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Key Takeaways

  • Tees do not seem to get the attention that they need until there is a problem.
  • Tee size plays a significant role in appearance, turf health and playability.
  • Constructing tees to match annual rounds will help ensure that they are large enough to spread traffic around evenly.
  • Appropriate growing environments are just as important for tees as they are for greens and fairways. Tees growing in shaded areas with poor air movement will have weaker turf that does not recover as quickly as those in better environments.
  • Better positioning of tees is necessary to ensure players of all ages and abilities play an equitable course that is both fair and fun.
     

If tees had an emoji it would probably be the sad face. Too often it seems that tees are an afterthought in terms of planning and level of maintenance. Think about the most frequent comments you receive from golfers. I imagine most relate to the condition of the greens or bunkers. You might even receive a comment or two about the height of the rough or width of the fairways. But how often do you really hear comments about tees? Sure, when they are full of divots they are an easy target for golfer complaints, but when they are good – or even passable – they are simply there as something each golfer uses and sees but rarely puts much thought into.

It is sometimes difficult to justify putting more resources into tees when they seem good enough to avoid negative comments. However, perhaps we should put more thought and effort into tees – in terms of their size, level of maintenance and positioning. Although your tees might be performing well today, could they withstand a stretch of tough weather or an increase in play? Do the tees at your course provide good options for the golfers who currently play there and those your facility hopes to attract in the future?

Tee positioning has recently become one of the most frequently discussed topics during USGA Course Consulting Service visits. As golf courses try to improve pace of play and provide a good experience for players with a wide range of swing speeds, the focus on tees has increased. Adding back tees to increase distance is something many courses have done, but there is growing recognition that adding back tees only benefits a small percentage of golfers and that improved middle and forward tee options are necessary – often at considerably shorter yardages than previously considered suitable.

Then there is the issue of tee condition, which has jumped to the forefront at many courses given the recent sizeable increase in rounds. Tees that used to perform reasonably well are suddenly struggling to recover from play. Making them larger is one way to improve things, but improving growing environments and using better grasses are also important parts of the equation. It’s important to have a holistic plan in place if the goal is to improve tee conditioning. Simply making tees larger may not fully address the issues or deliver the desired results.

Tees are a golfer’s first impression of the course. Whether it be a warmup session on the practice tee or getting the round started on the first hole, the condition of the tees sets the stage for our experience – and as the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Tees have probably deserved more consideration for a long time now, but the issues surrounding golfer experience and overall conditioning finally have courses taking a closer look at these critical playing areas. The information in this article will help you get the most from your teeing areas – today and into the future.

Tee size

Finding the right size for all the different teeing areas on a golf course has always been a challenge. Some tees seem much larger than they need to be while others get badly beaten up every single year – and this contrast often occurs on the same hole! The American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) offer a rule of thumb that the total teeing area for a course should be 0.15-0.2 square feet of usable teeing space per annual round. That space should then be allocated according to how play is spread across the different teeing locations, with additional teeing area on par-3 holes, holes that see a lot of mulligans, or for tees in difficult growing environments that will need more space to handle play (ASGCA 2020).

Another approach to estimating the appropriate size for tees is to allocate 100 usable square feet of teeing area per 1,000 rounds of golf played (Moore 2005). To compare this approach with the rule of thumb referenced by the ASGCA, let us use a golf course that averages 30,000 rounds annually. The ASGCA approach would suggest a total teeing area between 4,500-6,000 square feet per hole. Alternatively, allocating 100 square feet of usable space per 1,000 rounds would yield a total teeing area of 3,000 square feet. Where exactly your course would fit in this range depends on a wide range of factors and it is important to recognize that neither of these approaches is designed to provide an exact figure, they offer a starting point that you can use to evaluate and build your plan from.

The idea of building tees to match how much play a course receives is not a new one and this is often discussed during the planning phase of tee construction or renovation projects. Interestingly, decision-makers at courses that receive 30,000 rounds or more annually often balk at the size that tees should be, even though they are usually aware that tees on their course struggle to keep up with the current level of play.

