- Admin
- #1
For the last decade so many buzz words have been thrown around about irons and wedges such as buttery, super soft, etc. that I got to thinking about impact and what the sensation is and why it is important.
For the last 3 weeks, I have spent hours talking with club designers, metal experts, R&D folks about this very thing and have come to a few conclusions on this topic, but I want to hear from the people here.
Why is feel so important? It is something that happens for a split second at impact and nothing can be determined on whether or not it has any impact in scores. It is not something you feel before a shot and really after a shot (minus miss feedback of course), but something that is discussed over and over as the determining factor in our club buying.
Why is soft feel better than hard feel? Yet in other clubs the hardest metals are the most desirable for distance. How much of a role does marketing play in this as a total package? I know we all hate to hear about that from the consumer stand point, but its out there and it affects all of us.
We have a perceived feeling before we even hit a club on how its going to feel most of the time. Regardless if we as golfers want to acknowledge it, its out there. If the goal is extremely soft, it could be manipulated to be that way with internal and external "ingredients", yet in the end, us consumers still want what we consider "pure".
Is it because as one club maker put it, "we need a reason and validation for making the club purchases we make, and logic is not one of them. Therefore we use the term feel to let everybody (including ourselves) know just how great of a purchase we just made". Or is there really something tangible that says we must have this soft impact in our hands and ears to take us to the next level.
It has been a fascinating few weeks for me discussing this with the true experts in the industry, and I would love to hear from everybody on the topic.
For the last 3 weeks, I have spent hours talking with club designers, metal experts, R&D folks about this very thing and have come to a few conclusions on this topic, but I want to hear from the people here.
Why is feel so important? It is something that happens for a split second at impact and nothing can be determined on whether or not it has any impact in scores. It is not something you feel before a shot and really after a shot (minus miss feedback of course), but something that is discussed over and over as the determining factor in our club buying.
Why is soft feel better than hard feel? Yet in other clubs the hardest metals are the most desirable for distance. How much of a role does marketing play in this as a total package? I know we all hate to hear about that from the consumer stand point, but its out there and it affects all of us.
We have a perceived feeling before we even hit a club on how its going to feel most of the time. Regardless if we as golfers want to acknowledge it, its out there. If the goal is extremely soft, it could be manipulated to be that way with internal and external "ingredients", yet in the end, us consumers still want what we consider "pure".
Is it because as one club maker put it, "we need a reason and validation for making the club purchases we make, and logic is not one of them. Therefore we use the term feel to let everybody (including ourselves) know just how great of a purchase we just made". Or is there really something tangible that says we must have this soft impact in our hands and ears to take us to the next level.
It has been a fascinating few weeks for me discussing this with the true experts in the industry, and I would love to hear from everybody on the topic.