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Tee

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Golf ball on tee placed in the ground

A tee is a stand used in sport to support and elevate a stationary ball prior to striking with a foot, club, or bat. Tees are used extensively in golf, tee-ball, American football, and rugby. In addition, they are used as training devices for baseball and softball but are not used during gameplay.

Etymology

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The word tee is derived from the Old Scots teaz, of unknown origin, possibly Scandinavian; apparently a plural form, or one incorrectly assumed to be so.[1][2][3][4]

Golf tee

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Golf tees
A novelty golf tee of a human tooth

In golf, a tee is normally used for the first stroke of each hole or when dropping in a zone for where it is unplayable. The area from which this first stroke is hit is in the rules[5] known as the teeing ground. Normally, teeing the ball is allowed only on the first shot of a hole, called the tee shot, and is illegal for any other shot; however, local or seasonal rules may allow or require teeing for other shots as well, e.g., under "winter rules" to protect the turf when it is unusually vulnerable. Teeing gives a considerable advantage for drive shots, so it is normally done whenever allowed. However, players may elect to play their tee shots without a tee. This typically gives the shot a lower trajectory.

A standard golf tee is 2+1⁄8 inches (5.4 cm) long, but both longer and shorter tees are permitted. Ordinary tees can be made from wood or from durable plastic. There are also many biodegradable and recyclable golf tees that diminish the number of trees cut down to manufacture the tees and allow golf courses to lower costs by not having to deal with the broken wooden tees on their courses.[citation needed]

According to the R&A and USGA rules of golf, for a tee to be legal, "It must not be longer than 4 inches (101.6 mm) and it must not be designed or manufactured in such a way that it could indicate the line of play or influence the movement of the ball."[6]

History

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The development of the tee was the last major change to the rules of golf. Before this, golf balls were teed up on little heaps of sand that were provided in boxes. This explains the historical name tee boxes for what is today known as teeing ground.

The earliest golf tees rested flat on the ground and had a raised portion to prop up the ball. The first patent for this kind of tee is dated 1889, and was issued to Scotsmen William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas.[7] The first known tee to pierce the ground was a rubber-topped peg sold commercially as the "Perfectum." This was patented in 1892 by Percy Ellis of England.[7] In 1899, an African-American dentist, Dr. George Franklin Grant, obtained a patent for an "improved golf tee".[8] This tee consisted of a wood cone with a rubber sleeve to support the ball, but it is not known to have ever been marketed.

These and other variations failed to catch on, as most golfers—whether because of tradition, habit, or concerns about the rules—continued using heaps of sand. It took a strong marketing effort by Dr. William Lowell, Sr. in the 1920s to bring manufactured tees into widespread use. Sales of his "Reddy Tee," a simple wooden peg with a flared top, took off after Lowell hired professional golfers Walter Hagen[9] and Joe Kirkwood, Sr. to promote the product during exhibition matches. It was copied around the world, and remains the most common type of golf tee.

Hubert Privé's stands to the right of his two golf tee sculptures. The left tee is bright blue and decorated with yellow five-pointed stars resembling those on the European Union flag, while the right tee has a blue upper top section covered in white stars and a lower section of red and white vertical stripes resembling the United States flag. On a white rectangular platform, black background. Privé stands to the right, wearing glasses, black clothes, his hands in his pockets and his head tilted back as he looks up at the top of the sculpture.
Oversized golf tee sculptures by Hubert Privé [fr] for the Ryder Cup.
The cover of the August 19, 1903, issue of Puck depicts a caricature of William Jennings Bryan; he is in checked trousers, bent forward as he grips a golf club and attempts to swing. He holds a hickory golf club labelled "SPITE" above his head. The golf ball he is trying to hit has Grover Cleveland's face. It is on a mound of sand to have the ball above ground level. In the background, a cap labelled "BRYAN" lies on the grass. By the ball, there are broken golf clubs with the words "ENVY," "MALICE," "JEALOUSY," and "CUSSEDNESS." In the right side of the background there is a heart-shaped marker that reads "16 to 1." Outside the drawing, on the cover it is titled "A Rank Foozler [wiktionary]."
An angry golfer using a mound of sand to tee a golf ball, depicted on the 1903 cover of Puck

A golf tee is a small peg with a rounded top. The tee is used to raise the golf ball above the ground for the first stroke of a hole. Under standard rules of golf, a golf ball can only be teed off at the beginning of a hole.[10] Tees are commonly made of wood or plastic and are available in various lengths.[11] The tee itself was not defined until 2004.[12] Under the R&A and USGA Rules of Golf, a tee must be no longer than 4 inches (101.6 mm) and must not be designed to indicate the line of play or influence the movement of the golf ball.[13][14]

