Teeing area: History and Key Facts

The teeing area (also called tee box, teeing ground, or simply tee) is the area where play begins on a hole of golf.

The teeing area is a rectangle two golf club lengths deep. Its front edge is defined by an imaginary line between the forward-most points of two tee markers. A golfer must play the ball from within this area when starting a hole. The golfer is allowed to stand inside or outside of the area as long as the ball is in the area.

Published in 1744, the first known rules of golf required players to tee off within a club's length of the previous hole. Over the following century, this distance was gradually lengthened.

It is common for golf courses and country clubs to have multiple tee markers set at different distances. This allows the golfers to play on a golf course with different lengths and levels of challenge. The markers are used to define the boundaries of the teeing area. They can be any object that is placed by the course management.

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