How does tee height affect driving distance? Your tee height will directly impact the distance of your tee shots as well as the accuracy of those shots. Tee height affects the swing path, in turn influencing the ball swing.
If your goal is to achieve the maximum driving distance, increase the tee height to reduce the spin significantly. Three simple rules to follow regarding the height of the tee:
- Adapt your tee height to the club used for putting it into play
- You can limit a slice by placing the tee very high
- You can limit a hook by putting the tee lower
To understand its reason or the ‘how’ behind tee height affecting driving distances, it is important to understand the different tee heights for different types of clubs. Let’s discuss how the tee height affects driving distance?
What is the Correct Tee Height?
You can vary the tee height depending on your level of play, the choice of the trajectory of the ball, the desired effect, the distance of the stroke, and the choice of the club.
It’s a matter of preference, but most golfers generally don’t put their tees high enough. Except for the drivers, all golf clubs are designed to be stuck downward upon impacting the ball. A driver should be hit in an upward motion to maximize its performance.
Suppose a golfer is now using 460cc oversized head woods. In that case, they should use long tees to ensure that the ball is high enough to swing upon impact. We often hear that half of the ball should go over the top of your wood when resting on the tee. We can find it even higher than that.
Nowadays, golfers want to maximize the distance covered in the air with the quality of clubs and balls. Even if you are a beginner to the game and just learning how to hit your driver.
Golf balls don’t have as much of a retro effect on tee shots as they used to be. Thus, the longer the hover distance, the longer the total distance of your ”drive” will be.
More height (with the right retro effect) therefore means more distance. It’s that simple! But, like anything, when you focus on one element, another takes a hit.
The more height and length we search in the air, the more the dispersion increases. You will therefore lose in terms of precision. And watch how your tee reacts when you tee it higher, if your tee breaks often it might be a sign that you are striking down on the ball and need to adjust your swing.
Go for Control and Precision
If distance doesn’t matter to you, you will gain accuracy by positioning your tee lower. You will necessarily hit the ball a little more with the bottom of the clubhead, which, in general, increases precision, but at the cost of distance.
Some players who develop a lot of stick speed but who suffer from a lack of precision would then benefit from lowering the tee’s height.
Most golfers don’t generate enough speed to suffer from a lack of precision with a higher tee. There’s a solution for this. What you need to do first is identify the height you are comfortable with normally.
This height will be the one you use for most of the tee shots since it will give you a good mix of power and precision. Then lift your tee a little more to create a new habit and force yourself to strike in an upward motion.
Then when you show up on a hole with a wide fairway and can afford to throw yourself harder and grab some extra yards, raise your tee even more.
You will soar even more upward and maximize the distance in the air. Otherwise, when facing a narrow fairway where precision is key, lower your tee lower than your standard height.
The Right Height of the Tee According to Different Clubs
There are some principles on the tee height that one must follow according to the type of club used.
With a wood, check that 50% of the ball is visible above the top edge of the clubhead. In this case, place the ball less than 1.5 cm from the ground (finger thickness).
You must contact the ball on the ascent. Be careful! If your ball is too high, you risk going under it! Hence the interest for bighead drivers to have 70 mm tees in their bag.
With mid irons (6, 7, 8 iron) often used for teeing up on a par 3, the tee should not exceed 0.5 cm in height. The club must “brush” the ground at the moment of the strike.
If the tee makes you feel secure with short irons (9 iron, SW), don’t hesitate to use it as long as you sink it almost completely into the ground. Your contact will be more solid! But the use of the tee is not compulsory. Short irons generally require a vertical angle of attack.
A ball that is too high on a tee also risks resulting into less distance if you hit under it. Pro golfers prefer not to use a tee to hit the ball to create a retro effect (backspin) that quickly stops the ball on the green.
Besides the tee’s height, be sure to place your tee on the flattest part of the teeing ground and on the tee ball side giving you the best angle to reach the correct position to play the next stroke!
How Does Tee Height Affect Driving Distance Final Thoughts!
We hope the information above has answered the question, how does the tee height affect driving distance? You can achieve more distance with tee height; however, it depends on the type of club you’re using. However, you may end up hitting it from under, which may decrease the driving distance significantly.
I have found that using a tee with lines on it can help be consistent with the tee height. Using the line to know how deep into the grass to press the tee.
That’s the reason why professional golfers do not prefer tee height and hit, almost brushing the ground. Do not forget to share this information with your golfer friends and let us know how it worked for you!
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