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Some in the equipment industry say it's the most significant advance in club manufacturing since the introduction of the metal wood. A barely noticed change in the Rules of Golf, introduced on January 1, means clubs can be adjusted daily.
It took just over five months before this
had a significant impact. Last weekend, David Mathis, a little-known player on the Nationwide Tour, became the first pro to win a tournament using an adjustable driver, the Nickent Evolver.
Nickent, along with golf industry heavyweights Taylormade and Callaway, now produce drivers with removable shafts which screw in and out in a matter of seconds.
The shaft is the engine of the golf club. Strong players need a stiff shaft, while older and weaker players require something more flexible to gain their maximum club head.
But there are even more subtleties like the torque and kick point, which means clubs swung identically produce different ball flights and distances. It also means that in the wide range of weather we experience in this country - seldom calm, often windy - having the same shaft in your driver is not ideal.
Those who play the game for a living, especially on the major tours, are able to have their clubs adjusted at one of the equipment company's touring trucks. But this rule means club golfers can buy a new driver with two or three shafts for not much more than the normal price.
So if you're out at Muriwai and the sou'wester is fresh, you clip in the driver shaft that keeps the ball low. A couple of days later, when you're playing on a calm day at Wairakei and you want more carry and less roll, click in the shaft that will hit the ball higher.
The rules still say you can't change the characteristics of a club during the round but there's nothing to stop you changing the shaft any time before your first shot.
The rule change and technology has other advantages, too. When youngsters start to play, their clubs are invariably too big for them. The new screw-in brackets mean a 10-year-old can now get a set of clubs custom-fitted and extra blocks of shaft can be clicked in as they grow - at a minuscule price - to keep the clubs the proper length for the height of the child.
The golf retailer is also going to enjoy this. Not everybody wants a driver with two or three shaft options but a prospective purchaser can now go to the golf shop and try various combinations of shafts and heads until they find one that works best. Until now, the screw-in connection was illegal. The shaft and head had to be glued. Now if you find the combination you like, you can take it with you and play.
Golf equipment has been through extraordinary advancements in the last three decades. Much has been made of new materials such as titanium and graphite. The way the bits of a club can now be connected and how often they can be changed seems as important as anything that's happened in recent years.
