The Common Golfer

If you’ve purchased golf clubs off eBay, there’s a good chance they’re counterfeit!  The group operated out of Great Britain and Thailand, and sold primarily counterfeit golf equipment and fake golf balls that often times exploded when hit.  They also sold accessories, clothing, airline lounge passes, and memory sticks.

The golf clubs, such as the fake Odyssey putter shown above, cost less than $5 to make and were typically sold for over $160.  The conspirators were able to successfully operate for nearly five years under the radar by providing refunds to any customers that complained.

The leader of the group, Gary Bellchambers, lived in a very modest house in Great Britain and drove a beat up car (part of his effort to not draw attention to himself).  However, he went by the nickname “The Man” in Thailand where he owned multiple homes, and part of a $2.5 million yacht.

The group was finally caught, after a disgruntled customer complained to authorities.  Her multiple emails weren’t responded to by the company because Bellchambers was busy “relaxing” in Thailand at the time.

To give an example of how much money was made, in November of 2006 at least $119,000 was made.  Unfortunately, I have a feeling eBay isn’t going to be providing refunds if you discover that you’ve been duped!

It’s getting easier to analyze your own golf swing.  Casio’s new Exilim EX-FS10 camera is the first handheld to offer golf swing analysis.  The camera looks at your stance, posture, and swing angles.  It then provides feedback, as shown above.

A lot of the details (like price) aren’t out yet.  However, it comes with 9.1 megapixels, 1000 fps burst mode, 720P video recording and 3x optical zoom.  Would you use something like this at the driving range?  I’m wondering if there will be a way to use the camera by yourself, without having someone else photograph your swing.

Perhaps Congress needs to stop focusing on gas-guzzling cars, and start looking at golfers.  Researchers with the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose.  Those numbers are shocking, when you consider that at least 300 million golf balls are lost or abandoned each year in the United States!

Personally, I never lose golf balls…but the rest of you hackers are seriously hurting the environment.  The researchers found that during decomposition, the golf balls “dissolved” into hazardous heavy metals.  Dangerous levels of zinc were found in the synthetic rubber filling used in solid core golf balls.  Not a huge deal above ground…but when submerged under water, the zinc soaked in to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding plant life!

The research was started after a team found thousands of golf balls at the bottom of Loch Ness.

I think this is potentially bad news, but maybe not as bad as you think.  In most scenarios, on a golf course with man-made water hazards, this is a non-issue because golf balls are harvested by divers and resold – they don’t have a chance to decompose and poison the water.  But on courses with rivers, oceans, and bodies of water that divers can’t recover balls from, this could be potentially dangerous.

I’m not one to get my panties in a bunch about the need for everything to be “green.”  But there’s no denying the effect (small as it is) that golf balls could have in certain environments.  That said, one thing is for sure: if a company releases a “green” golf ball, plenty of people will buy it no matter what the cost!

What do you think?

These Japanese Tour Scotty Cameron putters are really cool…I wish I had the one in the upper right hand corner.  Thanks to Golf To Impress for the pics.

I would be remiss if I didn’t share something related to Scotty Cameron!  Check out his 2009 Presidents Cup Head Cover.

Available in March 2010, the new Nike MackSpeed clubs will feature a new driver, fairway metals, hybrids, and irons.  There are a lot of additional details…but basically it’s the same jargon every manufacturer releases about their new clubs.  Bigger sweet spot, more distance, blah blah blah.  Cool pics, though!

I think the irons and the hybrid look pretty neat.  It will be interesting to see if they actually perform well.  What do you think?

Bridgestone has a new generation of its e-Series of golf balls for 2010, set to hit stores in November.  The goal is to have a specific golf ball for each type of golfer, and Bridgestone has spared no expense.  They’ve performed over 40,000 “ball fittings” for amateur golfers, and talked with golfers across the country.

The e5 is designed for amateurs looking for a higher ball flight for additional carry on their shots.  It’s soft, “tour-caliber” urethane cover has 326 dimples designed shallower and larger than typical, which is what provides the higher ball flight.  The e5 promises longer distance with your driver, and great spin control on the green.

The 2010 version of the e6 golf ball is designed for the amateur looking for help with their slice or hook.  It is equipped with a new “Anti-Side Spin Inner Layer” that removes excess spin, for a longer and straighter ball flight.  This new layer is a never-before-used formulation with a combination of high resilience and low compression.  They’ve also created the softest multi-layer golf ball (the 2010 version is 8% softer).

