Tee charts online tend to list tee lengths and call them heights. A tee has a length. The ball has a height above the ground. The difference between the two is however far you pushed it in, and nobody sells that.
The ChartWhat each maker publishes, and which number it is
| Maker | Sizes published | Which number that is | What the maker says it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pride PTS | 1½", 2⅛", 2¾", 3¼", 4" | Length | 1½ to 2⅛: shorter holes, irons, hybrids. 2¾ ("most popular"): all-round, drivers under 360cc, fairway woods. 3¼: drivers and long shots. 4: drivers with large heads. Colour bands mark depth. |
| Martini | 2", 2¾", 3¼" (Original and Step-Up) | Length; Step-Up also publishes height | "When inserted down to the bump the ball sits 1¾ inches from the ground." All four conform, per Martini, to USGA and R&A rules. |
| Brush-T | 2" (3 Wood), 2.2" (Driver), 2.4" (Oversize), 3⅛" (XLT) | Size; Brush-T also states its insertion depth | "Tee depth is 1.5 inches for all tees except the XLT tee which sits at a depth of 1.75 inches." Bristles hold the ball; the base sits at ground level. |
| Zero Friction 3-prong | 2¾", 3¼" | Length | Three-prong top "significantly reduces the contact area." Its own advice: about half the ball above the crown. |
| Champ Zarma MyHite | 2¾", 3¼" | Length | Printed stripes to set the same height each time. No height figure published. |
| 4 Yards More | 1¾" red, 2¾" yellow, 3¼" blue, 4" green | Length | Yellow is "Standard Tee", blue is "Driver Tee", green "The Extreme", the longest the rules allow. Built-in height gauge. |
| Evolve Epoch | 1.5", 2.25", 2.75", 3.25" | Length | 1.5 for irons, hybrids, fairway metals and par 3s. 2.25 for mats and "low-handicap players who tee low." 2.75 "the standard driver tee for most golfers." 3.25 for soggy ground and high tee shots. |
Read the middle column. Six of the seven makers publish a length and nothing else. Martini publishes a ball height for its Step-Up. Brush-T publishes the depth its base sits at, which gets you closer, but its size is still the tee's size and not a measured ball height. With an ordinary tee, insertion depth determines playing height, and nobody publishes that.
The makers also disagree about what "standard" means. Evolve and 4 Yards More call 2¾ inches the standard driver tee. Pride says 2¾ is for drivers under 360cc, and puts today's 460cc heads on the 3¼ and 4. Martini builds its Original and Step-Up at 3¼. Same club, three different lengths, all "standard."
The RuleFour inches, and where that came from
The Equipment Rules cap a tee at 4 inches (101.6 mm), and separately forbid one designed or made so that it could indicate the line of play, unduly influence the movement of the ball, or otherwise assist the player in making a stroke. That is why the longest tee any maker sells is exactly 4 inches, and why 4 Yards More can market its green tee as "the longest allowed."
Four inches of tee is not four inches of height. Push a 4-inch tee an inch and a half into the ground and the ball sits at 2½ inches, which is already above the crown of any driver made.
The DriverHalf the ball above the crown, and what that is in inches
Callaway's own tip page puts it in one line: "About 1/2 the ball should be above the top of your driver as a general rule for tee height." Golf Digest and Golf.com say the same thing in slightly different words, and Zero Friction repeats it on its blog.
What that is in inches depends on the head. A Tom Wishon article on modern driver design, reproduced on Bob Sailer's clubmaking blog in 2014, gives a typical 450 to 460cc head a face height of 53 to 55 mm and a sole-to-crown height of 60 to 64 mm, which is 2.36 to 2.52 inches. A ball is at least 1.68 inches across, so half a ball is 0.84. Half the ball above that crown puts the bottom of the ball about 1.5 to 1.7 inches off the ground. Golf.com's Luke Kerr-Dineen, polling teachers, lands in the same place with "about 1.5 inches for driver," and it is what a 2¾-inch tee gives you when it is pushed in a little over an inch.
So the number to remember is the height of the bottom of the ball, not the length of the tee. For a 460cc driver and the half-ball rule, that is around 1.5 to 1.7 inches. A 2¾ tee pushed in an inch gets there. So does a 3¼ tee pushed in an inch and a half, and Martini's Step-Up sits a shade above it by design. A longer tee simply allows deeper insertion at the same playing height.
