FROM GOLF TEES TO TEE-ZELS®

During the eighteenth century, golf enthusiasts originally used the putting green to place the tee shot for the next hole. This practice was quickly phased out as golfers moved their tee shots to a specially formed patch of turf, thus sparing the green ravages of divots. By simply pinching a small amount of damp sand into a tiny cone shaped mold called a tee stamp, golfers would then be able to land their chip shots onto the green while the foursome in front was teeing up for the next hole. This small improvement attracted new players by greatly increasing the pace of the game.

The early 1900s saw the arrival of the wood and celluloid (a soft, wood like material) tees. There were also a multitude of other experimental tees, but the wooden types prevailed as the most popular and have since been used on golf courses all over the world.

The early 21st century brought a bout the latest innovation in golf equipment -- TEE-ZELS® and CHEEZ-TEEZ®. TEE-ZELS® are golf tee shaped pretzels and CHEEZ-TEEZ® are golf tee shaped cheese crackers. While they may not necessarily improve your tee shot, they will improve your attitude with their great taste and novel concept!

Here's how it all got started:

Finally a golf snack! Baseball has its snacks and now golf has its original flavored TEE-ZELS®, pretzels in the shape of golf tees, and CHEEZ-TEEZ®, golf tee shaped cheese crackers.

According to Dr. Skeet Burris, former President of The TEE-ZEL Company, Inc., TEE-ZELS® are the brainchild of golfer Michael Smoak, who was enjoying a round of golf one afternoon, purchased a drink and a bag of pretzels. "As I was snacking on the pretzels a light bulb went off in my head." Smoak said. "I thought, if someone could make a pretzel in the shape of a golf tee it would be a hit." Mike contacted a few friends who were already successful businessman -- and avid golfers -- to discuss developing the idea and obtaining a design patent.

" We saw the potential immediately," Dr. Burris said. "We (the potential investors) did our research on the salted snack food industry and found it is a $20.7 billion industry at the retail level (source:Food and Wholesale Bakery Magazine using Information Resources Inc. data). And about six percent or 1.2 billion is in pretzels." Those statistics, combined with the ever increasing popularity of the sport of golf, caused Burris and the other investors to believe the timing was right to launch the product. The acceptability was so overwhelming that we knew we had a winner," beamed Dr. Burris.

And so, The TEE-ZEL Company was born and officially incorporated in 2001.