A Quick Guide to Buying and Using Golf Tees

Golf Equipment
/ By WeJustGolf

Golf tees are those small little pegs that you stick into the ground and mount your golf ball on. It raises it up off the ground so that you can hit the ball from a lower angle without striking the ground.

It also keeps it out of the grass which can dampen the impact and severely cut the distance you get from your swing. According to the rules, a tee can be no more than 4 inches long and its design cannot influence the movement of the ball or show the indicate line of play. Most importantly, you can only tee up inside the golf tee box (the starting point for a hole on the golf course).

Golf Balls on Tees Stucked in Grass

This article will talk about what and how to use golf tees as well as different golf tee aids and tools.

Tips for Using Golf Tees

Here are some tips for beginners to use golf tees effectively:

Know your tee markers: each golf course will have at least 3 sets of tee markers which are color coded to tell you how many yards are between the tee box and the hole. Each course will have its own color coded system so you’ll want to check before you play. Typically the shortest distances are marked with green and the longest with blue, black, or gold (black and gold are usually only used in championship games though).
Tee high: when teeing up, your goal is to get as much distance as you can. One experiment showed that higher tees (that raise the ball higher off the ground) allowed for more distance than lower tees. This was especially true for lower skilled players.
Tee low: high tees do provide more distance but they sacrifice accuracy. If you need to improve your accuracy, push the tee in further and tee low.
Adjust: as you can see, there are benefits to high tees and benefits to low tees. It’s a trade-off. On the high tee end of the spectrum, you get the most distance. On the low tee end of the spectrum, you get the most control. Adjust the specific height of your tee according to what you need. If you’re not sure, go for a mid-height to get a fair balance of distance and control.
Use a golf tee and ball setter: these are devices attached to long sticks that allow you to push the tee into the ground and set the ball on top of it without having to bend over. This is especially helpful for seniors and people with back injuries as it saves you from having to bend down to the ground multiple times each time you tee up.
Use a golf tee dispenser: keeping a handful of loose golf tees in your pocket sounds like a fine idea until you bend over or sit down and feel the sharp pain of golf tee digging into your thigh. Tossing that handful of loose golf tees into your golf bag sounds like a fine solution until you find yourself wasting minutes of time digging around to find a tee. A golf tee dispenser is a small container that usually clips onto your bag and conveniently dispenses golf tees. That means no stabbing pain in your leg and no digging around through your bag.

Buying Golf Tees

It’s easy to overlook the value of a quality golf tee. You also want to make sure the tee conforms to the regulations: no longer than 4 inches, no indicators, and nothing that will affect the movement or direction of the ball.

Its purpose is to keep the ball off the ground. But with that simple task, there are a lot of things to consider. For example, standard golf tees do have some friction which decreases the lift and distance of your ball somewhat.

Two Golf Tees on Grass

It’s not as much of an effect as playing directly from the ground but it’s enough to consider getting pronged tees that decrease the amount of contact area between the ball and the tee (and so decrease friction).

3-pronged tees have the least friction but they do sacrifice balance to achieve that so for a beginner or high handicap player, we recommend a tee with 4 or 5 prongs to increase balance while still decreasing friction.

In addition to low friction, look for durable material. Wooden tees can snap relatively easy and a tee breaking on impact will seriously affect distance and direction of the ball. Beginners should look to durable plastic tees since there is a decent chance you would break a lot of tees while you train if you stuck to wood.

If balance and aim is more of a concern than distance, go for something with a wider top. If you’re practicing on a simulator mat, you’ll want a special golf tee for mats that has a sturdy base that grips the mat. There are also “tee claws” that can be attached to your regular tees so that you can use those to play on a mat.