California Golf Technologies

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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2007 (Part 6)

New Technology - Transforming the Golf Equipment Industry

By Leith Anderson

We’re fifteen years into the technology revolution in the golf equipment industry. Gone are the days when you would take a few clubs down to the practice tee with your pro, hit some shots and place your order.

Today, players are tested to determine individual swing characteristics. Electronic gizmos measure tempo, acceleration and how a player bends the shaft. Other electronic gizmos take pictures of the ball in flight to make sure that the launch angle and spin rate match up with ball speed for maximum distance. Most serious players have taken advantage of advanced club fitting methods. It’s no longer necessary to buy clubs by trial and error. Club performance is measured and compared. Disappointment is eliminated.

The Golf Lab is on the leading (“bleeding?”) edge of club fitting and club building technology. Golf Equipment Chronicles readers have had a front row seat over the last six years as we developed one of the most reliable club fitting and club building systems in the world – incorporating “best of breed” technology and methods from multiple sources. We chose technology partners carefully. Most important is Max Out Golf Labs – founded by Mitch Voges – the 1991 US Amateur Champion and one of the true innovators in the golf industry. The “Shaft Max” load detection device is unique in the industry – measuring tempo and shaft deflection in two planes. The data is plotted against a timeline that reveals the “DNA” of your swing in a simple graph. Shaft load data is crucial for accurate club fitting. We use the Max Out Launch Max launch monitor to optimize driver performance by fine tuning launch ballistics.

It does no good to get a precise fitting if you don’t match the fitting with correct clubs. In the workshop we study shaft flex, weight, torque and bend profile to make sure the shaft is a perfect match for a player’s swing. We interpret flex with the Professional Clubmakers’ Society Equalizer – the world standard. We choose heads carefully to match a player’s swing characteristics: considering head size, center of gravity, sole grind and material. Every club is assembled with precise attention to detail – including shaft orientation determined by the patented SST PURE ™ process.

Fitting a player’s swing with golf clubs that optimize performance has always been part art and part science. Lately, the balance has been swinging in favor of science.

Recent breakthroughs in radar-based technology promise a new generation of diagnostic tools. The next generation goes beyond ball flight tracking and club comparison to help players understand their swings in ways never before possible. For players who want to improve and are willing to do the hard work to change their swings - the new technology will help match the right golf clubs with the most efficient swing.

All Golf Swings are not Created Equal

One of Mitch Voges’ mantras that define Max Out Golf Labs philosophy is: “Talent, technique and technology – in that order.” Players searching for more distance and improved consistency tend to focus on exotic golf clubs. Unfortunately, that approach is not always the best. The most important factors remain “talent” and “technique”.

Talent is a private matter between a player and his Maker. Working on your technique – taking the more difficult path to improve your swing rather than trying to “buy your game” – is more likely to improve your results. But how do you judge the efficiency of your swing?

Understanding “Smash Factor”

One of the top senior amateur players in California is Rob Thompson. At sixty-one, Rob is a perennial contender in Northern California Golf Association events and recognized on the National senior amateur stage. He has been a constant experimenter with new equipment looking for lighter weights, longer lengths and hotter heads in his drivers. The work has paid benefits: Rob is known as one of the longer hitters among California senior golfers.

Playing the blue tees at Poppy Hills, Rob is a threat to hit three of the par fives in two. The only one out of reach is number four. There is a surprising fact about Rob’s swing. He has been tested and measured frequently with multiple launch monitors, including Golf Lab’s Launch Max and Achiever. Rob swings at 100 MPH with a conventional length 45” driver. Add an inch or so to the driver and his swing speed goes up to 105. By “normal” performance metrics, that is not fast enough to hit the ball as far as he does. What is going on?

The “smash factor” is a ratio of ball speed to club head speed. If a player swings at 100 MPH and the ball leaves the face at 140 MPH, the smash factor is 1.4. The best PGA Tour players achieve smash factors of 1.48. The theoretical maximum is 1.5. Alas, most amateur golfers hit the ball much less efficiently. The vast majority of amateur golfers tested at the Golf Lab produce smash factors in the range of 1.35 to 1.4.

Therein lies Rob’s secret. With a smash factor approaching 1.5, his swing is simply more efficient and he hits the ball farther than other players with faster swing speeds. The following table illustrates the difference in results depending on a player’s smash factor. Note that a player who achieves a smash factor of 1.5 can hit the ball just as far with a 90 MPH swing speed as a player with a 100 MPH swing speed but a 1.35 smash factor. Most players will see more improvement from focusing on technique than hoping to find the “Magic Driver”.

