A Brief History Of the Golf Tee:
On December 12, 1899, George Grant patented a golf tee which raised the
golf ball (made of rubber at that time) slightly off of the ground. This
improved tapered golf tee was the first tee to be patented. George Grant, who
was not only one of the first African American golfers in post-Civil War America,
he also was one of the first African American dentists.
Strange as it may seem other dentists have patented golf tees. In 1922,
dentist William Lowell designed a red-painted, cone-shaped, wooden peg with a
small concave platform that was patented and became the world’s first
commercially produced golf tee called the "reddy tee." Recently dentist,
Arnold DiLaura, patented the Sof-Tee, a tee that sits on top of the ground
instead of in it.
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