New Design Idea/Help

[designT]

For a School Project we are designing a tool that helps you tee up your ball. Many older gentlemen have a hard time bending over to tee up there ball and our tool would make it so that they would not have to bend over to do so. Currently we are in the research phase of our design and would like to know what characteristics of such a tool would be useful. Any help on this would be really appreciated.

Thanks

[WUTiger]

The big challenge you face: coming up with a design for which the benefit exceeds the hassle .

Possibly a tubular device about 3 feet long which would plant a tee in the ground at proper height. You might pair it to work with the golf tees which have the paint striping on them to use as a height guide.

You could side-load the tee into the Tee Tube ® device, with ball on top, a brace on top of the ball, and press it into the ground to desired height. A stop bumper would keep the tee from going in too far. Would need to be able to rotate Tee Tube away without knocking ball off the tee.

Note: Either top brace or stop bumper would have to be adjustable.

Other considerations:

• Insertion momentum: Manual pressing downward, or spring loaded?
• Desert or hardpan: August in south Texas - will it drive a tee into ground as hard as concrete?
• Storage and on-course carrying mechanism: A side rack on the golf bag, or insert it into the golf bag like a club? If in the bag, it needs to be 3 feet long so it doesn't fall in and get lost. Would people with bigger bags be willing to give up their separate umbrella slot to hold this?
• Competition: On occasion I see the little three-legged soft plastic golf ball "tee platforms" that people use. Would this Tee Tube be less hassle than the little platforms?

Good luck. If you need someone to hawk the Tee Tube on the Golf Channel, let me know. We can work out a deal.

[designT]

Originally Posted by WUTiger

Insertion momentum: Manual pressing downward, or spring loaded?

Desert or hardpan: August in south Texas - will it drive a tee into ground as hard as concrete?

Storage and on-course carrying mechanism: A side rack on the golf bag, or insert it into the golf bag like a club? If in the bag, it needs to be 3 feet long so it doesn't fall in and get lost. Would people with bigger bags be willing to give up their separate umbrella slot to hold this?

Competition: On occasion I see the little three-legged soft plastic golf ball "tee platforms" that people use. Would this Tee Tube be less hassle than the little platforms?

The question is which would be preferred for each of these. We are looking to get as many people as possible to give us their ideas on what it should entail. Would you prefer it to be spring loaded or manual pressing downward? We were thinking of making it similar to a club so that it would fit right into the golf bag, is there anyone who would prefer it a different way? Are there any other characteristics that people would prefer for it to have. Like I said we are in the market research stage and are looking for more ideas to please the mass of our potential customers

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by designT

Quote:

Originally Posted by WUTiger

Insertion momentum: Manual pressing downward, or spring loaded?

Desert or hardpan: August in south Texas - will it drive a tee into ground as hard as concrete?

Storage and on-course carrying mechanism: A side rack on the golf bag, or insert it into the golf bag like a club? If in the bag, it needs to be 3 feet long so it doesn't fall in and get lost. Would people with bigger bags be willing to give up their separate umbrella slot to hold this?

Competition: On occasion I see the little three-legged soft plastic golf ball "tee platforms" that people use. Would this Tee Tube be less hassle than the little platforms?

The question is which would be preferred for each of these. We are looking to get as many people as possible to give us their ideas on what it should entail. Would you prefer it to be spring loaded or manual pressing downward? We were thinking of making it similar to a club so that it would fit right into the golf bag, is there anyone who would prefer it a different way? Are there any other characteristics that people would prefer for it to have. Like I said we are in the market research stage and are looking for more ideas to please the mass of our potential customers

It can't be computerized in any way. The controls must have large print with easy to turn knurled knobs. It has to be well built without being heavy. And possibly if it could dispense peppermint candies that would be great.

[Beachcomber]

You could possibly get some ideas from these videos:

[WWBDD]

I think it should be a gun that shoots the teed ball into the tee box with a holster that attaches to the golf bag of course.

With any luck it would herald a new age of gentleman duels ... something we sorely miss in modern society.

[Gioguy21]

...know the ball suction cup thing on a putter...why not think of something along those lines for putting in a tee? make a release or something so when you put it in you can release the ball/tee...this way you could essentially lean on the apparatus to drive the tee into the ground on frozen/rock hard/desert tee boxes...perhaps have a little stick or something coming off of it so when you push down, it can hit the ground and limit the tee height to your desired height?

[MiniBlueDragon]

Just scale up one of the 'screw grabber' things on the end of a stick to encompass a tee plus ball. e.g.



Then it's a case of ball + tee into the grabber, push it into the ground and then press the button on top for the mechanism to open up and be lifted off the ball.

[Fore Nicator]

You might consider looking at the popular shag bag. It picks up balls rather well and it might be possible to somehow reverse the process. It is already designed to allow the user to avoid bending over. Remember you heard it here first when you become a millionaire...

[TourSpoon]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

It can't be computerized in any way. The controls must have large print with easy to turn knurled knobs. It has to be well built without being heavy. And possibly if it could dispense peppermint candies that would be great.

It slips into your golf bag like a club but has a pez style head of either Jack, Arnie, or Gary so that after you tee up the ball you can pop the head and bingo, the peppermint is dispensed also taking care of the dreaded golf breath. For the mentos crowd, perhaps a Poulter or Feherty model.  It could sell for 3 easy payments of XX.99 and include an instructional video done by someone with an enormous ego that can convey little to no real valuable information in fifteen minutes. I know someone who can help in that capacity.

Seriously, Like WUTiger said, it has to be relatively hassle free.

[WUTiger]

I hate to rain on your parade, but a 70-year-old golfer describing his recovery from hip replacement mentioned such a device:

http://www.sportsknee.com/news/7-back-on-course-with-new-hip.html

Teestick is marketed by Sharp Designs. http://www.sharpdesigns.com/

Now, if you can build a "better mousetrap" ...