Golfing Technology Gone Mad
Sun Herald
Sunday April 25, 2004
TIGER Woods is the No. 1 golfer on the planet. However, by the extremely high standards by which he is judged, Woods is experiencing a slump. Some have gone as far as to blame his choice of equipment.
Leading professionals such as Woods have access to the latest and greatest golfing technology. How then could the player predicted to become the game's greatest ever be accused of getting it wrong with his equipment?
Never before have golfers had such an array of high-tech equipment to choose from: drivers, fairway metals, irons and balls designed by scientists to improve the games of everybody from the 20-handicapper to the tour pro.
Sometimes such choice may just be a hindrance rather than a help.
Woods is a Nike man while arch rivals Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson use Titleist , the brand Woods endorsed in his youth. Also popular are TaylorMade , Ping , Callaway , Srixon , Precept and Cleveland .
While the experts fuss over the needs of the game's elite, social golfers must sift through the marketing hype, consider the brand they may prefer and work it all out for themselves.
What they will quickly find is how golfing technology has gone mad.
Golf balls used to be covered with a soft rubber, balata , or a synthetic mix, syrlyn a harder, more durable material.
Golfers of eras past basically knew which ball would better suit their ability. Better players used balata and the remainder opted for the syrlyn-covered balls, longer in terms of distance off the club.
Balata is in short supply and manufacturers have had to search for alternative cover compositions, such as synthane and urethane .
Once the most suitable ball has been found, the next task is to identify a driver to hit that latest and greatest golf ball as far as possible.
Jack Nicklaus , Arnold Palmer before him and Bobby Jones before that did it with wooden drivers.
Metal, more specifically the light-yet-strong titanium, is the preferred option of practically every golf club company. Using the characteristics of titanium, manufacturers have been able to make club heads lighter, bigger and, testing the boundaries of golfing legality, thinner than ever.
Rule makers have also established a limit on size, with 460 cubic centimetres set as the maximum allowable club head size.
Titanium allows for a thinner material, yet is still strong enough to withstand the collision of club and ball. The thinner the face, the more ``give" there is at impact, with a spring-like effect occurring, in turn providing more distance.
Golf's governing bodies, wise to this technological advancement, now measure the coefficient of restitution , or the COR, in a bid to limit the spring-like effect, ensuring modern equipment doesn't render the length of golf courses immaterial.
But it doesn't end with the driver. A set of irons can be produced with the appropriate materials, weighting and design elements to make the ball go higher or lower, or whatever a player needs or wants it to do.
HOW GOLF EQUIPMENT HAS IMPROVED
Tiger Woods's form slump. Could it be that golf technology is leaving him spoilt for choice when choosing his equipment?
1750's
Club heads were made from tough wood such as beech, holly, pear and apple. Shafts were made from ash or hazel. The head was connected to the shaft using a splint and then bound tightly using leather straps.
1850's
Bulger clubs were used to cope with increased stresses incurred by using the new Guttie ball. Bulgers closely resemble today's woods in that they have a bulbous head.
1920's
The Royal & Ancient only legalised steel-shafted clubs after the Prince of Wales used them on the Old Course, St Andrews in 1929. Billy Burke was the first to win a major tournament with steel-shafted clubs when he won the US Open in 1931.
1960's
The casting method of manufacturing club heads was introduced in 1963. This made clubs more affordable than ever.
1980's
TaylorMade was the first company to manufacture metal woods. The most successful club in history is Callaway's Big Bertha which was introduced in 1991. Today there is an incredible variety of woods to choose from.
© 2004 Sun Herald