Is it really possible to make golf clubs any better than they are right now?

[joostin]

Yes, incremental "design improvements" will always happen on paper... digitally.  But realized improvements?  Depends who you ask. 

 

Good golfers will still be good, bad golfers will still be bad, regardless of engineered changes.

[starrman77]

The biggest improvements have been going from wood drivers to SS, to titanium, to 360cc and carbon fiber. Going from wood shafts, to steel, then to graphite, going from blades to cavity back irons. Going from hard to hit long irons, to hybrids. The rest is just micro tuning those every year for sales purposes. Add a gimmick or two to sell the product, same with balls. You can't buy equipment that will make a 90's golfer shoot in the 70's. You can get correctly fit and that might take a few strokes off your game.

[Wooderson]

The one thing that could improve some drivers, fairways, and hybrids is get rid of these monstrous adjustable adapters. I have been measuring CofG of drivers and the 12g Titleist and Callaway adapters are absurd. A tsi2 with a glued hosel or ping style adapter would be an amazing club. I would rather the CofG not get shifted to the heel than have the ability to do whatever a double cog adapter does. 

[me05501]

55 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

The one thing that could improve some drivers, fairways, and hybrids is get rid of these monstrous adjustable adapters. I have been measuring CofG of drivers and the 12g Titleist and Callaway adapters are absurd. A tsi2 with a glued hosel or ping style adapter would be an amazing club. I would rather the CofG not get shifted to the heel than have the ability to do whatever a double cog adapter does. 

 

The problem is they've all gone down the path of offering 2-4 different heads in the same product cycle. If all those clubs had fixed hosels they'd have to ship far more product out to retailers and a lot more of it would end up sitting on the rack too long. You'd have to have an 8/9/10/11/12 loft in three different heads with three different shafts and different flexes in each retail location. You're talking about going from 50 clubs to 150 clubs to represent the full available line. 

 

What they *could* do is offer fixed adapter pieces to install on shafts which could be quite a bit lighter than standard. Let's say you try all the shaft settings and find your favorite. You could then buy a fixed adapter that puts the club in your preferred orientation without any adjustment. That shaft tip could be less than half the size/weight of the standard one. 

 

I think the proportion of players who would want that is too small to serve, but it's an interesting idea. 

Edited January 30, 2022 by me05501

[Daeldalus]

I have my own conspiracy theory about drivers.

 

I think that the manufacturers know both how to make them longer(but that sacrifices some forgiveness) and they also know how to make them more forgiving(but that sacrifices some distance) and they just slowly oscillate their designs back and forth so they can say that each new club is 'better' than the last one in one metric or the other.

 

A good example of this to me is taylormade. The SLDR is one of the longest drivers they have ever made but it was very unforgiving. 

[300_yard_drives]

Irons and wedges if you find the right sole grind and cog location then there really isn’t much “technology” that can improve the clubs in my opinion. 

[PorkChopExpress]

Cars keep churning out better than ever

 

and drivers are getting worse and worse 

[buckethat72]

Taylormade could make the colour and name of their drivers better.

[ChipNRun]

Yes. But, the improvements are so small that it's hard to notice.

 

The key is to find - amid all the choices - clubs that will work best for you. And, these clubs may be five years old.

[NoTalentLefty]

I think the big improvement has been made in the feel of Cast irons. Still needs improvement but better.

PXG coming into the market will help with competition. Srixon also getting more involved helps as well. 
Distance is going to peak very soon by the ruling body and will effect golf balls more. 

[OsnolaKinnard]

I think Edel Golf is really onto something with the “SMS” technology in their wedges…the word is they are working on SMS irons…if they work as well as their wedge then they will change the way irons are made.

[OsnolaKinnard]

On 1/30/2022 at 9:52 AM, me05501 said:

 

The problem is they've all gone down the path of offering 2-4 different heads in the same product cycle. If all those clubs had fixed hosels they'd have to ship far more product out to retailers and a lot more of it would end up sitting on the rack too long. You'd have to have an 8/9/10/11/12 loft in three different heads with three different shafts and different flexes in each retail location. You're talking about going from 50 clubs to 150 clubs to represent the full available line. 

