GolfPlus May 2018 Digital Edition (May 2018) | Page 11

far the most traditional method. Indeed
a schoolmaster, David Wedderburn, in
1636, recorded in Latin “teaz your ball
on the sand”. Golfers thus took the sand
from wherever they could, including
from the hole last played! This obviously
resulted in the hole size becoming larger
leading to a new Rule formed in 1829
requiring new holes to be cut on medal
(read tournaments) days, a rule that
continues to exist today under Rule 33-
2b. To mitigate this, sand boxes were
provided alongside teeing grounds and
any visitor to any of the Scottish Golf
courses will still see such sandboxes. An
interesting Rule is 1834 at Musselburgh
Golf Club banned any “Cady who does
not carry a bag with moist sand or clay
for the tees”.
One other method that was commonly
followed then and even today was is
creating an irregularity or welt on the
turf using the boot or a club. While some
clubs frowned upon this practice, it was
never discouraged and even today the
ball must be played in or on the surface of
the teeing ground whether or not created
by the player.
LIFT IT UP
The definition of the noun form of the tee
appeared to take shape in 1857 with a
description “a pat of soil on which the ball
is elevated for the first stroke”. Compare
this with the very confusing Article 2 of
the 1744 Code, which said, “Your tee
must be upon the ground” and one can
understand the evolution of the ball
elevating devices. Indeed, the Equipment
Standards Committee of the R&A, today,
grapples with scores of requests to
approve such devices
TODAY’S TEE
little doubt that the first shot on every
hole is probably the most important one,
endorsed by none other than the great
Ernie Els when he said “I plot the par 5s
back from the green and make my plan.
If I can reach the green in two shots, I’m
going to be aggressive off the tee. But if
it’s a three-shot hole, the goal changes.
You want to put yourself in position to hit
your favorite shot to the green.
From the 1908 Rule which read “In teeing
the ball may be placed on the ground or
on sand or other substance in order to
raise it off the ground, to the modern Rule
which defines a tee as a device to raise
the ball off the ground and not be longer
that 4 inches plus a few other caveats,
the ubiquitous tee has come a long way.
What ever the word tee means, there is
GolfPlus
MAY
2018
21