A shortcoming of tees that are too small is they offer little flexibility to move markers. When heavily used teeing grounds need a break, if they are too small there is nowhere to go with the markers on that surface. The only available option is to move the markers to an entirely different teeing ground. When this happens, it is common to hear that a hole is playing too long or too short that day, where players might not have noticed a shift if it was on the same teeing ground.

To avoid the problems that come with undersized tees, build tees based on anticipated use. Golf facilities do not need to have “oversized” tees for every surface, they should maintain very large primary tees – especially par-3 tees – and have comparably smaller forward and back tees based on levels of play. For example, the ASGCA notes that architects often recommend 25% more teeing space for par-3 tees because divoting is more common than on par-4 or par-5 tees (ASGCA 2020).

Grass type and growing environment also play a significant role in tee sizing. Teeing areas planted with grasses that do not recover from traffic or divots quickly will need to be larger to compensate. It’s also important to keep in mind how recovery for a specific grass relates to the annual cycle of play. Bentgrass tees might be fine in spring and fall, but if most of the play happens in summer when the grass is struggling to grow then more teeing area will be necessary. The same is true for bermudagrass tees that see heavy play in the shoulder seasons or winter months. The growing environment is also an important consideration in tee sizing. While a tee in full sun might easily handle the play it receives, the same-sized tee in dense shade will not perform as well. All of these factors must be accounted for when thinking about the right size for the tees at your course.

Growing environments

Size is arguably the most important characteristic of healthy tees, and perhaps the easiest to improve, but do not forget about growing environments. A well-built tee, even an oversized tee, will still struggle in a poor growing environment. It is an inescapable agronomic truth that trees can make it physically impossible to grow healthy turf (Oatis 2006). You might wonder what exactly constitutes a poor growing environment? Two commonly accepted limitations that make for poor growing environments are poor sunlight penetration and poor air movement.

"A well-built tee, even an oversized tee, will still struggle in a poor growing environment."

If one or both of these critical elements is seriously limited, all grasses will underperform. Thus, it is beyond important that you not just address tee size but also improve the growing environments to the best of your ability. That said, there are always situations where trees cannot be removed because they are not on course property, where sunlight or air movement are limited by topography, and many other challenges that are difficult or impossible to fully resolve. In these situations, there is even more reason to build large tees because the turf will inevitably struggle and rotating the markers across a large area will be a key part of successful management.

Grass type

A major piece in maintaining successful tees is the grass type. Planting a grass that is not well suited to your climate, amount of play or localized growing environments will lead to poor results. Generally speaking, you want to select a grass rated for your hardiness zone and one with a good National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) rating, specifically in wear tolerance and recovery. A grass that can handle traffic well and recover quickly is important to help ensure the best conditions possible.

In the northern states, this is most likely creeping bentgrass. There are many good bentgrasses on the market but not all of them are equally good for every situation. For example, an ultra-dense bentgrass like ‘007’ or ‘Pure Distinction’ will perform very well on a putting green where fine texture and density are important for good ball roll. However, with exceptional density often comes slow lateral growth, which is very important for divot recovery.

On the other hand, some of the older bentgrass varieties like ‘PennCross’, ‘PennTrio’ and ‘L93’ have a comparatively longer internode length, thus they spread laterally quicker than the newer bentgrass varieties do. Whichever bentgrass you select, it is in the best interests of the facility to move away from using perennial ryegrass for divot recovery.

Perennial ryegrass is a commonly used grass in the northern states because of its rapid germination at most times of the year. However, when a course relies on ryegrass for divot recovery on tees there is often a cycle of germination followed by decline. Ryegrass does not perform well under extreme temperature stress nor can it spread laterally like either bentgrass or Kentucky bluegrass. Thus, the cycle of seed germination, followed by death, followed by the need to reseed.

