wooden golf tee inventor

Wikipedia article "George Franklin Grant"

Teeing Off
View Poster

George Franklin Grant — the son of former slaves — was a professor of mechanical dentistry at Harvard University who became the first African-American to sit on Harvard's faculty. In the field of dentistry he was known for his invention of the oblate plate, a prosthetic device for people with cleft palate. His natural concern for sanitary conditions led him to another invention that was welcomed by a whole different community. At that time, golfers hit their ball from a mound of sand they fashioned by hand. This created two problems: it was unsanitary, and the different shape and height of the mounds could affect a golfer's game. On this date in 1899, Grant was granted a patent for the first wooden golf tee.