A Publication of Tom Wishon Golf Technology   •   July 2004
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July 2004 TWGT eTECHreport

Happy Fourth of July from Tom Wishon Golf Technology...

In July's issue of the TWGT eTECHreport:

[NOTE: the complete July TWGT eTECHreport pdf version is available by clicking here - 459KB (requires Adobe Acrobat 5 or newer )]

TWGT Robot Report

As the saying goes, “all good things take time.” While no one is more anxious to complete the building of our new super robot and put it to work than I, during the design process this year, I have definitely learned that the engineering of such a complex piece of machinery to swing more like a human than any robot currently made is a huge task. [continues below]

New Models Now Available

It may have been the singer Neil Young who coined the term, “Rust Never Sleeps”, and neither do we at TWGT when it comes to increasing our design options for clubmakers! [continues below]

949G/Ti Released and Proving Performance

If you’ll forgive me for repeating myself, I’ll say once again, “all good things take time.” And this statement certainly applies to the new 949G/Ti driver that TWGT finally completed and began shipping... [continues below]

TWGT Promotional and Instructional Videos Coming Soon

We have the technology! TWGT is pleased to announce that we have acquired the capability to begin producing our own video presentations. [continues below]

TWGT Inks Deal to Write Consumer Book Promoting Clubmaking

TWGT is committed to getting the word out to consumers that the best set of clubs they will ever buy will be a set YOU fit and build using our high quality and high performance clubhead, shaft and grip designs. [continues below]

TWGT Robot Report

CAD drawing of the TWGT Testing RobotCAD drawing of the TWGT Testing Robot

As the saying goes, “all good things take time.” While no one is more anxious to complete the building of our new super robot and put it to work than I am, during the design process this year, I have definitely learned that the engineering of such a complex piece of machinery to swing more like a human than any robot currently made is a huge task.

In early June, I met with the graduate engineering students at Northern Arizona University to go over the final design of the new TWGT Testing Robot. The students took on the challenge of designing a totally new testing robot for TWGT to fulfill their Capstone Senior Engineering requirement for graduation.

Seven student engineers, four specializing in the mechanical engineering tasks, and three in the electrical and computer engineering side of the project comprised the full design team tackling the complex project of creating the TWGT hitting robot. The team was supervised by the advisor to the NAU engineering department whose role it was to offer input and professional direction for each aspect of the robot design.

The meeting to present and discuss the final design of the robot prior to construction of the working prototype consisted of myself, the lead students for both the mechanical and electrical/computer engineering teams, and NAU’s engineering department advisor. During the meeting we went over gigabytes of computer design and modeling files, looking at each aspect of the mechanical design of the robot from the platform to the complex function of the arm. The robot’s arm is the most unique element in the design. I was pleased to see the students were successful in engineering the robot’s arm to be able to change its Moment of Inertia during the downswing. No other robot does that, which is a critical par of replicating how a human swings the club on the downswing.

In the human swing, when we unhinge the wrist-cock on the downswing, the moment the angle between the arms and the club begins to unhinge, the arms begin to slow down and lose acceleration while the club speeds up. TWGT’s robot will accomplish the same action through the use of a new multi-processor servo-motor which will receive its power commands from the custom Visual Basic computer operation program that will run the entire robot and all of its actions. At the meeting, the action of the arm and variable wrist-cock release was shown as well as the operation of the servo-motor and all of the electronic parts that will drive the robot.

The only aspect of the design that we chose to re-create was the action of the rotation of the wrist on the downswing. Initially the students had felt this should be variable to simulate the fact that some golfers leave the face open or rotate it closed at impact, so they had designed the pronation to be controlled by a second, smaller servo-motor. This double servo-motor design was proving to be overly complex to program in concert with the main servo driving the arm for different swing speeds, so there was concern about whether this could be a problem in programming the operating code.

Fortunately, I finally had a decent idea to contribute to the meeting when I told them the easiest way to simulate impact, in which the golfer left the face open or rotated it closed, was simply to adjust the position of the club in the robot’s grip holding fixture! After everyone had one of those good laughs prompted by “paralysis from over-analysis,” it was agreed that the pronation action would be re-designed to be mechanical in its operation.

Next step for the TWGT robot will be to build the Visual Basic operation program and use a far more robust engineering dynamics software package recently made available to the lead mechanical engineering student to model and re-analyze all of the mechanical parts to be sure of their ability to perform properly and withstand all possible stress of operation up to a maximum swing speed of 130mph. After that, the construction of the robot prototype will commence to enable real world testing to determine if any final design adjustments need to be made.
Thus while the timing for completion is going to be a little later than what had been initially planned, everything is definitely a “go” with TWGT’s project to complete a totally new more human-like hit testing robot!

