Which Tees Should I Play From?
Choosing which tees to play isn't really about the colour of the marker or what your handicap says. It's about finding a course length that matches the shots you can actually play — while still giving you enough challenge to make the round interesting.
Standing on the first tee and choosing between red, yellow, white, blue and black can feel like golf's version of a personality test.
Pick the wrong set and the course can suddenly feel either strangely short or much harder than it needs to be.
You might spend the day hitting hybrids and fairway woods into par fours. Or you might find yourself hitting driver and wedge into almost everything, wondering why half the clubs in your bag came along.
The problem is that golfers are often given some fairly poor ways to think about the decision.
Maybe you play the whites because that's what you've always played.
Maybe you move back because the better players in your group are doing it.
Maybe your handicap seems to suggest a particular set of tees.
Or perhaps you've arrived at a new course and have no idea what the colours actually mean.
None of those is a particularly useful starting point.
Don't choose your tee by colour.
Choose it by the golf it asks you to play.
Tee colours aren't a universal distance system. Australian courses use different combinations of colours and, increasingly, skill- or distance-based tee systems rather than traditional assumptions about who should play which tee.
So instead of trying to remember what red, yellow, white, blue or black is supposed to mean, look at something much more useful:
How far do you hit your clubs, and what will this tee leave you?
That's the real decision.
Start with your 7-iron
One of the most useful pieces of research on tee selection comes from the USGA's Best Tees work.
The idea is surprisingly simple: use your 7-iron distance as a reference for the overall length of course that is likely to suit you.
Why the 7-iron?
The USGA found that golfers tend to have a more reliable understanding of how far they hit a 7-iron than they do with a driver. The research then used 7-iron distance to develop recommended course lengths based on the configuration of the course.
It isn't a magic formula.
And it doesn't mean your 7-iron distance tells you exactly which coloured tee to play.
It's simply a useful starting point.
The USGA's research found, for example, that a golfer hitting a 7-iron around 140 yards would generally fit a course around 5,900–6,100 yards, while golfers with shorter or longer 7-iron distances would generally fit shorter or longer courses.
For Australian golfers, that means thinking in metres rather than becoming too attached to an American yardage table.
The principle matters more than the exact number:
The longer you hit your normal clubs, the longer the course you can reasonably play.
And the reverse is also true.
Look at the shots, not just the scorecard
Course length gives you a starting point.
The actual shots you're being asked to play tell you whether that starting point makes sense.
What club are you hitting?
One long par three is part of golf. But if several par threes regularly require the longest clubs in your bag just to reach the green, that's useful information.
Moving forward can turn those holes from survival exercises into genuine decisions.
What are your approach shots?
This is probably the most revealing question.
A well-matched tee should give you a mixture of approach clubs.
You shouldn't expect every par four to leave you with a comfortable mid-iron. But if your typical second shot is a hybrid or fairway wood, the course may simply be too long for your current game.
The USGA's Best Tees research defines a good tee fit partly by whether golfers can comfortably reach fairways and the vicinity of greens while using a variety of approach clubs.
Are there decisions to make?
The best tee isn't necessarily the one that makes every par five reachable in two.
A good tee can create options.
One par five might give you a realistic chance to attack. Another might require a lay-up. Another might reward a good drive with a manageable approach.
That variety is part of what makes the course interesting.
If every par five becomes driver, longest club, longest club, you're probably playing a version of the course that doesn't suit your current distance.
Yardage isn't the whole story
Two courses of the same length can feel completely different.
A course with forced carries, narrow landing areas, hazards and difficult greens can demand considerably more from you than an open course with the same total yardage.
The USGA's research specifically recognises course playability as another factor in tee selection. A particularly difficult course may justify moving forward even when its total length looks appropriate on paper.
So don't ask only:
“How long is this tee?”
Also ask:
“What does this tee actually ask me to do?”
A simple way to choose your tees
You don't need a complicated formula before every round.
Start with three things:
Your 7-iron distance.
The total length of the tees.
The shots those tees are likely to leave you.
Then adjust for the course itself.
01 — START WITH YOUR 7-IRON
Use your normal 7-iron distance rather than your best-ever strike.
The USGA's system uses average 7-iron hitting distance as its starting reference for recommended course length.
You don't need laboratory-level accuracy.
You just need a realistic number.
02 — CHECK THE TOTAL LENGTH
Look at the scorecard.
Is the tee set broadly in the right range for your 7-iron distance?
If you're unsure, the USGA's Best Course Length Calculator is built around exactly this principle: 7-iron distance plus the course's par and hole configuration.
