Magic Wands

Today’s equipment makers live in an intensely competitive world, one in which small changes in club design can have an enormous effect. They not only can make one of the world’s most difficult games just a little easier, they also can ensure that some new clubs will quickly find their way into thousands of golf bags rather than discount shop recycle bins around the country.

Here’s a look at what some of the industry’s top club designers have to say about changes that have been made and what we might expect in the near future:

Drivers

Because of the fascination with hitting the ball long and straight, the game’s most popular club remains the driver. Dick Helmstetter invented Callaway’s Big Bertha stainless steel driver in 1991, though his latest design, the Great Big Bertha II, bears only a passing resemblance. The new clubhead is almost twice the size of the original, which in turn was probably a third larger than the old persimmon woods that are now a part of golf’s history.

The new driver has a 385-cubic-centimeter thin-faced titanium clubhead and 45-inch graphite shaft, in that way similar to the modern crop of drivers from such major manufacturers as TaylorMade, Cobra, MAC by Burrows Golf, Titleist, LJC Golf, Ping, Adams, MacGregor, Mizuno, Wilson, Nike and others. All rev right up to the USGA’s legal limits for trampoline effect, or bounce of the ball off the clubface; that measurement, the COR, or coefficient of restitution, cannot exceed .830. When a ball is struck with a driver at what has been the test speed of 109 mph, the driver’s clubface compresses slightly, which means it stores and transfers more energy to the ball for distance.

Looking ahead, Helmstetter, senior executive vice president and chief of new products at Callaway, says, “The next breakthrough in drivers will be clubheads that are made out of materials that are just as strong as, or stronger than, titanium, but weigh a lot less. This will give designers greater options to strategically and more effectively move the center of gravity around to different positions depending on the driver’s loft, so everyone will have the chance of achieving the kind of high launch/low-spin conditions that we know make for the longest and straightest drives.”

TaylorMade offers three versions of its R500 driver, which allows golfers to choose a club that best complements their swings.

Most major equipment makers use suitcase-sized computerized devices called launch monitors to fit their tour pros for drivers, and that technology is becoming more available to the public. A launch monitor is connected to a high-speed camera or laser. During a club-fitting session, it records and analyzes data gathered at impact. From this information, operators extrapolate the distance, direction and trajectory of the shot, and this allows club fitters to help pick the best performing drivers for each golfer’s swing.

Titleist has two vans equipped with launch monitors that travel to courses and driving ranges around the country, and Callaway offers fitting on launch monitors, either at its headquarters in Carlsbad or at licensed Callaway fitting centers in different cities.

Wedges, Irons

Todd Harman, director of product marketing for Cleveland Golf, says, 65% to 70% of all shots hit during a round are from 130 yards and in. That’s why Cleveland offers 75 wedges, with different loft and bounce combinations in a range of metals and finishes. That every major equipment company not only makes wedges but devotes a good deal of research and development to their improvement is a good indication of the importance of these clubs. Wilson has even brought back a modernized version of its classic “Dyna-Powered” wedge line, originally issued in 1958.

“In the future, amateur golfers will copy today’s trend on tour by adding more wedges in their bags,” Harman says, “and will own several wedges with varying bounce and lofts to use on courses with different turf conditions.”

A wonderful new concept has recently arrived on the iron scene.

Called “combo,” “hybrid” or “blended” sets, they integrate various degrees of cavity-back and muscle-back irons into a set of clubs. Nike’s new forged Pro Combo irons, for example, feature full cavity-backed long irons that help get the ball well up in the air; half-cavity-backed mid-irons, which blend forgiveness and control, and classic blade short irons for maximum shotmaking and accuracy. MacGregor offers a similar hybrid set as do TaylorMade and Adams Golf.

Classic muscle-back blades, traditionally much harder to hit than the forgiving cavity-backed clubs, also are making a comeback. Several manufacturers now offer blades with slightly larger clubheads to make these classically challenging-to-hit clubs more forgiving at impact.

Mike Ferris, vice president of marketing for Ben Hogan Golf, says golfers can create their own mixed, matched or split sets by selecting the combination of clubs they want from Hogan’s blade, perimeter-weighted or oversized models.

“In the future,” Ferris says, “I think you’ll see not only more ‘morphed’ or split sets of irons, but also a range of these sets, meaning there will be such sets designed for greater workability and precision for the pros and low-handicap players. And there will be sets that take what are now called ‘game-improvement’ irons even further for less-skilled players.”

Fairway Woods

In recent years, the best golf tip offered by leading teaching pros may have been simply for most golfers to replace their long irons with easier-to-hit fairway woods. As more and younger PGA Tour players do this, amateurs are finally following suit.

The Carlsbad-based equipment company Sonartec specializes in fairway woods, like the three-wood David Duval used while winning the 2001 British Open and like those Nick Price, a Sonartec endorser, continues to carry in his bag. The secret to these clubs’ success, says company Vice President Jim Uno, “is the club’s ‘driving cavity,’ or the small amount of steel we remove from directly behind the clubface and reposition on the heel and toe, which enhances perimeter weighting and forgiveness.”

Other companies, such as Nike and Adams Golf, take a different approach, positioning their weight low in the fairway woods’ clubheads, which assists in getting the ball airborne.

LJC Golf has a new hybrid of a fairway wood and utility club called “the Knife.” It’s described as a “versatility wood” by Paul Herber, company president and club designer. The hybrid employs similar technology to that found on the first, and now classic, utility clubs, such as the Cobra “Baffler,” TaylorMade’s “Raylor” and the Stan Thompson “Ginty.”

There are three rails on the bottom of the Knife, with the center rail designed to keep the club straight through impact, reducing sidespin.

Several companies offer other new utility clubs, which blend the control of long irons and the playability of fairway woods.

Putters

Jack Nicklaus once said that a golfer would “stand on his head” if it would help him putt better. Indeed, putting and putters represent the most creative, personal and quirky expressions of golf technique and club design. Since Karsten Solheim started Ping in the late 1960s, that company has been an industry leader in perimeter-weighted putters.

Ping’s new models include the “JAS,” which features a titanium body with tungsten weights positioned on the heel and toe for the company’s most extreme perimeter weighted putter to date. Through Ping’s Specify line, golfers can “build” their own putter (either on-line or with the help of their golf pro) from several component choices.

There is also Ping’s recently introduced G2 line, which takes the best designs from the company’s more than 300 models and upgrades them with soft urethane inserts as well as minor perimeter-weighting adjustments.

Odyssey’s amazingly popular 2-Ball putter line continues to expand, with new center-shafted and blade models added to the original White Hot mallet-style club. Somewhat strange looking putters like Titleist’s Futura by Scotty Cameron, Nike’s “Blue Chip Oz,” and the Hogan “Big Ben” represent other large rear/weighted mallets.

“On this type of putter, the depth or second dimension of the clubheads extending back makes it easier to align the clubface perpendicularly to the path of the putt,” says Tom Stites, director of product creation for Nike Golf.

The future for putters looks a lot like the present, and even the past, according to John K. Solheim, Ping’s vice president of engineering.

“The bottom line, the goal that all putter-makers come back to and will continue to explore, is whether people make more putts with any given putter,” Solheim says. “That may involve putters with exotic shapes to help you aim, different weighting systems that help roll the ball more smoothly, or the use of new metals and insert materials that improve feel.”

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Whatever the golf clubs of tomorrow look like, they’ll be designed with one thing in common: to make a game that has confounded players for hundreds of years just a little less frustrating. .

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Andy Brumer is a free-lance writer based in Alhambra who has written about golf for several national publications.