The other day there was an article on golfwrx.com where a contributor had done a level test to see if very light weight graphite shafts actually had an effect on club head speed and/or ball speed and therefore over all distance with a driver. At this point you might think I am going to go on and on about technical equipment observations.
I knew what the result was going to be and if we were really scraping the barrel for ideas we might have published the same test. Needless to say not one of the categories of golfer experienced either higher ball speed or club head speed from the lighter weight shafts and all lost strike consistency at the super light weights.
I reckon most people who read this article will be surprised and even question the validity of the results. Really the only people who put information out about golf equipment are manufacturers, and for some reason western consumers are more likely to believe something which comes from a large corporation than from an independent expert. Major companies have been screaming that lighter and longer shafts mean longer drives and its now an accepted fact. However, it’s not a fact, it’s actually impossible that they even did a test to prove it to be true, they just made it up! Anyway even that is not the point; most people are aware that big companies make up their marketing messages. (Possibly there is testing that shows one in 20 or so drives with super long super light weight shafts give an increase in distance.)
The point is, in this one instance, on this one thing we can see how the layers of bullshit over the past 30 years have lead up to a point of total and utter confusion when it comes to golf equipment and the way the game is taught. It is totally and utterly impossible for somebody without a huge amount of knowledge to see the wood from the trees. That’s bad for the game. It’s yet another barrier to creating new golfers and keeping existing golfers. Golf’s governing body’s total failure to educate and regulate is the reason why they are not even in this battle for the games survival.
The layers of false information are so entrenched that the world’s best players are bought in and unable to know where to turn. Tiger Woods, one of the greatest athletes on the planet, has been destroyed by coaches and up until last year used a super light shaft in his driver! Commentators on TV are utterly entrenched in the status quo with out even the token gesture of looking under the hood, they just repeat what the salesman told them. The R & A and PGA need to put out information based on facts and start to take part in the debate.
A corporation’s behavior is akin to a psychopath with a view only on maximizing short-term profits. If they are left unchecked to provide so called solutions such as 15 inch cups, then the real hole is getting deeper.