Tag: approach shots

How to Find the Perfect Golf Tees to Play From?

On April 27, 2021

Right before you step onto the first tee you’re immediately faced with make-or-break decision for your round. What golf tees should you play from?

On one hand, playing from tees too short can make the game too easy or limit the variety of shots you hit. On the other hand, however, playing from tees that are too long can make the game too hard or frustrating.

So which tees should we be playing from?

The Golf Academy has teamed up with Francesco at My Golf Heaven to help provide you that answer.

Which golf tee box should you play?

Terms like senior tees or lady tees might give the impression they are only suited for seniors and lady golfers. That reputation is undeserved, in our opinion! Forget your ego and hitting more greens by playing shorter irons on your approach shot.

There are different methods to figure out which tee box you should play. We’ll be looking at the two most popular ones.

Preferred method

Use the data provided by the PGA and USGA forward tee initiative. This initiative serves to educate recreational golfers to play from the correct tee box, based on their driving distance. Here’s a table for reference:

Driving Distance	Recommended Course Length
PGA Tour Pros	7,600 – 7,900 Yards
300 Yards	7,150 – 7,400 Yards
275 Yards	6,700 – 6,900 Yards
250 Yards	6,200 – 6,400 Yards
225 Yards	5,800 – 6,000 Yards
200 Yards	5,200 – 5,400 Yards
175 Yards	4,400 – 4,600 Yards
150 Yards	3,500 – 3,700 Yards
125 Yards	2,800 – 3,000 Yards
100 Yards	2,100 – 2,300 Yards

The idea here is to leave you an approach shot of no more than 170 yards on Par 4 holes. You might be surprised at these numbers. Considering that the average driving distance of a male amateur golfer is 225 yards, we can assume that most people should play the more forward tees.

Having fewer yards into the green allows you to play shorter irons. These usually are easier to hit, and you’ll be more accurate.

Other methods

Another popular method to calculate which tee box you should use is to multiply your driving distance by 28. That gives you a rough estimate of the course length best suited for your game.

While this method works, it’s not always the most accurate. Another valuable option to the data provided above, is to look at the average distance you hit a 5-Iron.

Here how to pick a tee box based on your 5-Iron distance:

5-Iron Distance	Recommended Course Lenght
200 Yards	7,200 Yards
190 Yards	6,840 Yards
180 Yards	6,480 Yards
170 Yards	6,120 Yards
160 Yards	5,760 Yards
150 Yards	5,400 Yards
140 Yards	5,040 Yards
130 Yards	4,680 Yards
120 Yards	4,320 Yards
110 Yards	3,960 Yards
100 Yards	3,600 Yards

Similar to before, you might recognize that the usual tees you play are a bit too long for you.

What clubs should you use to tee off?

Again, Francesco recommends you should leave yourself an approach shot of 170 yards or under into the green. Based on that and the hole’s layout, you’ll decide whether you should use a driver, 3-Wood, or an Iron off the tee.

Many golfers automatically default to the big stick on every hole. But the length of the hole is not the only thing that’s important for scoring well. Being accurate often trumps hitting it long, but in the rough (or worse).

Accuracy and ball-striking off of the tee have always been critical parts of scoring well and both of us agree that missing the fairway is one of the most common ways golfers throw away strokes on the course.

The benefit from playing off the correct golf tees

The PGA & USGA forward tee initiative surveyed recreational golfers after changing to their correct tee box. Here are the results.

56% of golfers played faster
56% are likely to play golf more often
83% hit higher-lofted clubs into greens
85% had more fun
93% decided to tee it forward again

The numbers don’t lie! Give it a try and enjoy your next round of golf even more by playing from the correct tee boxes!

We are sure you’ll have an enjoyable experience and a score lower. If you do, let us know down below in the comment section. And if you’re interested in reading more tips from My Golf Heaven, click here.

