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How Tee Height Impacts Your Driving Distance

Lowering your tee height even a little can reduce your driving distance. A research study from Tom Mase and Mark Myrhum, sponsored by the USGA, shows how tee height can affect launch, spin, and overall driver performance.

Key Findings

• Robot testing lost between 2 and 13 yards when the impact was lowered just 0.6 inches on the face, depending on club-ball combinations.

• Elite male college golfers lost an average of 12.8 yards of carry and 6.2 yards total distance for every inch they lowered their tee height.

• Dropping the tee height lowered golfers' angle of attack by roughly 1.8 degrees per inch, reducing launch angle and increasing spin.

• Three of nine elite men actually increased total distance by teeing the ball lower, primarily because their standard setups produced excessive spin.

• Golfers instinctively adjusted their swing paths and strike locations to avoid extremely low-face contact when tee height decreased.

• Lower tees consistently decreased club-head speed, ball speed, launch angles, carry, and total distances across all players tested.

Study Approach
The study combined robot testing with shots from college golfers. Researchers recorded 492 robot swings and 892 swings the college players, testing tee heights ranging from a typical Tour height (around 1.6 inches) down to ground level. Using GCQuad launch monitors, they captured data on every shot, then applied the USGA trajectory model to translate the data into carry and total distance projections.

Detailed Analysis
Lowering the tee moves impact lower on the clubface, below the optimal strike location. This shift increases spin rates by about 300 rpm per inch and decreases ball speed by 2–3 mph, dramatically reducing overall yardage. Lowering tee height also tends to lead to a steeper angle of attack (you hit down on it more), decreasing launch angles by about three degrees per inch.

But, like everything else in golf, different players will get different results. A few players who typically had excessively high spin gained distance with a slightly lower tee height. For these players, lowering the tee slightly improved spin and created a more optimal trajectory, providing beneficial roll despite slightly shorter carry distances.

Takeaways For You

1. Measure your current tee height and experiment with slightly higher tees if you're tee height is typically below 1.3 inches.

2. If your driver swing speed is under 105 mph, use a tee height around 1.5 inches or higher to maximize distance.

3. Test different tee heights on a launch monitor to find your optimal launch and spin combination.

4. Slightly lowering tee height on windy or firm conditions may provide more roll (but expect less carry distance).

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  Have a great week!