(ball speed carry distance table)

Increasing Your Smash Factor

There are two ways to improve your smash factor: get the club square on the ball at impact and develop a swing that accelerates steadily to the moment of impact. The problem comes with knowing your swing mechanics and exactly what is happening with the club. Most of today’s electronic devices don’t do a good job of measuring club head speed before and after impact, acceleration, swing path, angle of attack, face angle and club rotation – all factors that are necessary to know if you’re working on your technique.

If you set out to change your technique, you need a way to measure your improvement.

The Max Out Shaft Max does a good job of detecting acceleration in a player’s swing. Swing flaws are identified. But the Shaft Max does not measure swingspeed or track the path of the club.

Radar-Based Technology Comes of Age

Way back in 2001, a South African company, Electronic Development House (EDH) presented a radar-based launch monitor to the PGA of America. The presentation was met with enthusiasm. Alas, it took several years for the EDH “Flightscope” to reach commercial fruition.

Three years ago the EDH Flightscope entered the “launch monitor” market. EDH has roots in the defense industry. Their original claim to fame is they measure the velocity of a shell fired from a cannon. The Flightscope was touted as the “next big thing” in golf diagnostics. The idea was that the Flightscope would track the complete flight of the ball right down to landing. At the same time it would measure the launch angle and spin rate. It was intended to compete with the indoor launch monitors that were based on high speed photography.

Despite the $15,000 price tag, the performance of the original Flightscope was disappointing. It had a hard time capturing all shots. The radar had a difficult time measuring spin rates. It defaulted to “lift and drag” mathematical calculations based on the first 100 meters of ball flight. The supernatural accuracy promised by radar was not delivered. As an “early adopter” the Golf Lab bought one of the first Flightscope devices and utilized it for outdoor fittings. It was very good for “gapping” – measuring the actual carry distance between clubs and comparing the performance of clubs. But when it came to optimizing driver performance, we reverted to our trusty indoor Launch Max.

There are some inherent problems with fitting clubs precisely with radar-based launch monitors. Outdoors, most players are relegated to hitting range balls. The performance of range balls does not match the performance of premium balls. Covers are harder, spin rates are lower. Why fit clubs to range balls and then play premium balls? Tour players won’t even practice with range balls.

Radar based launch monitors have a hard time precisely measuring spin rates. Despite ultra-sophisticated technology, with the radar hitting the ball up to 30,000 times per second, it is very difficult to detect ball spin from rotating dimple patterns and range ball stripes. Unlike high speed photography based systems, there is no precise way to see the rotation of the ball.

To combat that problem, companies have had special balls manufactured with reflective material under the cover. The drawback? Those are not the balls you are likely to play. Suffice to say, perfecting the technology to measure the spin of a golf ball by radar was a supreme challenge, even for a company that can track a bullet.

Enter Trackman

A year after the commercial debut of Flightscope, a competing system was released. It is the “Trackman” developed by a Danish company – Interactive Games and Systems (ISG) – formed for the purpose of developing and marketing radar-based launch monitors.

There’s more to that story. The Trackman was developed after negotiations for a joint venture between ISG and EDH fell through. Needless to say, there’s a bit of bad blood that remains from that relationship.

The Trackman solved some of the problems of the original Flightscope. Targeting was improved by integrating a camera into the unit. It became easy to focus on a pin in the distance, improving the ability of the Trackman to compare golf clubs for accuracy. The Trackman also incorporated a nifty automatic leveling system. As a result, the Trackman took over market leadership despite pricing the unit at $25,000. Advanced Trackman systems purchased by golf equipment companies included a software “workbench” and were priced north of $40,000.

The Golf Lab, ever intent on maintaining our position on the “bleeding edge” also purchased a Trackman. We utilized it for several months during the summer of 2006 with the Golf Lab Tour Van. We set it up side by side with the Flightscope in popular “Shootouts”. The numbers captured by each device were comparable. In our experience, the Trackman was slightly more reliable in tracking shots.

But we were not convinced that either device was indeed the best way to optimize drivers. Outdoors, the radar-based systems seemed to report spin numbers that were higher than the indoor Launch Max by several hundred RPM’s. We continued to rely on indoor fittings for optimizing driver performance. Our radars went into “mothball” status for the summer of 2007.

“Next Generation” Radars

As always happens with technology, innovation is relentless. Both EDH and ISG have released system upgrades that appear to have improved the accuracy of measuring spin outdoors. More interesting, both machines have been tuned to allow indoor use. We had a close look at the new EDH model – the Kudu – this month and expect to receive the updated software for the Trackman shortly.