The 2010 version of the e7 has a new “Inner Layer” formulation that makes it 5% firmer.  It’s tailored towards lower handicap players with straight ball flights, and looking for added distance off the tee.

While I haven’t had the chance to play these balls yet (still don’t have any “connections” in the golf industry), I can say I’ve played Bridgestone balls in the past and been very satisfied.  I definitely recommend trying out Bridgestone balls; a lot of die-hard Titleist players may be shocked at the performance they’ll get.  I will be trying these balls out early next Spring.  In the mean time, if you get a chance to play any of the new e-series balls, please let me know how they are!

Callaway’s new FT-iZ driver will be available in stores in February of 2010 with a retail price of $399.  Does this pique anyone’s interest?  The triangular “cavity” on the sole of the club is kind of cool looking.  I don’t think I’ll be standing outside a golf store in February, waiting for them to open so I can buy one…but I’m sure I’d take a look if I was in the market for a driver!

According to a recent patent approved for TaylorMade, the future in golf club adjustability is in the shaft of the club.  Personally, I view most of the available clubs that are adjustable to be a marketing ploy and nothing else.  I can’t envision a scenario where a player, good or bad, would need to adjust the face of their driver.

If you’re a weekend golfer like I am, you need to work on mastering the one driver you have – not 12 different drivers you can potentially have.  Weekend golfers adjusting their clubs on the fly is just asking for trouble.  And on the other end of the spectrum, if you’re a professional golfer (or really good amateur) then you’re getting your swing analyzed and having clubs custom built.  Either way, there’s no need to adjust the face of your driver.  And now the prospect of adjustable shaft stiffness seems even sillier.  Can you think of a scenario where you would need this?

Regardless, thank you to the IP Golf Guy for the details.  The patent is titled “Golf Club Shafts Having Selectable-Stiffness Tip Regions, and Golf Clubs Comprising Same” and if this sort of thing interests you, here are some excerpts: Read the rest of this entry »

Will golf ball dimples soon be a thing of the past?  If you look at this patent recently awarded to Acushnet (owner of Titleist), it looks like dimples are on their way out!  Once again, thank you to The IP Golf Guy for the heavy lifting on this one.  Can you imagine playing a ball with one of the covers below?  Seems very foreign.  The following excerpt is from the patent application, titled “Golf Ball Surface Textures:”

Over the years, golf ball’s have evolved to include dimpled surfaces. The dimpled surfaces are typically used to reduce drag, thereby increasing the distance a golf ball is capable of flying. Although round dimples are used by most manufacturers, other shapes such as hexagonal, square, oval, and the like have been experimented with. The dimple depth, shape, and even the number of dimples have been modified in an attempt to reduce the drag on the golf ball as much as possible.

Manipulation of dimples, however, may eventually reach a point beyond which drag cannot be reduced further. Accordingly, other methods of reducing drag or increasing lift may be useful. The present invention provides a method for altering the texture of the surface of a golf ball that is capable of reducing drag on a golf ball during flight. The present invention is capable of achieving the reduction in drag by generating a golf ball surface texture based on sweeping shaped profiles across predetermined guide patterns on the ball’s spherical surface. Preferably, the reduction in drag may be achieved without using conventional dimples. However, it may be desirable to include protrusions or entrenchments on the surface of the golf ball after the shaped profiles have been swept across the predetermined guide patterns.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the shaped profiles and the predetermined guide patterns may be generated using a processor based computer program or the like. It may be desirable for the processor to be capable of executing computer program instructions. In one embodiment, the processor may be operatively connected to, for example, a memory, user interface, display, and the like. Preferably, the processor is capable of running an operating system that supports a computer program that is capable of simulating the effect of dragging a plurality of different shaped profiles across different paths. It may be desirable for the processor to be capable of determining the drag that would result from different combinations of shaped profiles and guide patterns such that a golf ball manufacturer could use this calculation to choose combinations that result in optimal golf ball surfaces.

In one embodiment, the present invention comprises a method for forming a golf ball surface texture that reduces drag. Preferably, the method includes determining a guide pattern to be mapped to the spherical surface of the ball. The guide pattern may have any desired shape. This may include, but is not limited to, geometric patterns, fractal patterns, irregular patterns, lines, and the like. In one embodiment, it may be desirable for the pattern to be a combination of at least two of geometric patterns, fractal patterns, irregular patterns, and lines.