Whites easier than yellows?

Played my local course today in the strong winds. No one else on the course (I wonder why) so decided to play off the back tee's (with permission of course). Never played off them before and was interested to see how I would score. Shot one of my best rounds on this course but more interestingly I found myself in areas of the fairway I'd never played from before. 2 clubs more to the green etc but also further away from fairway hazards etc with better lies, full shots in instead of 3/4 wedges etc and it seemed to suit my game. Played Conwy with Santo a while back off the whites and found a similar thing. Anybody else found it ''easier'' off the back tee's?

I play off the whites all the time at my club.

Most courses are designed to be played off the whites, so any normal person will be short of most trouble. In many cases the whites give you a different angle of attack.

TheLyth

Starnge Chris, I didn't think that Conwy was a lot different off the whites or yellows, certainly wouldn't say it was easier though.  Would be interested to see if you had the same opinion of somewhere like Wychwood, they seemed to be a lot longer than the yellows (as for the blues at that place - jeez).  We also played a CGL game at Beauchief which, although it was a short course, had some fiendish white tees.

John, unfortunately all our play is off the yellows at my course. It just happened to be empty and I asked to play off the whites.

Tim,  only played Conwy twice, once off yellows and once off whites so as I don't really know the course it would be hard to compare the 2 rounds. I just seem to remember it being easier the second time even though it was off the whites but then again a course second time round is usually easier isn't it? Wychwood is about 400 yards longer off the whites, spread out between 10 and 40 yards difference in hole length except 18 which is around 70 yards difference. Blues you can add another 500 to total course length.

What I am saying is that I played my same game off the whites and as TheLyth said it gave me a different angle of attack which did seem to help my game. Might try and take a club or 2 less off the tee next time off the yellows to be in the same area I would be off the whites to compare the angle of attack and see if the result is the same.

Chris, I find that playing from the back tees is no hardship to me at all, even though I don't hit the ball very far, but it does make it more difficult for my stronger playing partners because they are now trying to hit greens from further back than if playing off the yellows.

Most holes I cannot reach in regulation figures anyway but I can still get there in three from the back tees, four shots for the par fives. I might add that I quite often lay up on the par 3's for safety reasons.

Interesting that when I played Cotgrave we were as far back as was permitted by the rules, six feet from the back of the furthest tee.

not as such - however in terms of handicap calculation ,

this could be more significant than the relative difficulty between W and Y

On our course I don't see much if any difference but in terms of scoring Y is 2 shot difference to W so when I get adjusted on handicaps I am 2 shots short of the course par

i.e I score 38 points but because I've played off the yellows it equates to 36 points for handicap calculation and I see that as more significant than the difference between White and Yellow  in the scheme of things !

i.e I score 38 points but because I've played off the yellows it equates to 36 points for handicap calculation and I see that as more significant than the difference between White and Yellow  in the scheme of things !

Exactly, Colin. Our Par 72 course is far easier than our par 69 course.

On my home course Handsworth GC the whites are considerably harder than the yellows. On our first par 5 you have to hit to ball 180 yards to the fariway within a width of 15 yards tree lined either side. It is like looking down a tunnel! Some of the holes play similar but on the whole, whites are much harder.

I always play off the White tees at my golf club.

One of the reasons that I do this is so that when I play in a competition I already know the course from the Whites, whereas my playing partners might normally play off the Yellows and so being off the Whites is new to them!

The Priors course at my golf club is a par 70, but the SSS is 66 from the Yellows and 68 from the whites.  There are only two holes where there is more than twenty yards between the White tees and the Yellow tees.

Russ

Dave,

I shudder everytime I think of the 5th from the back tees!! Mind you I can't complain after shooting a net 71 in the medal on Sat.

The 16th is also a bugger from the Whites, it's like shooting a ball through a hoop!!

I think the fact that were only allowed to play off the whites in comps makes them much harder for us.