The History of Golf Tees

Before the invention of the golf tee, golfers typically fashioned "tees" out of sand using either their hands or a conical mold; golf courses would put a box of wet sand out at each hole for this exact purpose. In the late 1800s, a Boston dentist named Dr. George Grant became frustrated with the process and determined that he would find a better way. Grant was the child of formerly enslaved parents and was not only among the earliest Black graduates of Harvard University, but later became the institution’s first Black professor. He also invented a prosthetic for cleft palates. Golf was his passion — he often played at Franklin Park and on a self-made course in a meadow near his home — and so he decided to create a wooden golf tee to replace the tedious and less effective sand “tees.” The patent for Grant’s wooden golf tee was granted on December 12, 1899 and was the first of its kind to be issued in the United States. However, Grant did not market his invention and instead simply had prototypes made, which he used himself and handed out to his family and friends for free. In the early 1920s, another dentist named William Lowell created the Reddy Tee and marketed it aggressively, even enlisting golf legend Walter Hagen to showcase it. According to the PGA, Lowell originally used gutta-percha (the material used to make false teeth and golf balls at the time) to make his tees, but the material proved too brittle, so he switched to using white birch. Although Lowell undoubtedly popularized the modern wooden golf tee, the United States Golf Association has formally recognized Grant as the original inventor. Wooden golf tees are still used today and are by far the most popular type. Although golf tees made from bamboo, plastic, and biodegradable resin have since been developed, too, many golfers still prefer the traditional wooden version.