This was the forty-third time I have attended the PGA Merchandise Show and things have certainly changed over the years.
At my first show in 1969, persimmon woods were considered the best material for a driver. But laminated wood heads had already been introduced and were becoming popular because they were more consistent in quality and less expensive, being constructed of thin sheets of maple wood glued together like plywood with an intentional bend for the neck rather than finding a naturally created bent piece of wood i.e. the way the tree or branch grew.
The aluminum shaft had arrived with promises of increased distance, which never really materialized.
I was working on the design of a new golf shaft constructed of fibers called graphite held in place with an epoxy resin and introduced this the following year in January of 1970.
This was a breakthrough as it decreased the weight of a shaft by 50 % allowing the golfer to swing the club a little faster using the same amount of work.
Yes, the graphite shaft did result in more distance but not the 20 yards the marketing people wanted to promote but closer to 8+ yards.
Investment cast clubs were making inroads and competing with the forged, which were more expensive. The “Lost-wax” process used to cast iron heads – introduced by the Greeks and Egyptians about 5,000 years ago to make bronze statues and jewelry but not to make golf clubs -- which allowed for more intricate designs as well as cavity backs. This process was used to create one of the first set of mass produced cavity back irons -- Ping irons which soon resulted in a classic club still good today: the Ping Eye2 -- with a high MOI (Moment of Inertia) which made the iron clubs more forgiving. This led to hollow metal wood heads with a trampoline- or spring-like effect in the face to get increased ball speed and distance – this was a significant improvement that golfers could recognize but it happened 15 years ago.
The wound ball –introduced in 1895 and improved upon --was still the most popular ball for elite players. The two-piece ball had just been introduced but it took 30 years to perfect and now we have the multilayered ProV1 and its offspring.
Unfortunately, we are very close to optimum performance with equipment and some of what is new is hyped more than ever before, trying to persuade golfers that there is still some magic out there and to not stop looking for it. Equipment is good but the advances we have seen over the last 43 years are becoming fewer and farther between.
This is the reason why the PGA show is now being dominated --at least 60% to 70% of the floor space-- by the apparel merchandisers (which were known as Rag Merchants 40 years ago, not in a derogatory way but just that they were influenced by fashion, not hard goods which affected improved performance). Now we find that equipment merchandisers are tending to rely on "fashion" as improved equipment performance is hard to find.
Sadly, I was not surprised.
Frank