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What does the future of golf equipment look like?
Think you understand what a 7-iron does? You may need to leave your preconceptions at the door, as Alan Hocknell, Titleist’s VP of advanced research and innovation told The GBQ Podcast
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Don’t worry, your putter isn’t going to change. But the remaining 13 clubs in your golf bag? Everything is up for grabs, reckons Titleist’s research guru.
Speaking on The GBQ Podcast, Dr Alan Hocknell, the equipment company’s head of advanced research and innovation, projected on the big advancements coming in golf equipment.
While he was naturally tight-lipped on products, he did tell host Sarah Stirk that the make-up of our bags – and how we use our clubs – may be where we see some of the biggest developments in the future.
“You should expect the 14 clubs you know today to look a little different than they do now,” he said. “OK, the putter’s job isn’t going to change that much but, for the rest, I think there’s scope to really ask the question: ‘how do I get the most out of the clubs I carry around for me as an individual?’
“You should expect the 14 clubs you know today to look a little different than they do now”
“It goes back to individualising performance. It’s ‘how do I get the clubs to go the distance I want them to go, to have the stopping power I want them to have?’
“People might have mixed sets of irons. That’s becoming more of a trend – the long clubs different from the short clubs. There is this fascination about what you do between your driver and your longest iron – all those clubs in there – and how do you get the most out of that part of your bag?
“If you can get the most out of them, go back to strokes gained metrics, and try to say, ‘each one of my clubs contributes to my score in a certain way’.
“They’re all scoring clubs. It’s not just my wedges that are scoring clubs or my putter. They’re all scoring clubs. How do we take that approach to design and then go and finish out club configurations for length, loft, head size, ease of getting the ball in the air, speed and spin rates?
“Some of the most fun we have is trying to invest in new golf clubs that essentially aren’t just better versions of the ones you have already, but are things you maybe haven’t seen before, or are blends of different types of golf clubs.
“If you think broadly enough, there is the scope for your whole bag to evolve.”
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