The TestsTwo published tests, two ranges
Two outlets have measured tee height with a launch monitor and human testers, and they looked at different ranges.
| Test | Setup | What it found |
|---|---|---|
| MyGolfSpy Labs | Human testers, PING G410 LST, Bridgestone Tour B X, 120 drives per height, two measured playing heights | A 1.5-inch playing height carried 14.19 yards further on average than a 0.5-inch playing height, 14.66 yards of total distance, and the lower tee spun about 326 rpm more. Nothing above 1.5 inches was tested. |
| Golf Monthly (Sam De'Ath, June 2026) | One tester, five drives per tee, TaylorMade Qi4D, Pro V1, Foresight GC3, castle tees in six sizes from 1 to 2¾ inches (the size printed on the tee, not a measured ball height) | 1-inch tee: 155.9 mph ball speed, 1,949 rpm, 258 carry. 2¼: 162.8 mph, 2,349 rpm, 283.7 carry. 2¾: spin rose to 2,750 rpm and carry fell back to 277.3. "There was clearly an optimal tee height for me." |
They agree that too low costs a lot. MyGolfSpy tested two heights and the higher won by about 14 yards; it did not look above 1.5 inches. Golf Monthly tested six sizes and the gains stopped between the 2¼ and 2¾ tees, when spin climbed and carry dropped. Two testers, different scales, small samples: not a rule. What they do show is that the top of the useful range is higher than most people tee it, and that there is a top.
Golf Digest's robot test, run at Golf Laboratories at 95 mph with a two-degree downward attack, looked at the other side of the same coin: strikes 0.6 inches below the centre of the face carried only 219 yards. A tee too low does not only lose height. It moves the strike down the face, and that is where most of the distance goes.
The Rest of the BagFairway woods, hybrids and irons
Here the instruction pages are the only source, and they are close but not identical. Murphy is a teacher; Ballengee and Kerr-Dineen are writers reporting teachers' advice.
| Club | Golf.com (Jim Murphy) | Golf News Net (Ryan Ballengee) | Golf.com (Luke Kerr-Dineen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fairway wood | "Just slightly off the ground"; you can see the cone of the tee | "A little less than the top half of the ball is showing above the crown" | About half an inch |
| Hybrid | Push the tee all the way in; the ball sits on top of the grass | Same as the fairway wood | Not given |
| Iron | "It should look like the ball isn't on a tee at all" | Not given | A quarter inch |
The hybrid row is the one real split. Murphy tees it flush, Ballengee tees it like a fairway wood, and neither says why. The 1½-inch Pride, the 1¾ 4 Yards More and Evolve's 1.5 all exist for these rows. For an iron on a par 3, Murphy wants it to look as if it is not on a tee at all; Kerr-Dineen allows about a quarter inch.
RelatedThe other half of the launch
Tee height and driver loft both raise launch, and both change spin, so change one at a time. Where the ball sits in your stance does the same job from a different direction; the ball position chart covers that. If you want to see what a tee change actually does to your numbers rather than guess, the ball speed chart is where the launch monitor figures live.
FAQQuick answers
How high should I tee the ball for a driver?
So that about half the ball shows above the crown at address, which is Callaway's published rule and the one Golf.com and Golf Digest repeat. For a 460cc head that puts the bottom of the ball roughly 1.5 to 1.7 inches off the ground. Golf Monthly's tester kept gaining up to a 2¼-inch castle tee and lost distance at 2¾.
What length tee should I buy for a driver?
2¾ inches is what most makers call the standard, and it reaches the half-ball height when pushed in about an inch. Pride puts 460cc heads on its 3¼ and 4. Either works; a longer tee only allows deeper insertion at the same height.
What is the longest golf tee allowed?
4 inches (101.6 mm) under the Equipment Rules, which also forbid a tee that indicates the line of play, unduly influences the ball's movement, or otherwise assists the player. Pride and 4 Yards More both sell a 4-inch tee.
Which tees publish the playing height instead of the length?
Only Martini's Step-Up, which sits the ball 1¾ inches up when pushed to its bump. Brush-T publishes the depth its base sits at, 1.5 inches (1.75 for the XLT), but its sizes are the tee's sizes. Everyone else publishes length only.
How high should I tee a 3-wood or hybrid?
Fairway wood: barely off the ground, a bit less than half the ball above the crown. Hybrid: the sources split between flush to the grass and the same as a fairway wood. Iron on a par 3: barely on a tee at all, or about a quarter inch.
Does a higher tee give more distance?
Up to a point. MyGolfSpy's testers gained about 14 yards going from a half-inch to a 1.5-inch playing height. Golf Monthly's tester gained up to the 2¼-inch castle tee and lost distance at 2¾, when spin climbed. Golf Digest's robot showed why a low tee hurts: a strike 0.6 inches below face centre carried only 219 yards.