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Should You Tee Up Your Iron on a Par 3?
Years ago I decided to stop teeing up my ball on par 3s with my irons because I felt that it gave me a better chance at hitting an accurate shot. Whether or not it was actually true, I believed that when I teed the ball up it made the dispersion of my shots a bit wider.
Recently I put this theory to the test because I thought it was an interesting topic to explore.
The conventional wisdom is to tee your ball up on a par 3 with your irons. The point of this article is not to dispute that advice because I think it’s sound logic for most of you reading this, but rather to explore an alternative strategy that some players may benefit from.
I conducted this mini poll on Twitter, and it was not a surprise that the overwhelming majority of responses were people who did tee up the ball.
Do you tee up your ball on a par 3?
— Jon Sherman (@practicalgolf) March 1, 2017
My Theory
When I think about improving as a golfer I see an image of two lines, which represent shot dispersion. I believe every golfer should be moving from the image on the left to the image on the right.
Anything you can do to keep that ball closer to your intended target is going to help you lower your scores (and yes hitting the ball farther is part of that).
For years I noticed that when I teed the ball up with my irons my dispersion seemed to increase, but mainly on my poor shots. If I pushed it, pulled it, sliced it, or hooked it…well it seemed to do more of that, and go further to the left or right than normal.
If it was a well-struck shot, then it was heading towards my target no matter what.
Since I am someone who thinks pretty deeply about strategy on the course, I decided to stop teeing the ball up in order to keep my less-than perfect shots closer to the target. Golf is a game of proximity; the closer you are to the hole the better your chances are of scoring better on each hole.
The Test
I wanted to find out if there was any truth to this theory as it pertained to my own game (and potentially yours).
So I went out to St. Georges Country Club with my friend and PGA Professional Nick Banks on an abnormally warm and windy winter day. We were treated to 70 degree weather in the middle of February, and it was perfect conditions to try out my “teeing it up or not” theory.
Here were the parameters of the test:
- I hit 10 shots with my 7-iron on the ground, and then 10 shots with the ball teed up to a height that I felt was appropriate
- All shots were hit into about a 20-25 mph headwind, which as you may know requires a solid strike to achieve success (and a good test of accuracy)
- I used the same exact ball every time (Titleist Pro V1)
- We used a Flightscope Radar to measure my results, and I was most concerned with my carry distance and how far offline each shot was from the target
The Results
After conducting the test we took the average of 10 shots and compared them, and I found the results to be pretty interesting.
The wind was ripping pretty hard that day, and it was easily about a 1½ – 2 club differential, which meant that any shots I didn’t hit well were going to travel farther off line than in calm conditions.
My shots with the 7-iron off the ground traveled on average 156.8 yards in the air, and about 3.6 yards off the target line to the left with an average spin rate of 6548 rpms. Overall, not bad for the conditions since I typically fly a 7-iron about 170 yards on the golf course.
The teed-up shots went on average 158 yards in the air, 9.7 yards offline to the left, and had an average spin of 6979 rpms.
What was interesting was that I didn’t gain much distance at all, the ball spun a bit more, but most importantly it went 6 yards more to the left than the shots that I hit off the ground.
Here are some graphical representations of my shot dispersion as well – you can see the 7-iron off the ground was more evenly dispersed around the target line than the ones off the tee
7-iron off the ground:
7-iron off the tee:
A Little Analysis
I was not surprised by the results because it had been a pattern I had noticed on the course.
What did surprise me the most was that I really didn’t gain much distance from the ball being teed up. I only gained 1.2 yards on average, but lost just over 6 yards of accuracy. On a par three that could easily be the difference of hitting the green or not.
For me personally it confirmed my suspicion that choosing to hit the ball off the ground on a par three might be a better decision if I am mostly concerned about accuracy.
Should You Tee Your Irons Up on a Par 3?
I am absolutely not recommending that you stop using tees on a par 3. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way let me tell you why.
For most golfers I believe that teeing the ball up gives you the best chance of making proper contact with the ball, which is ultimately the most important thing for consistency. Why give up that advantage on a par 3?
What I would tell you is to make sure you find the right tee height for your swing. Some golfers either tee it up way too high or too low. You can figure the right tee height on your own by using a dry-erase marker and experimenting with different tee heights to see where you are making contact on the face of the club.
Had I performed this test with a much wider range of golfers with varying ball striking abilities, I would suspect that lesser-skilled golfers would struggle to produce the distance and accuracy to hit more greens without using a tee.
