the teeing ground

[rjbay]

Tees, the underappreciated, often almost overlooked piece of the puzzle. I have a strong affinity for tees that look like you could almost have cut them out of the existing turf with a mower, in other words, tees that are not extrusions from the existing turf. Some of my least favorite architectural features are tees that jump out at you. Anyone else have some thoughts on the subject?

[TEPaul]

Archie;

I couldn't agree with what you say more. If you haven't already you should see the tees at Garden City--they are exactly as you like them.

I'm also a fan of tees that meld right out of greens and chipping areas and such--quite a few of these at the new Applebrook and one at Friar's H that takes the meld to the limit--almost indistinguishable--gorgeous.

I'm also a big fan of melded tees to different holes and certainly something unique like the meld on the first tee at Atlantic City.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tom,
That sounds great, but can you get the following group, in today's world, to appreciate the etiquette neccessary to make them functional?

[archie]

TEPaul

Another great example of a great teeing ground in on the west course at Merion.

Willie Park appears to have built some excellent tees at Olympia Fields, not having been there in person, I am only going from pictures that I have.

As to tees , I also have an affinity for some free form movement,and various shapes and sizes depending on the look of the hole. I'm almost ready to try again, maybe a redo of Ocean City Municipal!

[TEPaul]

Jim Kennedy:

Good question and I don't know, probably because I really don't live in today's world.

If you're asking about the shared tees between two holes and peoples' poor etiquette with talking or something when you're trying to tee off I generally just yell at the top of my lungs, "Shut the f...up".

And if you mean people hitting approach shots into you if the tees are melded from chipping areas directly behind greens and such I generally just take their ball and drive it right back at them--and I've always been amazingly accurate! I've also always been an amazingly fast broken field runner!

[rjbay]

tees,as I suspected,not too sexy and definitely underappreciated.

It is so great to walk to a neat tee box, which obviously fits into the flow of the golf course. Many times the very best tees are seamless, hence some of our appreciation of those that meld into the green last played, or a putting green like Merion West, Atlantic City CC or Due Process in our area.
I know many of the great courses of the Emerald Isles have these great tees, that just flow into the landscape. I had a constant fight with the shapers because I didn't want to have any pitch or elevation to the tees, which would have compromised some of the agronomy practices of the new age.

Hope we get some more postings, as tees and their placement to me are critical to design!