Although golf tees (Tee) designs have become diversified nowadays, traditional golf tees are still the most common type. The traditional tee is a wooden peg with an outwardly splayed top and a concave top surface to easily support golf balls. The golf tee is the most inconspicuous among golf equipment, just like a walk-on role in movies and TV series. However, for most golfers, a golf tee is a must. The function of the tee is to support the ball above the ground when the ball is served from the tee. Although using a tee is not a hard and fast rule, most players do. Why play from the ground if you can use a tee? As Jack Nicklaus said, there is less resistance in the air than on the ground.
In the official Rules of Golf, a tee is defined as follows:
"A tee is a tool used to support the ball above the ground. A tee shall not be longer than four feet (101.6 mm). Whether designed or manufactured, it must be such that it does not indicate the direction of the shot or affect the movement of the ball."
Modern golf tees are pins that drive into the ground and are usually made of wood or a composite of plastic and rubber. Generally speaking, the top of the tee is flared and the top is concave to stabilize the ball. However, the design of the top of the tee is not fixed.
Tee use is only allowed on the teeing area of a hole for the first shot. There are exceptions, of course, when a golfer is penalized and must return to the teeing area to try again.
How high a tee should be used? It depends on the clubs you use. We will talk about this in another article. Next, we will review the history of the small role of tee.
Before the tee was born
Tools specifically designed to support golf balls only began to appear in the late 19th century (although individual players may have begun experimenting with different support tools before then). Before the golf ball tees was invented and manufactured, how did players support their golf balls?
The earliest tees were little more than a small pile of sand. Early Scottish golfers would use clubs or shoes to shovel out patches of turf on the grass to place golf balls on.
As golf matured and became more organized, sand tees became the model for tees. The so-called sand seat is to take a small amount of wet sand, make a cone shape, and then place the golf ball on the top.
Until the early 20th century, sand seats remained the norm. Typically, golfers will find a sandbox on the tee box of a golf course (which is why some people still refer to the tee box as a "Tee box"). Sometimes water is provided for golfers to wet their hands, and a handful of sand is taken to create a sand seat. Or the sand in the sandbox is directly wet and can be easily shaped.
Whether it's dry sand or wet sand, sand seats can get messy. So in the late 19th century, tools used to support golf balls began to appear in patent office offices.
First golf tee patent
As mentioned above, before the first patent appeared, some golf tinkerers or craftsmen had already begun experimenting with various tees. But eventually, one of those tinkerers submitted a patent for the tee. To be precise, it was two people, William Brooksham and Arthur Douglas of Scotland. Their patent was approved in 1889, with patent number 12941, which was called "an improved ball seat or bracket" (pictured above) when it was issued in 1889. Their tees are placed on the ground rather than inserted into the ground.
The first tee that could be inserted into the ground was called the "Perfectum" and was patented by Percy Ellis of England in 1892. The tee is actually a nail with a rubber ring on the head.
There were other patents during this period, but they fell into two broad categories: those placed on the ground and those inserted into the ground. Many never made it to market, and none achieved commercial success.
George Franklin Grant's tee
Who was the inventor of the first tee? If you search the Internet, the name that appears most frequently is George Franklin Grant.
In fact, Grant did not invent the golf tee; all he did was patent a wooden dowel that penetrated the ground. This patent allowed him to be recognized by the United States Golf Association (USGA) as the inventor of the wooden tee.
Grant was the first African-American graduate of Harvard University's Department of Dentistry and later became Harvard's first African-American faculty member. His other inventions include a device for treating cleft palates. Even regardless of his role in the development of the golf tee, he is a memorable figure in American history.
His wooden golf tees were not the familiar shape today. The top of the tee is flat rather than concave, meaning care must be taken when placing the ball. Grant never produced or marketed the tee, and only friends in his circle had seen it. As a result, sand tees remained mainstream for decades after Grant's tee patent was issued.
The Reddy Tee
The red tee established the shape of the modern tee and entered the market for the first time. Its inventor was William Lowell, who like Grant was a dentist.
The red tee was initially made of wood and later converted to plastic. The tee was originally designed to be green, but later Lowell changed it to red and named it the "Reddy Tee". The tee can be inserted into the ground, and its top is concave, which can stably park the golf ball.
Unlike previous inventors, Lowell attached great importance to the marketization of tees. The magic touch of its marketing operation was the signing of Walter Hagen, the most famous golf player at the time, in 1922 to use his red tee in touring exhibitions. After that, the popularity of the red tee increased significantly in the United States. Spalding began mass production, and other companies began copycats. From then on, all golf tees looked the same: either wooden or plastic pegs, with a concave surface on the flat end to accommodate the ball.
Today, there are many types of tees. They use bristles or tines to support the golf ball. Some have height indicators on the spike shafts, and some use curved shafts, but most retain the appearance and function of red tees.
More changes
(Laura Davies is one of many people who still use the ancient method of using a piece of turf as a tee.)
What was old then may be new today. The ancient method mentioned above is the new technique used by today's LPGA champion Laura Davis (pictured above). And Michelle Wie, for a while, also tried Davis's technique.
But you'd better not try. Davis is the only player who is this kind of throwback to ancient times. This method is easy to damage the turf of the tee area, and without Davis's technical level, it is difficult to make good contact.
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Post time: 2024-05-15 13:51:15