However, for a more skilled ball striker, I do think these results are interesting. It might warrant some testing on your own to find out if it makes sense to possibly not use a tee in order to gain accuracy. I’m just one player, and this test was hardly scientific, but I’m sure some of you reading this have thought about this before.
I would file the results somewhere under, “interesting, but not definitive.”
Let’s say that course par is 72 and everything is done in regulation with 36 putts, and 36 stokes to reach the greens.
50% of the strokes are from the fairways and
50% from the teeing grounds.
Because most courses non scratch golfers play are usually played from more forward tees to reduce their approach distances to the greens they will not encounter par 3 lengths exceeding 175 yards. This means then that only 14 of the tee shots will be favouring a driver or other fairway metal.
Since hitting irons/hybrids will represent 22 of the 72 strokes played for our par round it does make more sense to be consistently striking the ball off the turf rather than a tee for consistency.
The biggest concern for a golfer is the grass length at the range they normally hit out of. Grass that allows the ball to be puffed up so the club can easily get the ball airborn is a lot of times misleading once the golfer heads to the course.
Once they start to play and the lie is flatter than they practice from it becomes apparent rather quickly that they have developed a habit of sweeping the ball. This obviously leaves the golfer hitting thin hits with their short irons and fat hits with their mid to long irons/hybrids.
This is an area that isn’t covered by teaching professionals. It becomes a difficult cycle to break if one practice with favourable conditions but doesn’t encounter conditions like they practice under out on the course. It was said Tiger Woods was a picker of the ball. He would practice for hours and there would be no evidence he was there afterwards as he picked the ball so cleanly. However once out on the course his swing would steepen because the lie was flatter.
If a handicap golfer doesn’t know what Tiger Woods knew about how the ball lie affects their ball striking from the range to the course they end up frustrated. This is the primary reason struggling golfers prefer to tee the ball while striking an iron. They have not connected the dots between the favourable range grass and the course conditions.
My experience has been to play all my irons/hybrids/and fairway metals from the turf. Although I can hit my driver from the deck it has a large 460 cc head which favours a tee. It spins poorly as it isn’t designed for that situation.
It is important to understand that using a tee is necessary to give a golfer the optimal lie for the club they are hitting not more distance or accuracy even though the lie affects those outcomes. A lot of public courses are not in optimal shape for golfers to play their best especially the teeing grounds. The golfer must know their swing habits (picket/digger) to make the correct decisions when on the tees. Pickers should use a tee when the grass is to short for the clubs leading edge to sweep under the ball and diggers should choose a tee if they are hitting anything with less than 30 degrees of loft but only enough tee height to prevent the leading edge from blading the strike and of course wind conditions should be factored in for club selection and shot shape intention.
Although a tee is a golfers crutch if used intelligently it can also be a saving grace??
I wonder if the results would be more similar given normal wind conditions. The ball was in the air more of the tee so the wind had more time to shift its position. The ball off the tee also had a higher spin rate and a ball with more spin is more effected by the wind.
I completely agree that using a tee should be a strategic decision. Not much turf then use the tee so that you can hit the ball on the sweet spot. Plenty of turf and the ball sitting up then hit from the turf. I like to hit from the turf when possible. I am an amateur golfer but understand that I must make adjustments in situations where the lie is not favorable for a clean shot.
I too have stopped teeing my ball up on Par 3s where I would be using an iron.. I tend to compress my ball against the ground and I don’t know why but whenever I would tee it up it just feels like a miss-hit.. so I’m glad you came up with this article. but I agree with one of the comments on here that I would have liked to see what happened if it was less windy.
On par 3, 100 to 120 yds using a tee should I hit up or down on the ball and should hands be behind or forward of ball? Dan T
I am now trying not to use a Tee at all in a round of golf , what’s weird is that as soon as I put the ball on a tee I top it or make a real mess somehow , especially with my 3 wood which is always fine off the deck doesn’t make any sense to me at all , but everything I hit from the deck is fine (never use my driver ) .
I wish I could make some sense out of it
I hit good distances with 3 wood typically around 240 yards , I may gain a few yards to tee it up but it’s more of a gamble on good connection.
But would also agree that all my dispersion is tighter without a tee
In order to make a valid comparison of the 2 approaches you should have also calculated the standard deviation of each group. And is a sample size of 10 shots a significant sample size to make any judgement on. It has been years since I have taken a statistics class but i think the sample size is too small for statistical relevance. LOL