TaylorMade In Search Of Perfect Sound
This week if you get a chance to watch both the College Baseball World Series and the USGA U.S. Open at the same time, do a quick experiment at home. Put both events on at the same time and see if you can tell the difference between the sound of a “modern driver” and the sound that comes off the “aluminum baseball bat”.
All Sounds The Same
Ten years ago the you never even heard the reference being made about a driver sounding like an aluminum bat. That has all changed, and in the golf world not for the better. Golfers buying equipment today have had to sacrifice sound for size. But with companies promising both longer and straighter drives they have seemed to give up on the fight for one of the most important aspects of a golf club. The sweet sound of a well hit ball. When someone hit a bad drive a few years ago, you would almost always hear a partner saying something like, “You hit it thin” or “You hit it off the toe” or “You hit a heelie”. That is because you could actually tell the difference in the sound that came off the driver. Hard to remember those days but TaylorMade looks like they might be trying to bring them back with this new patent that just issued.
Purpose of The Patent
From what I have read it is to perfect the sound of the driver or at least make it resemble what drivers used to sound like. And that is where the “Fins” come in, the “Fins” actually change the sound coming from the driver by how and where they are located.
Taylormade States the Preferred Sound is:
The sound generated by a golf club is based on the rate, or frequency, at which the golf club head vibrates upon impact with the golf ball. Generally, for wood-type golf clubs (as distinguished from iron-type golf clubs), particularly those made of steel or titanium alloys, a desired frequency is generally around 3,000 Hz and preferably greater than 3,200 Hz. A frequency less than 3,000 Hz may result in negative auditory feedback and thus a golf club with an undesirable feel.
At first glance you might think OMG that is to wild looking, I would never purchase that. But most likely the driver will not look like the drawings…well not exactly. If you are not familiar with patents then I will tell you that many of these images are just for company protection. They have to think of any and every idea possible that another company might think of to copy their design and document it in the patent(s). So, more then likely this is not the actual driver you will see released to the public but the general concepts will be similar. Read Full Patent: US Pub. No. 20080132355
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