Iron tee height

[timd77]

For anything over 150 yards what sort of height do you tee up the ball?

For a while now I’ve been trying to work out the ideal height with limited success. If it’s 5mm ish off the ground I’ll often catch it too high on the face and lose loads of distance, chunking it. If it’s just a fraction above the ground I’ll often feel like I’ve got to hit down on it more and end up pushing/slicing.

Today I went back to what i used to do before I tried to get good at golf, teeing it up a good 1-1.5cm above the ground, felt like I was hitting up on the ball, and flushed every single one. Decent distance and a nice little draw.

I was a little wary of this because I wondered whether I might find it hard to execute, or, that I might find it hard to hit the irons off the fairway during the same round. No such problem.

 

[Billysboots]

I only tee it with my irons so that the ball height resembles a good lie on a lush fairway. No higher than that, from 2 iron through to PW.

 

[Backsticks]

I only tee it with my irons so that the ball height resembles a good lie on a lush fairway. No higher than that, from 2 iron through to PW.

I used to the that. But have come to tee it higher than that. I hit it the same, all being well, but feel it reduces the chances of catching it heavy. It does feel easy to adjust for the extra height, and I would say the proportion of middled ones is unchanged.

 

[Neilds]

Red castle tee for me

 

[milngavie_hacker]

Red castle tee for me

Same here but about to try castle green for a lower height.

 

[HPIMG]

Green castle tee for everything except driver.have a mate who uses blue castle tees for irons and I don’t know how he does it, ball just looks so high to me.

 

[jim8flog]

For me the tee height for an iron has always been the equivalent of a really good lie on grass.

Any higher and it means you are changing the swing - put in simple terms probably trying to hit the ball on the up rather then on the down.

Green/orange tees where mats are in use for me . Very short tees pushed nearly all the way in to the ground when playing off a grassed tee.

 

[Imurg]

Tee it high with an iron and you risk hitting high on the clubface where there is little "meat" resulting in poor strikes and poor distance.
If you tee it higher than a cm and you're hitting the turf then you're not getting the best out of your swing

 

[Orikoru]

With irons and wedges I tee them all very low. I use the short stubby tees pushed most of the way in so the ball is only sitting 2 or 3 mm above the ground. So it's almost equivalent to a nice sitting up lie you might find in the first cut for example. If I tee it too high I'm more likely to hook or slice it I find. Or you can catch it too high on the face and lose distance. It baffles me when I see people teeing it a whole centimetre to hit an 8 iron or something, I have no idea how you get a good strike doing that.

 

[timd77]

Tee it high with an iron and you risk hitting high on the clubface where there is little "meat" resulting in poor strikes and poor distance.
If you tee it higher than a cm and you're hitting the turf then you're not getting the best out of your swing

Yep, consistency of strike is a concern and maybe it was just luck, but yesterday they were all spot on.

I’m only talking longer irons, 6, 5 & 4. Everything else if just above the surface or even no tee.

Some interesting thoughts on here though.

 

[clubchamp98]

Yep, consistency of strike is a concern and maybe it was just luck, but yesterday they were all spot on.

I’m only talking longer irons, 6, 5 & 4. Everything else if just above the surface or even no tee.

Some interesting thoughts on here though.

Maybe with longer irons teeing it a hair higher is good.
your aoa with longer irons is a bit flatter so no massive divots.
as in all things golf some things are standard but small differences in an individuals game can help.
So if it works for you crack on!

 

[timd77]

Maybe with longer irons teeing it a hair higher is good.
your aoa with longer irons is a bit flatter so no massive divots.
as in all things golf some things are standard but small differences in an individuals game can help.
So if it works for you crack on!

Very true! When I first started playing properly (4 years ago), I always used to tee longer irons up a bit, confidence I guess. Used to hit them well. As my general iron play improved I went down to much shorter tee heights but haven’t really seen any gain from it, largely inconsistent off the tee if anything. No idea why there’s such a difference between tee box and fairway.

Will keep dabbling anyway.

 

[sunshine]

For me the tee height for an iron has always been the equivalent of a really good lie on grass.

Any higher and it means you are changing the swing - put in simple terms probably trying to hit the ball on the up rather then on the down.

Not necessarily. It’s just the same as having the ball a little above your feet on the fairway. 1 or 2 cm isn’t going to make much difference.

Personally I use a broken wooden tee and tee it quite low, but teeing it higher doesn’t require a different swing.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

These days I push the tee right down to the base of the ‘cup’. I used to feel I had to tee a bit higher to give me a better chance of a decent strike, but for me that’s a bit of a fools errand…I am trying to have consistent thinking and striking whether teed up or not.

 

[sjw]

Ignoring the length of the tee (I'll use a broken one I find), this much.​