The basic requirement golfers have about clubs is simple: “Help me to lower my score.” To the materials scientist, this means designs using the best materials. Golf clubs can be separated into three categories—woods (for long-distance hitting), irons (medium distance and accuracy), and putters (to get the ball into the hole on the green). In this article, we will discuss how material developments—in association with changes in design—have contributed to lower scores. It is very difficult to compare past achievements with those of today, perhaps with the exception of driving distances. However clubs have evolved tremendously, and it is difficult to imagine that Bobby Jones using hickory shafts could compete—at least in distance—with John Daly, Freddy Couples, or Tiger Woods, the present-day warriors armed with equipment often constructed from highstrength steel or graphite-epoxy shafts and an oversized hollow titanium head. Today professional golfers are driving farther, hitting greens with greater regularity, and sinking longer putts with the equipment they now have available attesting that the clubs constructed from advanced materials are contributing to better performance.
Commonwealth Princess?
