KEY POINTS:
Dozens of hugely optimistic golfers around the country head to the course today believing their ability to hit the ball straight off the tee has been considerably enhanced because they bought a new club yesterday.
The Californian company Callaway, one of the giants of the golf equipment industry,
yesterday released worldwide a driver called the FT-i. Barely a month goes by these days without some new product which its salesmen claim will help solve your golfing problems. But the early reaction to this driver suggests it could become one of the more successful launches.
I'm always reluctant to write about equipment because I believe that, like cars, houses and underwear, one's choice is a private and personal matter and should only be bought after expert consultation - with a club fitter and bank manager. But every now and then, a product comes on the market which might actually change the way other club makers think about the future.
One of Auckland's biggest golf retailers told me that after demonstration and trial days, they'd never experienced such a big demand before a product was even on sale. The most striking thing is the new driver's shape. It's not the usual semi-circle behind the club face. Instead it's virtually square. The theory is this shape moves weight away from the club's centre of gravity and means it will twist less at impact, or the moment of inertia as it's now called, when a ball is not hit off the sweet spot. The outcome is that a ball hit off-centre will, theoretically, travel both straighter and further.
The idea of a square-headed golf club is not new. Some veteran PGA members remember one in the early 1970s although it wasn't too successful. But that was when honours graduates in physics didn't populate the labs of equipment makers. Nike have had a square model among their Sasquatch drivers since last year but it doesn't appear to have captured the imagination quite the way this new Callaway has.
Use of light, indestructible metals such as titanium has revolutionised driver design and what we still call "woods" since the first models appeared in 1979. The quest for a way to hit it straighter more often has led to some radical ideas.
For instance, TaylorMade has its Quad system of moveable weights in the club head. The theory is that the lightest part of a golf club travels the fastest. So a player who slices out of the heel of his club puts more weight there to get the toe of the club more square to the line of flight at impact - and the ball goes straighter. So the theory goes.
Sadly, the club that hits all shots straight all the time will never be found because no matter how impeccable the science, a human still has to swing it.
Isn't it incongruous so many people will pay $1100 for a club they'll hit only 14 or 15 times a round? They'll use a putter more than twice as often - but spend less than half the money on one of those.