How to Choose the Right Tee Box at Blackstone Country Club

It’s a stunningly beautiful morning in the Arizona desert, the sky is a gradient of orange, purple, and blue, and life couldn’t be better because you’re walking to the first tee box with your buddies. All of a sudden you may start to have questions about how to choose the right tee box for your game.

Maybe you make a snap judgment based on the length of the first hole—only to find the rest of the course plays much longer—or shorter—than the first would indicate. Or maybe you gamely defer to your playing partners, thinking that’s the gentlemanly thing to do. But what if your friends are really long off the tee, and your best play is with your irons? It could be a long 18!

When you become a Golf Member and decide to play the course at Blackstone Country Club, our hope is that you’ll enjoy every minute of it. To help you make the most of your time on the course, we’re going to talk you through how to choose the right tee box at Blackstone Country Club—and on your next round, you’ll be fully prepared to find the perfect balance of fun and challenge.

Thinking through how to choose the right tee box at Blackstone Country Club

Golf should be an enjoyable experience. Golf at a championship course designed by award-winning course architect Jim Engh should be a one of a kind, unique experience. How do we ensure as many people as possible have an incredible time playing the Blackstone Country Club course? The tee boxes are a helpful way to level out skill and, more importantly, distance, so that the course will work for everyone. No golfer will have the best time on a course if they are stuck hitting driver-fairway wood-fairway-wood just to reach the par fives! Instead, we want a course that feels accessible to us at the lengths we’re able to hit. That means we should be able to reach par threes in one, par fours with a driver and an iron, and par fives with a driver, iron, and approach. In this blog post we want to give you a few tips to find this sweet spot for distance and maximize your enjoyment of the course.

One distance doesn’t fit all

Tee boxes are there for a reason. Not every player, regardless of skill level, hits the same distance. There are many scratch golfers who might not have hit a drive 250 yards in their lives—and an equal amount of 20-handicap golfers who can mash it over 300 pretty consistently. The first thing to remember when selecting tee boxes is to choose the right tee for you. It’s not necessary to be concerned about which tee your playing partners will select. One of them might be a guy who can drive the ball extraordinarily long like Justin Thomas. Regardless, you should make the best decision that will mix challenge with pleasure. Then you, and your playing partners, will be able to make the most of your round. We will give you all the tools you need in this post to choose the right tees with confidence when you play Blackstone Country Club.

Course lengths at Blackstone Country Club

The next thing to consider about how to choose the right tee box at Blackstone Country Club is course length at the different tee boxes. Blackstone offers seven rated tee boxes for men and five rated tee boxes for women.  With all these options, there is a course length that will work well for you. The table below shows total course distance for the most commonly used tee boxes.

If you’re reading this and you’re a seasoned golfer who is used to judging course distance, you may know straight away what the right tees are for you. Generally speaking, the longer the course, the more difficult it will be. A beginner would have the best time playing from shorter tees, while advanced golfers will enjoy themselves most when facing the challenge of the black tees. For golfers of intermediate skill level, who would fall somewhere in the middle in terms of distance, we’ll discuss that next.

First off, looking at a few holes will give us a better idea of how these distances play out. Take hole five, a par four that starts off with a semi-blind tee shot and needs a very accurate approach shot over an arroyo. On the black tees you’ll have some distance to cover at 470 yards. If you’re playing the whites, it’s a very gettable 317. Hole 15, one of the harder par threes on the course, will see your tee shot carry over an arroyo to a heavily sloped green nestled into a hillside. From the blacks this one is long at 228 yards, but from the blues, it’s an accessible 176. At this point you may be getting a better idea which tee box fits your game.

The Driver Distance Formula

If it still feels like you’re picking a number out of the air, then try the driver distance formula. The way it works is simple: Take the distance of your average drive, and multiply that number by 28. Then, take the resulting number and compare it to the different course lengths. Whichever tee box distance is closest to your driver-x-28 number should be a fair level of challenge and accessibility. To make it easy, here’s a table with a few driver distances matched to the appropriate tee box based on the driver distance formula:

Keep in mind that most golfers will overestimate their average driver distance, remembering their best shots. To make the driver distance formula really work for you, we recommend taking a trip to the range and writing down your drive distances there; or, during your next round, referencing a yardage book and recording drive distances on your scorecard. With this little bit of planning, the driver distance formula will be a very helpful tool to get you on the tees that best fit your game.

How do you feel?

Don’t forget to ask yourself how you’re feeling the day of the round, and what your hopes are for that round. Are you energetic and ready to roll? Maybe it’s the day to push yourself to the next longest tee. Is this a leisurely round after a demanding work week that has taken a physical toll? There’s no harm in moving to the next shortest tee.

Schedule a Tour

With these pointers on how to choose the right tee box you’ll be all set to have an incredible round of golf the next time out. Knowing where to tee up before you even reach the clubhouse will give you a boost of confidence, and you’ll be hitting greens on the par threes, and reaching even the longest par fives with a chance to score well.  Blackstone Country Club offers several choices for Golf Membership, including Equity, Non-Equity Junior Golf and Non-Equity Corporate Golf. In addition, an Equity Social Membership is available. If you are interested in learning more about Blackstone Country Club membership schedule your private Club tour today!