Trickle Down Impact in Golf Clubs

[stealthduffer]

OK - It's Friday afternoon and I'm headed out tomorrow on an early flight for a week of golf in the Sarasota area. My body is at work (at least for another 42 minutes - but who's counting) but my mind is on the 1st tee. In an effort to at least look like I'm working (typing furiously, concerned and pensive look on my face) I thought I would offer this rambling dissertation on some random thoughts about golf equipment design. So read at your own risk - or just to kill the time until you can head out for the weekend. 1) The concept of "trickle down" benefit in golf equipment is huge. Like my other favorite sport (cycling) what is high end and unaffordable for many of us today will be commonplace 2 or 3 years down the road. Maybe not in as nice of a package (i.e. not as cosmetically appealing) but the fundamental design and technology is there. I'd say that entry level clubs are probably as good as high end clubs were 10 years ago and that mid-level clubs equal top end from 5 years ago. 2) The rate of change and time to market is much faster now thanks to improvements in design tools. This is true in many products - but a set of clubs used to last a long time mostly due to the fact that they didn't change much from year to year. 3) Material changes have been big but not as big as in some other sports. Obviously the use of carbon/graphite has been big but the improvements in existing materials has been a bigger factor. Better design capabilities (with CAD/CAM and finite analysis programs for example) have really stretched those materials (steel, carbon graphite and aluminum) to places that were unheard of 10 years ago. 4) Assymetric design will be something that we see in the future of golf club design. By this I'm referring to very functional design that uses materials where needed and leaves them out otherwise. Those familiar with cycling will understand - thicker stays on the drive side, ergonomic handlebars, crossed spokes on drive side and radial spokes on other side, etc. The rules of golf prohibit some of this design but suspect someday we will see CF shafts with a ridge on one side to increase stiffness or other desirable characteristics. 5) Golf balls are the beneficiaries of changes in design, process improvements and materials improvements. The consistency of golf balls is amazing and, for those of us who remember, are probably less expensive in real terms (i.e. not accounting for inflation) than they were 30 years ago. The nominal cost of a golf ball is probably less than half what it was when I started playing consistently some 35+ years ago. And for anyone who remembers golf balls from back then if you looked at a wound ball wrong it would "smile" right back at you. Well, that wraps it up - headed out for the week. Ya'll have a good one and hit 'em straight!

[newtogolf]

I think some of the manufacturers would like us to believe the rate of change is driven by technology advances but my guess is it's driven more by greed and shareholder pressure.  The driver ads for the last few years have claimed 10 - 15 yards gained for each new driver they released.  My math tells me I should expect every drive I hit to be about 350 yards, but somehow I'm still about 100 yards short of that number.

[WUTiger]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

The driver ads for the last few years have claimed 10 - 15 yards gained for each new driver they released. ...

The new drivers? Several of them hit ball just as far as my Callaway HyperX Tour driver.  (Oops, my driver was made in 2008...)