science · 12 December 1899 · 125 years ago
In 1899, an early U.S. patent for a golf tee was issued to African-American, George F. Grant, a dentist of Boston, Mass. (No. 638,920). The design was for a wooden tee with a tapered base and a flexible, tubular, concave shoulder to hold the golf ball. It was designed as "a simple, cheap, and effective tee for use in the game of golf, obviating the use of the usual conical mounds of sand, ... so constructed that it will not in any manner interfere with the swing or 'carry through' of the club in making the stroke." He didn't market his tees, but gave some away. Other styles of golf tees were issued earlier patents in the U.S. and Great Britain (where peg-shaped tees were advertised in golf journals of the 1890s).
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