不容小觑的小小高尔夫球钉

'It's such a simple thing,' said John Spitzer, managing director of equipment standards for the United States Golf Association. 'I'm amazed that so many people spend so much time and energy on trying to change it.'

“它是很简单的东西，我很惊讶有那么多人花那么多时间和精力试图来改变它。”美国高尔夫球协会(United States Golf Association，简称“USGA”)器械标准事务常务董事约翰・斯皮策(John Spitzer)如是说道。

The simple thing to which he refers is the humble golf tee, a peg made of wood (or plastic, or compressed cornstarch or similar unrecognizable material) that most of us grab by the handful or buy for a few pennies each, stick in our pockets, and don't give a second thought to.

斯皮策提到的这个简单东西就是不起眼的高尔夫球钉（tee），一种用木材（或塑料、压缩的玉米 粉或无法辨识的类似材料）制成的桩钉。对于这种东西，我们大多数人都是一把一把地抓，或者花几美分买一只，然后把它们塞进口袋里，不会为它们多费心思。

A moderate-sized country club will spend in the neighborhood of $1,000 a year on tees, short and long, which it treats as a complimentary amenity, no different from the water in the fountain or the soap by the sink.

一所中等规模的乡村俱乐部每年大概要在球钉（包括长的和短的）上花费1,000美元，把它们当做免费赠送之物，就如饮水处的水和洗手池旁的香皂一样。

It's an unusual commodity, tangential but ubiquitous, as much a part of the fabric of the game as the ball and flagstick. Yet it is also a mite, an inconsequential piece of nothing, and its place in golf history is younger than three of the four major championships.

它是一种不同寻常的商品，是一个次要的东西但又无所不在，跟球与旗杆一样都是高尔夫运动的组成部分。然而，它又是种小东西，一种无关紧要之物，而且它在高尔夫历史上出现的时间比四大锦标赛的三项赛事还要短暂。

The word 'tee' appears in the earliest known 'Rules of Golf,' devised by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in 1744, but the reference is to the starting place of a hole, and to a raised point of turf or dirt on which the ball was placed. Until the 20th century, little mounds were formed by a player or his caddie, using sand kept in a box for the purpose (hence, 'tee box') and moistened with water.

“Tee”这个词首次出现在爱丁堡高尔夫人荣誉社团(Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers)在1744年制订的“高尔夫球规则”(Rules of Golf) 中，这是目前已知最早的高尔夫规则。但当时它指的是球洞的起始地，以及用来放球的凸起的草皮或泥土。直到20世纪，球手或其球童才开始拿沙子加水润湿搭起小土堆，那些沙子存放在一个盒子里（由此出现了“球钉盒”）。

The road to the tee as we know it began with a Boston-area dentist named George F. Grant, who received a patent in 1899 for 'an Improvement in Golf-Tees.' Grant was the first African-American to graduate from what is now called the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and in his profession he spent every day contemplating a flat-topped structure anchored by roots stuck deep into a surface.

如我们所了解，球钉的进化之路始于波士顿地区一位名为乔治・F.格兰特(George F. Grant)的牙医，他在1899年获得了“高尔夫球钉的一项改进”的专利。格兰特还是首位毕业于如今被称为哈佛牙医学院(Harvard School of Dental Medicine)的医学院的非裔美国人。在他的行医生涯中，每一天他都在构思设计一种顶部平坦、由可深深插入平面中的底部固定住的物体。

Grant's tees consisted of a small piece of rubber tubing attached to a tapered wooden peg to be pushed into the ground. The rubber held the ball invitingly, and yielded when the club contacted it. He had them produced by a nearby manufacturing concern and gave them out to his friends but never tried to sell or market them.

格兰特发明的球钉由一根小橡胶管和一个锥形木钉组成，橡胶管固定在木钉上，木钉可按进泥土中。橡胶管贴合地将球托住，球杆一触碰到它，它就会倒下。他让附近一家生产商把这种球钉生产出来，然后把它们发给朋友，但从未尝试去销售或宣传它们。

That fell to William Lowell -another tooth doctor, coincidentally-who created the Reddy Tee in 1921. It was a one-piece implement of solid wood, painted red at the top so it could be easily found and cleverly named. He paid Walter Hagen and trick-shot artist Joe Kirkwood to endorse and use the device, and it was a commercial success, with more than $100,000 in sales by the time it was patented in 1925. His son, William Lowell, Jr., was responsible for another ubiquitous American invention when he helped develop the first six-pack carton for the Union Bag Company.

这一任务落到了威廉・洛厄尔(William Lowell)――他碰巧也是名牙医――的身上，他于1921年发明了“Reddy Tee”。这是件由实木制成的一体式器械，顶部漆成了红色，这样就可以轻松找到它，而且与它的名字正好相称。洛厄尔花钱请沃尔特・哈根(Walter Hagen)和高尔夫特技表演大师乔・柯克伍德(Joe Kirkwood)宣传和使用该器械。它在商业上获得了成功，到1925年获得专利之时，它已经取得了超过10万美元的销售额。洛厄尔的儿子小威廉・洛厄尔(William Lowell Jr.)是另一项随处可见的美国发明的创造者，他帮助Union Bag公司设计了首款六个装高尔夫球盒。

The tee itself is largely unchanged today, and its manufacture-though wholly mechanized and speeded up considerably-is essentially still a matter of taking a piece of wood and carving it into shape.

