Why do golfers like elevated tees? No this isn’t a dad joke. A study was done, and I’m NOT going to waste my time citing all the sources in this little “tale from the tall grass”, but I thought it was an interesting hypothesis. Let me provide the essence.
First… it takes a golf dork having to write some kind of thesis for graduate school, and he decides he is going to ask the question, “do golfers prefer to hit from an elevated tee?” He concludes, through survey and study: that they DO prefer elevated tees. Someone else picks up the thesis, and wants to explain why.
Yeah, the ball certainly carries farther, but the answer is found outside of golf. It’s really an environmental psychologist who can best explain why humans enjoy being up high. He says it’s in our DNA, basically our fight or flight mentality. Humans believe getting to a high point is naturally safer, we prefer looking at things from up high. Now a golf hole looks neat from up high, but what looks even better from up high… is an angry pack of lions. Makes sense right!!
Now think about something else…when you go to the zoo, the zoo often gives you a high vantage point…but one of the things they are really good at, is giving you a low vantage point. Think about those low caves with the glass. We are naturally afraid to be low, obviously the glass protects us, but we would never choose to be low. Does that mean we are terrified of low tees that require a hit to uphill, who knows? I just thought it was interesting, and though I wasted 45 seconds of your life reading this…maybe it’s something you will ponder and regurgitate to dazzle your foursome.
