Which golf tees to use: How much do golf tees make a difference to your game?

Playing with a tee is a great way to enhance your play in golf, in fact, it’s one of the only forms of equipment that can change the outcome of your shot. You may use a golf tee in every game you play, without giving much thought as to whether they are increasing your chances of playing well. Have you ever noticed a difference between golf tee’s?

In this blog, we will discuss the different golf tees that are available, what height of golf tee gives you a better advantage and what other people choose to use and why. 

Which golf tees to use: Is it the type of tee, or the height that makes a difference? 

The height of the tee makes a huge difference- the gear effect demonstrates this perfectly. Gear effect is the effect that hitting the ball has when the club meets the ball at an off-centre point. In fact the height of a tee makes such a huge difference to your play that castle tees are banned in competition. Brush tees are a new alternative, which elevates the ball using small bristles, to give the hit the feel that the ball is floating mid-air. These brush tee’s claim to give the ball the advantage of flying 4 yards further- but it’s debatable whether this is true or not. 

Which golf tees to use: Bamboo golf tees, wooden golf tees or plastic tees? 

The truth is, there is no difference between wooden, bamboo or plastic golf tees in play. The only difference is with durability: plastic tee’s last the longest, but with longevity comes consequences. Plastic takes 450 years to decompose, making them the most detrimental golf tees you can buy. 

When golfing, you end up losing tees, finding tee’s and replacing tee’s again and again- there’s probably millions of plastic tee’s found in golf courses today. For this reason, it’s recommended to start off with bamboo golf tees, they’re more durable than wood, yet are easily decomposed, making them the right step towards your golfing and a sustainable future. 

One thing is for sure throughout all types of golf tees… make sure you get ones that mark how far to put the tee into the ground. This provides consistency throughout your progress. 

Which golf tees to use: What tees do the professionals use?

You would think that professional golfers use special tees. After all, they have all the money and knowledge to know exactly what they want, right? Despite what you would expect, golfers actually use free golf tees that they get given at tournaments. Usually, the free tees at golfing tournaments are wooden or bamboo- it will be unlikely that in modern-day they are using plastic golf tees. 

Does the tee’s height affect the driving distance? 

The simple answer is yes, to stay consistent throughout all games, the ball is most effective when positioned in the centre of the club, otherwise, the gear effect comes into play. An example of this could be if you tee the ball too low, which will result in an increase of backspin on the ball which causes the ball to slow in speed. The advised way to make sure that you hit the centre of the ball is to tee the ball so that half of it is visible above the crown of the driver. 

Another top tip for success is to reach the lowest part of your swing before hitting the ball so that when you do eventually hit it there is a slightly upwards angle. This will encourage the ball to have less swing which will result in more distance covered. 

Although the science behind the ball tells us that teeing the ball upwards will help the ball cover more distance, a lot of professionals place their tee extremely close to the ground. Even the likes of Tiger Woods place their tee’s further into the ground. This simply shows that whatever works for you works for you.