golfrewind.com

Hello,

I just bought brand new golf clubs this past year and my passion for golf has increased 10 fold as result. I shoot in mid 90s to low 100s. My question today is how high do you tee up your ball with your Driver and the rest of your clubs?

Here is how I define tee heights:

Low: Top of the ball is in line with top crown of the driver Head.
Medium: Top half of the ball is above the top crown of the driver Head.
High: Bottom half of the ball is above the top crown of the driver Head.

I personally tee it up low with my Driver. I play a Diablo 10* reg flex Driver. I used to tee it up medium but one day just tried a low tee height and my drives started going farther and more straight. I found that with a low tee height, looking at my driver face, my impact mark would be right on the sweet spot and I would hit a lot nice straight boring trajectories. The Medium tee height, a lot of times I would hit an ugly slow and short fade and the impact mark on my driver face showed only the bottom half of the ball making contact at the top of the face. The High Tee Height I'd often times pop the ball up. From what I read, the higher the tee height the better distance, carry, and less spin you get but my results have shown the opposite. Am I doing something wrong here? Maybe just going in too steep and not sweeping it enough on the up path but I generally hit good tee shots. I am afraid to change my swing too b/c I am solid ball striker with my current swing but consistency & poor mental game is what keeps my scores in the 90s & low 100s. With my fairway woods and irons I also tee very very low, to the point where you can't even really see the tee but I get good results and have a high trajectory too. I have a friend that is just like me too, better results with low tee and a lot of short fades as the tee gets higher. Any thoughts for discussion is much appreciated. Thanks!

Try this out JcFly.......I tee the ball med-high {to your description}. The thing I do diffrent is that I tee the ball at my left foot heel and set my club head on the ground about center of my stance. The clubhead is about 2 or 3 inches behind the ball at address. By setting the club on the ground at center stance this makes the bottom of your swing there, at center of stance, and you catch the ball on the up-swing. This also allows me to clear my hips and get my right hand over the top more consistantly.

I am not saying this is a cure all for anything. It works very well for me and has added 15-20yrds to my drive. I also hit a very consistant draw now.

I hope this makes some sense to you. I don't think I answered your question about tee heights though. Allong that line......Tee the ball according to your swing path so the ball hits the sweet spot. I play Diablos myself, and you should definatly be teeing it up Med to High {according to your desciption}

NOTE***......This is for the Driver only. All other clubs set up with club head on ball at appropriate place in stance.

Let me know if you try this out and how it works for you if you do......

The Back 9

I tee my ball high and usually hit my Ping G5 driver high also. With the oversize heads on drivers these days, the sweet spot is expanded and above where it used to be on persimmon drivers. And the Titleist ProV1x's work best for me when I have a high launch angle off the tee.

I generally tee up at medium height (according to the given choices), set the ball just inside my left heel, make sure I have the driver face square to my target line, wind up the spring (load the backswing) & release the spring (proceed in my attempt to smack the ball down the fairway). Doesn't always work how I want it to, but the mid-range tee up has at least cut down on topping the ball or popping it up.

You don't say how you set up. With any club, if you tee the ball up very much, and set up with your clubhead resting on the turf directly behind the ball, and then start your backswing, you are too close to the ball. When you tee a ball up, set up with your clubhead hovering off the turf, with the sweet spot directly behind the ball.

Thanks for the reply Back 9. What you wrote makes complete sense and was actually something I've thought about trying before. I won't be able to try this until the weather warms up but I did go to a local golf store this past weekend and tried this in the nets. It was still coming too high but I think I just need some practice and time to adjust. Thanks again!

Thanks Jack Lee, you make a very good point. I set all my clubs up with them resting on the ground right behind the ball. Your quote made me realize I have seen many pros set up with the clubhead hovering over the ground at set up and then brought back in the swing. This is something I will definitely try once the weather gets warm. Thanks!

After 'high-teeing' for a drive once just to see if it made a difference, I promptly buried my driver under the ball launching it 200 yards straight upward --- it landed just past the ladies tee (embarassment #1) and my driver now has a skidmark (embarassment #2) there to remind me to tee half height every time :)

Higher is better than lower. If you tee it up too low, less than the middle option on your poll, you will be forced to swing down on the ball and impart more than the optimal backspin.

Try teeing the ball so the center of the ball is at the top of your driver. And learn to swing UP at the ball and you'll find this works very well. With my Woods, I like to tee the ball about a half inch off the ground so I can swing level or slightly up at the ball. With my irons, I tee the ball right at ground level so I can hit down on the ball. This also comeing in handy as my tee shots and shots from the fairway are pretty much the same setup. I find this very important for good solid ball contact both from a tee and off the deck with irons. I "COULD tee the ball bigher with my woods, but then I"d have too much difference between hitting balls off the tee and off the deck, something I try to avoid. I like fewer variables for more consistant swings.

I tee 'er up high! When I swing, I swing my driver high, so I find that I make better contact and more solid contact when I have the ball teed up higher.
NikeBoy

Everyone is differant but for most teeing the ball low will not promote catching the ball on the upswiing as mentioned here. Teeing the ball too low will promote a download swing which causes the kind of unwanted spin that will cause a big fade or slice. Half a ball above the Driver is a great place to start as also mentioned by others here.