Lansing, Ithaca inventors create reusable golf tee

In 2020, Lansing’s Kevin Geiger and Ithaca’s Patrick Chaopricha teamed up to invent the SureShot Tee, basing the company in Groton. They are both avid golfers and sought out to find a solution to golfers carrying around bags of one-use tees wherever they played. Not only that — they wanted to create an effective tee with a design that helped improve performance.

“The SureShot Tee is a revolutionary tee that has roller flex technology that has low resistance,” Geiger said. “It’s been proven through robotic testing that low resistance does increase your drive and accuracy. All in short, it basically has no resistance. There are other features to the tee as well as it’s consistent to the ground to what you’re playing with.”

The tee itself has a pivot point below where the ball is placed. After a shot is taken, the bottom half of the tee is sturdy in the ground while the top half is flipped down facing forward and can be easily reset and re-used at the next hole. Geiger talked about what inspired him to make the SureShot Tee a reality.

“A late friend of mine, who was a semi-pro, when I was first learning the game of golf, he would take me out, and he could hit this perfect line drive shot every time,” Geiger said. “I asked him, ‘How can you do that?’ He basically said, ‘I’m going to tell you a little secret, and every pro will tell you this — you want to snap that tee every time. That’s your follow-through shot and your pivot point of that momentum going through the tee shot.’ That always stuck with me. Years later, I thought, ‘You’re going through a lot of tees trying to do this. Why not make a tee that was breakable but durable enough to have that same concept of creating that line drive shot?’”

That line drive shot is the dream of any golfer, casual or professional. When the SureShot Tee aluminum prototype helped a friend of Geiger’s improve his shot instantaneously, Geiger had to see it through.

“When I first designed it, I designed it out of metal as my first prototype,” Geiger said. “I knew metal wasn’t the way to go because it was going to ruin your club. I just wanted to see the theory of it. So, I did take it out and I had my buddy try who was not a very good golfer. I had him tee up first with a regular tee and then I had him use ours, and he hit a shot like he’s never had before. I knew at that point that I had something.”

Geiger went into more detail on how the bidirectional tee leads to a better shot and improved performance on the golf course.

“I wouldn’t say you hit a perfect shot every time, but that’s wishful thinking, right?” Geiger said. “We’re not guaranteeing that. But the way it’s designed, it is a breakaway tee. As you’re hitting through, the follow-through shot is clean and crisp. There’s basically no resistance. You can also use it as a training aid. You can flip it down and line up your shot and then flip it up and put the ball on. Now visually and mentally — because golf is a mental game — you’re prepared for your shot.”

Another benefit of the tee is reducing how many tees a golfer goes through in a round to none at all. The SureShot Tee, which does conform to the USGA rules of golf, is meant to be used again and again over time and is repairable if anything goes wrong. Geiger discussed the additional benefits.

“I’m hoping [consumers] like the fact that they’re not creating litter all over the golf courses because of all the tees that are broken. I’m guilty of it — everybody is guilty of it — just leaving your broken tees on the tee box. Now, we can prevent that. I think golf course owners and club owners as well will appreciate it because it’s less hassle for them to pick up the tees and less maintenance for the tee boxes.”

August has been a big month for SureShot Tee. They were a sponsor of and present at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in Endicott last weekend, getting their product in front of many enthusiasts of the sport. This Saturday, Aug. 27, the first annual SureShot Tee Open will take place at RaNic Golf Club in Ithaca. If you’d like to try the SureShot Tee, head to sureshottee-store.com.

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