03 — LOOK AT THE PAR 4s
Ask yourself:
What will I normally be hitting for my second shot?
If the answer is mostly irons you can comfortably control, you're probably in the right area.
If the answer is repeatedly hybrid, fairway wood or a long iron simply to reach the green, consider moving forward.
04 — CHECK THE PAR 3s
Look at the whole group of par threes.
If several require the longest clubs in your bag, that's another signal that the tee may be too far back.
05 — CONSIDER THE COURSE ITSELF
If the course has forced carries, narrow landing areas, significant elevation changes or particularly difficult greens, don't assume the same tee distance will suit you everywhere.
Course difficulty matters too.
THE SIMPLE TEST
The right tees should challenge you without repeatedly asking you to hit shots that are outside your normal game.
That's a much better test than the colour of the marker.
So which tee should you actually choose?
Think in terms of too long, about right, or too short.
Move forward if the course keeps asking for your longest clubs
If you regularly need a hybrid or fairway wood to reach par fours, several par threes require uncomfortable long shots, and par fives feel like a sequence of maximum-effort swings, that's useful evidence.
You aren't failing to play the course properly.
The course may simply be asking for more distance than your current game can comfortably provide.
Stay where you get a mixture of shots
This is the sweet spot.
You should still have difficult holes.
You should still have uncomfortable shots.
But across the round, you should also get plenty of opportunities to use clubs you trust.
That variety is important.
Research from the USGA found golfers generally prefer holes where the approach shot is proportional to their own hitting distance, rather than simply choosing the longest course they can survive.
Consider moving back if the course removes too much of the challenge
Playing forward isn't automatically better.
If you're hitting driver and wedge into almost every par four and rarely using the longer half of your bag, you may have gone too far forward.
The point isn't to make the course as easy as possible.
It's to make the challenge appropriate.
Use handicap as context, not as the rule
Handicap still tells you something useful about your scoring ability.
But two golfers with the same handicap can have completely different games.
One might hit the ball a long way but struggle around the greens.
Another might be shorter but extremely consistent.
Their ideal tee choice doesn't have to be identical.
Your handicap can help provide context.
Your actual golf tells you what you need.
Treat the colour as an identifier, not a recommendation
Red, yellow, white, blue and black don't carry a universal meaning from one course to another.
Some Australian clubs have moved toward skill- or distance-based tee systems specifically to make tee selection less about traditional categories and more about the course length a golfer wants to play.
So when you arrive at a new course, don't ask:
“Which colour should I play?”
Ask:
“Which tee length makes sense for my game?”
Try the One-Tee Experiment
If you're still unsure, don't turn tee selection into another thing to overthink.
Test it.
Golf gives you a useful opportunity to answer this question simply by playing the same course from different starting points.
ROUND 1 — YOUR NORMAL TEES
Establish the baseline
Note the clubs you're hitting into par fours.
Notice which clubs you're using on par threes.
Pay attention to how often you're forced into long shots simply to reach the green.
Don't worry about the score yet.
You're collecting information.
ROUND 2 — ONE SET FORWARD
Change the tees, not your entire game
Play normally and see what changes.
Do you have more approach shots with clubs you trust?
Do the par threes become more playable?
Do the par fives create more interesting decisions?
ROUND 3 — ONE SET BACK
Only if you're curious
Try the opposite direction on another day.
Again, don't change your entire strategy.
You're testing the starting point, not trying to prove that one tee is better than another.
Then compare the rounds.
Which version gave you more approach shots with clubs you trust?
Which gave you more realistic chances to reach greens?
Which produced better decisions on par fives?
And perhaps most importantly:
Which version gave you the best combination of challenge, strategy and enjoyment?
That's the tee you should probably be playing.
Choose the course, not the colour.
Your handicap matters.
Your distance matters.
The course matters.
The colour of the tee marker matters much less than golf has sometimes made it seem.
Start with your 7-iron distance.
Look at the length of the course.
Then look at the shots it leaves you.
If you're constantly being asked to hit shots you have little chance of executing, move forward.
If you're rarely using the longer half of your bag, consider moving back.
You're not choosing the tee that says something about how good a golfer you are.
You're choosing the version of the course that gives you the right challenge.
The next question is usually more interesting
Choosing the right tees can make the course feel completely different.
But it raises another question:
What about your handicap?
If two golfers play the same course from different tees, how should their handicaps be adjusted?
And what do Course Rating and Slope actually mean when you're choosing where to play from?
That's a useful question because tee selection isn't just about distance. It's also about how the handicap system accounts for the course you're choosing to play.
That's the sort of thing worth investigating rather than simply accepting because that's how golf has always done it.
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