The Debate... Wooden Tees vs Plastic Tees
Here’s a snip I found online of research in 2009 from simpleecology.com calculating the number of the trees consumed each year to make traditional wooden golf tees.
The Math: 400 Million rounds of golf X 7 wood tees per round = 2.8 billion wood tees in the U.S. alone. 2.8 Billion wood tees at 40,000 tees per tree = 70,000 trees per year. You can almost double these figures for worldwide estimates.
Is the golf tee breaking from tradition?
I’m a golf traditionalist and have played golf for over forty years. Having used wooden golf tees the vast majority of that time. As the world is growing more and more green every day. It makes you take pause when you see these wooden broken golf tees litter up golf courses. Certainly I would not consider myself an environmentalist by any stretch leaning toward a more balanced approach. It's great to be environmentally friendly wherever & whenever you can.
Soft wood golf tees...not for me anymore
With this in mind, wooden golf tees have become a real pet peeve of mine. Look at those numbers above of the trees that are eliminated every year to make low quality wooden golf tees. Those numbers consider going thru 7 wood golf tees per round of golf. Personally I’d go thru 14-16 wooden golf tees per round of golf. Maybe I tee the ball too low or our ground is way too hard. Can’t explain it but my wooden golf tees were breaking just about 100% of the time.
Golf courses are too beautiful to be littered up
Wooden golf tees fell out of favour for me several years back. It didn’t matter if it was a par 3, 4 or 5...the tee boxes were a mess with wooden golf tee fragments everywhere. It became just an unsightly mess due to the ease in which soft wooden golf tees would break. Of course if your tee is broken into pieces there is certainly no reason to pick it up, hence all the litter.
Say what...that’s a fortune in golf tees?
You take a look on Amazon; a pack of 100 wooden golf tees can be purchased for 10 to 12 bucks. Considering I go thru 15 wooden golf tees on average in one round of golf. The 100 pack of wooden golf tees would last me about 6.5 rounds of golf.
Yearly I play about 80 rounds of golf, I’d have to order 12 – 100 packs of wooden tees. That would get me thru one full golf season at the cost of $120 -$150 per golf season (that’s Happy Hour money folks).
I’m certainly in favor of saving trees whenever possible but I’m equally in favor of saving the money as well.
The money I've come to know does not grow on trees.
What's the difference in cost
Continue to look on amazon & you’ll find a fantastic deal. You can get Crestgolf Mixed Color Claw Golf Tees, they are low resistant, zero friction & environmentally non-toxic. They come in a 100 multi color pack you get blue, white, lime, red, brown & pink. All for the amazing price of $15.23 delivered. Here are some other great options:
That’s sure to satisfy the entire family!
My wife and I split a box of plastic claw tees at the start of the season. An added bonus, when they fly out of the ground after a tee shot they’re brightly colored and easy to spot.
You rarely loose a golf tee.
Like I said I’m cheap, I don’t like loosing even a golf tee and with these nice bright colors it’s rare. I’m now on my 8th golf tee of the season 60 games in. I loose more golf balls than I do golf tees.
Currently I’ve spent $1.20 on tees so far this season and I’m on pace for $1.50 for the entire yearly total cost in plastic golf tees.
That beats $150 bucks in wooden golf tees
I was joking with my wife the other day!
“When we update our will next year who are we going to give the rest of these plastic golf tees to"?
Helping save the environment & saving yourself a ton of money!!
That's a tree I can get under!!
Happy Golfing Friends!
by Don Toth
