Category: Golf

Arthur C. Clarke quotation

11/18/2015: Yesterday at MoPro Internet Publishing studios in Costa Mesa, California I first learned of Arthur C. Clarke.

This was posted among other sayings on the wall of their reception area.

arthur C clarke

This caught my attention in that after first showing PGA tour players that the grooved golf grip would shape their swing path, one responsed, “Where is the magic bracelet, Lanny?”

To learn more about him I went to Google search. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

Clarke_sm
Born 16 December 1917 – Died 19 March 2008

PGA Player Puts Grooved Grips on All Clubs

10/8/2015: Gil Morgan put grooved golf grips on all clubs. He opens with 4 under on front nine and finishes with 70. He participated in the driver study 2 years ago and used the putter grip since that time. This week he pulled the trigger and put them on all clubs.

Grooved Grips Produce Amazing Golf Ball Flight

10/6/2015: The grooved golf grips produced amazing golf ball flight for PGA club professional at Prestonwoods golf course. The PGA member warmed up with his driver until comfortable. It should be noted he never has worn a glove, so both tests were without a golf glove.

He then hit five drives with his driver that were recorded on a Trackman radar device. His driver was the latest Nike design with an X shaft and a conventional grip. This was followed without practice swings by 5 drives with the test driver. The test driver selected at random from a barrel in a driving range was is a many year old Titleist with a stiff shaft but with the grooved golf grip. The balls were from the range.

IMPACT SPOT: The impact spot on the each driver face was recorded for the five drives. He hit his driver (above) more in the center of the club face than he did with the test driver (image below).

Ryan driver impact spot

Ryan test driver impact spot

BALL FLIGHT AND LANDING SITE: The results showed that he was on average 10 yards shorter with the test driver. He drove it average of 297.8 yards with his driver. However the short to long dispersion varied dispersion from 285 to 329 yards. This was 44 yards variance compared to 14 yards for the test driver.

The right to left dispersion was 180 feet with his driver, both right and left from the white vertical target line. The test driver landing sites were all left of the target line as his ball flight was a consistent draw with the test club. The dispersion right to left was 62 feet. The dispersion was reduced from 180 feet to 62 feet with the grooved grip on the test driver.

Ryan Roberts 2015-10-06 Actual Grip Test_Page_2

The larger circle is the pattern outline achieved with his driver. The smaller outline is what was produced with the test driver with grooved golf grips and no practice swings. The no practice swing routine has been a standard for our testing in order to bias the results against the performance of the grooved golf grips.

This is further evidence that the grooved golf grips influence in a postive manner decreasing the dispersion right to left and have the distant landing spot to be more compact. This is clearly more evidence of making a difference.

IMPORTANT OBSERVATION: It appears the impact spot is important perhaps to a solid hit but having a well centered impact spot on the driver face will still allow for misdirection probably dependent upon the swing path. Both impact spot and swing path are important to well directed ball flight. He has slightly less optimal impact spot with the test club he had never used before, but much improved swing path.

gold round logo with black and ball in center

www.groovedgolfgrips.com

Amazing Test Results with Grooved Golf Grip

9/24/2015: The following are the initial results of testing on a ball launch monitor; comparing a traditional golf grip to the grooved golf grip. The results showed that the grooved golf grip on a driver taken from a barrel at a driving range produced a longer, straighter and more predictable length of the ball flight than a traditional grip on the players own custom fit driver. In addition, the results were better without a glove or with the half glove, thereby maximizing the dermal impression on the player’s fingers from the grooves.

Thumb line off grip

THIS GRIP TECHNOLOGY WORKS THE WAY THE HUMAN WORKS. It is unlike other golf technology that is based upon how the golf club works.

BALL LAUNCH MONITOR TESTING

MICHGAN STATE UNIVERSITY TEAM

Bias: The subject knew there was some unspecified benefit to the grooved grips. He was allowed to warm up to his satisfaction with his driver before being subject to testing.

Anti-grip bias: The test driver was randomly selected from a barrel at a driving range. The player was not allowed any practice swings with the test driver prior to hitting the five balls. The balls were practice balls at the golf course’s range.

METHOD: The right handed player warmed up with his driver with full glove on his left hand.

THE TESTING: He hit 5 shots with impact paper tape on his driver face. Shots were recorded on ball launch monitor and seen in WHITE dots below.

He then was handed the test driver. It was a 20 year old Titleist from a barrel in a driving range with a 9.5 loft and stiff shaft and the GROOVED GOLF GRIP. With no practice swings he hit 5 drives with his glove and impact recording paper tape on the driver face.

Impact on driver face with his club on left and test driver on the right.

MSU impact testing

The drives were recorded in GREEN as seen below.

He then hit five drives with the test driver and no glove. The results are recorded in YELLOW dots below.

