Proper "Tee" Etiquette

As shown in the picture of the 5th tee, the tees have made a speedy recovery from aeration. Often communicating a great deal of info about proper greens etiquette, now serves as an opportune time to briefly write about an overlooked topic- tee etiquette and most importantly, tee cleanup.

As you can see in the image below, it seems as though leaving tees, whether broken or still viable, on the tee box has become a right of passage. Good or broken tees on the tee box can greatly blemish a pristine teeing surface and can cause a great deal of damage to the bed knives and reels of tee mowers (pictured below). At over $500 for these components of the mower, a tee can inflict a great deal of costly damage and time to repair a tee mower by dulling the mower blades when the reel and bed knife strike the tee. This in turn makes for poorer qualities of cut predisposing the turf to a greater risk of disease and in turn makes for additional grindings to maintain reel sharpness (pic below). These additional grindings shorten the lifespan of the reel and bed knife, directly increasing maintenance costs.

To ensure that the mowers are not damaged, tee mower operators are now taking 3.5 to 4 hours cutting tees when it use to take 2.5-3 hours with the added time solely devoted to picking up and/or blowing off discarded tees.

We are asking that just as you repair a ballmark on a green that you please take responsibility for your tee by disposing of it after use in the garbage or throwing it into the rough nearby. This will help create a better teeing surface, reduce maintenance costs and most importantly, create a great first impression of the course. After all, first impressions may not be everything but they certainly are long-lasting!