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!