Any golfing ME's out there who have access to dynamics/finite element software?

Dear JHD:

After they added dimples to the golf balls, everything else was cosmetics. There is plenty of non-Science, also known as media hype. What golf is about is "politics" and "socializing". Don't waste a lot of time anaylzing the way a bar stool is made and used, if the point is to get "happy" with your friends.

David A. Smith

Joel,

Golfsmith (located in Austin, Texas) has performed some of the analyses you mention. They have even coordinated with the Mechanical Engineering department at The University of Texas to design test fixtures and perform various analyses. I happen to have limited familiarity with Golfsmith, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if other golf equipment manufacturers have done the same.

Although I'm interested in the analsis work you suggest, I unfortunately don't have access to the appropriate tools.

I'm aware of Golfsmith of course. But my interests are much broader than just the design of the latest gargantuan driver head. Here's one example of something I've wondered about:

Putter makers have gone nuts trying to outdo each other in makeing putter heads (and other clubheads) with the largest possible angular moment of inertia around an axis perpendicular to the ground, so that if you strike the ball somewhere other than at the center of mass, twisting of the putter face off the intended line is minimized. So far, so good - hitting the ball

1/4 inch fore or aft of center doesn't have much effect with most putters. But I observe that the vertical height of most putter faces is under an inch - just over half the height of a golf ball. And I further notice that in contrast to striking it off center horizontally, striking it 1/4 inch above or below center seems to have a huge effect - the ball doesn't roll nearly as far as if it's struck on the vertical "sweet spot". So I wonder what's going on here, and why it isn't the subject of scrutiny for Scotty Cameron and others of his ilk (a putter designer of some repute). Is it that there's some sort of resonance that's being excited differently? I did a back of the envelope calculation about what the resonant period of a piece of metal the size of a putterhead might be, and it wasn't out of the question that it's similar to the amount of time a ball stays in contact with the clubhead during a full swing. It would sure be interesting to have a FEM of a putter, and see how it resonates as you strike it at different places vertically. My bet is you'd immediately set off a technololgy arms race in an entirely new direction.

This and other questions are keeping me occupied while I sit watching the rain, and waiting for things to dry out enough to get out and play....

J

You raise a very interesting question that warrants investigation. Hopefully, you will identify someone interested in pursuing this question.