Best Golf Tees 2024: Buyer's Guide and things you need to know
Best Golf Tees for beginners, game improvers and better players. Our guide to one of the most overlooked pieces of golf equipment!
Golf tees have come a long way since their humble origins, shaped from handfuls of sand by earnest caddies.
Nowadays we take for granted the golf tee, and the role it plays in helping us from getting off the tee box.
According to five-time PGA Tour winner Roger Maltbie, a golf tee is something we should all be using whenever we are given the opportunity. After all, "if it was not an advantage, they would let us use one everywhere!"
With that in mind, we have tested some of the most popular golf tee offerings currently in pro shops and golf stores.
Golf tees are one of the cheapest purchases you will ever make in our great sport, but as we highlight in our guide below, it is very important you find the right one to suit your game.
They can be purchased through American Golf.
Best Golf Tees 2024
BEST GOLF TEES 2024 | ||
PRODUCT | MATERIAL | PRICE |
OCEANTEE PREMIUM BAMBOO | BAMBOO | £2.99 |
PRIDE PROFESSIONAL TEE SYSTEM | WOODEN | £1.99 to £6.99 |
4 YARDS MORE | PLASTIC | £5.99 |
LIGNUMTEE CLASSIC | PLASTIC | £4.99 |
BRAND FUSION WOODEN CASTLE | WOODEN | £1.99 |
BRAND FUSION LONG PLASTIC | PLASTIC | £1.99 |
Right, let's get into the test, starting with the best of the bunch...
OCEANTEE – Bamboo Golf Tees
Pros: Two different sizes within box. Very robust. More environmentally friendly than plastic and traditional wooden tees – notably with lack of plastic packaging. Company donates 25% to tackling pollution.
Cons: No built-in technology. £2.99 for 40 tees, slightly more expensive than traditional wooden offerings.
Price: £2.99 (for 40)
As wooden tees have increased in popularity, manufacturers have continued to look for more sustainable options to continue pushing golfers towards more sustainability. Enter, bamboo golf tees. Bamboo grows much quicker than trees, and has a stronger structure which makes them more durable than traditional wooden options.
We found these claims to be true, only breaking one tee during our testing when using one of the longer 70mm options on a short iron shot. We also liked the matchbox-type packaging. One slight niggle is that we found some tees kept falling out of the box.
The OCEANTEE brand has gone all in on sustainability, even donating 25% of corporate profits to tackling plastic pollution which is admirable. This, alongside the sustainable sourcing of the tees themselves, makes them the greenest product by far on testing.
Verdict
Regardless of whether you’re an environmental champion or not, these OCEANTEES are just a very good product. They last longer than almost all the other tees on test, and have no obvious branding to dislike – giving them a nice traditional look. We found the box itself a nice departure from plastic, but given the rattle created by the tees within it, would likely leave it in the car and just grab a few tees to take out for the round; after all, given their strength, you won’t need too many anyway. Without doubt, our favourite golf tee tested.
Pride Professional Tee System
Pros: Different height offerings to suit all golfers. Resealable bag. Wooden construction.
Cons: Potentially too many different options! No built-in technology.
Price: £1.99 - £6.99 dependent on bag size.
The Pride Professional Tee System is one of the most recognisable in the sport. The white tees laden with different coloured accents to denote the different heights can be seen across courses throughout the game. We liked the ring of colour which suggested how far to push the tee into the ground, which created an element of consistency to our teeing heights.
However, one flaw of this system is the potential need to buy different colours to suit your driver, woods, hybrids and irons. If not, you’ll likely find yourself doing similar to what we did; utilising the longest option and pushing it further into the teebox to suit the club – which somewhat negates the Pride Professional Tee System!
Perhaps due to their familiarity, the tees performed as expected, holding up well with the longer clubs and only breaking with regularity when using too long a tee with the short irons. However, when using the shorter Orange ‘Mini’ tees, these held up admirably; even with firmly struck wedges.
Verdict
All in, the Pride Professional Tee System is a great option for all golfers. With between 75 – 120 tees in each bag dependent on the length of tee, the product is good value, coming in at £6.99 for the larger bag. Given you’ll only need a handful per round (particularly if you’re utilising the smaller tees with your irons to avoid breakages), it’s understandable how this range continues to be so popular amongst golfers.
