TEEING UP

[namvet66]

Quick question.....

I was at the range this afternoon and noticed driving with the 13* loft driver that I was driving higher, but only about 125 yards, when the ball hit the ground it would die there with little or no roll.

When I lowered my Tee it seemed that the ball drove futher, not as high and had a roll to it when it hit the ground.

Is this the NORM, lower the TEE lowr the ball drives and you get a better roll?

Played with this driver yesterday and was able to handle this well, it 43.25" senior shaft BB Ti. 13* loft.

It is a loaner and I will decide where I go from here, yes I think I found a driver that I control instead of it controlling me.....I told you that I won't ever give up, I will learn.

Enough of that rattling, but I would appreciate your input on my TEE question.

Thanks

BTW...I shot 111 yesterday so after five trips my game is starting to come together.

 

[Slingblade61]

Ahhh......good question.

Tee height has more to do with your club head size and your swing path more than anything.

Most people have a swing path that puts the driver head somewhere less than an inch off the ground at contact so you want to have a look at the face of the club after you hit the ball, many times (most times in fact) I can see an impact mark on the face that was left by my ball....I noticed this on my partners club today and all of his shots were making contact high on the face and the result was a high, short drive.....I showed him the marks and told him to lower the tee, he did on the next hole and smoked one off around 250.

So the answer is that there is no set rule other than you want to make contact in the center of the face, which you did after you lowered the tee.....rather than high on the face which tends to produce pop ups because you are hitting underneath the ball.

You can over do it too....teeing to low will cause you to "top" the ball and get it all the way up to the ladies tee.

 

[namvet66]

Thanks blade.....I appreciate the thoughts and will follow through with this next time I am out at the range or playing.

 

[Loop]

Tee height is indeed quite important. First you need to take in account the spin of the ball. If you put backspin, the ball will tend to climb higher and therefore lose some distance. To make a backspin, a downward blow with the driver will send the ball sky high.
The best is to have an upward path when you hit the ball, which will impart little backspin.
As sling mentions, if you hit the ball on the top of the clubface, the mi**** will result in a moon ball. Try to make center sweet spots hits and then adjusting your tee height.
Keep up the good work namvet!

 

[Rockford35]

I'm with both responses, sorta.

A good drive is the result of hitting the ball at the bottom of your swing, where there is hardly any spin imparted on the ball. The face being open or closed results in clockwise or counter clockwise spin (looking at the ball from the top), a fade or draw respectively.

As for roll, teeing the ball lower will in fact cause more roll. The less backspin you create on the ball will coincide with the amount of roll.

Same idea with any club, really.

If you catch the ball higher in the face of a driver, it creates more backspin, resulting in less roll in your drives. This is why many players tee the ball lower into the wind. There is less spin and less of a chance of ballooning the ball with spin. If the ball is dead (little or no spin) it pierces the wind better than one that has alot of backspin.

The average player should play his normal drive with the ball tee'd up so that the top of the clubface is halfway up the ball on the tee. This promotes a more consistent swing path and higher percentages in the "sweet spot" on the driver face.

However, many better players can adjust their tee height to suit their needs. Smaller headed drivers and smaller sweet spots allow for a lower tee'd ball, and better roll off the tee.

So, the big heads are good for consistent contact in the sweet spot, but don't necessarily dictate better roll.

Trial and error will help you with choosing proper tee height for your game. But, as a rule of thumb for someone that is just beginning to play, use that "halfway up the ball" method. That way you're consistent every time your bring the big dog out. :thumbup:

Keep up the good work Nam, it's starting to come together.


R35

 

[namvet66]

Thaks guys, I will keep up the work to get this together.

 

[williek]

tee high into the wind

I'm with both responses, sorta.

A good drive is the result of hitting the ball at the bottom of your swing, where there is hardly any spin imparted on the ball. The face being open or closed results in clockwise or counter clockwise spin (looking at the ball from the top), a fade or draw respectively.

As for roll, teeing the ball lower will in fact cause more roll. The less backspin you create on the ball will coincide with the amount of roll.

Same idea with any club, really.

If you catch the ball higher in the face of a driver, it creates more backspin, resulting in less roll in your drives. This is why many players tee the ball lower into the wind. There is less spin and less of a chance of ballooning the ball with spin. If the ball is dead (little or no spin) it pierces the wind better than one that has alot of backspin.

The average player should play his normal drive with the ball tee'd up so that the top of the clubface is halfway up the ball on the tee. This promotes a more consistent swing path and higher percentages in the "sweet spot" on the driver face.

However, many better players can adjust their tee height to suit their needs. Smaller headed drivers and smaller sweet spots allow for a lower tee'd ball, and better roll off the tee.

So, the big heads are good for consistent contact in the sweet spot, but don't necessarily dictate better roll.

Trial and error will help you with choosing proper tee height for your game. But, as a rule of thumb for someone that is just beginning to play, use that "halfway up the ball" method. That way you're consistent every time your bring the big dog out. :thumbup:

Keep up the good work Nam, it's starting to come together.


