
Sand tees were still the norm into the early 1900s.

What's a sand tee? Take a little bit of wet sand, shape it into a conical mound, place the golf ball atop the mound, and you have a sand tee. Golfers in the ancient mists of Scotland would use a club or their shoe to stab the ground, digging up a little mound of turf on which to set the golf ball.Īs golf matured and became more organized, sand tees became the norm. The earliest "tees" were just clumps of dirt. How did golfers tee up their golf balls before the invention and manufacture of modern golf tees? Tools designed specifically for teeing a golf ball started arriving on the scene in the late 1800s (although it's safe to assume that individual golfers were experimenting with different implements before that). Brooke / Topical Press Agency / Getty Images On the following pages, we take a look back at the history of the humble golf tee, noting some of the significant developments along the way.Ī golfer in 1921 reaches into a "tee box" to retrieve a handful of wet sand, which would then be shaped into a tee for the golf ball. How high should you tee the ball? The depends on what club you're using. An exception is when there is a penalty that requires the golfer to return to the teeing ground and replay the stroke. Tees may only be used when playing the first stroke of a hole from the teeing ground. Typically, the top end of the tee is flared and concave to support the golf ball and keep it stable and stationary however, the design of the top of the peg can vary. Modern golf tees are pegs that are pushed into the ground, usually made of wood or plastic/rubber compounds. (The Equipment Rules are separate from the main rule book and set down parameters for various pieces of golf equipment.) The governing bodies of golf - the R&A and the USGA - rule on the conformity of golf tees, same as they do for any other golf equipment. It must be no longer than 4 inches (101.6 mm) and conform with the Equipment Rules." "An object used to raise a ball above the ground to play it from the teeing area.

In the official Rules of Golf, "tee" is defined thusly: Why hit the ball from off the ground if you don't have to? As Jack Nicklaus says, air offers less resistance than the ground. The tee is the implement that supports the golf ball, raising it above the ground, when the ball is played from the teeing ground.Īlthough golfers aren't required to use a tee on tee shots, the vast majority of us do. Golf tees are among the humblest of golf equipment, one of the game's "supporting" characters yet golf tees are essential for most golfers.
