Square Tees

[RDecker]

A recent Golf industry trade mag. I was reading contained an interview with Ron Forse.  In the interview Ron claimed/stated he was of the opinion that the Squared- off mowing practices at classic course tees was overdone and "on the way out".  I'm curious what members here think of this statement and of the square tees themselves.  I know as a turf manager that the practice adds quite a bit to the maintenance of the tees and complicates the mowing procedure specifically.  Does the aesthetic justify the effort?  What do you think?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Square tees were an artifical retro look, done because it seemed like time to replicate the old days.  No question they are/were a fad. 

In truth, roundish tees should look more natural, if that is the goal of design. If they are easier to maintain, then they make all the sense in the world. 

[John Moore II]

I think square tees are ok.....as long as they're about 100 yards long and tie right into the fairway. I'd played a few courses with tees like those where the maintenance budget was too small to buy new mowers and used old style gang mowers and they just put the mower down at the back of the tee area and went straight into the fairway. Those came off as looking square and frankly, they served the same purpose as 4 or 5 individually cut teeing areas while looking pretty much the same. Sure beats the Ninja Turtle head we had to look at from one of the back tees at one of my former courses.

But as far as the 'real' square tees like those in the question at hand here, I think they are a waste of resources.  Sure, they look cool, but you typically have to hand mow them (though I do remember my old Assistant Super tell me he was able to cut them square with a triplex) and that takes more time.

[Kyle Harris]

This idea that rounded tees look more natural is ridiculous.

It is a tee BOX. Not a tee CIRCLE. The only thing curvilinear or whatever other fad shape does is add more maintainable short grass without increasing the available usable area. See: Square peg, round hole.

The tee is, and always has been, an artificial construct of man. There are two areas of the golf course that are defined in the rules to be a specific shape; the hole, and the tee box. What's next? Dictating that the hole shape must match the shape of the green?

Show me an example of a perfectly flat circle with grass cut at half an inch in nature.

John,

You don't have to hand mow a square tee because of the shape.

[PCCraig]

I really like them, to me they look "clean" esp. when there isn't a lot of room to build tee space. Not every course has room for huge natural teeing ground, and in that case, I would build basic square tees.

[David Neveux]

Personally, I like them.   I don't find myself particular overwhelmed by the shape of the teeing ground as long as they're flat. 

[Sean Leary]

love em.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Square tees are a nuisance, rounded or at least rounded edges make more practical sense, rounded tees conserve more water and they are much easier to mow if they are rounded.
Square tees look nice though, but they are expensive, so in many respects defy the principle of minamalism.
It's a fashion and depends how the course has been set up budget wise for the maintenance. A lot of older courses back in the 80s-90s had squared tees initially constructed but mowed them more rounded.

[John Moore II]

John,

You don't have to hand mow a square tee because of the shape.

I have been told that same thing before from my Assistant Super. He said when he worked at the Country Club of North Carolina they cut the tees square with a tri-plex mower until the workers got lazy and started doing poor work. Then they started using hand mowers.

However, I have also been told by a member of this site that he felt it was impossible to mow square tees with a triplex.

So, rather than make a definitive statement, I made a more ambiguous statement with a qualifier.

[Jason Topp]

We squared ours off last year and I regret not opposing it at Green Committee meetings.   I think they look like a silly attempt to follow fashion and do not look good when the original tees were not square.

[Jeff_Brauer]

This idea that rounded tees look more natural is ridiculous.

It is a tee BOX. Not a tee CIRCLE. The only thing curvilinear or whatever other fad shape does is add more maintainable short grass without increasing the available usable area. See: Square peg, round hole.

The tee is, and always has been, an artificial construct of man. There are two areas of the golf course that are defined in the rules to be a specific shape; the hole, and the tee box. What's next? Dictating that the hole shape must match the shape of the green?

Show me an example of a perfectly flat circle with grass cut at half an inch in nature.

Kyle,

You over react.  I looked it up in the rules and Rule 1 states:

"The Game of Golf consists of playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules. "

Its Tee GROUNDS, not tee BOX.

You will also note I said roundish, not suggesting perfect circles.  To me, rounded edges suggested by the contours of the land, rather than the extravagant free form shapes of Larry Packard in the 19770's (Innisbrook) seem the most natural.  Free form and square are both purely man made, either functional (square) or artistic (free form)  As noted, if form follows function, and mowing is part of that function, we can even argue if square tees were ever purely functional or just not thought about too much.

All golf features are man made.  If the mantra is to make them as natural as possible, shouldn't following the contours as much as practical given the funtion of the tee apply to tee design as well as green or bunker design?  While I enjoy square tees as much as the next guy, I can't justify them for any theoretical reason other than the connotation that you have an old, classic course.  Not, as they say, that there is anything wrong with that!

[Ian Larson]

I prefer square tees. If built and maintained correctly I love how they can give a hint to (or deceive) the golfer where the right line is to the landing area.


as far as maintenance, I dont see how they are much more maintenance. They can be mown with walkers or riders. The only added cost is the cost of the operator actually caring about precision, which is free. The only "real added cost" that could be debated would be the time it takes for the operator to mow and turn up to the corners. Which comes down to mere seconds per corner, not worth debating to me.


Adrian,

Ive been sitting here trying to think how on earth would a round tee conserve more water than a square tee?


I would say just the oppesite if the irrigation was designed to have independent tee sprinklers. An irrigation system is much more efficient when designed to irrigate a square. Throw curves into it and you have overspray in some form or another.