 

What they *could* do is offer fixed adapter pieces to install on shafts which could be quite a bit lighter than standard. Let's say you try all the shaft settings and find your favorite. You could then buy a fixed adapter that puts the club in your preferred orientation without any adjustment. That shaft tip could be less than half the size/weight of the standard one. 

 

I think the proportion of players who would want that is too small to serve, but it's an interesting idea. 

Once I dial in a club…I don’t change it.

 

I bet most don’t change it either.

[braincramp52]

I suppose they can improve but as it's been for a long time, the one with the best marketing department wins.

[bluedot]

28 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

I suppose they can improve but as it's been for a long time, the one with the best marketing department wins.

I’m sure you’re right for a particular segment of the golfing public, but I don’t think this is nearly as true as it used to be.  
 

For one thing, golf clubs are really expensive, even more than they used to be.  But more importantly, anybody can get on a launch monitor now and test clubs to see if they’re actually better, even if only marginally.

 

Way back, and with money tighter than it is now, I bought drivers that I hoped would be better. But it’s been 15 years or more since I had to settle for “hoping”, and most of the guys I know and play golf with are they same way.  

[hagimihale]

11 hours ago, OsnolaKinnard said:

I think Edel Golf is really onto something with the “SMS” technology in their wedges…the word is they are working on SMS irons…if they work as well as their wedge then they will change the way irons are made.

 

I have a 48* V-grind on the way.  Needed something between my PW and 52*.  Will post an update once I get it out on the course and move the weights around a bit.

[Tiptx1122]

Well sure it is just ask Callaway or TaylorMade

[drumdude96]

Barring the discovery of some revolutionary new technology, I'd say most of the potential of new golf clubs is pretty much tapped out.  Today's true forgings aren't much different than forgings from 20 years ago, except today they are stronger lofted.  Forged CB's are the iron category that I care about most, because that's what I prefer to use.  And there's no way a Mizuno 223 will be any better for me than my MP 30's or Adams a4 Forged.  If they all have the same shaft, they're all going to perform very similarly.  Likewise, I have a few drivers from the mid 2000's, and they are just as long as the new stuff when nutted.  Not as forgiving as newer heads, but distance has been maxed out for a long while.  I suppose the newer cavity back wedges have helped improve lots of players' short games, but now that that wedge category exists, you're not going to see anything groundbreaking coming from it in the future.  Basically, all the manufacturers can really do now is just make new clubs that look different year to year, but the performance will pretty much be on par with what's here now and has been around for a while.  Some OEM's would certainly do well to improve upon sound and feel of their woods (cough, cough  PING  cough, cough), but as far as performance goes, there won't be much in it in the future compared to now, or compared to the recent past, for that matter. 

[OsnolaKinnard]

4 hours ago, hagimihale said:

 

I have a 48* V-grind on the way.  Needed something between my PW and 52*.  Will post an update once I get it out on the course and move the weights around a bit.

I have been following J13s thread and am also going for a fitting in a couple of weeks.

 

I have asked to get a look at the new irons and was told maybe…no photos.

 

I will say this about Edel…their ability to custom fit a club or putter to a player is amazing.  I was beyond impressed with how they could manipulate the ball flight by just changing various weights/shafts/length etc.  

 

I actually posted in another forum and said that Edel’s modular weights could be the wave of the future for irons…it is looking like I may be right.

[NHenson815]

I don’t think carbon is anywhere near its technological ceiling of what could potentially be done with it.  For that reason alone, I don’t think I could conclude that golf clubs have reached their limit (unless every theoretical min/max contained within the rules has been achieved with no trade offs.

Edited February 2, 2022 by NHenson815

[starrman77]

They could make clubs/balls much better but they would be illegal.

[mikec3672]

I have not seen (here) and don't think people give enough credit to the shaft companies. Apart from the club itself, I think the variety of graphite, balance point, flex profiles etc, is staggering, and gives the fitter, and tinkerer like me, so much more to play with.