Courses in the southern states are most likely to choose either bermudagrass or zoysiagrass for tees. Bermudagrass is a warm-season grass that reaches peak health during the hottest part of the year. Zoysiagrass is also a warm-season grass but it is often chosen over bermudagrass in more shaded environments. Divot recovery is not usually a concern during the summer in southern states because warm-season grasses are growing rapidly at this time of year. Divots are, however, slower to recover during cooler times of the year because warm-season grasses are not at peak strength. This can be problematic for southern courses that see lots of play during the shoulder seasons or winter. Because of the heat in summer, southern courses really are limited to warm-season grasses as the foundation for their teeing areas – with the option to overseed for the winter if that is required for adequate divot and traffic recovery.

Positioning

The last piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving teeing options is location. While tee location may not solve turf health issues directly, providing players with a better range of options can help disperse wear, which would end up improving overall turf health across all tees. Improved teeing options are also a critical part of improving golfer satisfaction and the overall experience. At many courses, the biggest opportunities for improving teeing options and positioning are with the middle and forward tees rather than the back tees.

With the average back tee yardage of 18-hole U.S. courses at 6,471 yards, most courses likely already have sufficient length to accommodate the vast majority of players. Most back tees do not receive much traffic, yet forward tees are used by a high percentage of female players, juniors and players with slower swing speeds. The average forward tee yardage for 18-hole courses in the U.S. is 4,765 yards – with many forward tees longer than 5,000 yards – which is likely to be longer than many forward tee players would prefer to use. Adding new forward tees accommodates current forward tee players who would like to move forward, provides a better option for beginners, and may make it easier for other players to move forward behind the new forward tees. Because of these and other potential benefits, there is almost certainly a significant opportunity for courses to positively impact the golf experience and spread out traffic by investing in forward tees.

Identifying the appropriate locations and overall yardage for a set of tees can be challenging and there are many factors to consider. To help you evaluate the existing tees at your course and model potential improvements, the USGA developed a forward tee calculator that uses swing speed data to identify which club a player would likely hit into a green from a given yardage and whether they can reach the green in regulation with good shots. Our GPS Service, where loggers are used to track golfer traffic patterns, is also commonly used to help courses evaluate how their tee locations impact the golf experience. It can be surprising to work through this analysis of your teeing options and see how difficult and repetitive the course may be for some golfers. Addressing these issues is a relatively low-cost way to improve the golfer experience and disperse wear across a wider range of teeing options.

Conclusion

Providing suitable teeing options and keeping heavily used tees in good shape has always been challenging but taking concrete steps to address these issues couldn’t be more timely. The year 2020 saw a net gain of 61 million rounds over 2019 in the U.S., which meant that undersized tees at many courses showed their weaknesses. There was also the highest-ever inflow of beginning and returning golfers (6.2 million players) along with the highest recorded increase in youth players (+25%) since 1997. The number of female golfers also increased by about 450,000 (NGF 2021). These are players that have typically been underserved in terms of teeing options. Making improvements in these areas is a relatively low-cost and high-impact way to improve the overall golf experience and hopefully retain some of the surge in interest that golf has recently enjoyed.

Working with a golf course architect is recommended when it comes to finalizing new teeing locations because of the many factors involved beyond simply the yardage. However, building new tees, expanding tees, converting tees to more suitable grasses and improving growing environments are all areas that superintendents can often make significant progress working with their in-house team. These improvements can be made at a reasonable cost and often deliver a quick return on investment when you consider the improved playing conditions and golfer satisfaction.

Are you interested in using the Forward Tee Calculator at your course? Our agronomists can work with you during a Course Consulting Service visit to help you better understand how teeing options at your course fit with different types of players and identify areas for potential improvement.

References:

American Society of Golf Course Architects. 2020. Designs on a better golf course: Practical answers to common questions for green committees. ASGCA Foundation, Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Moore, J. 2005. Guidelines for building great tees. USGA Green Section Record. May/June. 43(3): 20-23.

National Golf Foundation. 2021. The Graffis report. ngf.org

Oatis, D. 2006. The truth about trees. USGA Green Section Record. May/June. 44(3): 22-25.