Golf is a game where the players tend to have a high disposable income, and golf tees are yet another way to relieve a golfer from their money.
I highly recommend Oakhurst Links in West Virginia, America's oldest golf course, where you are required to use hickory clubs, gutta percha balls and sand tees.
The original golf tees were wet sand
The best golf tees are not easy to find. Everyone is hawking the features of their golf tees, and it's hard to separate the hype from the reality. Even Tiffany offers a $250 golf tee!
There are some common misconceptions about golf tees, especially the idea that the tee creates drag on your swing. This is nonsense, plus the low-drag gold tees are very difficult to use.
My golf coach is PGA Master professional Brad Clayton. Brad is an amazing one-armed golfer, and one of the top golf coaches on the planet and we love his "puzzle duck" teaching program:
The best one-armed PGA pro in America
Brad teaches that the ideal height for a golf ball is 1.5x the height of the driver and this requires a long tee.
Today's fat drivers require extra-long tees
Brad has these great notes on using tees:
“Most people swing up on the ball {not desirable, but fact}; when the ball is teed up there is more room to get the leading edge of the golf club below the equator of the ball. This makes getting the ball in the air easier. . .
I am of the opinion that if you miss a drive, miss it low. This means low on the club face and also in flight. A ball teed lower {approximately half or less of the ball should be above the top line of the driver face} and struck lower will tend to go straighter and roll further, so your misses will be more in control and also lose little distance if not struck perfectly.
A ball missed high on the face will tend to float and be more influenced by wind. Give me a low penetrating flight any day over a high floating ball. So, tee your balls lower and get more control.“
What's the best golf tee?
In my humble opinion, the Callaway "eterni tee" is my pick for the best golf tee. They cost a few dollars each, but they last forever, and these tees are designed with the golfer in-mind. They are sturdy enough to drive into hard winter soil, the blade at the bottom is perfect for repairing ball marks on the green and the tee blade tip is small enough to clean dirt from your club grooves:
Callaway eterni-tees
Read my full notes here on how to choose the best golf tee.
Oh, and let's not be taken-in by all of the novelty golf tees:
