Offended when the Short Tee is referred to as the Amateur Tee?

[captain jack]

Red tees are fur wimin
Blue tees are fur bros
Black tees are fur manly men

[Cgkdisc]

Black tees are "officially" for those under 700 rating...

[Disc Golf Live]

The PGA has a big push going for players to "tee it forward," folks watching Ryder cup last weekend may have seen the ads. Play from the back tees makes the overall course flow too slow except for the most talented players. Ball golfers suffer from men's vs ladies tee problems, so they insert a third tee on many courses, hoping to keep the bulk of players at least on the middle level tee and off the tips. Likewise, I think DG is better served promoting pro and am tees, since on many courses the bulk of players will have the most competitive experience from the shorter tees.

[benjammin172]

Nope...I'm an amateur. In fact, I'm much worse than the typical amateur

[Brall]

Originally Posted by Disc Golf Live

The PGA has a big push going for players to "tee it forward," folks watching Ryder cup last weekend may have seen the ads. Play from the back tees makes the overall course flow too slow except for the most talented players. Ball golfers suffer from men's vs ladies tee problems, so they insert a third tee on many courses, hoping to keep the bulk of players at least on the middle level tee and off the tips. Likewise, I think DG is better served promoting pro and am tees, since on many courses the bulk of players will have the most competitive experience from the shorter tees.

That is a good argument for using the terms Pro & Amateur to label the Long & Short tees.

In playing devil's advocate, my response would be that unless the disc golf course is different from the norm, pushing players to play the shorter tee just to speed up play is generally not needed.

Please note that I said generally. I realize that there are a few courses that could certainly benefit from having an increased flow if more players did play from the shorter tees.

Thank you Disc Golf Live for your input.

[bayouace]

I have learned very well that there is a difference between a "disc golfer" and an "old man who plays disc golf for fun". So, No, I am not offended to play the middle tees, or the short tees when there are two tees per hole.

[ZMan44]

In my own personal opinion, I think that disc technology may be playing a factor in this scenario and may be going overlooked. Let me explain.

Newer courses are designed for players using the high-speed drivers and are typically longer than older courses, at least in my area. What I have seen is that courses built around 2000 were not designed with the "new age" of discs in mind and have been rendered to be too easy or basic for some. In reaction to this change, the course I most often play has installed multiple pin locations and keeps baskets installed on most of these. That way, if you really want to play to the long basket you can, but the short basket is an option for Ams. I like it that way. You can mix up your rounds and the course is rather versatile. This course has a lot of landscaping and work around each tee pad so adding additional pads would be an eyesore until they "matched" the orginals. I like the way they handled it.

At another area course, the club decided to take the opposite approach and make longer tees. These tees are not concrete, poorly marked and often hidden as the well-beaten path from the previous basket leads to the short/Am tee. As such, they are used by maybe 2-3% of players.

The point is simply that many courses were designed with an original set of tees that had a "flow". Some of these courses were dubbed as "unchallenging" so changes were made. Many that added long/pro tees have really not changed anything because most players are simply used to playing the original tees and continue to do so. Maybe it's just my region, but I have rarely seen a course add short/Am tees to an original design. It is much more common to see courses attempt to add long/Pro tees. I think this has a lot to do with the newer discs changing the game.

I think this will be a topic of further discussion as many newer courses are beginning with two sets of tees. Thus there will be fewer courses where a majority of players are playing from the shorter tees. I think "habit" has a lot to do with which tees a player utilizes. As for the poll, I'll never be offended if someone refers to me as an Am...that's what I am. But I'm also not hesitant to play long tees if whoever I am playing with would rather do that.

[steinkecm]

Originally Posted by smarkquart

I am almost positive it was Elver. It was my cousin who told me this, but he only played once or twice month. So take that as it is. The problem was, being hole-jumped twice after he said that gave some credence to it. Those who apologized to me gave me the same impression that it was weird to see me playing the longs. It was noon on a Friday in July if that makes any difference.

This makes a little more sense then.

Not to be "thay guy" but Elver is quite a bit easier than Hiestand. It's rated reasonably well, as it's a decent course, but Hiestand is quite a bit better. Hiestand's long tees make the course play VERY differently, as Elver's don't -- at least not for the majority of the holes. I don't find an extra 15 feet of distance to make that big of a difference for me, especially when the angles don't change.

With that being said, Elver tends to be a bit heavy with newbies and "not-so-greats." Not to say that Hiestand isn't full of them, too -- I cannot wait for these to go pay to play.... -- but it doesn't surprise me that people who play Elver more just don't "get it."

And in response elsewhere: The long tees don't make disc golfers "macho." They make them better. If you need a course full of ace runs to shoot well, that's fine. But don't try to belittle others for wanting more of a challenge. When holes are sub 300 feet and the fairways are at least 30 feet wide, the holes can get boring. And they aren't challenging.

Maybe I'm just odd, but I don't do things to "not get better." I want to shoot better every round. I want to play well on difficult courses. The fact that I play longs enables me to get to competition level courses and not be intimidated.

Let me ask this: Does the Open division play from the "short tees?"

[simpletwist]

No and why would anyone. I'm not a pro. They can call them Senior tees or ladies tees or whatever they want to call them. They're the short tees, so what?

I can't even fathom this as a question let alone someone being so full of themselves as to be offended by something so trivial.

[thrembo]

I am an am, so I usually play from the am tees, if available. I like the option of having multiple tees, to mix things up. And I like that the leagues that I have played in use the short tees, but also sprinkle in a few random long tees into the rounds.