The Anatomy of a Golf Course:
TEES
Tees are one of the more functional elements of a golf course, but they are more than just platforms for drives. In this article, Andy Watson of Andy Watson Golf Design looks at what the golf course architect has to consider in designing a successful golf teeing ground
WHEN the game of golf was first developed, the green for the previous hole was used as the teeing ground for the next, creating a continuous journey across the links land. The first recorded rule book for golf, created for the Annual Challenge for the Edinburgh Silver Club in 1744, stated that balls must be teed up “within a club’s length of the hole.” As the game was formalised, and rules
Figure 1: The proximity of the 1st green and 2nd tee at St Andrews Old Course
altered, the teeing ground gradually moved away from the previous hole to form a separate entity within the anatomy of a golf course. Initially, they were merely placed on the edge of the green. This history continues to be demonstrated on some older courses. For example, the St Andrews Old Course still has teeing grounds in close proximity to the previous greens (see figure 1). These original tees were purely functional boxes which were relatively flat in nature. The early golf course architects, such as Old Tom Morris, would use areas adjacent to the playing surface and flatten them, moving as little earth as possible, purely to create a level ground in order to begin playing the next hole.
Fig 2 132
In the modern game a combination of safety guidelines, and a continued need to elasticise the course to challenge players of all abilities, has determined the position of modern teeing grounds. The European Institute of Golf Course Architects has published a set of guidelines which states that teeing grounds should be at least 60m away from the previous hole’s green or centreline, with a preferred distance of over 100m, in order to adequately protect the golfer from balls being hit from other golf holes. The evolution of tees on to separate grounds, depending on the ability of the golfer, has also meant that some teeing
grounds can be separated to cover up to, and sometimes more than, 100 yards from the hole.
The need to respond to technology is common in all aspects of golf design. The constant strive for length in every golfer’s game, helped by the technological advancements made by club manufacturers, tests the golf course architect to react by placing different sets of tees that will match up with the range of abilities likely to play the course. A championship layout, for example,
may require up to five or six different sets of tees to cope with all types of player, from the professional golfer in competition playing from the back tees, through the society day playing from the daily or middle tees, to a beginner’s on- course lesson playing from the front set of tees. A good design will test all of those golfers equally, and figure 2 shows, in very simple terms, how these challenges can be replicated.
The alignment of the golf tee is also an important factor. Each teeing ground should be aligned with the centreline of the hole or, on a dog-legged hole, the tees should line up with the perceived landing zone for the average player from each tee box. The teeing area should give a clear guide as to the direction of the hole. Depending on the shape of the teeing area, it should either run lengthways towards the landing zone or
perpendicular to the line of the hole (see figure 3).
The impact of technology has extended to the equipment available to the greenkeeper, and the need to shape tees so they can be easily mown. For example, more recently, tee squares have developed rounded edges to make them easier to maintain using sit on mowers (see figure
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