Luke Kerr-Dineen moves to 5,000-yard tees to test his scoring game

Luke Kerr-Dineen shot even par at Tamarack Country Club and came away thinking he had left shots behind. He was playing from roughly 5,000 yards, well forward of his usual tees, and the shorter course had given him more chances to score.

In Golf Digest’s October 13 Golf IQ episode, Kerr-Dineen turns that round into a practice assignment. Move forward, keep a score and see what happens when long approaches stop explaining the bogeys. He says his handicap is around 0.5 and that he tries the exercise at least once a season.

The lesson begins after the drive. A shorter hole can turn a mid-iron approach into a wedge, but the remaining wedge shot still demands good contact and distance control. A putt from eight feet remains eight feet long. Golfers get more chances from those ranges without the exercise making the shots themselves easier.

Kerr-Dineen also likes the rhythm. A practice green lets a player choose another putt immediately. On the course, the next makeable putt comes after a drive, an approach and the time spent walking between them. The golfer has to arrive at that chance and finish it.

A shorter tee can change the decision before the drive, too. A bunker that was out of reach may become a carry option or a sensible place to lay up short. A green that was never reachable can tempt an aggressive shot. Kerr-Dineen describes the exercise as a way to make those choices deliberately.

Shorter tees still need a purpose

The USGA’s guidance on forward tees supplies useful course-design context. Proper placement gives golfers with slower swing speeds opportunities to reach greens in regulation and use different clubs for approach shots. Simply moving a marker a few paces forward may leave the same obstacles and long approaches in place.

That distinction matters when borrowing the drill. The point is to create scoring opportunities appropriate to the player. On an outdoor course, the available tee layout determines which shots follow. In a simulator, choosing a shorter tee can create a similar practice round, although software settings and putting rules will affect what the score measures.

Keep those settings consistent if comparing sessions. Automatic putting, generous gimmes or repeated attempts would change the short-game test that Kerr-Dineen describes. His exercise is built around playing the next shot and recording the result.

He suggests looking for a quiet morning or evening when playing alone makes a different tee choice easier. Even nine holes can supply a useful record: which wedges gave you a birdie chance, which approaches missed and which short putts you converted.