By Greg MacKeen, President of Tee Direct Inc.
In a recent 19th hole conversation, a traditionalist posed this provocative question to me:
“Can a Tiny Golf Tee Really Make a Difference?”
recounts Greg MacKeen, inventor of the innovative TEF TEE™ performance tees with Teflon® Technology.
Intuitively, all technology based on sound principles of engineering and science can help players perform better. The golf industry is a tech driven business as evidenced by the incredible fact that more patents have been granted for golf equipment than for medical equipment. And the physical size of the advancement isn’t proportionate to the scope of the improvement. Minute changes in dimple patterns on balls, micro variations in grooves on clubfaces, tiny aerodynamic features on club-heads, all have been proven to make a big difference in a player’s performance.
Analytically, robotic tests have proven drives go longer and straighter off our Teflon® coated tees, but was the difference really significant. I took it upon myself to investigate the question quantitatively using the data we see from the play of the tour professionals that regularly use our high performance tees. The conclusion was actually quite astounding. YES a tiny tee could make a huge difference, like a $2.4 Million difference.
The core findings of this analysis of the data were as follows:
A. 4.0% – the average increase in Driving Accuracy shown by all players who have used TEF TEE™ in 2014 versus the last full year before they switched to the Teflon® coated tees.
B. 60.8% – the average percentage of Fairways Hit by the top 10 players in Official World Golf Rankings (ie 8.5 fairways per round)
C. 48.6% – the rate at which the top 10 players made birdie from the Fairway (i.e. 4.1 birdies per round)
D. 40.5% – the rate at which the top 10 players made bogeys from the Rough (i.e. 2.2 bogeys per round)
No big surprises in this data. Pros make more birdies from the fairway and more bogeys from the rough.
Now here’s where the analysis turns from pure quantitative facts to theoretical hypothesis, but the logic is sound:
1. If the average top 10 player were to improve his driving accuracy by 4% points, that would result in him hitting about 0.5 more fairways per round (i.e. 9.0).
2. By hitting 9 fairways per round (instead of 8.5) the number of birdies would increase to 4.4 per round (up from 4.1), which over the tournament means 1.2 strokes lower
3. By being in the rough 5 times per round (instead of 5.5) the number of bogeys would decrease to 2.0 per round (down from 2.2), which over four rounds means 0.8 strokes lower
4. Together #3 and #4 result in a score 2 strokes lower for a player who improves his driving accuracy just 4%.
In a game where the margin of victory and success is super fine, 2 strokes per event means a lot.
Extrapolation of data to predict an outcome requires numerous data points to achieve statistical probability. Otherwise we could foretell every Sunday winner based on Thursday’s scores. But by using a data sample large enough, an outcome can be predicted with a reasonable degree of probability. Based on almost a year’s worth of data, it is not unreasonable to suggest that if the #11 player in the world had posted scores each week that were two strokes lower, here is what it would have meant:
• He’d be leading the FedEx Cup
• He’d be ranked #4 in the OWGR
• He’d have made $2.4 million more and be leading the PGA Tour™ Money List
No wonder TEF TEE™ is the Fastest Growing Tee on Tour.
For more info go to
www.teftee.com
Teflon® is the registered trademark of E.I. du Pont Nemours and Company.
Tee Direct Inc. is America’s second largest importer of golf tees, servicing the retail, golf shop and printing segments of the market thru regional golf accessory distributors by providing the most innovative tees at the best prices.
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