Tee up Wedges on Par-3s?

[Bosco...]

 

[lambeau]

For clarity, it was a 3" thick plastic tee pushed down damn near the full length. The tee does not break or "give" when you hit just the very head of it with the rest of the length firmly in the turf. So I don't think any internet "alternate physics" was at play, it was just a bonehead move with a hard plastic immovable object under the ball.

Regardless, I should have remembered I don't need a tee for a wedge.....

In hindsight, my largest mistake was posting this thread. lol

of course a tee isn't necessary; if you don't want to use one, then don't.

 

[bkuehn1952]

I tee it up on all par-3 holes with the tee height varying with the club being used.

I saw a study that determined that balls struck well with an iron from the turf go further than balls struck well from a tee. My conclusion was to be consistent in using or not using a tee with each club.

 

[Bosco...]

Isn’t there some sort of trick with tee height and wedges/irons to reduce spin? I thought I remembered a commentator eluding to something like that during a tournament.

Outta my wheelhouse though..

 

[TxAggie2018]

U saw a study that determined that balls struck well with an iron from the turf go further than balls struck well from a tee. My conclusion was to be consistent in using or not using a tee with each club.

I've found the same thing. Don't know if having a ball sitting up encourages me to flip at it or what.

Even for better golfers, a tee has got to naturally increase the launch angle, right?

 

[BigMac]

I use a tee on par 3s, pushed in so deep that the ball is resting almost flush with the ground, like a perfect, fluffed up fairway lie. I use either a short tee or the remnants of a broken tee.

The only exception is if I'm playing a course with plush, perfect tee boxes that would simulate that lie without using a tee - and for those of us who play public access courses, you can imagine how often that happens.

 

[Mark_UK]

I tee up everything! The shorter the iron the lower the tee. My wedges are teed just enough to give me a good lie.

 

[alistaird]

I use these, they are 1" total length and barely stick in the ground. I can't imagine they interfere with my club at all.

I’m with you on that. Step tees on every tee box, with the 1/4“ on the short irons and wedges.

A

 

[wadesworld]

Isn’t there some sort of trick with tee height and wedges/irons to reduce spin? I thought I remembered a commentator eluding to something like that during a tournament.

Outta my wheelhouse though..

Definitely not what you're referencing, but my coach did recently advise me to consider not using a tee when using a 9-iron or up. His logic was if you tee it just a tiny bit too high, you can get the ball high on the club face and it won't carry normal distance.

 

[Fatshot]

I tee it up EVERY chance I get.....I think it was Arnie I saw giving that advice in a video once. It makes sense to me. A good buddy of mine go back and forth about this (kiddingly, of course) b/c he always places his ball in a good lie on the grass on par 3's. If I remind him of Arnie's advice, he smirks and says "Tell Arnie to kiss my
A$$ !" If he hits the green he often repeats it, LOL.....!!!

 

[Doubleb21]

Teeing it up every time!

 

[Bernoulli]

I’m one who always uses a tee.

 

[frontTsociety]

No tees for irons here. I like the consistency, given my play/practice time is limited.

 

[JonMA1]

No tees for irons here. I like the consistency, given my play/practice time is limited.

I do this for the same reasons and I think the consistency has helped my iron and wedge shots from the fairway and rough.

 

[DataDude]

I think irons have less spin off a tee which is why I generally don’t use one for par 3’s where I’m hitting an iron and sometimes even a hybrid.

 

[pattyboy21]

For a front pin, teeing up a wedge works great for me. I can hit it high and stop the ball where it lands, not worrying about spinning it back off the green.

 

[MacTourney]

Tee it on a 3? Sure do, but so low it's almost on hardpan but makes getting down on it worth the bend.

 

[gonyr]

Usually use a tee on a par 3 at the moment. But I change my mind on this every few months.

 

[Jman]

ALWAYS.

 

[Camjr]

I'm lucky in that the 9 hole "par 3" course down the street has 8 holes that are 3's ranging from 170 yds down to 100yds. There is one par 4 and a par 3 that has a back tee box that makes it a 340 yd par 4. I'll tee up on every hole except the 100 yd hole. Bonus - the course is lighted for night play

 

[Daddio]

Pushing 3000 rounds of golf and always used a tee off every P3. It made sense and was such univerally accepted gospel and repeated over and over that never I even considered the alternative. What fun is that though? @OldandStiff 's entertaining thread several months back nudged the retired scientist in me enough to experiment.

Started with just the very short 15th at my home course. I'd always struggled more than I should at this one. Tiny multi-tier green. Anything just a little left, short, or long usually finds water. Even though I realized that by the time I got to that tee box I had likely already played a half dozen successful partial wedges off the deck the 'always tee' mantra was so ingrained that I never even considered teeing it might be the reason I was more prone to left and/or long misses there.

Was playing #15 so much better I quickly started stretching the teeless experiment further up my bag. Too soon to know for certain but so far I've had surprisingly good success up through 7 iron. A significantly larger percentage of my recent birdies are coming on P3s than ever before. Noticably fewer pulled misses and my front to back dispersion is also tighter.

Working for me, not implying it'd work as well for everyone. I think I must subconsciously deliver the club slightly different when the ball is teed, (even when teed right at ground level). I'm guessing I'm not alone in just blindly accepting the 'always tee' mantra. Weird since I basically tinker with everything else as it relates to golf swing and equipment? Kind of sad I never even considered looking into it before. I have one heinously fuuugggly HIO to my credit, Made it over 30 years ago and have been hoping for a well deserved pretty one ever since. I'm 69 so my clock is running out in a hurry. Who knows? I scored my lone 'nice par' after just tossing a 2nd ball down right after rinsing my tee shot at another short P3 a few years ago. Maybe I'd have that pretty HIO (maybe more) had I been curious enough to actually test the alternative decades ago.