The final test was with test driver and with an half glove with open fingers. The results are recorded in BLUE dots.

RESULTS: Test driver produced longer ball flight. It produced less ball flight dispersion right to left. The test driver produced less dispersion long to short.

MSU graph of driver testing

KEY to color of the landing site dots.

WHITE: His driver and his glove

GREEN: Test driver and his glove

YELLOW: Test driver and no glove

BLUE: Test driver and open finger glove

gloves Aug 22 2015 001

Further Analysis of the data:

DIRECTION: More centered with skin exposed
White: He hit left with his club and his full glove.
Green: He hit right with test driver and his full glove on.
Yellow: He hit more centered with test driver and no glove.
Blue: He hit more centered with test driver and fingerless glove.

NOTE: THE RESULTS WERE SAME WITH FINGERLESS GLOVE AS WITHOUT A GLOVE ON TEST DRIVER. To review: The results were worse with the players driver and full glove. The results were better with the test driver and grooved grips and full glove, yet even better with test driver and no glove. However the results were best with the half glove and the grooved grip test driver. The half glove gives the benefit of the glove, but with the fingers exposed the critical neursensory perception of the grooves remains. It should be noted that the sensation in the fingers is twice as good as the palm of the hand.

RIGHT TO LEFT DISPERSION: Less with Groove Grip and skin exposed
White: 39 yards off line with his driver and his full glove.
Green: 31 yards off line with test driver and his full glove.
Yellow: 19 yards off line with test driver and no glove.
Blue: 13 yards off line with test driver and fingerless glove.

DISTANCE AVERAGE in yards: Longer drives with Grooved Grip on test driver.
White: 258 (240-270)
Green: 268 (250-270)
Yellow: 268 (250-270)
Blue: 270 (260-280)

DISTANCE LENGTH DISPERSION: More consistent distance with Grooved Grip on test driver.
White: 30 yards (240-270)
Green: 20 yards (250-270)
Yellow: 20 yards (250-270)
Blue: 20 yards (260-280)

FUTURE: Further testing will be preformed not only with driver by other clubs to give maximal predictive knowledge of length of ball flight for each club.

First Collegiate Win with Grooved Grips

9/23/2015: Mitch Rutledge, Michigan State University golfer wins Inverness Invitational Collegiate golf tournament with rounds of 75-70-70-66. He is first collegiate golfer to my knowledge to win a collegiate tournament using the grooved golf grips. The tournament was played at the par-71, 7,300-yard Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

Mitch Rutledge

www.groovedgolfgrips.com

New Golf Glove; Back to the Future

8/22/2015: A new golf glove is really “Back to the Future”. This glove was popular in the 1940’s. I had no covering of the fingers. I have brought this back so that players can have a glove while maximizing the benefit of the dermal imprint of the grooved golf grips.

imprint glove aut 22 003

gloves Aug 22 2015 001

gloves Aug 22 2015 002

These gloves available in right or left and black or white will be promoted on the PGA tour to emphasize the benefit of the grooved golf grips.

www.groovedgolfgrips.com

Footnote: I have never worn a glove for golf since as a youth I could not affort the luxury. Yesterday I played 18 holes with the glove on left hand and did not take it off even for putter. I played really well.

Golf Ball Driving Distance; the New Normal

8/16/2015: The new normal on the PGA tour for average driving distance is 289.8 yards

After the third round at the PGA Championship the leaders driving distancess in yards were as follows.

Day: 306
Spieth: 287
Grace: 297
Rose: 304
Kaymer: 290
Finau: 305
Jones: 309

Day is 15 under par. Furyk is 5 under par, playing really well with driving average of 277 yards. He is about 25 yards shorter than the leaders. He is hitting 2 or more clubs than these guys on par 4’s. He is taking 3 shots to the par 5’s to get on the green where Day sometimes hits the par 5s green with a 5 iron after a 370 yard drive in the middle of the fairway. Go figure!

Before the “rabbit” ball in golf a drive of 250 yards was really special with a ballata constructed golf ball. For reference the rules of golf used to establish par related to length of the hole. A par 3 was anything up to 260 yards. A par 4 was 260 to 450 yards. Par 5 was above 460 yards. The length of the golf course would be 6500 yards.

Today on PGA tour we see 505 yard par 4’s and 600 plus par 5’s. Courses now are designed to be 8000 yards total.

I think the players are more physically fit, perfected technique, plus the spring effect of the golf club face helped and finally got controlled, but the culprit is the modern golf ball.

ANCIENT HISTORY: For the record, on July 5, 1955 (just 60 years ago) I made a hole in one at the 8th hole at Burroughs Farms Golf Club in Brighton, Michigan. It was a 265 yard par 4. I hit the ballata ball in with a 3 wood and the 3 wood head was wood and not metal.