Power Tee is celebrating reaching its 23rd birthday this week with a special event to be held at the UNF Driving Range in Jacksonville, Florida on April 4.
The company boasts English roots, having been set up by CEO Martin Wyeth and CFO Clare Dibley in Swindon back in 1996. Since then, Power Tee has teed up over 43 billion golf balls to millions of golfers, from beginners to PGA Tour major winners, and brought countless new golfers to the game.
In the early 1990’s, Wyeth was learning to play golf at a driving range in Wiltshire. During a practice session on the range, he was finding the variation in outcome of each successive shot to be extremely frustrating. What felt like identical swings were giving rise to remarkably different ball flights. He felt that the need to break stance, grip, and posture in order to tee up each ball was making it harder to understand which changes to his swing were having what effect. Thus, the idea for Power Tee was born.
After building a simple prototype, golfer reaction was tested and an in-depth study carried out on the driving range industry, and the results were resoundingly positive. The original Power Tee was designed, built and installed at a range in the UK in 1999. In 2003, Golf-Tech installed Power Tees at the new PGA National Golf Academy at The Belfry, host of the four Ryder Cups, and in 2004, Power Tees were installed at St Andrews, the home of golf.
In 2009, Golf-Tech Limited was awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation, the UK’s top business award bestowed on only a handful of companies each year, and was presented the award personally by HRH Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
The company also enjoys the support of two Ryder Cup captains, with current US captain Jim Furyk joining as an ambassador in 2015, while 2018 winning Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn took on a similar role in 2018.
Today, Power Tee’s automatic system tees up six million balls per day in 18 countries around the world, including several United States military bases and veteran golf centres. In 1996, there were no automated ranges in the U.K, but today Power Tee units are currently installed and featured at 80% of the floodlit golf ranges in the UK, including four Ryder Cup venues in Europe.
Power Tee will be celebrating its birthday on April 4 at the UNF Driving Range in Jacksonville, Florida from 4-7pm with free golf balls, free food and prize giveaways.