I’m about to turn 37 in August.

In golf years, that means I’m about 1,000. I’ve taken so many swings I’m surprised I’m not a complete amputee.

My back aches every day. My tennis (golf) elbow starts burning about the third hole. Before every round, I pop three ibuprofen to numb the pain.

Some days it’s four.

So friends out there in cyberspace, give me a little advice: When is it time to move to the white tees? Some people call them the senior tees. I call them a blessing.

My game isn’t always sharp enough to play from the blues. With two kids too young to golf and a golf-hater for a wife, there’s never enough rounds in my summer to get to the level I know I’m capable of.

The extra 300 to 400 yards between the blue and white tees for my game can mean the difference between breaking 80 and breaking 90. I won’t play white tees that are shorter than 6,200 yards, but anything from the blues that is longer than 6,500 yards beats me up like a rented mule.

My game is infinitely better playing par 4s that are 400 yards and under, not 400 and over. Get an iron in my hand on a par 3 and I’m trouble. Stick a wood in it, the ball’s in trouble instead. Par 5s are a wash either way.

Here’s a great example. On a recent trip to Seattle to play, I dared to take on Chambers Bay from the middle tees, which the starter told us played about 6,700 yards and were for anybody under a 12 handicap. Well, when you haven’t seen the course before, and it’s raining bullets, I was in the wrong zip code. I limped home just under triple digits.

A mere 48 hours and 36 holes later, I told myself to suck up the ego, and play from the whites, where the rest of the group was playing, at the Olympic golf course at Gold Mountain, a brute of a course that has hosted the U.S. Amateur Public Links and the Washington Husky Invitational every year.

What a difference a set of tees makes: I shot a stress free 80. I had no lower than a 9 iron in my hand on all my approach shots.

So I ask again: Am I a wuss for dreaming of the whites? A wimp? Or a realistic 12 handicap who can play to a 20 from the blues …

For the sake of 4 hours rounds, I think I know the answer. You should think about it too the next time you “man up” on the big boy tees with your misguided friends.

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