R35

Couldn't disagree with you more. Teeing high and hitting the ball near the top of the driver with upswing reduces spin and causes the ball to fly farther. In order for the ball to fly farther into the wind you must reduce the spin rate. Teeing low is an old outdated concept.

 

[LyleG]

Couldn't disagree with you more. Teeing high and hitting the ball near the top of the driver with upswing reduces spin and causes the ball to fly farther. In order for the ball to fly farther into the wind you must reduce the spin rate. Teeing low is an old outdated concept.

This is all true except one part. Hitting the ball high on the face does nothing beneficial except increase shot height due to their being more loft near the top of the club. This really is one of the biggest myths in golf.

To achieve optimal distance with a driver you need to hit the ball on the drivers sweet spot. For most drivers this will be near the middle of the face a hair towards the heel. This is where you want hit the ball to achieve maximum ball speed.
You will also want to hit the ball with an upward angle of attack. Roughly 2*-3* is what is optimal. This combined with a sweet spot strike will produce the fastest ball speed with the lowest amount of spin.

Teeing the ball low will actually produce more spin. You will also hit the ball lower on the face where there is less loft so the ball will fly lower. Spin in the wind is actually beneficial as it actually will stabilize the ball flight. Too much spin however will result in balloon shots, so finding the happy medium is critical.

Personally I dont alter my tee height. I find low spin sweet spot hits go farther in all conditions.

 

[SiberianDVM]

Sometimes when I hit my driver (which is now on time-out) and have the ball teed high, trying for a slight upward angle of attack, I will hit a low hook. Almost like the ball has topspin. Other than a crappy swing, what's going on there?

With my three wood, where the ball is teed low and I try for a level hit, I get a nice high draw.

So maybe I'm hitting up too much with the driver?

 

[Fourputt]

Couldn't disagree with you more. Teeing high and hitting the ball near the top of the driver with upswing reduces spin and causes the ball to fly farther. In order for the ball to fly farther into the wind you must reduce the spin rate. Teeing low is an old outdated concept.

Sorry, but there are no absolutes about this. what works for you doesn't necessarly work for the next guy. I tee the ball no higher now than I did 20 years ago with my old TM Tour Driver. I use standard tees with my Callaway FTi. I've tried every imaginable combination, and for my swing, teeing lower is much better. I hit my tee shot on 18 yesterday into a strong 15-20 mph wind, teed the ball low, and I hit a perfect low draw that carried 250 yards and rolled out to almost 280. I easily carried a fairway bunker that is laser measured at a 240 yard carry from the tee. The ball was teed no more than 1" above the ground, and even on a perfectly calm day I don't tee the ball any higher than it can be done on a standard wooden tee.

I have hit dozens of balls with this driver, and teeing high and hitting on the upswing results in a ball that flys high and lands with almost no roll (and a ball that balloons out of control in any sort of wind). Teeing lower like I do and hitting the ball at the bottom of my swing results in a lower ball flight, but one which carries as far and rolls farther when it lands. With a typical roll face driver, the face loft angle is actually less if you hit at or below the middle of the face.

So hitting up on the ball may work for some, but it isn't a perfect swing or style for everyone. namvet66 may have a driver that just doesn't fit his swing too. That can cause a lot of difficulty off the tee.

My advice to namvet66 is to try all of the possibilities and see what works best for you.

 

[MGP]

Sorry, but there are no absolutes about this. what works for you doesn't necessarly work for the next guy.

...snipped...

My advice to namvet66 is to try all of the possibilities and see what works best for you.

And that's the best advice of all. I hit a TM R580XD driver (both 9.5 and 10.5, depends on how windy it is as to which one goes in the bag.) When I first got them I tried a lot of different tee heights. I settled in on the ball center about 1/4" below the top of the face for the 10.5 and top of the face at ball center for the 9.5

Those tee heights gave me the best combination of carry and roll. The 9.5 only flies about 3/4 as high as the 10.5 but the carry and roll is better into the wind.

 

[flomarilius]

u guys realize this thread is over 2 years old?

 

[BStone]

Always good to revisit some old topics.

I tend to tee the ball a little lower than most people. Still using the 2 1/8th inch tees, about a quarter of the ball over the top of the driver, sometimes less than that if I want to hit a lower knockdown drive.

 

[Fourputt]

Always good to revisit some old topics.

I tend to tee the ball a little lower than most people. Still using the 2 1/8th inch tees, about a quarter of the ball over the top of the driver, sometimes less than that if I want to hit a lower knockdown drive.

That is almost exactly how I tee it. I can still hit a high fade, a high draw, and a knockdown draw, all from the same standard length 2-1/4" tee. And a big plus is that I almost never break one... they aren't stuck in the ground far enough to snap off. I can play several rounds with the same old wood tee that I probably picked up as a left behind on a tee box somewhere. I haven't paid for a tee in 20 years...:laugh:

 

[footballking732]

when tiger hits the driver stinger, he has said the trick is to tee the ball lower, and cut off the follow through...

for optimal height, you should tee it up with 1/4-1/2 the ball above the clubface...