What tees should i play at pebble beach

It's not uncommon to see a group of guys on a teeing ground hitting from the championship tees, only to hit weak slices into the woods. Don't be one of these people. There's no shame in playing from a forward set of tees if that is appropriate for your game. And golfers who play from tees that are too long for their games are only slowing down the pace of play. At a golf course with three sets of tees, the guidelines for choosing the correct set are pretty easy:.

At courses whose tee boxes contain more than three sets of tees, it gets a little more complicated. But we can sort it out by considering the yardages that the professionals play from. On the PGA Tour, the average golf course length these days is around 7,, yards. On the Champions Tour for over pros, average golf course length is around 6, to 6, yards. If you are a low-handicap golfer, then feel free to play from the set of tees that mimics the yardages on the pro tours which will be the back tees for men.

Low-handicap women and seniors might choose the set of tees whose yardage is yards less than the averages of the LPGA and Champions tours, respectively.

Mid-handicappers might choose the set of tees whose yardage is around , yards less than the pro tour that represents their gender or age. High-handicappers should consider the set of tees whose yardage is 1, to 1, yards less than the pros play. And beginners? Unless you know that you can hit the ball a good distance with at least a little bit of accuracy and consistency, then start from the forward tees.

After a round or two from the forward tees, you'll have a pretty good idea based on your score and your frustration level if you should move back to a longer, tougher set of tees. And always remember that first rule of thumb we mentioned: If you are unable to reach the par-3 holes in one shot we're talking distance, not actually getting your ball on the green , or unable to reach the par-4 holes in two shots from the set of tees you are playing, it's a good sign that you need to move up to a shorter set of tees.

Here's another general guideline for choosing the distance at which to play a golf course: Take your average 5-iron distance be honest! Example: You hit your 5-iron yards.

The green is pushed up as illustrated in the photo below. A look at the green. Hole 4 — yards — Par 4 The fourth hole is listed as a short par 4, but plays a bit longer with the uphill slope. The best play is to just hit it up the middle.

The approach shot, seen below, plays significantly uphill. This photo was taken from about yards. Hole 5 — yards — Par 3 The fifth hole was the first of the par threes. Pebble has a great collection of one-shot holes and the fifth is a worthy opening act.

Note the hazard to the right, this reminded me that I was coming to the great seaside holes! A closer look at the green, with subtle undulation. Hole 6 — yards — Par 5 Everyone knows the par 5, 6th hole, but the ocean out to the right was significantly closer than I expected.

That probably resulted in my tee shot going way left! The second shot, seen here, plays up a steep hill. It was much taller than I expected. For the third shot, the hole flattens out for a stock wedge shot. The green has more undulation than the camera shows here. The flag was in the bottom of a little bowl. This is a tantalizing little shot that I was lucky enough to play with only a moderate wind.

A view back up to the tee from the green. This illustrates how steep the drop off from the tee to the green is. A shot of the green. Hole 8 — yards — Par 4 The tee shot at the 8th hole plays uphill and should be struck at the yellow house seen here.

You only want to go about yards, as I was only a few yards from the cliff! The shot below is looking back to my approach from about yards. There is a lot of elevation change down to the green. The green, as seen below, has quite a bit of slope from left to right. Hole 10 — yards — Par 4 The 10th hole is another long hole with a driver down the middle being the best play.

The approach shot into 10, note that you do not want to miss right, unless you want a walk on the beach. Hole 11 — yards — Par 4 The eleventh hole plays on a line a little right of the telephone pole in the distance. The approach plays uphill to a green tucked behind large greenside bunkers.

Hole 12 — yards — Par 3 The 12th plays to a shallow green as seen here. And a closer shot of the green. Hole 13 — yards — Par 4 The thirteenth hole plays longer than the listed yardage.

A good line is just right of the left bunker. As far as you know, the world ends on the right side of the fairway at the sixth hole at pebble Beach.

Byron Nelson once said that No. Most pros drive for the seawall and then either lay up or go for it in two Homeric shots. It has often been said that pros are really playing a different game from most of us amateurs. Here they might as well be playing a different course. While they go right, we go left as far away from the roar of the cataract as possible and not infrequently catching the bunker that has been placed there specifically to upbraid the cowardly who would rather get sand in their shoes than algae.

I traversed more than yards through the left rough in this manner before I even tried to aim a shot in the general direction of the green. I didn't so much play the sixth as I tried to mug it from behind.

But it's bigger than I am. Then there is the darling little seventh, just a tad over yards to a tiny green below. You will have to take my word for this, but I hit the softest, sweetest 9-iron you ever saw.

It had the flag covered all the way and if the currents are running true, my ball should be somewhere off the coast of Ecuador by now. And so it goes for the hacker at Pebble Beach. Bad shots get you in trouble and good shots get you in the Pacific. By the eighth hole I had the sensation that I was playing while heavily sedated, which is probably just as well. If 12th-century cartographers were mapping the coastal area around No. The ninth hole dances along the escarpment for yards and, then to show you that they aren't kidding, on the 10th hole you get to do it all over again for another The big problem for a middle to high handicapper at Pebble Beach is not just that it is difficult to know exactly what club to hit or in which direction to aim it -- those are dicey considerations for me wherever I play -- but that the course simply overwhelms you.

If you are playing decently, Pebble Beach, as any good course does, rewards you with some pleasing numbers. But Pebble Beach is remorseless in the face of sloppy play. If you're hitting badly, as I elected to do that day, Pebble Beach will devour you.

I kept thinking of the Frenchman in the famous story, who, when asked what he did during the revolution, replied, "I survived. But Pebble Beach plunges on, turning inland in the back loop of a half-mad figure eight and gives no guarantees. The 11th is a blind uphill dogleg-right par 4 of yards that plays more like The 12th is a par 3 that calls for a yard fly over a front trap. If you are not on the green, usually one of two things happens.

Either you are on the right where you can find your ball, but are out-of-bounds, or you are on the left and in play, but probably lost. I think my favorite hole is the 13th. It is a yard par 4 with out-of-bounds on the right and what appears to be a desert of some kind on the left. In between is a shelved green tightly trapped on both sides.

The Pebble Beach guidebook is pleased to call the 13th "a breather. The 15th is a totally blind par 4 over a huge overgrown barranca. Although the 16th is billed as "the start of the tough road home," it affords the higher handicapper his best shot at a par 4 on the back side, especially if he is good at throwing an approach shot a couple of hundred feet in the air to get over the trees, and likes putting on a sloping green.

The par-3 17th on the ocean is as familiar to most television watchers as the graduation pictures of their children. What I did not realize is that the green is so distended from front to back that it is possible to hit the green and then find out you are off by two clubs. I ask you, is that fair? Is that just? Watching tournaments at Pebble Beach on television, I always thought of the 18th as full of dark menace and roiling water.

But coming upon it in person, the impression was quite different. I was only a scant yards from the bar, and it was child's play to get home from there. Besides, I don't know how to hit a hook. As has often been pointed out, par 5s on the golf tour are fast becoming as passe as the elephant's hoof umbrella stand.