Released in November 2005.

The Golden Tee series began as a project to create a large scale golf simulator for large family entertainment centers. The idea was scrapped, but not before programmer Larry Hodgson had already written software to create virtual golf courses. Rather than discard his work, Hodgson retooled the concept to develop a golf game for regular arcade cabinets. He worked with co-designer Jim Zielinski, who initially rendered the courses using Deluxe Paint. Instead of a regular joystick and buttons for controls, they used a trackball, which Incredible Technologies had previously utilized for "Capcom Bowling".

The first Golden Tee was play-tested in a bar, a venue that would become the most popular location for Golden Tee cabinets. This first iteration was sold exclusively as a kit that could be used to convert existing arcade machines to "Golden Tee". Released in 1989, the first Golden Tee sold relatively well, but the series first found great success with "Golden Tee 3D" several years later.

1995's "Peter Jacobson's Golden Tee 3D Golf" was the first in the series to support online network play. Rather than being networked to each other, the cabinets were all linked to a central computer that compared scores for tournament play. The first test tournament, held on 24 game cabinets in the Chicago area from November 24th to December 17th, 1995, awarded real money to the winners, including a $1,000 grand prize. The first real-world tournament was held mid-June to July 7th, 1996, on 145 cabinets across six states and was considered a major success. By the end of 1996, 1,250 cabinets were installed across 32 states. The tournament gave rise to a large competitive play scene for the franchise.