The Brush-T claims that it can help you hit longer, straighter drives by eliminating much of the friction between ball and tee:
The unique qualities of the Brush-T mean that the side spin or interference, all too often associated with plastic and wooden tees, can be eliminated. The bristles provide raised support for the ball, but still give unprecedented flexibility. Independent testing in San Diego and California, showing a marked improvement in the dispersion rate, thereby delivering greater accuracy.
Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that San Diego is in California. Let’s also ignore that “a marked improvement in the dispersion rate” can’t “deliver” greater accuracy, it is greater accuracy. And hey, if we want to be technical, it’s not greater accuracy but greater consistency. A loose group of balls in the middle of the fairway beats a tight cluster 20 yards right, doesn’t it? 🙂
Joking aside: do these tees work? I’m not a testing facility. Psychologically, I believe that the tees work quite nicely: you can think of brushing your driver through the tee. I found that the Brush-Ts encouraged me to sweep the ball instead of hitting at it as I sometimes do with a wooden tee. Good visualization is a key to good golf, and the Brush-T may succeed more here than in any “scientifically tested” method. My girlfriend Carey hit hybrid clubs of of the black “Driver” tees all day and was quite happy to think of “brushing” the tee since that’s the thought I’d given her at the driving range (where they have those little rubber tees).
Another bonus: the tees allow you to achieve consistent height. By pressing the tee to the ground, you’re guaranteed to face the same shot on every tee. Small differences in tee height can affect your shots. This is a disadvantage for better players who use those differences to their advantage, but a great thing for higher handicappers.
All is not perfect, however. The Brush-T boasts an “unbreakable” claim, but the lower edge of my Titleist 983K nipped a few of the tees, pushing the brushes into each other and making the tee nearly worthless. My 983K is one of the smaller “huge-head” drivers, and even the Oversize Brush-T (the orange one) is a tad on the short side. A perfect swing means that I’m missing the plastic base by about ¼ inch. It seems I would be better off with the Brush-T XLT.
Four XLTs will set you back $19.95, as will nine tees in groups of three in Oversize, Driver, and 3-Wood sizes. Brush-Ts come with a little belt clip and silly little “holders” with ball markers on top. Perhaps later versions will include a groove brush on the side of the tee.
I agree about the oversize version still being too short for any of the larger 400cc – 460cc drivers. My Nickent 3DX clipped the base on a fairly routine basis, resulting in either a busted tee or having to mount a search and rescue mission to find the tee somewhere out in front of the tee box. Trying to avoid the base resulted in poor drives, so it just wasn’t worth it for me. I liked the idea of being able to count on the consistent height benefit these tees would provide, but it just seemed that the size variations between the 3-wood, driver, and oversize just didn’t work well for me overall.
I tried the “driver” brush-t with my Hybrid today as well with my smaller head driver, and its a bid diffrence with that vs a standard tee. I like it but i will be trying out other tees as well as this one. Ill be purchasing the xlt to try out with my oversize head driver and see what happens.