1. You must tee your ball within a club's length of the hole;
2. Your tee must be on the ground;
3. You may not change the ball which you strike off the tee.

From this, we know that the word tee was used as both a noun and a verb, and that determining how to start the play of a hole was of great importance to the Rules makers.

Long before these rules were written down, golfers gave themselves a bit of an advantage on the opening stroke by creating a perch for the ball above the surrounding ground. They probably began by kicking at the turf to make a bump, much as some players do today. This caused an obvious problem of damage to the ground near the hole, even after later eighteenth-century codes increased the teeing distance to two-to-four club lengths. The answer, well into the twentieth century, was to take a small pile of dampened sand and form it into a cone shape, then set the ball on top.

The word tee is derived from the Gaelic word tigh, meaning "house." It appears to be related to the term tee in curling, which is the line through the center of the target circles, also called the house. If it seems odd to name golf's starting point after curling's target, remember that the golfing spot was defined by a club-length's circle around the previous hole. As a noun - tee probably referred at first to a place, and only later - much later - came to mean a device or technique for elevating the ball.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, several people began to think of ways to make the tee a separate and reusable object. According to The Singular History of the Golf Tee, by Irwin R. Valenta, the earliest known portable golf tee was invented by two Scots, William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas, in 1889; it consisted of a rubber slab that rested on the ground, with three vertical prongs or a hollow rubber tube extending upward to hold the ball in place. The first tee to anchor itself into the ground was the Perfectum tee, invented by Percy Ellis and patented in Britain in 1892; it consisted of a ring of rubber pins attached to a metal spike that was pushed into the ground.

The first two patents for teeing devices in America were registered to David Dalziel, a native of Glasgow, and Prosper L. Senat of Philadelphia, both granted in 1896. Dalzeil's device is better described as a "golfing apparatus"; it was a large permanent structure to be buried in the teeing ground, containing a spring-loaded adjustable T on which to place the ball. The T would bounce back into position after the shot, ready for the next player, in the manner of an automated driving range. Senat's implement was more portable and practical. It consisted of a small piece of cardboard or paper, semicircular and ridged, with an interlocking notch creating a cone on which the golfer could place a ball.

The father of the modern tee in America was Dr. George F. Grant, who was awarded the US patent for his 1898 invention consisting of a wooden peg, topped with rubber tubing, that could be pushed into the ground. Grant was one of the first two African Americans to graduate from Harvard Dental School; he eventually taught there as well, and invented an oblate palate for use a prosthesis for patients with cleft palates.

Grant's patent application, specified as "an Improvement in Golf-Tees," describes its purpose in detail:

While the tee must firmly, yet lightly, support the ball until hit by the player's club, the tee must be so constructed that it will not in any manner interfere with the swing or "carry through" of the club in making the stroke. The requisites are possessed in full by my invention, and the annoyance and sometimes discomfort attendant upon the formation of a sand tee are obviated thereby.

Grant had the tees manufactured at a small shop near his suburban Boston home. He used them and he handed them out to friends, but he made no effort to market or capitalize on his invention. That task fell to another dentist, William Lowell, who invented the Reddy Tee in 1921. While Grant's two-piece device was similar to the Perfectum and Victor tees, the Reddy Tee was most like our modern tee in consisting of a single piece, shaped to hold a ball and be pressed into the ground. It had a distinctive red-painted top that made it easy to find and was manufactured in a variety of materials - first wood, then celluloid and assorted plastics. Lowell paid Walter Hagen and trick-shot artist Joe Kirkwood to promote the Reddy Tee, and the device took hold with the golfing public.

If it seems curious that two dentists were instrumental in developing the modern golf tee, take a look at the illustration accompanied below Grant's patent, number 638,920. The idea of a raised platform sitting above a surface line, anchored by a pointed extension below, would be a natural for someone who spent so much time contemplating teeth and their roots below the gumline.

George Grant's Reddy Tee

Devlin's Billabong at Torrey Pines

The pond that guards the 18th green of the South Course at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, earned its name during the 1975 Andy Williams San Diego Open.

Aussie Bruce Devlin hit his second shot on the par five to the edge of the pond, and from a partially submerged lie he took six strokes to extricate the ball, winding up with a 10 on the hole that most other players considered a birdie chance.

A plaque on the site commemorates his misadventure.

Spectacles at Carnoustie

The upraised Spectacles bunkers lie side by side in the middle of the approach to the par-five 14th hold at Carnoustie, 50 yards short of the green.

For the average player, the strategy of the 483-yard hole is dictated by whether or not he will try to carry the bunkers and reach the green in two.

Despite the expansion of the hole to 513 yards for tournament play, most professionals don't even know these bunkers are there as they fly their approaches blithely by.

Palmer bogeyed the 10th hold against Casper's par. His lead was six shots. It was still six as they headed for the 13th tee. Palmer bogeyed the par three after attacking the flag and finding a bunker, while Casper played away from the hole and made par. The lead was five, and it remained there after both Palmer and Casper parred the 14th hole. On 15, Palmer again attacked the flag and bogeyed the hole, while Casper birdied from twenty feet after playing to the safe side of the green. The lead was three shots'

"Hey, I can win this tournament." That's what Casper thought as he walked to the 16th tee. Palmer duck-hooked his drive into the rough and slashed at his ball with a three-iron, trying to move it well down the fairway. The ball stayed in the rough. Palmer in the end made a good bogey by getting up and down from a greenside bunker, while Casper birdied the hole. Palmer's lead was one shot.

