Golf clubs come in many different sizes, shapes, and colors. However, despite all of the variations that can be found in different types of golf clubs, almost all of them have three essential components; a head, a grip, and a shaft connecting the head and the grip. The golf club head may generally refer to an object that is used to impact a golf ball located at a terminal end of a golf club. The grip may generally refer to an object located at a proximal end of the golf club, providing an interface for the golfer to grasp onto the golf club. Finally, the shaft may be a hollow cylindrical rod juxtaposed between the grip and the club head to provide a connection between the two components.
In order to improve the overall performance of a golf club, golf club designers have generally focused on improving the performance of all of the individual components independently. In one example, club heads have gotten bigger in size to increase the moment of inertia of the club head while at the same time also increasing the coefficient of restitution between the club head and the golf ball to allow the golf ball to be launched longer and straighter. In another example, golf club grips have evolved from leather wraps to rubber compounds that improve the durability and feel of the grip in a golfer's hand. Finally, in a further example, golf club shafts have morphed from wooden shafts to steel or carbon fiber shafts to provide more stability all while providing adjustments in the bending profiles of the shaft in order to further improve the overall performance of the golf club.
Although each component can help a golfer improve the overall performance, the exact optimization of each individual golfer's equipment can be a complicated art. Because each individual has a different golf swing with potentially dramatic variations from other individuals, the determination of an optimal performing golf club for that specific golfer cannot be accomplished from a one size fits all approach. In fact, one of the most mystifying aspects of the sport of golf is the determination of the proper golf club shaft for a specific golfer to allow him to optimize the performance criteria of the entire golf club.
Currently in the field, the determination of what an optimal golf club shaft for a particular golfer may generally involve a lot of guesswork, with very little repeatability. Typically, a golfer starts out by testing as many different types of shafts as possible in order to guess at the ultimate selection based upon the feel of the club and/or the launch characteristics of the golf ball. This process may be improved if the golfer seeks the advice of a professional fitter who can make more of an educated guess based on his experience, but the entire process still comes down to a lot of trial and error. This archaic process of fitting a golfer for a golf club is not only inefficient, but it is also inaccurate, inconsistent, unreliable, and not easily repeatable.
In order to address the fitting problem discussed above, U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,952 to Hackman discloses a method that measures the swing time of a golfer's swing and selects a club having the inverse of four times its natural frequency which is approximately equal to the swing time. In a preferred embodiment, an accelerometer is mounted within the club head and is connected to an electronic data process, and a graph of club head acceleration versus time is plotted, allowing the swing time to be measured.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,083,123 to Wood provides another methodology to attempt to debunk the mystery that is involved in the proper fitting of a golf club to a golfer by using combinatorial logic at both the global and local levels of a computer implemented method. The input parameters of this methodology utilizes the speed, tempo, face angle, dynamic loft, trajectory, dynamic lie, rotation, and height, amongst other characters to predict an ideal golf club for the golfer.
Although both of the above mentioned methodologies of shaft fitting are viable attempts to provide some sort of format and guidance to improve on the archaic guesstimate fitting method of the past, it falls short in not extracting the behavioral information of the shaft. Although various other result related data can all help with the proper fitting of a golfer to his specific shaft, the most important information that can be gathered has to be derived from the shaft itself; as it is the shaft deflection that ultimately affects how the golf club head contacts the golf ball.
Hence, it can be seen, there exists a need for a golf club shaft fitting system that utilizes the behavior of the shaft as dictated by player's unique swing to determine the optimal fit of a specific golf swing. More specifically, there is a need in the field for a fitting system that captures the behavioral information of a golf club shaft throughout the golf swing itself; and utilizes that behavioral information to determine the optimal golf club shaft based on that behavioral information.