As always happens with electronic technology, prices are coming down. The “indoor” Trackman has been reduced from $25,000 to $15,000. The new EDH Kudu is priced at $7,000, down from $15,000.

Tracking a golf ball indoors is still a difficult technical problem. The radar only has twelve feet to “see” the ball before it hits the net. That’s just a split second. Both companies have announced that to get accurate spin rate readings indoors special golf balls marked with reflective material will be necessary. Otherwise, they will have to rely on calculated spin rates.

The most interesting improvement is the software. The radar-based systems track the movement of the club. Radars report swing path, angle of attack, club head rotation, acceleration, and club speed before and after impact. If you are working on the mechanics of your swing to improve efficiency, the new systems are going to be extremely useful. Not only will you be able to understand your swing better than ever before, you will also be able to record improvements over time.

A second area where the software excels is in club performance comparison. The Kudu software allows a player to compare several clubs, entering each one separately. The player can switch back and forth from club to club, hitting a few shots with each. Once the data has been collected, the reports make club comparison a cinch. Shot dispersion is easily compared. Other parameters such as the consistency of launch angle and spin rate – factors that reveal accuracy and consistency – stand out.

The “optimization” routine built into the Kudu software is elaborate. After capturing launch ballistics, the software allows the player to adjust trajectory and spin to find the best possible launch ballistics. It will be very interesting to have these capabilities available for indoor use. As time goes on, we will gain experience by operating all of our electronic systems: the Kudu, the Trackman and the Launch Max side by side. Golf Equipment Chronicles readers will keep their front row seat at the “Shootout”.

We may stick with the Launch Max for driver optimization, but the new systems are going to be very useful for many functions.

Outdoor Advantages

With the improvements of the next generation radar systems, we are going to return to outdoor fittings. As much as we like the convenience and accuracy of indoor fittings, there are some players who just don’t respond well to hitting into a net. Seeing the ball fly outdoors is a great benefit. You get to see what the trajectory and shot shape actually looks like. Plus, there are some things that you can only do outdoors.

An important feature unique to outdoor fittings is “gapping” clubs. How far does each club in your bag carry? There is no better way to find out than tracking the actual ball flight with radar. If you are really into precision, you can check the distances with a laser rangefinder. The indoor systems don’t do a good job of tracking short irons. Outdoors, the radars can be adjusted to see higher trajectories. Consequently, all carry distances and trajectories can be determined accurately. One of the big differences between amateurs and professionals is that the pros know exactly how far every club in their bag carries.

Outdoors, shot shape and trajectory can be fine tuned. Indoor launch monitors cannot see the “angle of descent”. On the PGA Tour, the Trackman gained a following because it reported how the shot was coming down. That is very important for drivers. An angle of descent greater than 40 degrees is going to stop the ball dead in its tracks. Maximizing distances requires the shot to run out. Precise tracking of the entire shot is a big help when you’re reaching for those last few yards.

Finally, there are certain clubs that can only be tested appropriately on grass. Wedges come to mind. Who wants to pick his wedges hitting off of mats? The same goes for fairway woods and utilities. You never know how those clubs will work until you hit them outdoors off of natural surfaces.

For readers who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, check with the Golf Lab for our outdoor fitting schedule. We will be arranging fitting days utilizing both the Trackman and the Kudu this fall. Combine advanced radars with complete selections of wedges, utilities and fairway woods – in addition to drivers – and you will have a fitting experience that will be a great supplement to the precision Golf Lab indoor fittings. We can also bring our “road show” to private clubs. Call the Golf Lab for details.

“Automatic” Club Fitting

For many years, there has been a dream that software should be able to fit golfers with the “perfect” clubs. The major “big box” retail stores have been willing to put money into that development – hoping that automatic systems would overcome the problem of finding competent fitting staff for all of their stores. They also want a quick close.

The first beneficiary of that desperation was Hot Stix, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. When Mark Timms was leading Hot Stix, he convinced Golfsmith that he could provide them with a system that allowed a player to take a few swings with a known test club, plug in launch monitor data and get a reliable fitting recommendation. Golfsmith rolled out that system – reportedly for a seven figure investment. It met with mixed success. Alas, Hot Stix pulled the plug on continued development after Golfsmith discontinued using the automatic system this summer.

