Tethered tees, a short history.
From string-on-a-stick driving range tees to the Tee Claw to where we are now.
1899 to 1920s: the rise of the wooden tee
The first US patent for a wooden golf tee was issued to George F. Grant in 1899 (US Patent 638,920). The tethered concept appeared shortly after. By the 1920s, several patents covered tees attached to weights or pegs to prevent loss.
Mid-century driving range tees
Driving ranges that wanted to reuse tees commonly used rubber tees set in mat sockets. Some experimented with cord-attached tees but the attachment hardware was crude (metal eyelets that quickly tore the cord), and the category never went mainstream.
2010s: the simulator boom changes the equation
Home simulators created a new use case: a golfer who plays the same mat for years and cares about consistency. Products like BirTee, Tomahawk NEO, and Tee Claw addressed parts of the problem. None tethered the tee to a portable system.
Today
We think the right product is a tethered TPU tee with on-grass-equivalent heights and a caddy that doubles as anchor. So we built it. USPTO patent records remain the canonical history if you want to dig further.