What Are the Tiger Tees On a Golf Course?

The term "Tiger tees" is a slang term in golf for the tee boxes used in professional tournaments. In other words, the Tiger tees are the rearmost teeing grounds a golf course has available.

(More on that in minute, but you probably noticed the t-shirt photo on this page. That's because some golfers searching for "Tiger tees" might be looking for merchandise: a Tiger Woods-related t-shirt, for example, or actual golf tees related to various Tigers (LSU, Clemson, et.al.).

(Is that what you're looking for? Don't fret, we have you covered: Check out Tiger Tees on Amazon to browse the merch.)

Now, back to the golf course meaning of "Tiger tees." Yes, the expression was inspired by Tiger Woods, who, when he showed up on the PGA Tour in 1996, was displaying power the likes of which few golfers had shown before.

That's the point in time when "Tiger tees" was most commonly used. As Woods has aged, suffered injuries, as his winning slowed down, the expression became less common on your local golf course. But it's still used here and there.

Some golf courses that host professional golf tournaments have tee boxes, on some holes, that are farther back than even their championship tees. Those farthest-back tees are never (or at least very rarely) used for daily play. They exist, when they do exist, almost solely for tournament play.

But golfers who want to experience a golf course at its absolute longest might find those tournament tees and tee it up back there.

Those are the "Tiger tees." And when one golfer says, "Hey, let's play the Tiger tees today," that golfer is challenging his buddies to play the course at its longest.