How to get Backspin on Your Ball: Attacking the Pin like a Pro

By Sully

On March 4, 2019

In Golf Science, Golf Tips

We’ve all seen it; a pro golfer flies their approach shot 15-20 feet past the cup only to spin the ball all the way back. While we might only see this on television, in reality, getting backspin on your approach shots is something that any golfer can do with a little technique and some practice.

So, let’s spend today talking about how you can add backspin into your approach game repertoire.

How Does Backspin Even Work?

Backspin has mistified golfers for years by turning very bad shots into nearly perfect ones around the green. So how does this “magic” happen?

In the past, we’ve talked about what causes hooks or slices, however, backspin is a little different.

Where hooks and slices impact your ball’s flight in the air, backspin has to do with what happens to your ball after it lands on the ground. Thankfully, backspin is much easier to understand.

Backspin truly boils down to the spin your swing puts on the ball. After contact is made with the ball, your shot flies through the air spinning backward; in the same way, a basketball shot spins through the air on its way to the hoop.

After your shot lands, this backspin (if it’s powerful enough) will cancel out the balls forward motion and even roll the ball back towards you.

How to Get Backspin on Your Shot

So, with all of the physics behind us, let’s use this basic understanding of golf physics to figure out how we can get backspin on our shots around the green.

Since we just talked about how the backspin from your swing results in backspin when the ball lands, all of our tips will focus on putting the most spin on our approach shot without jeopardizing our distance or accuracy.

Stance

First, let’s talk about the setup. While you would normally stand with the ball in the middle of your stance for an average iron shot, we are going to move the ball back in our stance slightly for this shot.

By moving the ball back in our stance, we force our bodies to take a steeper swing arc during our stroke. This steeper swing arc will result in higher levels of compression on the ball and improved backspin on your shots.

Club Selection

With our stance properly aligned, let’s talk about club selection.

To be most successful spinning the ball back, focus on using the higher lofted clubs in your bag.

Intuitively this should make sense. In order to get backspin, we need to stop the forward movement of the ball and still have some spin left to bring the ball back. By using a lower lofted iron such as a five or six iron we are hitting much flatter, further shots.

This results in more forward momentum and less backspin once the ball lands on the green.

To fix this problem, start practicing with high lofted clubs; I would recommend mastering your backspin with a lob wedge or a sand wedge before you move to 9 or 8 irons.

The Swing

Our final piece of advice for improving your backspin has to do with your swing.

Now, while you absolutely should not be changing your swing dramatically to get more backspin out of your shots, there are a few adjustments you can make to get the most out of your current swing.

First, we need to talk about the angle of your hands. While our setup from above has placed our hands slightly in front of the ball, resist the temptation to amplify this effect my pushing your hands forward, as you would in a bump and run chip.

This can result in a very flat shot which, again, produces too much forward momentum and prevents our shot from spinning back towards the cup once it lands.

Instead, let your hands hang neutral as you normally would. This results in a ‘slightly’ closed clubface from our stance but a very strong grip through contact; something that will translate into higher levels of consistency on your swing and increased levels of spin on the ball.

In addition to neutral hands, focus on placing slightly more weight on your front foot during your setup. This extra weight will help facilitate your weight transfer and ensures that you attack the ball on contact.

One great way to make sure this is happening is to look at the divot your swing leaves after contact. If your divot is in front of the ball’s previous location then you know you properly transferred your weight during the shot.

By doing so, you ensure the club touches the ball before it touches the ground at contact. This will help you put the most spin on your shot while also minimizing errors with your shot’s consistency that can result from hitting the ground first during contact.

What Next?

Now that we’ve laid out information on your stance, club selection, and swing you should be all set to hit the range and try out your newly discovered shot.

While it might not happen overnight, a few weeks of consistent practice and a little bit of experimentation should be all you need to start working on some beautiful, high loft, backspinning shots.

And before you know it, you’ll be attacking the pin just like the pros do on TV.