The teeing area (also called tee box, teeing ground, or simply tee) is the area where play begins on a hole of golf.
The teeing area is a rectangle two golf club lengths deep. Its front edge is defined by an imaginary line between the forward-most points of two tee markers. A golfer must play the ball from within this area when starting a hole. The golfer is allowed to stand inside or outside of the area as long as the ball is in the area.
Published in 1744, the first known rules of golf required players to tee off within a club's length of the previous hole. Over the following century, this distance was gradually lengthened.
It is common for golf courses and country clubs to have multiple tee markers set at different distances. This allows the golfers to play on a golf course with different lengths and levels of challenge. The markers are used to define the boundaries of the teeing area. They can be any object that is placed by the course management.
The earliest known written rules of golf, titled Articles & Laws in Playing at Golf, were drafted in 1744 by the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith[de] for a new competition at Leith Links in Edinburgh. The rules, commonly known as the Thirteen Articles, required players to tee their balls within one club-length of the hole. Players therefore began each hole near the previous hole rather than from a separate, designated area. Many of these areas were within a circle. The signature of John Rattray, who held the title 'Captain of the Golf' at the time, appears at the end of the Articles, preserved in the minute book of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
Successive ways of teeing were used by Bruntsfield Links (1773), Company of Golfers (1809) St Andrews Links (1777), Crail (1786), Perth (1825), and others variously defined the teeing ground. In 1875, the R&A published new rules, before then the teeing areas had expanded to between eight and twelve club-lengths. In that same year Old Tom Morris, introduced separate teeing areas at Old Course at St Andrews. The 1888 rules described a layout similar to that used today.
By the 1890s, golf courses in the United States had begun to construct teeing areas that were level boxes. These boxes were made from wood, stone, or cement, and were often filled with sand, soil, dirt, bitumen, cement, and sometimes covered with coir. Grass teeing areas were also used, later becoming common on championship and private clubs. Today most use grass; most of these older-style teeing boxes would go out of fashion.
In a 1636 Latin textbook, David Wedderburn included the phrase "Statumina pilam arena", meaning "Teaz [tee up] your Ball on the sand", in a section on golf wording from the Early Scots. The 1888 rules of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews referred to the starting place as the "teeing-ground". The term was associated with the Scottish word ''tigh'', meaning "home" and is pronounced tee. The R&A (spun off from The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 2004) and the United States Golf Association (USGA) both call it a teeing area.
Tee markers
Tee markers were referenced as early as 1781, when the Aberdeen Journal referred to a "golf stone". Modern tee markers are often distinguished by color, although colors vary between courses. White and blue have traditionally been used with tees furthest from the hole, also known as "medal" or tournament tees. Red has been used for the forward tees.
Green teeing area markers at the County Sligo Golf Club, Rosses Point, Ireland.
Associations between tee colors and golfer types
Color
Association
Percentage
No association
Orange
Younger
NA
73%
Green
Older
19%
51%
Gray/Silver
Older
32%
50%
Yellow/gold
Men
43%
28%
Blue
Men
64%
Expert
33%
21%
Black
Expert
69%
Men
22%
22%
White
Men
64%
19%
Red
Women
76%
18%
White marker.
Forward tees were often historically called ladies' tees. This terminology has increasingly been replaced by gender neutral terms based on distance or tee position. Championship/Back/Tip Tees and "Tiger" tees are sometimes used for the furthest tees on the course.
The choice of teeing area is generally left to the player, though may be determined by the course. Different sets of tees may have separate Course Rating and Slope Rating values. These values are used in the World Handicap System.
At many clubs, the head professional or starter will ask about a golfer's ability and recommend the most suitable set of tees. This is done to improve the pace of play in a given round of golf.
The Course Rating represents the expected score of a scratch golfer. The Slope Rating represents the relative difficulty of the golf course for a bogey golfer when compared with a scratch golfer. Since the tee markers are at different locations, each set of tee markers has its own Course Rating and Slope Rating.
Layout and boundaries
The teeing area is a rectangle that is made two club-lengths deep, is measured from the two teeing markers, while the sides extend backward from the markers. The area is measured using the longest club carried in the golf bag other than a putter.
The teeing area is the start of any golf hole; the hole starts when the player sets their golf ball within the area. The ball must be within the teeing area, but the player may stand outside it when making the stroke. Playing the ball from outside the teeing area results in a penalty; the type of penalty depends on the format of play.
The ball can be placed on a golf tee or directly on the ground. When making one's swing, a player is allowed to stand outside the teeing area as long as the ball is within the teeing area.
Construction and maintenance
Teeing areas can use a variety of surfaces, the most common being artificial mats or grass. On grass tees, course-maintenance staff may move the tee markers periodically. This is to allow the grass to recover, as divots can damage the surface. These divots can be repaired with sand, soil, seed, or fertilizer.
A golf tee is a small peg with a rounded top. The tee is used to raise the golf ball above the ground for the first stroke of a hole. Under standard rules of golf, a golf ball can only be teed off at the beginning of a hole. Tees are commonly made of wood or plastic and are available in various lengths. The tee itself was not defined until 2004. Under the R&A and USGA Rules of Golf, a tee must be no longer than 4 inches (101.6mm) and must not be designed to indicate the line of play or influence the movement of the golf ball.
Prior to today's wood or plastic tees, golfers used sand to raise the ball. Caddies often scooped sand from the bottom of the hole to form a tee, which caused the hole to deteriorate. This prompted some courses to provide sand in boxes. Today, those boxes hold sand and grass seed to repair divots.
123fore (March 4, 2021). "Golf Terms: The Tee Box". Golf Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
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