L7 Is OK

Filed in archive Golf Equipment on July 6, 2007

Courtesy: GolfPunkOnline

Remember when Nike and Callaway introduced their square head drivers? The other equipment makers pooh-poohed them; one manufacturer said it would NEVER create a square headed driver.

Never say "never" in business. At least two companies were well into R and D on square head drivers and now they, too, have jumped into the fray.

Obviously, the market is growing as demand is growing - which means the advertising is working.

For women, Nancy Lopez Golf has introduced the Soft Square Driver in their Signature lineup of clubs for women.

Soft Square means it's not a really square head, kind of, well, soft.

Nancy Lopez Golf claims it's for women who want a high Moment of Inertia but with "a traditional shape".

The fact is, it's not a traditional shape at all. It's just kind of square. But that wouldn't make for very good advertising copy ("Our new Soft Square Driver has a great MOI and is not really square. It's just kind of square...")

And now Ram has introduced the wildly colored Qub3 with the industry's first all-titanium head, the company says.

Ram also refers to the design as utilizing "the rectangular construction principle". I love it. It's a square head driver built on the rectangular construction principle.

What Ram says this means is that the weight is located at all Four Corners of the rectangle and produces an incredibly high MOI and degree of forgiveness.

Whatever. The club also comes with a "rice rocket" lime-green paint job and matching Golf Pride grips.

But for the real low-down on equipment plans and trends in the golf industry, you have to visit what I consider a unique golf site, golf-patents.com
It's written by patent lawyer David Dawsey. I have referred to it before and have interviewed David about his writings.

Dawsey has numerous fascinating posts about patents filed by the big boys as they plot the future and stake out their turf in the ongoing wars for market share.

Here is a sampling of some recent posts: Acushnet's self-healing golf ball, Callaway's liquid-filled golf ball, a patent on a rake storage system that pops out a rake when you need it and then slides the rake away underground and out of the way when you're done.

And then there's the amazing new wedge that allows you to spin the ball like the pros.
It's from Spin Doctor.

The world of golf equipment: plenty of hype and promises and just a few dumb ideas to keep things interesting.