What Tees Should You Play From on a Golf Simulator?

Here's a question I get all the time: what tees should I play from on the simulator?

It matters more than people think. On a real course you mostly play one set and never question it. On a sim you can play any tee on any course in seconds, which sounds great until you realize most people just leave it on the back tees because that's where it loads. Then they wonder why every round feels like a grind.

Play the tees that match your game, not your ego

The honest answer: play the tees where you'd shoot somewhere around your handicap on a normal day. If you're a 15 and you're playing the tips on a 7,400-yard course, you're not practicing golf. You're practicing damage control. You'll hit driver and a long iron into every par 4 and learn nothing about scoring.

Move up. Play the set where you've got a wedge or short iron into some greens. That's where real scoring lives, and that's where you actually get better, because you're rehearsing the shots that lower your number on a real course.

Forward isn't cheating

There's a stubborn idea that moving up a tee box is soft. It isn't. The best ball strikers in the world play tees that leave them scoring clubs into greens. The whole point of the simulator is reps under realistic pressure. You get more meaningful reps from the right tees than from getting bludgeoned by the wrong ones.

If you want a harder test, there are better ways to get one than adding 600 yards: firmer greens, tougher pins, wind. Those make you a better player. Raw distance from the tips mostly makes you a worse one.

This is exactly what RISE does for you

This is the whole reason I built RISE. Instead of guessing what tees to play, RISE calibrates a target to your actual ability and sets the conditions, so every round sits right at the edge of your game. Not too easy, not crushing. The zone where improvement actually happens.

So if picking tees feels like guesswork, let the system do it. Here's how RISE works.