March we play all of our golf from the blue tees. It makes the course a good deal shorter, but does it really make it any easier? No way.

For starters, all of us have our playing handicaps cut. In my own case, that means being slashed from 12 to eight. 

From November through to the end of March the chances are that it is going to be damp underfoot and that means we get little or no roll on the ball on the fairways. So a 400-yard par four is out of reach in two blows for most people. But stick a blue tee 50 yards forward and the green is in range for a well-struck second shot. And there is the added bonus of knowing that you can hit the ball at the flag and know it will stop.

Our three par fives are all each reduced by around 50 yards from said blue tees, and that means they can all be comfortably reached in three blows. And there is one of them where if the wind is blowing in the right direction there might even be a chance of finding the green in two shots and then facing an eagle putt.

Dunston features four par threes, three of which are extremely challenging even from the yellow tees. But they take on an entirely different character from the blue tees when we are playing six, seven and even eight irons to the green. Of course it makes them easier golf holes but there is also added pressure to make pars on each of them.

The game we play is entirely different from professional golf

The professional game now seems to be all about hitting the ball as hard as possible from the tee. We see top golfers hitting wedges for their second shots into par fives for goodness sake. 

However, the game that club golfers play is entirely different. How many people do you know are capable of driving the ball 300+ yards? And if you do know anybody who can do that, how many fairways do they hit?

I hold my hands up and admit that in my younger days I was also fixated with distance, with trying to drive a golf ball as far as I possibly could. And despite my slight build, I was able to send it out there with the best of them.

Those days have gone. I have now learnt that I get the most from my game by swinging within myself. And by doing so I find a lot of fairways. But of course I do not hit the ball as far as I used to. The summer of 2025, with its baked fairways, was an exception. We were all hitting the ball 30 or 40 yards further than we had been used to.

But we are now in the grip of winter and I have made another discovery - playing from the forward tees makes this an easier game and a far more enjoyable experience. If you doubt it, I suggest that you leave your ego in the bag and give it a go!