On this day in 1899 ...

George F Bryant of Boston patented the wooden golf tee, so naturally we must power out a scroll show showing the tee's progression over the years. Note -- all pics were taken from Google images and are being used with absolutely no permission ... Enjoy.





A golfer in 1921 gets poopy fingers as she reaches into a "tee box" to retrieve a handful of wet sand, which would then be shaped into a tee for the golf ball. The 1744 rules of golf said that the golfer must tee up within one club length of the previous hole; Ol' Blaze is sure this move is still used today a couple times a year at munis across America.




111 years ago today, American dentist, Harvard Grad, Dr George F Grant was the first American to patent a tee that he had invented in 1898. It was a peg with a rubber top and was pushed into the ground, and is very close to the modern tee, but but it did not have a concave head. He did not market it and neither this nor any other previous tee inventions caught on.






That was until another denti, who obviously idolized Grant and wanted to follow his footsteps, became responsible for sending tees commercial as he, with the help of Maplewood Golf Club, released the Reddy Tee.

This is the point where tee evolution stalled for decades, but over the last ten years numerous options have become available:




The Zero Friction tripod top tee has a tour presence, guarantees higher ball speed and rarely breaks, although it bends to the point it's rendered virtually useless*

*yet you fail to trash the deformed plastic tee for some reason, so it just takes up space in your bag and eventually you're just swimming through a school of bent tees looking for a straight one. This display of disorganization probably costs you a couple strokes a year.


Stinger brand tees clearly display the numerous options of small top tees, although good luck finding a small top tee at Golf Galaxy. For some reason, the retailer no longer stocks a single one. Also, their generic Zero Friction are more expensive than the real thing only disguised with larger packaging.




Most people have likely heard of Brush T, and all people should feel foolish using one.







And although many other variations have come and gone without really catching on, there is one more worth mentioning. The name of the next tee is also what you get by only playing nine holes (and also what we call around the club, Dipping the tip e.g. "You playing 18 today Blaze?" "No ... Just getting a golf tease and dipping the tip for nine).