It’s always fun to watch for the inevitable onslaught of press releases that follow each and every tournament of the PGA Tour schedule. In fact, they follow most events on the PGA, European, LPGA, and Nationwide Tours, too. And though I may be atypical in this respect among golf writers, I actually look forward to them each week, and even read most of the ones that end up in my e-mail box.

These press releases generally emanate from equipment companies who associate themselves with the winner, or runner-up, or, heck, even some guys in the top 10 (top 20 in a major). This association is either overt and formal (i.e., a sponsorship contact between the player and the company), or covert and informal (i.e., no contract in place). The latter variety are always sort of humorous in their circumspection.

Everything from clothes to shoes to clubs to balls to training aids are touted as integral parts of the recent winner’s success.

My favorites are the most obscure press releases. Like, say, for tees. Here’s a press release I got yesterday, after the thrilling Barclay’s:

“(Ocean Isle, NC) – Evolve Golf – maker of the No. 1 performance golf tee on Tour – confirms that the winner of The Barclays relied on its patented Epoch tee.

“A part of 104 major Tour wins – including 31 PGA Tour victories – since its 2004 debut, Epoch is the only performance tee with radius posts that span the width of a golf ball dimple. This unique feature creates the lowest coefficient of friction of any tee, eliminating deflection at impact and increasing ball speed and control off the tee. The Epoch has been scientifically proven via a series of rigorous independent robotic tests combined with extensive player testing to provide improvements of up to 12 yards distance and 9 yards accuracy.”

The Epoch is unquestionably a great tee. It is made from renewable and recycled materials, it’s mower-freindly, and one tee will last you round after round after round. But it’s hard for me to imagine that any of the impressive number of wins racked up by Epoch users would have failed to happen if they had been using some other sort of tee.

But then again, maybe the robotic and player testing tell a different story. And the tee is, after all, arguably more influential on performance than, say, the the player’s shirt or slacks.

As for me, I’ve been playing the same Epoch tee for, oh, eight rounds or so, and haven’t really noticed that it affects my distance or accuracy. If I hit it well, the ball goes far and straight, if I don’t, it goes far and crooked. But by golly, it’s nice not to have to dig into my golf bag for a new tee every hole.

I’d be interested in asking the winner of the Barclay’s what he thinks of the tee, if we could just figure out who the mystery man is…

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