Mills Chastain Mr. Taber 7th Tee Time Mills Chastain Mr. Taber 7th

Topic Question: How does the height of a golf tee affect the distance that I am able to hit a golf ball?

Hypothesis: I think that the medium sized tee will produce me with the longest driving distance because it provides the best launch angle and spin rate.

Materials: Driver (golf club) Golf Balls Golf Glove Three tees of different heights Launch Monitor Trackman Software

Variables: Independent Variable: The height of the golf tee Dependent Variable: How far the ball will travel including carry and roll Controlled Variables: Golf club, distance from ball, person hitting ball, and the type of ball.

Step-By-Step Procedures: Prior to my experiment I researched the best way to gather the data I needed. I learned that using a computer to analyze ball flight, spin rate, launch angle, and distance was the most accurate way. We then scheduled an appointment at Nevada Bobs Golf to use their computerized launch monitor called “Trackman”. I learned during my initial research and from talking to the employee at Nevada Bobs that the distance a golf ball travels is affected by the launch angle and the spin rate of the ball as it flies through the air. Both of these variables are largely determined by the “angle of attack” or the angle at which the face of the golf club impacts the ball. One way to vary the angle at which the driver impacts the ball, is to raise or lower the tee height. At Nevada Bobs we configured the computer to analyze 20 drives with me using the low tee height, 20 with the medium tee height and 20 with the high tee height. During the experiment, I used the same golf club and the same brand and type of golf ball the entire time. This was to eliminate any variance due to equipment. We used a grid of white lines to make sure I was standing the same distance away from the ball. We also configured it so that there was no wind, the temperature was 75 degrees, the ground type was normal and the altitude was 0. (continued)

Step-By-Step Procedures: (continued) We started out using the low tee and I hit 20 balls. On average I hit the ball 184.9 yards with the low tee. We switched to the medium tee and I also hit 20 balls and stood the same distance away from the ball as the low tee. On average I hit the ball 192.0 yards with the medium tee. And then we switched to the high tee and I also hit 20 balls . I stood the same distance away from the ball as the first two and on average I hit the ball 186.4 yards. After hitting 20 balls from each tee height we analyzed the data and saw that a few shots from each tee height were way out of line. This may have been due to a miss-hit or poor swing by me. We decided to eliminate those data points because they were so different from the rest. We hit a few extra from each tee height, until we had 20 swings from each with fairly consistent swing speeds and solid impact.

Results The following slides show the results of this experiment. There are 3 slides that show each of the 20 hits from the low, medium and high tee heights. Each line of data shows the club speed, ball speed, launch angle and total yards the golf ball traveled along with other misc. data. The fourth slide shows the trajectory of all of the shots and the fifth slide upcoming shows a summary of all of the data. The results show that the average distance the balls traveled was highest from the medium sized tee: Low: Average 184.9 yards Medium: Average 192.0 yards High: Average 186.4 yards

Graph Total Distance-yards

Pictures of Me

Conclusion: During this project I learned that the medium tee height provided the best distance because it provided the best spin rate and launch angle. I learned that the spin rate and launch angle are determined in part by the tee height. Not only was this project fun but it also told me the correct tee height for my swing in real life.