Driver Tee Height Lesson

What’s the Correct Tee Height for a Drive?

How does tee height affect driving distance? If you seem to be driving the ball inconsistently, whether it is a slice, a hook, or too low or high, it could be down to the simple fact of the height of your tee. The following article will point out what the correct height should be and the effects that different heights have on your tee shot.

Technical stuff

Firstly, let’s talk about the technical stuff: The driver, like all other woods, has an uneven surface on its club face, as it is curved in both a horizontal and vertical fashion. The horizontal curve is known as the bulge, whereas the vertical curve is known as the roll. This shaping adds to the stability of the club and prevents it from collapsing at impact.

The bulge

The bulge of the club comes into consideration when the ball is hit off centre of the club. Let’s say in this instance you go and hit the ball with the heel of your driver: The horizontal curvature of the club’s face will decrease the amount of hook on the ball. This effect is known as the Gear Effect, and it works even if you hit the ball with the toe of the driver. So, in not so many words, bulge on the clubface is your friend.

The roll

The roll on the other hand, is not your friend. The roll is the vertical curvature on clubface. Let’s say you have a 10 degree driver, the loft on this club is just 10 degrees on the sweet spot. If you hit the ball just an inch or two too high you are then hitting the ball with a loft of 12 or more degrees. This is going to send the ball higher in the air robbing you of length. But even worse still, when you hit the ball too low you will be hitting at a loft of 8 degrees or less. This kind of shot is never going to get up into the air; instead it’s just going to roll along the floor at speed. This is also known as the Worm Burner.

From looking at these points it can become quite obvious that when you’re teeing too high you’re going to be hitting the ball above the sweet spot and therefore higher in the air while losing distance. If you tee up too low, you’re going to cutting the grass with your shot, which will also rob you of a lot of distance.

In addition to these points outlined above, hitting the ball above the tee height can have a lot of influence on hooking or slicing the ball:

If you are teeing up too low, the path of your stroke will produce a steep angle approach on order to hit the ball on the sweet spot. This is going to result in an open club face, which will therefore result in a slice on the ball.

It is the exact opposite for the tee being too high. The clubface is going to come in at a flat angle, and in this case, the clubface is going to be closed, which will in turn cause a hook on the ball.

As you can probably see from the points discussed above, a balance has to be found between the four different effects the tee heights have on your shots. You should spend some time practising on the driving range with different tee heights to find which height is best for you. Once you find a winning shot, write down the exact height, and then you can mark all your tees at the same height for more consistent driving.

How does tee height affect driving distance? In many ways – hope this helped.