Here's a couple more facts, if you can call them that:
"Callaway's Alan Hocknell, senior director of product design and engineering, says longer tees "encourage" high launch angle and low spin, but "we haven't taken the position that golfers must use longer tees." Callaway testers (including Annika Sorenstam, Thomas Howell III, Rocco Mediate and Phil Mickelson) still use traditional-length tees during product development."
And words from the former Tech Nerd at the USGA on standard versus regular tees:
"As for the performance claims, Frank Thomas, technical director at the USGA from 1974-2000 and Golf Digest's chief technical advisor, says he hasn't seen proof that a tee can make much of a difference. "Impact lasts just under a half a millisecond," he says. "During that period of time, there's an average of about 1,500 pounds of force being exerted on the ball. Certainly [a tee] does have some influence, but I believe it's so small that you can't measure it. I think the influence the tee has on the ball is equivalent to the influence a hail stone has on the speed of your car as you're driving along." "
One example that a big driver and big tees aren't needed to achieve distance:
"There is at least one golfer who isn't in the market for anything to help her plunge a tee in the ground at the appropriate height because she usually doesn't use one. Laura Davies, the powerful LPGA player, eschews a tee, high-tech or otherwise, choosing to bump up a piece of turf and launch one of her long drives off that. The latest LPGA driving-distance stats showed Davies, who recently turned 42, was ranked fourth on the women's tour with a 263.4-yard average."
Geeze, maybe all these people are fools. Or maybe they just aren't part of the growing MARKET SECTION of the long tee fad.
Remember putters that were all metal, without inserts or 58" shafts? Yep, they still get the ball in the hole. Just as standard tees get the ball out there just as well.
As long as the ball is positioned to get the sweet spot on it at time of impact in good position, you're going to hit the ball well. Especially with today's bigger drivers.
R35