Pride Golf Tees Review

Posted by John

August 25, 2009

I suppose it’s not glamorous to review golf tees. It’s certainly more attention getting to talk about the latest in drivers or putters.

But don’t be fooled because a golf tee seems so innocuous. It’s an important part of the game and golf tees are not all created equal.

If you shop golf tees then you know there’s a lot of marketing around ‘less friction’, the idea being that less friction between the tee and the ball means more distance.

I suppose it’s technically true, but it’s impact on the game pales in comparison to much larger forces like hitting the ball off the toe or heel instead of the sweet spot. But that doesn’t mean that the tee is unimportant, particularly when playing woods.

The height of the ball is critical in making good contact. Why would you think you could hit the ball consistently if you were off by as much as a half inch every time you teed it up.

Wouldn’t it make sense to use a system that allowed you to tee it up to the exact height needed every time. Let’s take the driver, keeping in mind that the same applies to fairway woods and even hybrids.

I don’t tee my ball for the driver the same all the time because of changing conditions and the need to hit shots differently. However, given the same conditions and the same desired trajectory I want the ball to be at the same height.

There are elaborate tee solutions out there to insure that a tee goes into the ground always at the same height, but they have significant drawbacks in the real world. You might need 4 or 5 different tee heights when playing, but what a pain to try and carry all these in your pocket.

For my money, I like the solution that Pride Golf has come up with. Their tees look like ordinary wooden golf tees, except that they have a band of color printed on them. This band acts as a reference point and insures that you get the same height every time.

For my driver I set up with the band all showing, half showing or all hidden to have three consistent tee heights. When I played in Scotland under windy conditions, this came in extremely handy depending on what direction the wind was blowing.

When I wanted a low flight into the wind, I made sure the band of color was in the ground. When I wanted to ride a wind at my back, I made sure that all the color band was showing.

If you start teeing the ball up consistently you will have eliminated one more variable from a game that has so many. It’s one less thing in your setup to worry about. Every pro knows that a great golf shot starts with their setup which explains why they work on this as much as any aspect of their game.

Check out Pride Golf tees, they are easy to find. They don’t cost any more than regular tees and I know they’ll help you be more consistent.