Palmer bogeyed the 17th hole against Casper's par, and his lead was gone. Casper, feeling aggressive, chose to hit a driver off the 18th tee rather than the four-wood he'd used in earlier rounds. He hit the fairway, center cut. Palmer hit a one-iron, instead of the driver he'd used before, and found high rough to the left. He somehow ripped a nine-iron from there to the back of the green. Casper's wedge finished fifteen feet from the hole. They both two-putted, Palmer having to hole from four feet to make par. Casper shot 32 on the back nine, and Palmer had shot 39.

Casper fulfilled a speaking engagement at a church that evening, and his eighteen-hole playoff with Palmer started at ten-thirty on Monday morning. Palmer took a two-shot lead into the back nine, but he bogeyed 11, 14, and 15, and double-bogeyed 16; Casper birdied the 11th hole and shot even par in from there to win 69-73.

"As far as regret, or sorrow for not winning," Palmer said years later, "it's there, but it's more in the fact that I won only one Open and that would have made it two. The worst part was that I was very aware of Hogan's record [starting the back nine]. That was the part that ate at me. I wanted to break the record."

Casper said:

"I was on the winning end. It brings better memories for me than for Arnold, I'm sure. I remember the shots I hit and some of the experiences I had with the gallery. As always when Arnold plays, there was a great army following him. But as I started catching him, many of the members of his army deserted ranks and they became Casper converts. I could really feel the momentum change. People root for the underdogs in the US and they all started yelling and screaming and hollering for me. It was a great feeling."

You know the feeling; You've just ponied up a couple of hundred bucks for the biggest-newest-latest-and-longest club you've ever seen. A few rounds after you bought it, your buddy gets an even bigger-newer-later-longer club that promises to put every shot in the fairway and will also balance his checkbook, wash away the gray, protect his car from thieves, and add six years to his life. You know you want it. What do you do?

The pros have no such dilemmas. They don't pay for their clubs, they get paid to use them. They have access to the newest technologies before they come to market, and they get whatever they want delivered the next day. They can spend hours, days, even weeks tinkering with something new, deciding if they want it, if they like it, and then the equipment trailers and reps on-site will see that it gets tweaked to fit their exact specifications, mood, or biorhythmic stage. How can this not help?

Add up the number of drives you played on par-4s and par-5s, and whether you hit or missed the fairway. Then calculate the percentage of fairways you hit.

For example, if you found 9 out of 14 fairways, that is 64 percent of fairways hit (9 / 14 x 100).

The best golfers hit roughly 80 percent of the fairways  they look at, which is exceptional. For the club golfer, a figure of about 70 percent is excellent; 60 percent is good; 50 percent is adequate; anything in the 40s or less is poor.

Use your own statistics to help you judge what action you need to take.

Creating a Launching Pad

With your knees flexed, settle your weight 60:40 in favor of the right side and feel the full extension of your arms as they hang from your shoulders. Although you are naturally keyed-up, ready to make a swing, you must also be free of tension, ready to make a smooth first move.

Turning away - Right shoulder moves back as the upper body begins to turn and wind up the backswing.

Giving width - Left arm remains straight, providing width in your swing.

A One-Piece Move

With your hands, arms and body working together, you will generate a wide arc as you draw the clubhead away from the ball. Many of the world's leading players speak of taking away the club "low and slow." Clubhead traces a naturally wide arc as it is drawn away smoothly. Do no jerk it back.

Turn and Stretch

With a driver in your hands, you really do want to feel a stretch in the powerful muscles in your torso as you turn your upper body away from the target. Concentrate on getting your upper body fully behind the ball, while your knees and hips provide the stability that enables you to wind up your body like a spring.

Keep It Smooth

From the top, the emphasis is on making the change of direction as smooth and unhurried as possible, so that the club has the opportunity to return to the ball on the correct inside path. When you unwind correctly from the ground up, you will enjoy a sense of lag in the wrists, which enables you to hold on to the angle between the wrists and the clubshaft - a key power source that you want to unleash at impact, but not before.

All Together Now

Good timing is crucial for powerful driving. All the moving parts in the swing must realign at impact to deliver maximum power and accuracy. You should experience the feeling of your hands, arms, and body working in harmony. As you turn back through, make sure that your left arm remains gently extended so that it can apply full pressure to the back of the ball. Keep your head behind the ball as you swing your arms through impact and release the club in front of your chest.

A Full Release

With the driver, it is very important to hit through the ball, not at it. Commitment through impact is crucial, so always look to create good width and extension through the ball as well as on the backswing. See the ball as well as on the backswing. See here how the right side of the body "fires" through impact, and how the right forearm releases over the left to square the face at impact and send the ball on its way.

Finish in Balance

Nowhere is a relaxed, balanced, and comfortable finish position more important than with the driver. At the end of your swing the majority of your weight should be on the outside of your front foot. Your chest should be facing either toward or a little to the left of the target, and your right shoulder, right hip, and knee should all be in line.

The result of any golf shot depends on three factors: the speed at which the ball leaves the clubhead, the launch angle of the ball, and the rate of spin on the ball. The relationship between these three variables is such that two golfers of the same handicap can generate very different distances, depending on their individual styles of swing.

As a rough guide, average golfers with a 90 mph (145 km/h) swing manage around 210 yards (190 m) - not the 250 yhears (230 m) some claim. The average tour pro with a 100 mph (175 km/h) swing hits the ball some 285 yards (260 m) - around 30 yards (27 m) farther than in 1968. This is due to a combination of a modern ball and club technology, as well as improved player fitness and better course conditioning.