Golf Tees

What golf tees do most players on professional tours use?

Do the "low friction" tees make a difference?

Plastic or wood?

If they are the long 3-1/4” ones, I don’t care if they’re plastic or wood. I tried the Martini ones & feel they create too much friction, and I don’t want to waste time angling them when everyone’s waiting for me to tee off.

I've used the ZF Tour 3 prong for years because they're plastic and last forever. Not sure if they really make any difference in distance but they are durable. Only issue is sometimes the ball is a little harder to tee up, and lets be honest, the world doesn't need more plastic.

I use the PTS pro length black and gold 2-1/4” like most players do use the 3-1/4” like @95124hacker said in his post. However today I tried the Ocean Tee bamboo Tees. They are lighter than wood and extremely durable. Maintained from reliable resources and biodegrades quicker than wooden tees. 25% of all sales goes towards marine protection and excellent for the eco golfer. https://oceanteegolf.com/ Well worth a try imo. Good golf ?⛳️??‍♂️

Now that we’re in CV mode, I have flipped over to hot pink 3-1/4 Pride tees so #1 I can find them after a tee shot and #2, I can pick up without worry and reuse as I’ve never ever seen another hot pink one anywhere that I play.

I don’t think I’ve seen a pro use anything but a standard white tee... I’d love to see someone use something funny... brush tee perhaps?

i use what I get for free at my club... but I’m curious if I’d see benefit from a consistent height tee.

Ive always used natural color wood tees but recently started using the Martini tees. Its kind of a catch 22 thing, IMO. Wooded tees are biodegrabable and much cheaper but they break after 1 swing, whereas the plastic tees are more expensive and arent biodegradable but last much longer.

I personally use step tees on my driver when I'm at the course. It ensures that it is the correct height so the ball meets the sweet spot. All of my other tees are plastic in assorted colors. If you want to get plastic tees, get the ones that aren't brittle and break when you bend them, but simply bend. They will last you for years and years.

LOL don't play at my course then

I’ve used the same Martini tee all year so far. So durable.

Those bamboo tees look interesting. I can imagine they're pretty durable. Good way to use bamboo, too.

Yeah i agree, bamboo grows quicker than normal wood and they are pretty much indestructible and well worth a go ??⛳️??‍♂️

2 3/4" Western Birch is what I use.

I am ashamed to admit I also use Martini tees. They literally last until I forget to pick up. I play 3 rounds per week, wood tees are great but a basically single use.

Naked lady tees (tour issue).

I use the 3 1/4" Profession Tee System "Evolution" tees. A box of 30 of those will last me years.

After reading about the issues plastics are creating in the oceans of the world I switched back to wood or bamboo tees. Bamboo lasts longer for me.

So far as changing my shot I can say I have never observed that a type of tee changed my game.

Buy 1000 stinger tees every winter

That's a great point. Plastic tees last longer... and by that I mean we could play those tees till we're dead 5x over since they would probably take more than 500 years to break down. The less plastic we can use the better.

Do they make wooden tees that also have that "zero friction" design to them?

Not sure. I like the natural bamboo ones best. Every once in a bit I’ll find a red tee use and notice later a red spot on my ball from the tee shot. So tees painted red aren’t low friction I guess.

Wood

Pros use whatever is in the bucket at any particular course. Always wood

For some reason I kind of doubt pros don't spring for $10 worth of tees to have the same tee every time they play, just for the consistency of it.

The same wooden tees are 99% of the courses they play just different colors and with different course logos on them.

that makes sense. which brand tees do they use?

I’m sure there are multiple companies that do the printing for the different clubs. As far as where they get the blanks I have no clue. I would imagine China but that’s a total guess. Companies like golfteesetc.com and imprintgolf.com deal in tens of thousands of tees per order.

I think this is being over thought a little. It’s like if you close your eyes and think of the wooden golf tees in the bowl by the door at your clubhouse. The most normal, average wooden golf tee. Those are the tees that they (most) use.

EDIT: This is based on 100% observation over the years at pro events and even picking up tees off tee boxes that fly close to the ropes. So I’m not talking exact science. I’ve actually sort of collected cool tees from all around that pros must cary from course to course. For example at the Valero last year on a tee box I found a bay hill tee and the Marshall gave it to me. I’ve found a few other tees that stand out from the usual plain white or natural wood color. I was curious about this topic too a couple years ago so just started paying a little bit more attention to it.

I’ve used the Martini tees for 3 years now and I love them...I’m only on my second one...I’ve used the same one for the last year...I lost the first one..they just don’t break!

I generally use the bamboo ones.

I guess the plastic ones are more durable but sometimes they go flying and you have to search which kind of defeats the purpose of a more durable but also much more expensive tee.

If a bamboo one gets lost I don't care as much. They are durable enough and also better environmentally than plastic.

The consistency of a tee?! I am all for people making marginal gains but from the time I have spent at Pro Tournamnets, the Pro’s are just like us. If the starter has a pile of tees on the 1st tee, then it is a free for all, grab what you need go stick it in the ground and hit it. Honestly, how much of a difference is a tee going to make. The marketing of companies that have made us think that it does is genius.

Probably not the consistency performance-wise, but I'm sure many of them go with the same tees day-to-day for consistency routine-wise.