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New Models Now Available

It may have been the singer Neil Young who coined the term, “Rust Never Sleeps”, and neither do we at TWGT when it comes to increasing our design options for clubmakers! This month we are pleased to introduce a number of new clubhead models to allow clubmakers to further fit and build custom made clubs to help their golfers play better and enjoy the game more. All of these new TWGT models are arriving around the 15th of July. Pre-order yours today.

all new TWGT models

New PCF model Black Cobalt finished wedges

 

New 321-5 iron hybrid

 

New 939H Iron Additions

 

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949G/Ti Released and Proving Performance

If you’ll forgive me for repeating myself, I’ll say once again, “all good things take time.” And this statement certainly applies to the new 949G/Ti driver that TWGT finally completed and began shipping (to fill requests) on June 21! Final model testing and early reports from clubmakers has really made me feel good that the extra time I took to keep adjusting the production tooling and pushing the Center of Gravity (CG) farther back from the face was definitely worth it.
I am so pleased that I had the opportunity to design the industry’s first graphite + metal hollow body driver way back in 1995 because the experience definitely taught both me and our production foundry how to create the design so that it actually lived up to its design concept and performed as intended.

The whole reason for creating a woodhead in which heavier metal is replaced by light graphite composite is to allow a greater movement of weight around the head and therefore position the CG in a more extreme location inside the head than what is possible in an all-metal head design. In the case of the 949, my express goal was to push the CG farther back in the head than any other driver – this would allow the use of less loft on the face to achieve a higher launch angle. Thus if a large portion of the launch angle could come from the CG position and not simply the loft, the loft could be reduced slightly to keep the ball velocity from dropping. The result is a launch angle similar to that from other 12 degree drivers, but with a ball velocity commensurate with other 10.5 loft designs. The best of both worlds in other words!

We were able to design the 949 so that it performs as designed and still offers great feel and a favorable sound that is closer to an all-Ti driver without the dead sound of a graphite head. This was done through small metal braces inside the head, which prevents the impact vibrations from the face from being muted by the graphite.

In addition, the 949 becomes the second driver design line to incorporate TWGT’s unique GRT face design. GRT, or Graduated Roll Technology is one of the reasons the 515 drivers have received incredible reviews from clubmakers and golfers this year. By eliminating the vertical roll radius curvature of the bottom of the face, the loft of the 949G/Ti is the same 10.5 degrees over the bottom 55% of the face. This ensures a much higher launch angle for low face hits than all other drivers that are made with typical full face roll curvature.

To verify our claim for more rear located CG, TWGT recently performed a measurement of the CG location of three of the industry’s leading graphite and titanium driver designs. In addition, we also measured the CG on each of these three companies’ all-Titanium driver heads of the same loft angle to investigate the difference between these companies’ all-Ti and Graphite/Ti drivers. Following is that information:

TWGT Analysis of all-Ti vs. Graphite + Ti Driver Designs

Company Model Construction Loft Face Height Face to Back Vertical CG Face to Back CG
Callaway Fusion Graphite + Ti 10 54mm 95.5mm 33.4mm 38.8mm
Great Big Bertha II all Ti 10 56mm 94mm 33.2mm 33.7mm
Mizuno MP-001 Graphite + Ti 10 52.5mm 99.5mm 33.6mm 34.9mm
Blue Rage All Ti 10 52.5mm 96mm 33.2mm 34.0mm
Yonex Cyberstar PowerBrid Graphite + Ti 10.5 58mm 98mm 33.3mm 31mm
V-Mass 400 All Ti 10.5 58mm 100mm 35.6mm 34mm
Wishon 949G/Ti Graphite + Ti 10.5 55.5mm 97mm 33.5mm 43mm
919CCG-380cc Ti + Copper 10.5 57mm 104mm 35mm 38mm
915CFE-360cc All Ti 11 51mm 102mm 34.5mm 33mm

TWGT believes the reason for creating a graphite + titanium driver design is to use the opportunity to re-position weight in the head to make the graphite + titanium driver different in performance than an all-titanium design. One of the best ways to determine that is by comparing the vertical and the face-to-back locations of the Center of Gravity. If you look at the CG measurement data for some of the golf industry’s all-titanium and graphite + titanium driver designs, you can see that only TWGT and Callaway have created their graphite + titanium drivers to have a more rear located CG than their all-titanium drivers. Mizuno’s graphite + titanium model MP001 and all-titanium Blue Rage drivers have virtually the same CG locations, while in the case of the two versions of driver designs from Yonex, the company’s all-titanium driver actually has a more rear located CG than their graphite + titanium design!