4 Yards More Golf Tee
Pros: Plastic construction makes them durable. Designed with a lip to ensure consistency. Promises more distance!
Cons: Only 4 in a pack, not environmentally friendly.
Price: £5.99 (for 4)
We would all love some more distance, right? And if you’re going to spend £500 on a new driver, then surely it’s worth giving something a go for £5.99 if you can pick up some yardage?!
Surprisingly, we did find that these tees filled us with confidence, and saw us hitting some of our longest drives of the day from these pegs. However, we did not robot-test these, and as a result, improvements in distance were likely a combination of both our swings with these tees, and the products themselves.
That said, the product itself makes a lot of sense. Not only does the lack of friction give the sensation of the ball leaving the tee quickly, but the lip around the base of the six prongs ensures a consistency of height with each driver.
As a note, we didn’t test these tees with irons, as we only had the driver options – although this held up very well, even when we (deliberately, honest!) hit down and through the tee peg to test its resilience.
Verdict
We’re not going to go as far as to fully endorse the four-yard claims from the manufacturer, but we were quietly impressed with these tees. It’s an advantage to know that you’re teeing the ball up the same height each time, and there was something psychological about us feeling like we were going to launch it from this tee peg. Being made from plastics, they’re not as environmentally-friendly as other options, however, these aren’t likely to be left around the course to damage machinery and wildlife – particularly at £5.99 for four tees!
Brand Fusion – Wooden Castle Tees
Positives: Wooden version of classic castle tee design. Sustainable product and packaging. Choice of heights.
Negatives: Broke (chipped) several of the shorter ones. A little costly for 20.
Price: £1.99 (for 20)
The castle tee has been a staple of golf clubs for generations – with the famous pink, white, and yellow offerings in particular familiar to all. This offering from Brand Fusion takes that concept and brings it into the 21st century, with a wooden version of each, housed in sustainable packaging.
Although not resealable, the slimline nature of the packaging means that the tees tended to stay inside ok when opened, making this easy to chuck into your golf bag without fear of them going everywhere!
The tees themselves were as you’d expect form a castle tee. Consistency of height, bright colours to stand out once hit – you know the drill.
We broke a few of these in testing, but not loads, and truthfully this was more chipping off the wood of the shorter tees when hitting iron shots.
Verdict
There’s not an awful lot that’s going to come as a surprise here. These Brand Fusion Castle Tees are good, and perform exactly as you’d expect. We’d buy these every time over their plastic counterparts, even if you do end up breaking a couple throughout the round. There’s no huge tech to speak of, other than the castle tee design creating a consistency of height – a consistency that many of us our familiar with after using the plastic versions over the years.
Brand Fusion – Long Plastic Tees
Positives: These are tee pegs. They do what it says on the tin (packet). Affordable.
Negatives: Plastic construction and packaging. Not tech to speak of.
Price: £1.99 (for 30)
Look, if you just want to grab a packet of tee pegs, these are a good option. There’s a mix of different colours, and their plastic construction makes them very durable. They’ll almost certainly last more than a round each (unless you lose them), making them probably the most cost effective product on this list.
However, there’s also a chance they’ll outlast us all on this planet, due to their non bio-degradable construction; which makes them somewhat problematic for us. The plastic from these tee pegs can end up in greenkeeping machinery, and can be detrimental (if not deadly) to the various animals and birds that grace our courses.
We’ve no objection to anybody opting for a plastic tee option, particularly if they’re going to take care to ensure they’re picked up after each shot. But far too often, the affordability of these leaves them to be strewn around the course, creating unnecessary litter and potential harm to the environment.
And so if you do opt for this option when making your next tee purchase – please do take them with you after each hole!
Verdict
Good, dependable option in a myriad of colours and sizes. Super cost-effective, particularly if you take car to pick each one up after use. Unlikely to break many – if any! Doesn’t have the eco-creds of the majority of this list, but from a performance standpoint, very little to complain about!
LignumTee - Classic
Positives: Microwood and sustainable packaging make these environmentally friendly. Ring system helps consistency of height.
Negatives: Broke relatively easily. Pricey for what you get.
