GOLF CLUB TECHNOLOGY
How Have They Improved? How Much?
Modern golf clubs are artistic and technological marvels. Golf tournament scores have been declining since organized golf began keeping records with the birth of the British Open. While both statements are true, they are not necessarily cause and effect as many golfers would assume. Excellence in Golf was born to market a new concept that concerns the physiology, as opposed to the physics, of the golf swing. As a part of this effort, and as a physician and trained medical scientist, I wanted to know quantitatively how much modern golf clubs are responsible for the observed improvement in scoring so that this reference point could serve as a baseline. Using this baseline, I would be able not only to demonstrate, but also quantify any improvement that results from my own designs.
My studies show little or no evidence that any of the observed reduction in scores can be related to any "improvements" in golf clubs after the invention of steel shafts in the late twenties or after Gene Sarazen invented the sand wedge in 1932. If you will take the time and effort to peruse this website and study the data for yourself, I think you will reach the same conclusion that I have reached, THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO EVIDENCE THAT ANY CHANGE IN GOLF CLUB DESIGN OR TECHNOLOGY HAS RESULTED IN LOWERING THE SCORE OF A SINGLE GOLFER. That is not to say that modern designs have not improved the enjoyment of the game as Callaway Golf implies, "Any product bearing his name must be demonstrably superior to, and pleasingly different from, our competitors' products and our own products." Note that they have not alleged that their products will lower your score more than their competitors or even more than their own older products. We will come back to the "demonstrably superior" claim later in the presentation.
My studies began with the wealth of data available on the Golfweb at the PGA Tour Stats website. Some of the data comes from the USGA website with the rest coming from the websites of individual tournaments such as the Masters Golf Tournament or from the websites of some of the major manufacturers. I will try to provide links as well as copies of major data sources throughout this report.