Golf ball tee-up device

Abstract

A device for systematically placing a golf ball on a tee and driving the tee into the ground, to thereby tee-up the golf ball, includes a base with a hopper for holding a supply of tees, and an elongate housing movably fitted to the base. A ball silo within the housing holds a supply of golf balls in a vertical array along a longitudinal axis. While maintaining the base on the ground and applying a downward force on a handle at the top of the housing, the housing is moved relative to the base through a selected range of downward movement, defining a stroke. The stroke movement drives a feed assembly and a pick-up arm to deliver a tee into a loaded position in axial alignment with the longitudinal axis below a lowermost ball in the silo. Thereafter, a timing assembly releases the lowermost ball onto the tee and continued downward movement through the stroke exerts pressure on the top of the ball, thereby driving the tee into the ground. An adjustment member on the housing enables selective adjustment of the stroke distance to thereby control the depth to which the tee is driven into the ground, and thus the height at which the ball is supported above the ground surface. Upon release of the downward force on the handle, springs urge the housing upwardly through a return movement to the first position as the timing assembly drops the remaining balls in the silo one lowered position so that a next successive lowermost ball is held in position to be dropped on a tee during the next downward stroke.