There's plenty wrong with the traditional wooden golf tee. It breaks too easily. It's not always the right height. The ball sits on it for too long as impact. In addition, and you may not think about this, the tee offers resistance at impact the club impacts the ball.
An Ohio inventor believes his new tee, now available for funding on Kickstarter, solves every problem not addressed by the wooden tee or any other tee technology. Chris Jackson calls his product the Revolution Hybrid Golf Tee, and says the idea for the product came in 2008 when, while reaching in his pocket for a tee, a whole jumbled mess came out instead: a half-broken tee, a coin and some other stuff. The result? A two-piece tee system.
The first piece is a magnetic base, which is shaped like a ball marker, that goes in the ground. The other part is the tee top, which has a corresponding magnet on the bottom of it. The fixed-height top connects with the base and holds up the ball.
The idea behind the tee is that, at impact, there is little to no resistance from the tee as the ball starts its flight. The lack of friction and resistance, Jackson says, adds distance. In his own 2013 testing at Golf Labs in San Diego, Jackson gained 7.5 yards. He says a number of pros, including Padraig Harrington, Stacy Lewis and Robert Streb have given their thumbs up to the product. The only perhaps obvious downside to the product is using the tee with an iron, particularly if you want to hit down on the ball. The base may get in the way. However, the idea fits perfectly with the ideal upward driver swing.
Jackson is now trying to raise $10,000 to produce and release his first production run. He's more than halfway to the goal.
