After smoking a drive, you notice your favorite tee from the past few rounds partially broke off. Now you are wondering if it’s going to cost you a few yards and if you should throw it away or leave it on the teebox.
As long as the golf tee can hold up a golf ball, it can be reused and will not affect driving distance at all.
4 DIFFERENT WAYS A TEE CAN SEEM UNUSABLE
TEE BREAKS HORIZONTALLY
This is the most common occurrence for a wooden or bamboo tee breakage. Depending on where the tee broke, it may still be used for all clubs including the driver.
If not, the tee getting shorter is not a complete loss. I’ll keep a few tees that snapped and are now only .5”-1” and make them Par 3 tees for my irons. It’s good to keep a few of these in the bag for tighter courses as well if you are going to use a lot of longer irons and fairway woods off the tee.
PART OF TEE HEAD OR PRONGS BREAK OFF
Sometimes the force of the impact with the clubhead will break off only part of the teehead or prongs of the tee. Depending on how big of a chunk fell off, the tee may still be usable.
If the tee can still reliably hold a golf ball even with a chunk of the tee head missing, it is still usable. There are people who would argue that this could help increase driving distance by reducing the amount of surface area between the tee and golf ball.
TEE BREAKS VERTICALLY
A wooden or bamboo golf tee that breaks in a vertical line does not happen very often. A tee breaking vertically is unusable because it almost always splits down the middle and can not hold a ball up.
Even if the tee is still usable, it usually does not last long because it is severely weakened and will often break again on the next swing.
PLASTIC TEE HAS A PERMANENT BEND IN IT
Plastic golf tees have been known to get permanently deformed because of either trying to jam it into hard ground or a slightly descending angle of impact from the club will bend it.
As long as you are able to tee it up, a bend in a plastic tee will not have any impact on performance.
It may not be worth it to some people to play a bent tee as it takes some patience putting the tee in at the right angle for the ball to stay on the tee. If you struggle teeing it up, you may want to consider the Callaway Par Tee, which is extremely durable and a big rubber cup ideal for juniors and seniors.
FAQ
Can you use a broken tee in golf?
Yes, you can use a broken tee in golf as long as it conforms with USGA standards. The rules only state that you need to use a conforming tee. So you can use a borrowed tee from someone in your foursome, a tee found on the ground, etc.
DO GOLF TEES BREAK EASILY?
Golf Tees can break easily if you have a fast clubhead speed, steep downswing, and are using cheaply made tees.
If you find yourself breaking a lot of tees, I would switch to plastic tees which are a lot harder to break and will last 5-10 times longer than wooden tees.
How do I stop my golf tees from breaking?
The reason you are breaking your golf tees more than normal is most likely a steep downswing. Shallow your swing at impact and you will see the amount of tees you break go down significantly.