[Rory Connaughton]

I can live with either.  With that said, I have noticed that since our tees were re-squared, it became more difficult to properly align to the greens on our par threes. The effect has been more balls in the sand since most of the tees point you directly into trouble

[Jeff_Mingay]

Mr. Decker's point about square/rectangular teeing areas complicating mowing simply leads us to believe that this was NOT a common practice during the pre-World War II era.

This is not to say that in certain circumstances rectangular teeing areas don't look good at older and newer courses. They sometimes do. In fact, we built rectangular teeing areas at Blackhawk, in Edmonton, and I still think they look really sharp...

... thanks to Sharpe, who looks after maintenance there 

[Kyle Harris]

Jeff,

How does one determine where the teeing ground is?

What are the shapes of the implements used to measure this?

What shape does that create in the end?

The problem is that the surface will ultimately be flattened. A teeing area is usually flat (or flat-ish) and square.

A rounded corner sufficient to turn a mower is acceptable, but I almost always prefer having a straight edge to the tee, it allows for the maximum usage of short grass.

[Anthony_Nysse]

rounded tees conserve more water and they are much easier to mow if they are rounded.
Square tees look nice though, but they are expensive, so in many respects defy the principle of minamalism.

Conserve more water? how the hell? It's turfgrass, none the less. I CANNOT wait for your response. Square tees can be triplexed without much extra work. Now that we have them at Colonial, I think it gives it a MUCH more traditional feel, a better look. Free form tees tend to shrink alot over the years, especially if mowed with a triplex ,carelessly. I've always thought that Merion's tee complexes would look GREAT if squared off. Hmm, lets see, these top 100 have square tees...

Shinnecock
Oakmont
Pebble
Winged Foot
Seminole
NGLA
Fishers
Olympic
Bethpage
Chicago
Quaker ridge
LACC
SFGC
Inverness
Baltusrol
Spyglass
Cherry Hills
Camargo
Garden City
Somerset Hills
Scioto
Dallas National
Sand Ridge
Riveria
Interlachen
Double Eagle
Maidstone
Ocean Forest
Colonial
Laurel Valley
East lake
Plainfield
Peachtree
Shoreacres
hudson National
Sage Valley
Caterbury
The Valley Club

...and the list goes on....

Tony Nysse
Asst. Supt.
Colonial CC
Ft. Worth, TX

[Adrian_Stiff]

Ian - If you have a rounded tee and put 1 sprinkler in the middle that is most efficient.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Ian - If you have a rounded tee and put 1 sprinkler in the middle that is most efficient.

Adrian,
  That tee would actually have to be VERY big to have a adaquate amount of water applied. Keep in mind, most sprinklers throw 90 feet...1 head WOULD NOT be efficient.....

[Stephen Britton]

[

rounded tees conserve more water and they are much easier to mow if they are rounded.
Square tees look nice though, but they are expensive, so in many respects defy the principle of minamalism.

Conserve more water? how the hell? It's turfgrass, none the less. I CANNOT wait for your response.
[/quote]

HA HA great response..

For the record I'm a square tee fan!

[Anthony_Nysse]

Adrian,
  Also, name the last time you've seen an irrigation head in the middle of a tee? Most are located on the sides for numerous reasons, one being so that you do not have to have pipe running under the tees. A head in the middle of the tee is POOR planning...

Tony Nysse
Asst. Supt.
Colonial
Ft. Worth, TX

[Greg Chambers]

We have square tees, mowed with triplexes.  If you have a properly trained operator, they take no more time to mow than a circle.  Plus they look a lot better, IMO.  As far as the water, we have each tee set up on a block, with heads at all four corners, irrigating the tee surface only.  That to me is just as efficient as a single head watering a big circle, in fact, probably more efficient.

[John Moore II]

rounded tees conserve more water and they are much easier to mow if they are rounded.
Square tees look nice though, but they are expensive, so in many respects defy the principle of minamalism.

Conserve more water? how the hell? It's turfgrass, none the less. I CANNOT wait for your response. Square tees can be triplexed without much extra work. Now that we have them at Colonial, I think it gives it a MUCH more traditional feel, a better look. Free form tees tend to shrink alot over the years, especially if mowed with a triplex ,carelessly. I've always thought that Merion's tee complexes would look GREAT if squared off. Hmm, lets see, these top 100 have square tees...

Tony Nysse
Asst. Supt.
Colonial CC
Ft. Worth, TX
/quote]

Tony-I had the same thought about round teeing areas conserving water over a squared off one, but I did not say anything. I just don't get it. Maybe if the tee area was a prefect circle with a irrigation head right in the center, but who wants to do that considering it would make a fair portion of the tee area unuseable?

Ian - If you have a rounded tee and put 1 sprinkler in the middle that is most efficient.

Adrian,
  That tee would actually have to be VERY big to have a adaquate amount of water applied. Keep in mind, most sprinklers throw 90 feet...1 head WOULD NOT be efficient.....

Tony--Could you not use a small head that sprayed water only 20 or 30 feet? Kind of like a small volume residential type head? So long as you didn't want to put water in the rough that is? (I know this is not a practical idea, I am just writing it out)

[Greg Chambers]

Problem with one small head in the middle of the tee, what if the wind blows?  Then you have one head watering half the tee.  That's not efficient at all.

[Steve Burrows]

The notion of ONE head water in a circle would work great, if you assume absolutely perfect distribution of water from the nozzles, the absence of wind, consistent soil conditions, etc.   Even better, though, as Ian Larson mentioned, is a series of heads with some form of overlapping distribution (oftentimes head-to head coverage), and, moreover, a rectilinear form is best suited for this.

[C. Squier]

Tony, of the courses I've seen from you list Camargo, Garden City, Double Eagle, Maidstone and Shoreacres have plenty of rounded tee boxes along with square boxes.