A tee is a stand used in sport to support and elevate a stationary

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

prior to striking with a foot, club, or bat. Tees are used extensively in

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

tee-ball Tee-ball (also teeball, tee ball or T-ball) is a team sport based on a simplified form of baseball or softball. It is intended as an introduction for children to develop bat-and-ball game skills and have fun. Description Tee-ball associations ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

, and

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

Etymology

The word tee is derived from the

Old Scots Early Scots was the emerging literary language of the Early Middle English–speaking parts of Scotland in the period before 1450. The northern forms of Middle English descended from Northumbrian Old English. During this period, speakers refer ...

''teaz'', of unknown origin, possibly Scandinavian; apparently a plural form, or one incorrectly assumed to be so.

Golf tee

In golf, a tee is normally used for the first stroke of each hole. The area from which this first stroke is hit is in the rules known as the teeing ground. Normally, teeing the ball is allowed only on the first shot of a hole, called the tee shot, and is illegal for any other shot; however, local or seasonal rules may allow or require teeing for other shots as well, ''e.g.'', under "winter rules" to protect the turf when it is unusually vulnerable. Teeing gives a considerable advantage for drive shots, so it is normally done whenever allowed. However, players may elect to play their tee shots without a tee. This typically gives the shot a lower trajectory. A standard golf tee is 2.125" (two and one eighth inches = 5.4 cm) long, but both longer and shorter tees are permitted. Ordinary tees can be made from wood or from durable plastic. There are also many biodegradable and recyclable golf tees that diminish the number of trees cut down to manufacture the tees and allow golf courses to lower costs by not having to deal with the broken wooden tees on their courses. According to the R&A and USGA rules of golf, for a tee to be legal, "It must not be longer than 4 inches (101.6 mm) and it must not be designed or manufactured in such a way that it could indicate the line of play or influence the movement of the ball."

History

The development of the tee was the last major change to the rules of golf. Before this,

golf ball A golf ball is a ball designed to be used in golf. Under the rules of golf, a golf ball has a mass no more than , has a diameter not less than , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like golf clubs, golf bal ...

s were teed up on little heaps of sand that were provided in boxes. This explains the historical name ''tee boxes'' for what is today known as ''teeing ground''. The earliest golf tees rested flat on the ground and had a raised portion to prop up the ball. The first

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

for this kind of tee is dated 1889, and was issued to Scotsmen William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas.Valenta, Irwin R. ''The Singular History of the Golf Tee'', Greensboro, North Carolina, 1995. Summary a

/ref> The first known tee to pierce the ground was a rubber-topped peg sold commercially as the "Perfectum." This was patented in 1892 by Percy Ellis of England. In 1899, an African-American dentist, Dr.

George Franklin Grant George Franklin Grant (September 15, 1846 – August 21, 1910) was the first African-American professor at Harvard. He was also a Boston dentist, and an inventor of an early composite golf tee made from wood and natural rubber (specifically, ...

, obtained a patent for an "improved golf tee". This tee consisted of a wood cone with a rubber sleeve to support the ball, but it is not known to have ever been marketed. File:Tee patent.png, British patent #12941 of 1889 File:Golf tee Ellis 1892.png, British patent #36 of 1892 File:Uspatent570821.png, U.S. Paten
#570,821
"Combined Golf Tee and Score Card," 1896 File:Golf tee Kirkwood 1896.png, British paten
#253 of 1896
File:Golf tee Matthew 1897.png, British paten
#14292 of 1897
File:Grantpatent.gif, U.S. Paten
#638,920
Dr.

, 1899 File:1670627.gif, U.S. Patent 1,670,267, William Lowell, Sr. in 1925 These and other variations failed to catch on, as most golfers—whether because of tradition, habit, or concerns about the rules—continued using heaps of sand. It took a strong marketing effort by Dr. William Lowell, Sr. in the 1920s to bring manufactured tees into widespread use. Sales of his "Reddy Tee," a simple wooden peg with a flared top, took off after Lowell hired professional golfers

Walter Hagen Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional Men's major golf championships, majors is third behin ...

and Joe Kirkwood, Sr. to promote the product during exhibition matches. It was copied around the world, and remains the most common type of golf tee.

Tee-ball tee

Tee-ball Tee-ball (also teeball, tee ball or T-ball) is a team sport based on a simplified form of baseball or softball. It is intended as an introduction for children to develop bat-and-ball game skills and have fun. Description Tee-ball associations ...

is based on

, with the main difference being the use of a tee in the place of a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

. Much larger than a golf tee, the tee-ball tee is a durable rubber stand attached to the

home plate A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

which supports the baseball at a suitable height for the batter to hit. It is adjustable to allow for variations in batter height.

Baseball tee

While a tee for baseball is very similar to a tee in tee-ball, the uses for the tee may differ. In baseball, a tee is used as a training device. This allows the hitter to simulate a pitch that will be thrown in many different locations. Using a tee, the hitter can set up a pitch that may be thrown inside, down the middle, and outside as well as high and low. Unlike tee-ball, where the ball is sitting on the tee, in baseball the pitch is being thrown by another player, resulting in the ball crossing the plate in several different areas. As a batter, using a tee as a training aid will help the hitter perfect his swing no matter where the pitch is thrown. A tee may also be used for batting drills. Drills are used to strengthen the players hitting motion and to get them used to hitting baseballs in different locations. These tees may also be used in softball as a training device.

Kicking tee

A kicking tee is a rubber or plastic platform, often with prongs and/or a brim around an inner depression. In

and

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

, a tee may be used on kickoffs to raise the ball slightly above the playing surface (up to one inch, by

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

and

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

rules). The first use of the tee is attributed to

Arda Bowser Arda "Ard" Crawford Bowser (January 9, 1899 – September 7, 1996) was a professional football player who spent two years of the National Football League with the Canton Bulldogs and the Cleveland Indians. Bowser won an NFL championship with the ...

, a member of the

Canton Bulldogs The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Lea ...

NFL championship team of 1922. The

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division and five in the West Division. The CFL is the highest pr ...

and some high school leagues also allow the use of another sort of tee on

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, ...

and

extra point Extra, Xtra, or The Extra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * The Extra (1962 film), ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * The Extra (2005 film), ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * Extra (newspaper), ...

kicks, where another player (the holder) places one end of the ball on this "tee" (which is not a tee in the strictest sense of the term, but instead a rubber block; such "tees" come in 1" and 2" types) and holds the opposite end; in college and the NFL, all extra point/field goal attempts can only be made off the ground. Tees may also be used for

place kick The place kick is a type of kicking play commonly used in American football, association football, association football (soccer), Canadian football, rugby league, and rugby union. It was historically used in Australian rules football, but it was ...

s in rugby league football and

rugby union football Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

. Tees are used for kick-outs in

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

. In 2006, Shane Curran devised an adjustable tee on which the ball rested on brush hairs to replicate kicking from grass; the design went on to be used by most goalkeepers.

References

External links

{{Golf equipment Golf equipment Golf terminology American football equipment Canadian football