Golf instruction is always evolving, but the best advice stands the test of time. In GOLF.com’s Timeless Tips series, we highlight some of the greatest tips that teachers and players have dispensed in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today we look at our issue of June 2006 when we published the results of an experiment to discover the perfect height of the tee to maximize the distance with the driver.
As advanced analytics have illuminated how important driving distance is to scoring, golfers of all abilities have been doing everything they can to add yards off the tee.
There are a number of avenues you can pursue in this regard. Can you work out and fast train, or optimize your swing and setup with launch monitors and new equipment. No matter how you take it, the goal is all the same: hit more bombs.
One such (overlooked) method to hit the ball further is to place the ball at the correct height for maximum distance. But what height is the best to go this way? Back in 2006, GOLF magazine took a test to find out. And while a lot has changed in the game since then, there are still some points that remain true to this day.
Check it out below.
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What is the optimal tee height with the driver?
You’re on the tee box of a brutal par-4 and really need to hit one if you’re going to go home in two. What is your swing key? One thing you probably haven’t thought about is how high you teed your ball – but you should be. Tweaking your tee height, as it turns out, is one of the best – and easiest – adjustments that you can make to pound higher and longer.
Continue reading below to find out why.
The study
Who participated
Twenty-seven golfers, from 25 to 71 years old, with handicaps ranging from scratch to 29. Of the players, 25 typically used a mid-tee tee height and two preferred a high tee.
The height of the tee
-Low: The top edge of the ball was even with the top edge of the driver, so the whole ball was under the crown.
-Mid: Half of the ball above the crown.
-High: The bottom edge of the ball was slightly above the top edge of the club face so that the entire ball was above the crown.
The experiment
Players were divided into three groups of nine by handicap level: 0-9, 10-19 and 20+. Each golfer hit 10 drives at each tee height, with each group hitting from the three tee heights varied to ensure that fatigue and motivation were balanced in each group. Only the best five of the 10 drives at each tee height were recorded so that mis-hits did not distort the data.
Carry distance was measured by a launch monitor, which also calculated clubhead speed, launch angle, ball speed and spin. Accuracy was also recorded: drives that landed in the fairway (33 yards wide) scored 1; those in the right or left rough (17 yards wide) are scored 2; and those that landed beyond the rough scored 3.
The results
Within each of the three handicap levels, the carry distance for medium and high tee heights was significantly longer than low tee heights, largely an effect of the taller tees promoting higher launch angles and less spin. The high tee height provided the most distance, giving players an average of 12 extra yards of carry per unit of low tee height.
Inside the numbers
| Low tee | Half tea | High tee | |
| Low Handicap (0-9) | |||
| Carrying distance (yards) | 211.64 | 219.62 | 222.92 |
| Launch angle (degrees) | 10.5 | 13.04 | 13.17 |
| spin (rpm) | 4,051 | 3,875 | 3,434 |
| Clubhead Speed (mph) | 98.32 | 97.08 | 97.36 |
| Ball Speed (mph) | 138.59 | 138.13 | 138.95 |
| average handicap (10-19) | |||
| Carrying distance (yards) | 171.46 | 177.84 | 179.84 |
| Launch angle (degrees) | 12.4 | 14.4 | 14.04 |
| spin (rpm) | 3,844 | 3,794 | 3,529 |
| Clubhead Speed (mph) | 86.04 | 85,76 | 85.24 |
| Ball Speed (mph) | 120.9 | 120.93 | 120.93 |
| High handicap (20+) | |||
| Carrying distance (yards) | 160.85 | 174.15 | 178.24 |
| Launch angle (degrees) | 11.23 | 13.7 | 14.75 |
| spin (rpm) | 3,834 | 3,801 | 3,591 |
| Clubhead Speed (mph) | 85.39 | 85,87 | 85.01 |
| Ball Speed (mph) | 120.15 | 120.92 | 120.39 |
The biggest winners
High handicaps benefited the most from the high tee height, averaged 18 yards above his units with the height of the low tee.
Long and straight
The increase in carry distance from low to medium and high off the tee hasn’t come at the expense of accuracy in terms of hitting the fairway. The table below presents the percentage of tee shots landed in the fairway, rough and beyond the rough as a function of tee height.
| Fairway | Rough | Beyond hard | |
| Low tee | 58.5% | 30.4% | 11.1% |
| Half tea | 54.1% | 34.1% | 11.9% |
| High tee | 61.5% | 27.4% | 11.1% |
Afterwards
After the experiment, nine out of 27 players planned to change from medium to high height. Three of those nine were from the low handicap group.
The tee height study was conducted by GOLF Top 100 Master Eric Alpenfels and Bob Christian, Ph.D dean emeritus of the School of Health and Human Performance at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
