Golf tees - what a choice!

The humble golf tee as we knew it has been manufactured in both wood and plastic since the mid 1920s with little development other than colours and sizes.  It is only in the last five years that golfers have seen an explosion in the number and types of golf tee available and possibly more import their acceptance and use.

Perfornance golf tees

Golf Pride, the world's leads in golf tee, has introduced their PTS - Professional Tee System™ - based on demand from tour and amateur players alike. These colour coded golf tees allow easy identification of lengths as well as the most appropriate tee for the diversity range of club heads in play today. The range is 2 1/8” red - irons, 2 ¾” yellow - hybrids, 3 ¼” yellow – fairway, 4” green - driver. The colour bands also help golfers to consistently locate their golf tees in the ground.

Golf Pride have gone even further, introducing Pride PTS Offset Tees, the first plastic tees with a 30 degrees offset. This tee increases ball visibility and enables contact with the club at its maximum speed, resulting in longer straighter drives.  They also claim that the design minimize spin.

Another similar development is Zero Friction Tees. Their unique design has three-prongs that reduce the tees contact with the ball. This in turn reduces the amount of friction, producing once again longer, straighter drives. The manufactures claim that independent testing with a swing speed of 100mph resulted in gains of up to four yards of distance and five yards of accuracy.

If greater distance is for you then you should also test out Lift tees.  They have become very popular, even with pros, as they can add up to ten yards to a drive. This is achieved through their design where only the top of the Lift Tee contacts the ball. Less resistance results in more energy being transferred for a longer drive.

The Lift Tee Ultra uses the same technology but also includes a patented hinge that pops oven on impact, helping the tee to remain close to the player.

Pack sizes vary too from bags of 25, sold in multi packs, to bumper and bulk packs.

Eco golf tees

There are golf tees for conservationists too! PH-Tees are made from calcium carbonate which has a positive effect on the course as they degrade. Lignum tees, manufactured from plant materials, polymers and natural glue, combine to provide a more durable biodegradable tee that is friendlier to mowers. And finally Pride Insignia two piece tees claim to be create 80% less waste than traditional tees, making them the most environmentally friendly golf tee on the market.

So can there be any other golf tees on offer? Well yes! Graduated tees, cone tees, pyramid tees, neon tees, national flag tees. And finally Max-T and Graduated Max-T both being made from extremely durable plastic with a thermoplastic crown that helps transmit maximum energy at impact.

So how did the word tee come into golf usage?

The tee, the starting place for each hole has not always been as we know it today. Originally it was a circle, with a radius of one club length around the previous hole. The word itself is said to be a descendent of the Gaelic word “tigh” meaning house and is thought to be related to the sport popular in Scottish of curling, which also has a house marked out with concentric circles.

As time went by the size of the circle grew from one club length to two and then four. But it was not until Old Tom Morris took over at St Andrews in 1863 that he separated tees and greens, as we know them now.

In the early days the golf ball was teed up on piles of sand giving rise to the tee boxes of today. But using sand was a messy business and so by the late 1800s golfers were starting to pay attention to alternatives golf tees. The first of these was made of rubber with vertical prongs or a tube to hold the ball – proving again that there is little that is new!