In the beginning, there were woods and irons. The irons weren’t iron but the woods were indeed wood. Mostly persimmon, some laminated maple, the clubs that were used to hit golf balls the farthest distances literally grew on trees.

And it was thought to always be that way until Gary Adams found that clubs shaped like traditional woods but were made of metal hit a golf ball much farther than wood did and a revolution was born. Adams borrowed $24,000 against his house and started Taylor Made Golf Company and introduced the “metalwood” at the PGA Merchandise Show in 1979.

He persuaded Ron Streck and Jim Simons to play the club on the PGA Tour and Simons won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1982, the first victory with a modern metalwood. Today, there are young stars on the Tour who have never hit a persimmon driver. Imagine that.

Technological breakthroughs in golf equipment over the last 20 years have allowed both the professional and the recreational player to hit the ball farther and straighter than ever before. Remarkably, it hasn’t made the game any easier. Professional scoring averages have improved almost marginally over the last 20 years and the average amateur’s handicap has stayed about the same during that period.

Still, equipment companies forge ahead, pushing the technology envelope to its very edge. Golf clubs, shafts, grips, balls, even shoes and apparel are all high-tech. The watchword is “performance” and the chance to buy a better game leads the enthusiasts back to the golf shops time and again.

Metalwoods
Drivers lead the technology charge and metal clubheads today are made of space age titanium sometimes combined with carbon composite to make the heads as light and as strong as possible. The size limit for clubheads is 460cc and the larger the head, the larger the sweet spot and the more forgiving on off-center hits.

The latest golf club buzzword is not a word at all – MOI, which stands for moment of inertia. With the larger heads and lighter material, weight can be moved lower and deeper in the clubhead, which creates a higher MOI and leads to less twisting on off-center hits.

What that means for the average player are the most forgiving drivers ever made, which leads to more distance and, it is assumed, more fun. For the touring professionals, the new technology has allowed the best players in the world to dial in the perfect driver for their swings.

Launch monitors are used by every equipment manufacturer to optimize the critical elements of a tee shot. About the size of a laptop computer, a launch monitor picks up the launch angle and spin rate of the golf ball on every measured drive. A high launch angle coupled with a low spin rate creates the optimal flight for the longest carry and distance. A launch angle of about 11 degrees combined with a spin rate of 2,800 rpm is the grail of the driver kingdom.

Irons
In 1969, Karsten Manufacturing introduced the first commercially produced perimeter-weighted iron to the marketplace, which forever changed the way irons would be manufactured. Ping irons were designed with the back hollowed out and the weight moved low and deep and around the clubface, making the clubs much more forgiving and easier to hit. By the 1980s, the Ping Eye2 was the best-selling iron club ever made.

Today, practically every set of irons made uses perimeter weighting and only the best players in the world use the traditional muscle-back blades. And a growing number of PGA Tour players carry perimeter-weighted irons in their bags. Even the best need a little forgiveness, too.

Shafts
The shaft is the engine of the golf club, or so the gurus say, and if that’s the case, modern clubs are supercharged. Today’s graphite shafts are engineered to such precise tolerances that there is a shaft for virtually every swing. Lightweight shafts, as low as 55 grams in drivers, are popular among average players because a lighter club can generate more swing speed, which translates to more distance.

Shafts also come in various flex points, which can create just about any shot trajectory pattern – low, medium and high. Torque is also a factor is choosing a shaft, with higher torque numbers more forgiving and therefore more suitable for slower swing speeds.

Balls
Golf ball technology has perhaps come the farthest over the past 10 years with two-piece and three-piece balls dominating the marketplace along every price point. Balls are being constructed with various dimple patterns and construction to generate the kind of spin and feel that every golfer desires.

No matter the skill level, there is a ball that matches a particular wish list. High spin around the green, low spin off the driver, soft or firm feel, higher trajectory, more roll – it’s all available in the modern ball. And not every golfer should immediately gravitate toward the premium balls that PGA Tour players use. There are a myriad of balls in the lower price ranges that will perform for mid-to-high handicap players just as well or sometimes better than the higher-priced balls.

While technology might not have made golf easier for the average player, it certainly has made the game a lot more fun. The chance for hitting really good shots is greater than ever, with forgiving clubs and better performing balls. However, technology has yet to find a way to buy you a better short game. That, unfortunately, requires practice.

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