Prior to today's wood or plastic tees, golfers used sand to raise the ball.[15] Caddies often scooped sand from the bottom of the hole to form a tee, which caused the hole to deteriorate. This prompted some courses to provide sand in boxes. Today, those boxes hold sand and grass seed to repair divots.[11]

Between 1976 and 2005, 288 patents with "golf tee" in the title were granted.[16]

Patented golf tees
Patent illustration Description
This is a small rubber plate used to raise the golf ball off the ground. Figure 3 is on top and shows the ball being placed on this object from a side view. while figure 2 and 1 is in the center from the top looking down view point. Figure 1 differs from Figure 2, as Figure 1 shows it without a golf ball, while Figure 2 has a drawing of a golf ball. On August 16, 1889, William Bloxsom Secretary and Arthur Douglas, of Scotland, patented a tee with a flat rubber with three prongs or a hollow tube to hold the ball. Its patent GB 12941 was granted in April 1890. This was the first patented golf tee.[11][17]
There are three figures. This is a small cone object. With a rubber top used to hold up the golf ball with a metal spike used to plant itself into the ground. On February 29, 1892, Percy Ellis, of Wallington, Surrey, patented the "Perfectum" tee. This was the first tee to penetrate the ground. It used a rubber head and metal spike. His patent GB 3916 was granted in 1892.[17]
English: SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 567,455, dated September 8, 1896. Application filed September 10, 1895. Serial No. 562,682. (No model.) Patented in England February 21,1895, No. 3,735- There are six figures, that show the drawing of how the rubber tee would be combined with an artificial-turf mat. Figures 1 and 3 show a round golf ball sitting on the tee. On September 10, 1895, Glaswegian David Dalziel of Glasgow, Scotland patented a rubber tee combined with an artificial-turf mat (U.S. 567455). This was the first U.S. patent related to golf tees.[16]
There are seven figures that show how a truncated cone could be made out of paper. Figure three is in the center, showing the small cone holding up a drawing of a golf ball. Figure 1 top left shows how the paper would be cut with notches to make the cone with the paper. Figure 2 shows the paper being folded in an overlapping way to make the cone. Figures 4 and 5 below Figure 3 show an alternative way the paper could have a notch to keep it folded. Figures 6 and 7 show the circular shape that the paper should be in. On December 16, 1895, P. L. Senat of Philadelphia patented a tee made from paper in the shape of a truncated cone (U.S. 570821).[16]
There are two figures; they show how this tee may be used. A small, simple drawing of a cone with a round circle made to be the ball sitting on the top of the tee. On February 15, 1896, British patent 253, "An Improved Form of Golfing Tee", was granted to William Kirkwood.[18]
Patent illustration of P. M. Matthews's Victor golf tee, patented in 1897. There are two figures: Figure 1 on the left shows a small object with one spike to be used as a way to stick it in the ground; its top has three small metal spike to hold up the golf ball. Figure 2, has a more cone-shaped, rounded top to hold up the golf ball. On June 12, 1897, P. M. Matthews of Scotland patented the "Victor" tee (GB 14292).[17]
Patent drawing of George Franklin Grant's golf tee, patented in 1899\. Showing three figures; Figure 1 is in the center, showing a golf ball being placed on the tee. This is a more tube-like object. with a rubber top to hold the golf ball in place, with one wooden spike that would be used to go in the ground. Figure 2 shows the tee shape. Figure 3 is a simple round circle On December 12, 1899, a Harvard University professor, George Franklin Grant, received U.S. Patent No. 638,920.[19][20] This tee was a vertical rubber tube attached at its base to wood. Grant's tee was not widely adopted because he did not market it.[15][21]
Patent drawing of a golf tee from a United States patent filed in 1925. Showing six figures. Figures 1 and 3 are the tee itself; the shape is a small wooden peg with a concave, funnel-shaped top to hold the golf ball up. Figures 5 and 6 show a golf ball being placed on the tee. On May 5, 1922, William Lowell, Sr. filed a patent application for the "Reddy Tee", which was granted U.S. patent No. 1,493,687 on May 13, 1924.[16][22][23]He painted the wood tees red, and he formed the Reddy Tee Co. Lowell hired two professional golfers, Walter Hagen (whom he paid $1500) and Joe Kirkwood Sr., in 1924 as the pair played exhibition matches.[24] The Reddy Tee later fell out of use, and Lowell lost his patent after a legal dispute. In 2005, Rand Jerris, then director of the USGA Museum and Archives, said, "the transformation happened very quickly", adding that "within a couple years the sand tee disappeared."[25][16]

Baseball tee

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A baseball hitting tee

While a tee for baseball is very similar to a tee in tee-ball, the uses for the tee may differ. In baseball, a tee is used as a training device. This allows the hitter to simulate a pitch that will be thrown in many different locations. Using a tee, the hitter can set up a pitch that may be thrown inside, down the middle, and outside as well as high and low. Unlike tee-ball, where the ball is sitting on the tee, in baseball the pitch is being thrown by another player, resulting in the ball crossing the plate in several different areas. As a batter, using a tee as a training aid will help the hitter perfect his swing no matter where the pitch is thrown. A tee may also be used for batting drills. Drills are used to strengthen the players hitting motion and to get them used to hitting baseballs in different locations.

