My monthly rant - living in the real world?
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.
Reply : Thu 29th May 2008 19:58
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.
Reply : Thu 29th May 2008 20:50
I feel a research project coming on.....
Reply : Thu 29th May 2008 21:53
I think you're missing the point Tim, they're free, free is good, they can say anything as long as they're free......
Reply : Fri 30th May 2008 21:48
I'm going to show I'm a complete novice now but what's wrong with graduated tees. I use them because it seems logical to me that you want to be teeing to the same height each time. However I've noticed that most of the better golfers I've seen and played with don't use them. Are they the golfing equivalent of having stabilizers on your bike?
Reply : Sat 31st May 2008 11:36
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?
Reply : Sat 31st May 2008 18:52
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.