Golf Tees | Plastic or Wooden Ball Tees

In the beginning, the world was dark and without form. Then came the golf ball. Then came the golf club. Then man decided to hit the golf ball with the club.

Then, man cursed.

Then, man started competing with another man to see how far they could hit the ball with the club. Then, one man got an edge over the man by setting the ball up higher — making it easier to hit.

History

Seriously, when did golfers start using tees? Just another one of those random questions that you never really consider when trying to be a cheapskate and scrounge teeboxes for usable tees instead of buying a bag of them. Surprisingly enough, the actual “teebox” wasn’t even really invented until St. Andrew’s course distinguished them in the late 19th century. Until then, golfers simply played from within a club length from the previous hole.

Then, and when separate “teeboxes” showed up, golfers used small piles of sand to set their ball up a little from the grass. While it seemed to work well, it was fairly messy, and golf courses had to provide water and towels for golfers to clean their hands and their clubs.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, golfers began using reusable tees either using bits of cork, paper, or even rubber. The earliest documented use of a portable tee invention was that of two Scots, W. Bloxsom and A. Douglas, who in 1889 made a small rubber slab resting on the ground with three prongs made out of rubber to hold the ball in place.

In 1892, the first tee to stick into the ground was the “Perfectum” tee created by P. Ellis and consisted of a simple rubber circle with a metal spike that stuck into the ground. Perfecting the “Perfectum,” P.M. Matthews of Scotland invented the “Victor” tee, which had more of a cup to hold the ball more securely above the spike in the ground.

Jump to 1921: the invention of the first real commercial golf tee invented at Maplewood Golf club by American Dentist William Lovell. (Did they ever really spend any actual time at their practices?) These “Reddy” tees were wood with red tops — easily seen and distinguished — but soon were manufactured in many colors and materials.

Wooden Vs. Plastic

While several tees have attempted to catch a wave of popularity, the old fashioned wooden tee with a concave head is still the most popular and most commonly found tee. Often golfers complain about plastic tees bending and tweaking too much when they try and place them into the ground — and gripe about them being too expensive for too few.

Gimmicks?

Perhaps. Sometimes you may find that tees brag about adding extra yardage or being more of a point of visibility for a golfer’s swing, but ultimately it is up to the golfer’s discretion. One interesting tee that seems to hold its weight in what it claims is the PGA Epoch. Try it out, but this one really seems to reduce resistance in some odd way.

Gifts & Advertising

The true, legit way to sell one type of tee over another: personalization, branding, and gifts. Whether it be a set of tees that sport business names or phone numbers, or whether it be a set that announces a special day for a golfer who wants to communicate in a special and fun way, or even if it is part of a fun gift set that sends an obvious message like this one, the fun never can never run out.

Read all of our golf tee reviews below:

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