当今的球钉与那时相比大体上没有变化，它的生产――尽管已经全面机械化且生产速度大幅加快――基本上也仍然是拿一块木料，然后雕刻成形就够了。

PrideSports, makers of the Pride Golf Tee as well as Black Widow Grips and Softspikes, is the largest tee manufacturer in the world. At its factory in Burnham, Maine, hardwoods (primarily white birch purchased from managed forests in the state) are stripped of their bark and cut into boards for drying. The boards are then cut into dowels, which are turned on a lathe and shaped into tees, then cut, fed into a sander and painted. An 8-foot log 8 to 10 inches in diameter will produce 3,000 tees; the factory can turn out more than two million tees a day.

PrideSports是Pride Golf Tee球钉、Black Widow Grips握把以及Softspikes果岭叉的生产商，是全球最大的球钉生产商。在其位于缅因州伯纳姆(Burnham)的工厂中，硬木（主要为购自该州可持续管理森林的白桦木）被剥除树皮，然后切割成木板等待干燥。干燥的木板会被切割成圆木棒，再放上车床制成球钉，进行切割后再放入磨砂机做磨光处理，最后再上漆。一块八英尺长（约合2.4米）、直径在八英寸至10英寸（约合20厘米至25厘米）的木料可制成3,000件球钉。该工厂每天可生产200多万件球钉。

The simplicity of the implement hasn't kept others from developing more elaborate variations. One of the earliest inspirations was a peg shaped like a naked woman, the kind Rodney Dangerfield buys in the pro shop in 'Caddyshack.' Such novel-tees were often marketed with the phrase, 'Guaranteed to help you keep your head down!' and a cartoon image of a wolfish golfer with his eyes bulging out of his skull. Golf humor may have a bad reputation, but it has earned it.

这种器具虽然简单，却并未阻止有人去设计更精细的版本。在最早一批奇特设计中，有一款球钉的形状如一名裸女，就是罗德尼・丹杰菲尔德(Rodney Dangerfield)在《疯狂高尔夫》(Caddyshack)一剧中在专业用品店购买的那种。此类新奇的球钉常常配有“保证能让你一直低下头来！”这样的广告语，以及一幅眼睛从头上鼓出来、表情贪婪的高尔夫球手卡通形象。高尔夫界的幽默或许名声不佳，但这是它自己招来的。

Today, innovators focus on more direct claims of performance enhancement. Tees with bristles and tees with prongs or tees coated with Teflon are sold by companies claiming the reduced friction will give the golfer greater distance. But the rules of golf state that a tee may not 'unduly influence the movement of the ball.' This pretty much rules out half-cup tees designed to prevent sidespin, and all others that purport to improve performance. At impact, an average of 1,700 pounds of force are transferred through the clubface to the ball in the span of .00045 second. If you believe the frictional differences between prongs or bristles and the usual wooden platform will result in a noticeable change in distance, I have a titanium-faced bridge I'd like to sell you.

现如今，发明者将精力集中在宣称可提高成绩的更直接的宣传上。鬃毛球钉、尖叉式设计球钉或特氟隆(Teflon)涂层球钉随之出现，它们的销售商声称摩擦力的减轻可以让球手将球击出更远距离。然而，高尔夫比赛规则指出球钉不能“不正当地影响球的移动”。这一规定在很大程度上将为防止偏杆而设计的半杯形球钉，以及其他所有为提高成绩而设计的产品排除在外。受到冲击时，平均有1,700磅的冲击力会通过击球面转移到球上，这个过程只有.00045秒。如果你相信鬃毛或叉状顶部与常见的木质顶部会使击球距离产生显著的变化，那么我有一座表层镀钛的桥，你要不要买？

'We examine and evaluate the claims made by manufacturers or inventors as they relate to the rules of golf,' said the USGA's Spitzer, who has reviewed more than 200 design modifications for the tee since 2009. 'Whether or not the claims about performance are true is a matter for the FTC.'

USGA的斯皮策说：“我们检查和评估了生产商和发明者做出的与高尔夫规则有关的宣传，那些关于成绩的宣传是否真实是属于联邦贸易委员会(FTC)管理的问题。”自2009年以来，斯皮策已评审了200多项球钉的设计改进。

In other words-mine-if a tee improved performance it wouldn't conform to the rules, and if it conformed to the rules it wouldn't improve performance.

换句话说――我的话――如果球钉能提高成绩的话，它就不符合规则；如果它符合规则的话，它就不能提高成绩。

The introduction of the oversize metal driver in the 1980s led most golfers to adopt longer tees to go along with the larger and higher sweet spot of those clubs. The USGA has banned tees longer than 4 inches, a height that is well past the point of diminishing returns. Even back in the 1960s, Jack Nicklaus understood the value of teeing the ball high, which he explained by saying, 'Through years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.'

超大型球杆在上世纪80年代推出，它促使大多数高尔夫球手采用更长的球钉以适应球杆更大更高的击球点。USGA已禁止球钉超过四英寸（约合10厘米）长，该高度远远超过了回报递减点。甚至早在上世纪60年代，杰克・尼克劳斯(Jack Nicklaus)就明白了把球架高的价值。他解释道：“在多年的经验中，我发现空气产生的阻力要比泥土小。”

Golfers who have fairly steep swings (like me) break a lot of tees. We can only envy the legendary Canadian pro Moe Norman, who could play for weeks with a single tee. When his playing partners asked him how he managed to stripe his drives without dislodging the peg, he answered, 'I'm trying to hit the ball, not the tee.' So are we all, Moe. So are we all.

挥杆角度相当倾斜的高尔夫玩家（就像我一样）会打坏很多球钉。我们只能羡慕加拿大传奇职业球手默伊・诺曼(Moe Norman)，在他手下一件球钉能用几个星期。他的球伴向他询问他是如何做到挥杆时不会把球钉打偏，他的回答是：“我会尽量去击球，而不是去击打球钉。”我们也都是这么做的，默伊。我们真的都是这么做的。