In a post-round interview on Thursday at the Players Championship, Rory McIlroy explained that he had altered his tee height with the driver around Sawgrass, which had led to more shots in play and a seven-under 65. So what has he done, and why has he done it? PGA Professional Jack Backhouse investigates.
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Tee height is such a small basic thing that most of us never even think about it when playing, let alone alter it on a course-specific basis. This is why Rory’s comments at the end of his first round are so fascinating, and there is certainly something for amateur golfers to learn from this.
McIlroy is known for bombing his driver. He swings well from the inside, hits well up on the ball, launches it high, and it carries forever. A contributing factor is how high you tee the ball. The higher the tee, the easier it is to swing up from underneath it and launch it with the high-launch, low-spin characteristics we all dream of.
In fact, in 2011, fresh off winning the US Open at Congressional, McIlroy was said to be searching for extra-long tees as he couldn’t physically tee the ball up high enough; he was hitting up on the ball so much.
But McIlroy has switched to a lower tee height for the Players Championship at Sawgrass this week. He says that with the fairways being narrow, the rough being long, and many of the tee shots tree-lined, teeing the ball down a fraction more than normal gives him an ounce more control in the direction and only costs him a few yards in length. Sawgrass isn’t the longest course they play on tour, and McIlroy thinks that the lost yardage is well worth the gain in accuracy.
Interestingly, on the 16th hole, a much wider-feeling tee shot, McIlroy teed the ball up at his normal height and launched a bomb that reached a peak height of 149 feet! This is insane and approximately double the height of the average mid-handicapper’s drive. This gave him a huge driving distance. The higher tee obviously freed up his golf swing and resulted in a Rory McIlroy driving masterclass.
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What the average driving player should learn from Rory McIlroy’s tee height-gate is that your tee height shouldn’t be a constant. If you are on a hole that is tighter, then tee the ball down, as hitting down on the ball will produce more accuracy but a shorter distance, and when you step onto a hole that feels wide with no penalty, tee the ball up, and try to hit up on the ball more; this may result is a slight reduction in accuracy but will give you more distance.