These tees may also be used in softball as a training device. Tees are not used during gameplay in either sport.

Tee-ball tee

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Tee-ball is based on baseball, with the main difference being the use of a tee in the place of a pitcher. Much larger than a golf tee, the tee-ball tee is a durable rubber stand attached to the home plate which supports the baseball at a suitable height for the batter to hit. It is adjustable to allow for variations in batter height.

Kicking tee

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Kicking tees
Top: American football, bottom: Rugby football

A kicking tee is a rubber or plastic platform, often with prongs and/or a brim around an inner depression.

In American football and Canadian football, a tee may be used on kickoffs to raise the ball slightly above the playing surface (up to one inch, by NFL and NCAA rules). The first use of the tee is attributed to Arda Bowser, a member of the Canton Bulldogs NFL championship team of 1922. The CFL and some high school leagues also allow the use of another sort of tee on field goal and extra point kicks, where another player (the holder) places one end of the ball on this "tee" (which is not a tee in the strictest sense of the term, but instead a rubber block; such "tees" come in 1" and 2" types) and holds the opposite end; in college and the NFL, all extra point/field goal attempts can only be made off the ground.

Tees may also be used for place kicks in rugby league football and rugby union football.

Tees are used for kick-outs in Gaelic football. In 2006, Shane Curran devised an adjustable tee on which the ball rested on brush hairs to replicate kicking from grass;[26] the design went on to be used by most goalkeepers.[27]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "Tee definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  2. ↑ "Definition of TEE". www.merriam-webster.com.
  3. ↑ "tee | meaning of tee in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE".
  4. ↑ "Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: tee n1 v1".
  5. ↑ "Rules and Clarifications". United States Golf Association. Archived from the original on January 5, 2025. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
  6. ↑ R&A Rules of Golf: Appendix IV, Rule 11. Retrieved on 2012-08-14
  7. 1 2 Valenta, Irwin R. The Singular History of the Golf Tee, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1995. Summary at Archived 2021-04-22 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ George Grant - Improved Golf Tee[link removed], Mary Bellis, inventors.about.com.
  9. ↑ Hyman, Vicki (31 July 2010). "A look at the man who invented modern golf tees". July 31, 2010. The Star-Ledger. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Playing a Hole". The R&A. Retrieved October 10, 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ↑ "Rules of Golf 2004". Rules History. Retrieved October 10, 2026.
  13. ↑ United States Golf Association; The R&A (January 1, 2019). "The Equipment Rules" (PDF). United States Golf Association. p. 73. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 16, 2026. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Tees (Rule 6.2)". United States Golf Association. Retrieved October 10, 2026.
  15. 1 2 Garabed, Kylie (July 3, 2018). "Dr. George Grant and Evolution of the Golf Tee". United States Golf Association. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dentist Commercialized the Wooden Golf Tee". NBC Sports. Associated Press. August 5, 2005. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
  17. 1 2 3 Beach, Adam (October 16, 2008). ""The History Of The Golf Tee"". MyGolfSpy. Retrieved October 9, 2026.
  18. ↑ "NIEBLO MFG. CO., INC., V. PRESTON ET AL". CaseMine. February 18, 1929. Retrieved October 9, 2026.
  19. ↑ Denny, Heather (July 10, 2023). "George Grant takes his place in history". Harvard Gazette. Archived from the original on May 11, 2026. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
  20. ↑ Mock, Wanda (February 1, 2015). "Pioneering Dentist Invented the Golf Tee - Dr. George Franklin Grant". www.deardoctor.com. Retrieved October 8, 2026.
  21. ↑ "Who invented the golf tee?". www.blackinventionmyths.com. Retrieved October 9, 2026.
  22. ↑ Hyman, Vicki (July 31, 2010). "A look at the man who invented modern golf tees". July 31, 2010. The Star-Ledger. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
  23. ↑ "History of the Golf Tee". golfsportmagazine.com. May 26, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2026.
  24. ↑ "The Reddy Tee 1924". One of a Kind Antiques. Retrieved August 5, 2005.
  25. ↑ "Dentist Commercialized the Wooden Golf Tee". Golf Channel. August 5, 2005. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
  26. ↑ "Canny Curran has tee total solution for kick-outs". The Irish Independent. 7 March 2006. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  27. ↑ Keys, Colm (24 September 2022). "Static nature of modern game can be sorted with a minor tweak". Irish Independent. It was the former St Brigid's and Roscommon goalkeeper who devised the template for the kicking tee that most custodians now use...
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