But hope springs eternal. There’s a new company picking up where Hot Stix left off. Swing Labs has been developing their system for a few years. Measuring and testing every OEM club released in the last several years and matching that information up with launch monitor data turned out to be a huge undertaking. Swing Labs caught my eye as a partner of EDH. They developed a seamless integration between the Kudu launch monitor data and their own database – via an Internet-based application. For a fee, the Swing Labs software picks up launch monitor data and helps you select the perfect club from all of the choices offered by Callaway, Taylor Made, Titleist, Ping and the rest of the industry. The software reports the company, model, loft and shaft that it thinks will be the best.

As a club fitter, I don’t believe that the perfect clubs will ever be found by whacking a few shots and then talking to a computer. There are too many things that you can’t measure – like “feel” for example.

However, I think that the Swing Labs software is interesting and will serve a purpose for many golfers. Here’s one: many players buy clubs on eBay. That’s pretty much a “trial and error” undertaking – with an emphasis on “error”. It’s very easy to make a mistake buying clubs on eBay. It makes sense to me that players who have an eBay addiction (like me) would buy an insurance policy. Why not get a list of the clubs that the Swing Labs system thinks will be good for you? Your chances for success will improve if you buy off of that list. If you avoid just one eBay mistake, it will be worth the investment.

Another feature of the Swing Labs software is that it does not limit its recommendations to current models. If you’re looking for a bargain, why not consider the Adams 460D from a year ago – now available at a bargain price? The software levels the playing field among manufacturers. A driver that was recommended for me was the Nicklaus Dual Point – definitely not a mainstream choice but a good performer identified by Swing Labs.

At the Golf Lab, we rely on technology to narrow the choices for a golfer. But in the end, the only way you know for sure which club fits you best is to test the club with a launch monitor looking over your shoulder to confirm performance and then take the club to the course to confirm feel. Then, you know. Anything less is just a shortcut.

Swing Labs fittings are available at the Golf Lab – as a supplement to our comprehensive woods and irons fittings.

More Fitting Options

Our Nike sales rep paid a visit to the Golf Lab to show the new line for 2008. He also showed off the new Nike “replaceable shaft” fitting system – purchased out of the Burrows bankruptcy – reportedly for $1 million. That sounds like a lot, but it won’t do much to replenish the $85 million that Bruce Burrows lost on his driver with a hole in the bottom.

Nike joins Taylor Made and Callaway with fitting carts that permit trying different shafts with different heads. That method is surely going to be the trend in “do it yourself” fittings for 2008. Many players have reported that the interchangeable shaft systems were useful for fitting. With competition from Nakashima and Alpha (Kent Sports) offering interchangeable shaft systems that you can take to the course, it will be interesting to see which systems prevail. I think that the winners will be the systems that let you try combinations and then buy the exact combination that works for you. There is always uncertainty when you test a club on the range and then order one from the factory. Our slogan is “always buy the demo” – proven over and over when drivers ordered from the factory didn’t match the demo. Time will tell . . .

On the Radar Screen

I’ve mentioned Scandium shafts over the last several years. Unfortunately, the E-21 Company has suffered continuous problems bringing their products to market. It looks like the manufacturing and distribution problem for shafts may have finally been overcome. We’ve had several very good players who have tested everything and chosen Scandium. PGA Tour play has been increasing, lead by Vijay Singh. This could be an overnight success – four years in the making. I’m getting back on that bandwagon.

Ultra-expensive shafts are proving their worth – occasionally. The Matrix line has been rising on the charts. The company now publishes a weekly summary of PGA Tour players with Matrix shafts in their bag – a sign of confidence. Same for ACCRA. The interesting thing about the ACCRA line is that even though the “SE” series is at the top of the price spectrum, the more economical models are showing up on Tour. I’m waiting to see how the new Fujikura “Rombax” iron shafts will perform. Even players who are satisfied with their clubs will be tempted by the new shaft models.

We’ve been getting a lot of good reaction from players trying the new Nickent drivers. They are traditional in shape, traditional in sound, and better than average in ball speed. My “Magic Driver” for the months of August and September has been the Nickent “Tour” head, 10.5* loft with the Matrix X-Con 5 shaft.

I’m intrigued by products that perform well but don’t cost a bundle. Every time I watch a tournament and hear about Rory Sabbatini playing the Nike Ignite irons - $399 at full retail – I wonder. I’ve got a set of those on the bench so you’ll have a chance to hear about my “lowbrow” irons next month. (Maybe I could dress them up with Scandium shafts.)

If I’m going to get that story done, I’d better get to work. Back next month . . .

Leith Anderson is a Partner in the Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
He will answer any and all questions relating to club fitting and club making. Contact: Leith@calgolftech.com.