Golf Ball Tee Height – How High to Tee a Golf Ball

Question – How high should I tee the golf ball?
You’re a beginner to the game of golf, you’re standing on the very first tee. You’ve got your tee and golf ball in hand, but just how far do your press the tee into the ground? How high off the ground should the golf ball be?

Answer – Well, the tee height depends entirely on the club you’re using. The longer the club, the higher the tee needs to be. For instance – a driver needs to be teed up the highest, and shortest (closest to the ground) would be your wedges.

Professionals say that the best height to tee the ball on a drive would be parrallel with the top of the driver head (crown). So the bottom of the golf ball should be resting on the tee at a height equal to that of the driver head height.

As your clubs get shorter, the lower you’re going to need to tee the golf ball. For a 3-wood, similar to the driver you want to have some of the ball above the the crown. You want to leave about one-half to one-third of the ball above the crown of the club. For shorter woods and hybrids, you want to leave about one-third to a quarter of the golf ball above the crown. (You should have around half an inch of the tee above the ground).

On to irons. When about to tee off with your iron in hand, more of the tee wil be in the ground. For the mid-irons such as 2,3,4, and 5, you should have a quarter inch of the tee above the ground.

For the shorter of the irons such as 6,7,8,9, and PW, you should be pressing the whole tee into the ground so that the only thing you see is the top of the tee. Depending on the state of the tee box, you may also opt out of using a tee, especially for the shorter irons such as 8,9, and PW.

So, to conclude:

  • Driver – Bottom of the ball should be level with the crown of the driver
  • 3-wood – About half to a third of the golf ball should be above the crown of the club
  • Other woods & hybrids – This should be teed up about half an inch above the ground
  • Long to mid-irons – Needs to be a quarter inch of the tee above ground
  • 6-irons and shorter – The head is the only part of the tee you should see. You can even opt out of this for the shorter clubs

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