Golf tee

A golf tee for improved straighter golf ball flight when hit therefrom including an adhesive means applied to all or a portion of the socket portion of the head for adherence to the golf ball placed thereon. Golf ball adhesion to the head of this golf tee provides the anti-spin characteristics necessary to reduce ball "hook" or "slice". The preferred adhesive means is a double-sided tape, however, any adhesive means may be applied on the socket of a conventional tee, the adhesive then covered to allow the tee to be stored in, for example, a golf bag, without premature adhesion to other surrounding objects. The golf tee may be of a conventional shape or may include an enlarged head portion for greater adhesive means engagement to the golf ball. However, the combination of adhesive size, tee size, and adhesive strength should not act in such combination that the tee flies with the golf ball when struck by a golf club in normal play. The preferred embodiments of the invention are of approximately conventional tee weight and size so that it may be used in normal play except when in violation of golf competition regulations. Adhesive means may be applied to any conventional golf tee including those having a stem designed for improved ground engagement. Two alternate embodiments include additional anti-rotation flanges on the shank of the tee to provide maximum resistance to tee rotation in the ground and, therefore, to enhance golf ball anti-spin properties of this invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates generally to golf tees and particularly to golf tees 
which modify or otherwise improve the flight of a golf ball which has been 
struck by a golf club in the normal manner from a tee. The golf tee in 
this invention eliminates or reduces the effect of any undesirable 
rotational input from contact with the head of the golf club, and, 
therefore reduces or eliminates hooking and slicing of the ball in flight. 
There have been other golf tee devices which generally have attempted to 
improve a player's accuracy in guiding a golf ball. In U.S. Pat. No. 
3,782,723, the inventor therein disclosed a tee which was shaped to 
eliminate golf ball/tee head interference as the ball flies from the tee. 
U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,027 also discloses a tee shaped to pivot away from the 
club head just prior to golf ball impact for the same purpose, i.e. to 
prevent disruption of the intended ball trajectory. U.S. Pat. No. 
4,192,504 discloses a tee shaped for improved trajectory alignment and 
length of ball flight. 
Two U.S. patents have been addressed to the partial objective of this 
invention. U.S. Pat. No. 1,573,911 teaches a golf tee which includes an 
elastic ring of rubber or the like having yielding lugs for retaining the 
ball on a corrugated head tap surface. This device, although arguably 
effective in reducing ball spin, as elaborate and expensive. The device 
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,888 is intended to specifically by 
suction means in an elaborate base, improve one's golf game by providing 
additional resilient resistance to the golf ball's club impact, thus 
increasing distance achieved by a given club impact. 
The present invention is specifically intended to reduce or eliminate the 
rotational spin imparted to a less than perfectly struck golf ball, thus 
reducing the tendency of the ball to curve in one direction or another 
("slicing" to the left or "hooking" to the right). by simple inexpensive 
means, which is readily carriable in hand, pocket or golf bag, optionally 
reuseable, this invention has accomplished the above objective. 
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
An improved golf tee comprising a tee body and adhesive means. The body 
includes a stem portion for penetration into the ground, and a head 
portion for supporting a golf ball thereon. The adhesive means is applied 
to all or a part of the socket or upwardly concave portion of the head for 
adherence to the golf ball placed upon the head of the tee. The adhesive 
means may be formed of double-sided tape or may be applied in liquid form 
and covered for storage. The stem may include additional ground engagement 
flanges to enhance the golf ball anti-spin properties of this invention. 
The adhesive means is sufficiently strong to provide the necessary adhesion 
between the golf ball and the tee head so that, regardless of improper 
club impact, ball spin is reduced as the ball leaves the tee after club 
impact. This spin reduction has the desired effect of reducing "hook" or 
"slice", which are generally undesirable golfing styles imparted to the 
ball by an improper golf club swing. 
Adhesive means may be applied to any conventional golf tee head socket, 
including those tees already designed for increased ground engagement. 
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a golf tee which 
reduces the rotation of a golf ball in flight. 
It is another object of this invention to provide a golf tee which reduces 
the undesirable characteristics of golf ball hook or slice. 
It is still another object of this invention to achieve the above 
objectives by providing a golf tee which is inexpensive and readily 
transportable and storable in the normal course of playing golf. 
It is yet another object of this invention to accomplish the above 
objectives by including adhesive means onto the socket portion of a 
generally conventional golf tee. 
In accordance with these and other objects which will be apparent 
hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with particular 
reference to the accompanying drawings.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION 
Referring now to the drawings, the improved golf tee is shown generally at 
2 in FIG. 1 and includes a conventional golf tee 4 and adhesive means 6 
applied to the socket or concave surface 12 of the head 10 of the tee. The 
adhesive means 6 includes the adhesive strip 16 and may include a cover 14 
over the adhesive strip if protection during storage is desired. It is 
preferred however, to use a double sided tape such as that manufactured by 
3M Co., product identification #465. This double-sided tape strip 16 
includes a cover 14 on one side to prevent inadvertent adherence to other 
objects until the tape is put into full service. 
Any conventional golf tee may be employed having a straight stem 8 or a 
stem having improved ground engagement characteristics (not shown). 
However in the preferred embodiment, a slightly enlarged head 10 is also 
employed to allow increased surface adhesion area contact between the 
concave socket area and the golf ball. Although the adhesive strip may 
cover only a portion of the socket 12, the entire area is covered by the 
adhesive strip in the preferred embodiment. 
Two alternate embodiments of this invention are shown in FIGS. 3 through 6. 
These embodiments provide stems 8' and 8" which include additional ground 
engaging means in the form of lateral flanges 18 in FIGS. 3 and 4 and a 
widened blade portion 20 to the lower stem 8" in FIGS. 5 and 6. These 
ground engaging means provide additional golf ball anti-spin properties by 
allowing the stem to more fully resist the ball rotational forces that the 
adhesive is capable of transmitting from the inadvertently spun golf ball 
to the tee stem. 
The instant invention has been shown and described herein in what is 
considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment. It is 
recognized, however, that departures may be made therefrom within the 
scope of the invention and that obvious modifications will occur to a 
person skilled in the art.