WE've Got you Pegged - How to make a sign from golf tees

Our friends at DesignSensory have a killer sign made of golf tees that greets guests at their company headquarters in Knoxville, TN (check it out here.) Obsessed with the golf tee concept, we decided to attempt it ourselves for A Children’s Golf Course fundraiser. Hence the slogan, "Making Greens Come True." Get it? Making this work of art was not as easy as it looks, but it was well worth the effort.

​First we custom ordered pegboard with 3/16” holes and 1/2” center spacing. This is key. DesignSensory modified their pegboard by drilling a million extra holes. We did not. We found our pegboard on a factory floor in Minnesota. While the pegboard was inexpensive, the shipping was NOT.

Next, we spent hours trying to find golf tees that fit the holes—not too tightly; not to loosely. Here is the scoop: Pride bamboo golf tees. We were fortunate that our golf client ordered us 10,000 tees in various sizes. We also had fun pushing the tees in at various heights to create a somewhat textured effect. 

We simply framed out the pegboard with 1x4s and added trim to hide any flawed edges. Then we experimented with type fonts. We called upon local Portland designer Ryan Mowery for some advice. He mocked up a sample grid pattern that we used for our layout. After much trial and error we determined that serif fonts worked best and were the easiest to “read” when recreated out of tees on the pegboard.  

We printed out our sign at Staples on their inexpensive oversized printer.  We numbered our holes across the top, bottom and sides of our pegboard; and numbered our holes on the sign as well. Then we used the graph as a template. Yes, it was intense.

The result was spectacular. So much so that we did another sign! 

Each sign was 3'x5'. 

Remember, there is always a reason to celebrate! Amy