That was the question I asked myself on Sunday when I managed to get out for 9 holes. My own answer was “no”. I guess I should really revise that question. If you don’t break tees, do you at least knock them over or out of the ground?
One of the nuggets of wisdom that Harvey Penick shared in his Little Red Book was “clip the tee“. I’ve mentioned that one before and it’s one of my own swing thoughts.
After you tee off, whether with a driver or with an iron, the state that your tee is in should tell you something about the shot that you just made.
With modern drivers, the sweet spot is fairly high on what is nowadays a very tall club face. It’s not possible to strike a ball in the sweet spot and leave the tee undisturbed. If the tee is firmly in the ground, then you have a good shot of breaking it off. If the ground is soft, or you don’t have a high club head speed, you might just knock it out of the ground (sometimes it might get knocked forward then rebound back up – that’s fine).
With an iron off the tee, you should be making a slightly descending blow (hitting slightly down on it). If you choose to use a tee peg (some prefer not to), then you should also be knocking it over or out of the ground.
In either case, if your tee is undisturbed after your shot (and hasn’t just been knocked over and rebounded back up), you’ve most certainly made thin contact with the ball. This will rob you of valuable distance off the tee. On a driver hole, that could mean tens of yards lost. On a par three, it could mean the difference between hitting the green or falling short into a bunker or water hazard.
Next time you’re at the range, try teeing up some balls and making sure that you’re displacing it every time. “Clip the tee” is also not a bad swing thought to have while on the course. It’s something non-technical that won’t clutter your thoughts, yet it’s something important enough to make sure you do it every time you tee off.
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I played a round with very experienced golfer a few months ago and he gave me the same advice. His thinking was “… if you’re only going to hit the ball (and not what’s under it) what’s the point of using a tee… a tee gives you virtually nil resistance to your shot…”
Before purchasing some of the ‘zero friction’ plastic golf tees…I would generally go through 16-18 tees a round
Nice post! Have I mentioned lately how much I liked the theme of this blog?
Thanks Sean! Glad you’re enjoying it. I enjoy The Deep Rough as well.
Mike
Sounds like good advice, YellowYards.
Great thoughts and an excellent point. If using wooden tees I generally break one on about every hole. A very accurate statement in regards to irons with tees, the head of the tee should be snapped right off.
Great post!
Thanks, Saturday golfer!
I would have thought as the desired angle of attack with a wood should be in your upswing then its an advantage to have not the ball teed up it make sense to the it up much higher than you think to encourage an ascending attach angle.
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I was given some wooden tees as a gift, they did not last long, I normally buy plastic tees, I get through a few of these when keeping an eye on the ball, I don’t always see where they land