The vast majority of courses have the four classic tees: white, yellow, blue, and red. In the golfing world, these tees are often associated with male professionals (white tees), male amateurs (yellow tees), female professionals (blue tees), and female amateurs (red tees). This classification is now completely outdated.

And I'm sure you've witnessed this conversation at your club more than once:

– Yesterday the club proposed that I play from the blue bars.

– Blue?

– Yes, what nonsense!

– And what did you answer him?

– That the blue and red ones are for ladies.

Playing for fun

Currently, the vast majority of registered golfers don't regularly participate in competitions, but rather play for pleasure, with friends and family, viewing a round of golf as an exercise in self-improvement and entertainment more than as a competition in itself. Many of them want to enjoy playing more than competing.

In surveys conducted by the RFEG (Royal Spanish Golf Federation) among its members, they frequently cite the difficulty of playing and the significant time commitment as two of the main obstacles to golf. This hasn't been helped by the fact that many golf courses are designed with competition in mind rather than player enjoyment.

For a moment, let's imagine a group of players just starting out on the course—most likely without a handicap yet—with a tee time of 9:12. The next group, teeing off from the same holes, consists of players with low handicaps. Can you imagine the pressure this group of novice golfers will feel to play at a decent pace and not hold up the following groups? Clearly, playing poorly doesn't necessarily mean playing slowly, but if you take more strokes, it's very difficult not to take longer.

It seems obvious, but many players don't realize that different tee boxes allow us to enjoy varying degrees of course difficulty. The longer the tee boxes, the more difficult the course. The more difficult the course, the longer it takes to play.

Logically, players should tee off from specific tees based on their handicap. Just as it doesn't make sense for a player with a 20 handicap to tee off from the white tees (blue tees for women), it also doesn't make sense for a player with a 36 handicap to tee off from the yellow tees (red tees for women).

However, it's not just a matter of the player's skill level (handicap); some players might enjoy playing from different tees: senior players and children, for example, regardless of their handicap, should play from tees suited to their game. In these cases, the short distances these players typically hit make playing from shorter tees highly recommended.

Enjoy (more) playing your field

But even with a good level of play or sufficient distance, playing from different tees presents a challenge. If we're used to playing from certain tees, playing from shorter ones will reveal that within our usual course there are other, different courses, with completely different holes.

On a par 5 with water in front of the green that can never be reached in two shots, we are suddenly faced with a long shot to the green with water flying over it and with options to putt for eagle; par 3s where long irons or hybrids are played, we are suddenly playing short irons, etc.

It's time to erase from golfers' minds the association of white/yellow tees for men and blue/red tees for women. If a course has four tee boxes, that's four different courses for players to enjoy. Playing from unfamiliar tees will force us to think about how to approach the hole: Do I hit a drive and go over the bunkers? Or do I play a short iron? Do I hit over those trees and shorten my shot to reach the green?

It might seem that this only applies to men, since they, teeing off from the yellow tees, have more short tees to choose from. But women can also consider playing from other tees. It's not just about good players teeing off from the blue tees (quite a challenge!), but they can also consider, as many clubs are already doing, having shorter tees than the red ones, even teeing off from an improvised tee in the street.

And what happens in competition?

The same principle applies to competition. The only condition is that tee times are scored according to the player's gender. Currently, the RFEG (Royal Spanish Golf Federation) has all tee times scored for men and blue and red tees for women. On some shorter courses, even the yellow tees may be scored for women (tee times longer than 6,000 meters are not scored for women).

The Competition Committee in charge of the event is responsible for deciding which tee boxes the competition will be played from. It is possible (Circular 52/2017) to compete for the same handicap prize from different tee boxes. The playing handicap, based on the course rating, will allow all players to compete on equal footing regardless of their tee box.

Therefore, the next time you're waiting to tee off from the 1st hole, consider starting from other tees; you'll discover a different course, new challenges, and more fun.

By Eduardo Bergé

Member of the RFEG Courses and Handicap Committee