不容小覷的小小高爾夫球釘

'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.'

“它是很簡單的東西，我很驚訝有那麼多人花那麼多時間和精力試圖來改變它。”美國高爾夫球協會(United States Golf Association，簡稱“USGA”)器械標準事務常務董事約翰・斯皮策(John Spitzer)如是說道。

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.

斯皮策提到的這個簡單東西就是不起眼的高爾夫球釘（tee），一種用木材（或塑料、壓縮的玉米 粉或無法辨識的類似材料）製成的樁釘。對於這種東西，我們大多數人都是一把一把地抓，或者花幾美分買一隻，然後把它們塞進口袋裏，不會爲它們多費心思。

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.

一所中等規模的鄉村俱樂部每年大概要在球釘（包括長的和短的）上花費1,000美元，把它們當做免費贈送之物，就如飲水處的水和洗手池旁的香皂一樣。

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.

它是一種不同尋常的商品，是一個次要的東西但又無所不在，跟球與旗杆一樣都是高爾夫運動的組成部分。然而，它又是種小東西，一種無關緊要之物，而且它在高爾夫歷史上出現的時間比四大錦標賽的三項賽事還要短暫。

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”這個詞首次出現在愛丁堡高爾夫人榮譽社團(Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers)在1744年制訂的“高爾夫球規則”(Rules of Golf) 中，這是目前已知最早的高爾夫規則。但當時它指的是球洞的起始地，以及用來放球的凸起的草皮或泥土。直到20世紀，球手或其球童纔開始拿沙子加水潤溼搭起小土堆，那些沙子存放在一個盒子裏（由此出現了“球釘盒”）。

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.

如我們所瞭解，球釘的進化之路始於波士頓地區一位名爲喬治・F.格蘭特(George F. Grant)的牙醫，他在1899年獲得了“高爾夫球釘的一項改進”的專利。格蘭特還是首位畢業於如今被稱爲哈佛牙醫學院(Harvard School of Dental Medicine)的醫學院的非裔美國人。在他的行醫生涯中，每一天他都在構思設計一種頂部平坦、由可深深插入平面中的底部固定住的物體。

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.

格蘭特發明的球釘由一根小橡膠管和一個錐形木釘組成，橡膠管固定在木釘上，木釘可按進泥土中。橡膠管貼合地將球托住，球杆一觸碰到它，它就會倒下。他讓附近一家生產商把這種球釘生產出來，然後把它們發給朋友，但從未嘗試去銷售或宣傳它們。

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.

這一任務落到了威廉・洛厄爾(William Lowell)――他碰巧也是名牙醫――的身上，他於1921年發明了“Reddy Tee”。這是件由實木製成的一體式器械，頂部漆成了紅色，這樣就可以輕鬆找到它，而且與它的名字正好相稱。洛厄爾花錢請沃爾特・哈根(Walter Hagen)和高爾夫特技表演大師喬・柯克伍德(Joe Kirkwood)宣傳和使用該器械。它在商業上獲得了成功，到1925年獲得專利之時，它已經取得了超過10萬美元的銷售額。洛厄爾的兒子小威廉・洛厄爾(William Lowell Jr.)是另一項隨處可見的美國發明的創造者，他幫助Union Bag公司設計了首款六個裝高爾夫球盒。

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.

當今的球釘與那時相比大體上沒有變化，它的生產――儘管已經全面機械化且生產速度大幅加快――基本上也仍然是拿一塊木料，然後雕刻成形就夠了。

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球釘、Black Widow Grips握把以及Softspikes果嶺叉的生產商，是全球最大的球釘生產商。在其位於緬因州伯納姆(Burnham)的工廠中，硬木（主要爲購自該州可持續管理森林的白樺木）被剝除樹皮，然後切割成木板等待乾燥。乾燥的木板會被切割成圓木棒，再放上車牀製成球釘，進行切割後再放入磨砂機做磨光處理，最後再上漆。一塊八英尺長（約合2.4米）、直徑在八英寸至10英寸（約合20釐米至25釐米）的木料可製成3,000件球釘。該工廠每天可生產200多萬件球釘。

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.

這種器具雖然簡單，卻並未阻止有人去設計更精細的版本。在最早一批奇特設計中，有一款球釘的形狀如一名裸女，就是羅德尼・丹傑菲爾德(Rodney Dangerfield)在《瘋狂高爾夫》(Caddyshack)一劇中在專業用品店購買的那種。此類新奇的球釘常常配有“保證能讓你一直低下頭來！”這樣的廣告語，以及一幅眼睛從頭上鼓出來、表情貪婪的高爾夫球手卡通形象。高爾夫界的幽默或許名聲不佳，但這是它自己招來的。

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.

現如今，發明者將精力集中在宣稱可提高成績的更直接的宣傳上。鬃毛球釘、尖叉式設計球釘或特氟隆(Teflon)塗層球釘隨之出現，它們的銷售商聲稱摩擦力的減輕可以讓球手將球擊出更遠距離。然而，高爾夫比賽規則指出球釘不能“不正當地影響球的移動”。這一規定在很大程度上將爲防止偏杆而設計的半杯形球釘，以及其他所有爲提高成績而設計的產品排除在外。受到衝擊時，平均有1,700磅的衝擊力會通過擊球面轉移到球上，這個過程只有.00045秒。如果你相信鬃毛或叉狀頂部與常見的木質頂部會使擊球距離產生顯著的變化，那麼我有一座表層鍍鈦的橋，你要不要買？

'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的斯皮策說：“我們檢查和評估了生產商和發明者做出的與高爾夫規則有關的宣傳，那些關於成績的宣傳是否真實是屬於聯邦貿易委員會(FTC)管理的問題。”自2009年以來，斯皮策已評審了200多項球釘的設計改進。

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.

換句話說――我的話――如果球釘能提高成績的話，它就不符合規則；如果它符合規則的話，它就不能提高成績。

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.'

超大型球杆在上世紀80年代推出，它促使大多數高爾夫球手採用更長的球釘以適應球杆更大更高的擊球點。USGA已禁止球釘超過四英寸（約合10釐米）長，該高度遠遠超過了回報遞減點。甚至早在上世紀60年代，傑克・尼克勞斯(Jack Nicklaus)就明白了把球架高的價值。他解釋道：“在多年的經驗中，我發現空氣產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.

揮杆角度相當傾斜的高爾夫玩家（就像我一樣）會打壞很多球釘。我們只能羨慕加拿大傳奇職業球手默伊・諾曼(Moe Norman)，在他手下一件球釘能用幾個星期。他的球伴向他詢問他是如何做到揮杆時不會把球釘打偏，他的回答是：“我會盡量去擊球，而不是去擊打球釘。”我們也都是這麼做的，默伊。我們真的都是這麼做的。