Price: £4.99 (for 12)
The LignumTee product was one of our most confusing throughout our testing. On one hand, the ring system was good for getting a consistent tee height – you could even put a sharpie mark if you like at your desired position. However, we did seem to go through a few of these tees during our tests – and the longer length made this particularly problematic when testing irons.
Moreover, the slightly flexible nature of the tees made them a little difficult to get into the ground on the firm tee boxes we tested these in.
We enjoyed the fact that both the packaging and the tees themselves were sustainably created. But we did have some questions on what exactly ‘Microwood’ was, and what impact it might have on greenkeeping machinery that chewed up any broken or lost tee pegs.
The products are, though, made in factories within Europe that have strong records with employee health and wellbeing – to ensure the positive impact of their creation isn’t just in the nature of the materials.
Verdict
The LignumTees were good products, and we liked the story behind the factory and sustainability of the products themselves. We also were impressed by the ring system which ensured a consistency of height, with their relatively long length helping us feel like we were launching the ball into the air. However, at £4.99 for just 12, these could be a slightly more costly option in the long run, with us breaking several of these during our testing.
What are golf tees?
Golf tees are artificial devices that you use to tee your golf ball on top of within the teeing area when starting play of a hole.
Do you have to use a golf tee when you start play of a hole?
No, you can place your golf ball on the surface of the ground if you really want to, but only very good ball strikers or Tour professionals will ever even contemplate this idea.
Golf tees give you an advantage to strike the ball cleanly and help get it airborne, so you really should use a golf tee on every shot from the tee box if you can help it.
Some golfers on Tour have raised up the turf in the ground to create a little divot, or even placed a small pile of sand on the ground to tee their ball up.
Remember when a European Tour pro tried THIS - WATCH HERE
How do we test golf tees?
All of our selected golf tees were put through their paces both out on the golf course and on a grass driving range by GolfMagic freelance tester James Somerside, a very capable 3-handicap player.
James hit a mixture of driver and iron shots to test the performance of each of the tees.
A number of golf tees from a range of brands were used.
These included traditional plastic golf tees, wooden golf tees, and newer bamboo golf tees that are more environmentally friendly on the course.
Different tee lengths were also used from longer tees best suited for golf drivers down to shorter tees perfect for iron shots on par-3 holes.
Several factors helped us select the best tees for golf and these included price, sustainability, robustness and technology.
What is the maximum tee height under the Rules of Golf?
Golf's governing bodies the USGA and R&A dictate that the maximum height for a golf tee is 4 inches in total height.
It doesn't matter to the USGA or R&A how far in the ground the golfer puts the tee.
So how high should you really tee your golf ball?
For many beginner golfers, understanding how tee height can effect your shot can be a little confusing and many will be losing out on distance off of the tee by doing it ever so slightly incorrectly.
One question we often here a lot from golf beginners is how high should they tee the golf ball with the driver?
The ideal tee height is about 1.5 inches for a driver.
A little secret into golf tee height is that you want to make sure the ball just "peeks" above the crown after you sole the club at address.
But to be honest, there is no right or wrong answer to this question as a lot of it is down to a few things.
One being simply your preference and how you like your golf ball to fly and the other is the degree of your driver.
Every golfer is different at the end of the day, and we all swing it differently to one another.
If you have a driver that is 10.5 degrees, that number is the degree of the sweet spot, so when you hit the ball bang off of the middle of the clubface, the angle is 10.5 degrees.
Now say you catch the ball a little high on the clubface, that's going to increase the degrees by a couple, likely to around the 12.5/13 degree mark, while if you catch it low on the clubface, the degree will drop slightly, to around 8 degrees.
When the conditions are pretty calm and there isn't much stopping you from hitting a lovely straight drive, you want to tee the ball slightly higher so that you catch it on the way up.
This means you're connecting with the ball as the clubface starts to travel upwards, which reduces the amount of spin on the ball, leaving it in the air for longer and helping you gain more distance.
If the conditions are a little tricky and you're facing a crosswind, teeing the ball slightly lower can help you hit a lower, more penetrating drive through the wind and the ball will have more control once it hits the fairway due to more backspin being on the ball, making it stop quicker.
It's important that you don't get carried away with tee heights. Your ball should never be higher than showing one half above the top of the driver and when teeing it low, the lowest it should be is with the top of the ball in line with the top of the driver.
