Teeing the ball

Intrigued by a reply on another post, I was wondering if anyone could explain the R&A rule on tees that:

"A tee must not be longer than 4 inches (101.6 mm)"

All the other rules on it make sense ... but I can't see any gains you could have from a 4+ inch tee?

Unless of course I could have a 2 foot high tee, and take a baseball swing at it?!

http://www.randa.org/en/RandA/News/News/2012/June/Teeing-the-Ball.aspx

Anything higher would start to assist a draw as the ball is above your feet, which would go against the other rules within that section.

....thats not a fact by the way, just how I would perceive it

I dont know the reason either but I remember an old member of Golfshake, Sanderslongdrive. He stated ( I think ) that you cannot hit any longdrive unless the tee is at least 4" long. This is in longdrive comps. Dave smith what you say does seem to make sense. Dave CAC handed Geordie.

Surprisingly 'tee' was not defined until 2004. Presumably, as there had to be a limit, they chose an arbitrary length that was about as long as or longer than anything on the market at that time.

Very interesting, thanks for all your replies!

An interesting debate. I play with a regular partner whose stock drive was a big fade. He knew to start it well left and played to it.(he did lose length as his ball finished by running almost L to R across the fairway) Recently he has used a much higher tee, so much so that the ball sits clearly above his Ping driver. Result: the fade has gone and he is hitting it high and straight. He has made no conscious change in setup or swing. My only concern is that I see him going under one and having a nice score mark across the top of his driver, but he seems happy. How would the experts among us explain this change? I can only summise that the higher tee encourages him to swing up at the ball (creating less side spin) rather than across it with the lower tee.

My thoughts (having chatted to Saunders LD quite a lot about this). Basically the higher the tee the further forward in the stance the ball will need to be hit. Long drivers use this technique to effectively reduce the loft of the club to near zero thus reducing or eliminating back spin, so the ball will use less of it's kinetic energy to impart lift - and as the total energy imparted into the ball is constant - it will go further. The only loft needed is that which is generated by the initial strike, not by using back spin. A ball will always generate it's own lift by simply travelling through the air at a slight angle to the ground anyway so this is enough to keep it airborne.

Michael, if it's a big fade then the club face must be open as well as coming accross it. It doesn't take that much change in a swing which will result in a slice/ fade and onlookers like us mere mortals might not be able to an distinguish or identify as the cuase. In my case, if I tee the ball lower with my driver I can end up with a fade. It's not always the case but it does happen and I reckon I'm using the same swing which can't be the case. I can only assume in my attempt to hit it cleanly I might sort of 'dig it out' (without actually hitting the deck) and come across it.