The Tee

To most people, a single golf tee is just that, a golf tee. If you are a golfer, the you know that you always have that one tee that no matter how hard you hit the ball or how many times you have tried to knock the tee in the air and no matter what you do to it, it never breaks. Most people would just call that a bad tee but to me, it was a lucky tee. When I first started playing golf, I was around the age of ten. I had been hitting all of my golf balls into water, sand, trees and anything that involved the nature around the course. Being in my youth, I automatically blamed anything other than myself. Dad just looked down at me, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a ball and a tee. He set them up for me and asked me to take a swing. I walked up to the ball, took my stance, and swung. To my surprise, the ball flew straight down the course. I looked at my dad and asked him if he had given me a special ball that flew straight. He just shook his head and said; “I guess you have the hang of how to swing the club.” I laughed and looked down to pick up the tee and to my surprise, it was where he had put it, Unbroken and sticking straight out of the ground. This tee that had seemingly become unbreakable astonished me. My mind automatically assumed that it was a lucky tee. Something that would help me hit straighter and still not break.

For the next three years, I used the tee every time I was teeing off and every time I used it, I would hit the ball straight down the fairway. However, For those three years, I believed that I had a tee that improved my game. Whenever I went golfing during that three-year period, It would take an extra hour to get me out of the door because I wanted to have my tee. After every tee-off, I would stop and look around for the tee so I would not loose it. As I got older and more experienced at golf, I started to realize that the tee was not making me hit better and that it was just a tee. Something so plane and so ordinary had me, believing that it was some sort of stroke of luck that whenever I used the tee I hit better. I ended up going to the store and buying more tees and pouring them into my golf bag over the lucky tee that I had used so many countless times.

I had almost forgotten about the tee until about two months ago, I was at the driving range and I was practicing my tee off. I reached into my bag and what do I happen to pull out? None other than the lucky tee that I had forgotten about. I looked at it and it brought back memories of me first learning to play golf. I stuck the tee in the ground and put a ball on it. I took my stance and got ready to hit it.

Normally I do not have any thoughts going through my head when I am playing golf but this time was different. This time I kept thinking about the memories I had when I used the tee. I began my swing and followed through with it. I watch the club hit the ball then I lifted my head up to see where the ball was going. Not to my surprise, it was going straight. I smiled and looked down to retrieve the tee and found that it had broken. I picked it up and said to myself “that was quite the way to go out.” I walked over to my bag and put the now broken tee in a pocket on the front of the bag and continued to play.

When I got home, I took the tee out and put it on my desk. I kept it there to remind me of the many games that I had spent with that tee. The many times I have teed off with it and had a good drive. It stays there on the desk as a reminder to when I first started to play and the countless hours I spent trying to learn the great sport of golf.