Golf forum

I picked up a copy of Todays Golfer for a train trip the other day and was hugely impressed (ha!) with the latest free gift, three 'zero friction' tees - see http://www.zerofrictiontees.com/ for details.

Just a couple of problems with this particular product.  On a purely technical point of view, if the tees are in fact 'zero friction' then surely it would be impossible to balance a golf ball on them?  Pedantic maybe, but certainly not grounds for a court case.

It's fairly obvious that it's meant to mean that they have little drag on the ball as it's hit off the tee.  And just how much effect does that have?  Inches?  If you're lucky.

Still nice to know that lots of tour players use them, so they must be good.  Mind you, the cynic in me can't help thinking that if someone gave me loads of freebies I'd probably say the same.

I tried them last week at Grange Park and although they worked the same as my wooden tees ( I didn't notice any significant difference), the unfortunate problem is they are too soft to push into firm ground.

Nice idea for the gizmophobes!!!!!!!

I assume these just follow on from the crown tees, brush tees and all the others that are supposed to make things easier.

I have tried them all and I'm still pretty awful off the tee. I only off of 23 now because of a freak 88 a few weeks ago but I used good old fashioned wooden tees then so it's surely all cobblers for people of our level.  The pro's who allegedly use these tees (Dean Wilson? Ryan Palmer?) are hardly top of the leaderboard every week so I'm sure they don't make any material difference

I also brought Todays golfer today... so it was a pleasant surprise to find 3 tees tucked in there too as I was planning to buy a small bag of tees on Saturday!

So I've just saved a couple of quid... well, I've just spent £3.90, but you know what I mean!

Tim - if you want to see a purely theoretical frictionless golf-tee idea take a look at this cranky idea -

http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?CY=ep&LG=en&IDX=GB1415487

lol Chris

Look very similar to these http://www.ixteegolf.com/

I had loads of promo stock at the original golfscoretracker first event, might have some left if anyone wants to try them out.

There were really good and the ball never fall off.  Only prob with the ixtee like you have mentioned above is that being made of plastic on hard ground you have no chance of getting them in the soil. 

I drive ok off wooden tees, so wooden tees must be ok.

I used to putt ok, but recently my putting has gone awry, so my putter must have become rubbish.

I hit my fairway woods cleanly for the frist time ever at the weekend, so those clubs, unlike the putter, must have improved in my bag between rounds.

What I need is a set of clubs, tees, a glove and a bag that all work brilliantly at the same time.

Either that or most of this 'technology' is utter garbage, just like my skills :o)

Jon, you have the best attitude to the game.  If it works for you then use it.  Personally I tend not to use plastic tees for my woods because they sometimes mark them up, more my fault for poor hits than the material.  Don't get sucked in to thinking that changing your equipment will guarantee an improvement in your game.

Back to the original rant, I actually discovered a scenario (through extensive testing, obviously) where the 'zero friction' tees will actually have increased friction over a conventional tee, although the amounts are almost immeasurable - shall i begin court proceedings?

I got those tees too with my mag - only problem I could find was getting the ball to stay on 'em!

But, I hit above my average on FIRs, so there must be something in them!

P.S. - what are graduated tees?

Dave graduated tees are the plastic ones that go back out under the tee cup so that the spike will only go so far into the ground.  This gives you the same teeing height each time. 

Each teeing height has a different colour going from low to high orange, red, blue, yellow, white, pink and grey.  I use the red tees for teeing off with irons and my hybrid and currently the blue ones for my three wood. Previously I used yellow. 

I made the switch from yellow down to blue because I was getting under a few tee shots producing a lovely nine iron shot with my 3 wood.  Also everytime I've approached a golf course in the last three months the winds been blowing from stiff breeze to gale so I've been trying to hit lower shots off the tee.

Graduated tees are usually called "castle" tees, due to the shape looking like a castle's turret.