You hit the ball about fourteen times a round with a driver, but do you really pay attention to its height? Whether you hit the ball low or high, it can have a huge impact on your swing and can help heal or worsen your misses.
As part of our MythBusters serieswe recently tested whether tee height affects distance and accuracy. We’ve broken down all the numbers and you can check the data full results herebut what was also interesting was how the tee height affected my technique.
I changed nothing other than the transition from a low to a high tee and made several adjustments, which in turn caused the ball flight to change from a low fade to a high draw. This was expected, like Golf Digest Top 50 teacher Tony Ruggerio says, “Changing the tee height will naturally change some of the angles at impact, which will change both the launch and the curve.”
To better understand how tee height affects your golf swing, we caught up with Ruggiero and two Golf Digest Dear Young Teachers, Jackson Koert and Morgan Hale. “We love helping people move their bodies better to control the swing of the club, and adjusting the tee height can have a natural knock-on effect on the movement of your body, both during the backswing and when getting into the ball,” says Hale.
Suitable for: Slicers that tend to be over-the-top, above the plane.
Wrong for: Players who have trouble getting stuck, or getting under the plane on the downswing, and who struggle against hooks.
In our MythBusters testwe saw a significant increase in carry distance with a high tee, so if you’re looking for a few extra yards, a higher tee can help. But perhaps more importantly, a high tee is great for someone who slices the ball, Ruggerio says.
“Hitting the ball high creates an environment where the club can swing more from the inside out and up, potentially promoting a more even playing pattern,” he says. “We use this a lot for people who are too out-to-in.”
You can see these changes in my two swings with the low tee and the high tee. Notice how on the high tee (bottom) the club is aligned with my right forearm or sits slightly below it, while on the low tee (top) the club is above my right forearm. The club travels more from the inside with the high tee, which made it much easier for me to hit a draw, as Ruggiero notes.
“Higher tee heights make you swing more around your body and make the contact shallower,” says Koert. “We even saw Butch use Harmon on a student this week.” For those who slice the ball and are constantly over the top, this shallower downswing promotes a more in-to-out swing path that will help you pull the ball.
The reason the club tends to travel more from the inside on a higher tee is because, as Koert says, you swing around your body more. Additionally, “the high tee can promote greater deflection to the right and more tilt of the target,” says Ruggerio. As your upper body tilts further away from the target, the club falls into the slot, where it approaches the ball from inside the target line.
Suitable for: Players who have trouble getting stuck, or getting under the plane on the downswing, and who struggle against hooks.
Wrong for: Slicers that tend to be over-the-top, above the plane.
As you might expect, a low tee height is better for someone who has trouble getting the club to travel too far from the inside to the outside on the downswing. This is called ‘stuck’, and it’s a common problem, especially among better players. Stuck players tend to hang back with their upper body during the downswing and have difficulty gaining full lead as they pass through the ball.
“If you hit the golf ball low, the club stays more at the top (on the plane) and lower in the impact zone, creating a lower launch and possibly a fade pattern,” says Ruggiero. “We use this a lot for people who have the club stuck and too far behind, or too under the plane and from the inside out.”
Remember how the higher tee height promotes more right side bend, where the upper body tilts away from the target during the downswing? Players who tend to hang back and hit hooks have too much turn to the right, so the bottom tee helps them minimize this.
“For people who hang back (in the downswing), I have them do a drill where they hit the ball really low and move it more forward in their stance,” says Ruggiero. “This allows them to get their torso through the ball and cover it more, while also allowing the club to sit more on top of the plane the ball enters.”
For those who struggle with hooks and blocks, a lower tee “promotes a more level turn into and through the ball,” says Hale, straightening your ball flight by causing the club to travel more down the line and less into the ball. outside.
You can see this difference in my swing with the low and high tees. Notice how with the low tee (top image) my upper body is stacked more over my lower body, and my head starts to rotate through the ball. With the high tee (bottom image) my upper body and head are more back and my chin is well behind the ball.
While you want to use the tee height that best suits your swing, all three teachers recognize that if you can learn to hit the ball well with both a low and high tee, that is ideal. “First, it keeps you neutral and not too focused on a draw or a fade,” they say. “Second, you can play different shots on a fairway depending on problems, wind, doglegs, etc.”
And in many ways, that’s what the golf swing is all about: being neutral. Somehow we’re all a little too far (either too outside in or too inside out), and by changing our tee heights we can all get closer to the center.