At TWGT we work very hard to create a different type of performance for each model we design. If you look at the CG locations for three of our popular driver models, you can see that the face-to-back CG location changes by 5mm between each model. Thus each model has a little different performance offering. In addition, we were able to move the face-to-back CG location of our graphite + titanium 949G/Ti 4.2mm farther back than the Callaway Fusion.

The other drivers measured in this comparison are manufactured to high standards of production by high quality foundries. It is not TWGT’s intent to infer anything from this comparison other than to show design differences between drivers of similar construction. We take our work as original equipment designers very seriously at TWGT. We believe strongly that our models are conceived and designed with specific performance intent, and that we work hard to create designs that offer differences in performance and do perform as we intend. In sharing this information, we are pleased that the 949G/Ti is another solid, high quality TWGT design that if fit properly, will definitely benefit the golfer.

Visit the 949G/Ti page for details: http://wishongolf.com/designs/woodheads/949gti.html

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TWGT Promotional and Instructional Videos Coming Soon

We have the technology! TWGT is pleased to announce that we have acquired the capability to begin producing our own video presentations. Our goal is twofold: to further help clubmakers promote their clubmaking business, as well as learn more information that will help them improve their clubmaking skills and knowledge. This month we began work on marketing and instructional videos that will be made available to clubmakers in both VHS and DVD format. In addition, we also have the in-house ability to compress and offer video information on our clubmaker and consumer web sites primarily for visitors with broadband internet access, or a ton of patience.

The first video project will be created as an addition to the TWGT Marketing Kit. The video is intended for serious clubmakers to show to their prospective customers, illustrating the quality of custom made clubs built from quality components. We are well aware that many consumers believe that OEM standard made clubs are superior to custom fit clubs built from components. Such beliefs come primarily from the large OEM’s multi-million dollar marketing and player endorsement programs. We know that such beliefs are difficult for you to overcome on your own, so we’re using our experience in golf equipment manufacturing and design to bring forth facts in a positive manner intended to better inform consumers of the truths about golf club design, production, fitting and performance.

Following the initial marketing video, TWGT will then shift its focus to both technical instruction as well as information to help you learn more techniques for presenting and selling custom made clubs to your prospective customers. Our future is tied to your success in selling custom clubs to all levels of golfers.

Therefore we are committed to helping you in every way possible grow your business and increase your equipment knowledge, all for one simple reason: we truly believe and know that the best set of clubs any golfer will ever buy will not be a set of standard made clubs “bought off the rack”; they will be a set of clubs that are custom fit and built from high quality components. To get that message to golfers and convince them where they will find the best clubs for their game will always be a major focus of our company.

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TWGT Inks Deal to Write Consumer Book Promoting Clubmaking

TWGT is committed to getting the word out to consumers that the best set of clubs they will ever buy will be a set YOU fit and build using our high quality and high performance clubhead, shaft and grip designs. In February, Tom Wishon was asked to be the Technical Advisor and write a monthly equipment article for the PGA of America’s official web site, www.pga.com. In March, TWGT created the component clubmaking industry’s only consumer web site, www.twgolftech.com, to help inform consumers that your skills and commitment in custom clubmaking will provide them with the best equipment they can buy.

This month, we’re very proud to tell you about another project that is certain to get the word out about your value to golfers. Ann Arbor Press has asked Tom Wishon and writer/clubmaker Tom Grundner to co-write a new book that Ann Arbor Press will promote and distribute that will educate consumers about the performance of golf equipment and tell the truth about custom built vs. standard OEM off the rack clubs. Ann Arbor Press is the sports book division of Sleeping Bear Press, the sole distributor for the Harry Potter books in the US.

That means that in time for the Christmas holiday season, Tom’s new consumer golf equipment book will be offered for sale by every major retail bookselling chain in the US, as well as all major internet bookselling companies.

I have always wanted to write a book that would tell the story about real golf club performance and be able to educate consumer golfers about the differences between OEM clubs bought standard, off-the-rack and the custom clubs that professional clubmakers create. The fact that Ann Arbor Press expressed a similar interest and contacted me to do the project is a fantastic break for custom clubmaking because they have the clout to get the book into major bookselling outlets nationwide.

TWGT plans to offer the book to clubmakers at a wholesale price so that clubmakers in turn will be able to offer the book for sale to golfers as a further way to promote their skills and inform golfers of the facts of life about golf equipment.

 

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