Golf's Top-10 Most Important Inventions of the Modern Era

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Almost every golfer dreams of coming up with the next BIG golf invention. Hell... right now there are probably thousands of men sitting in a garage or basement somewhere building a prototype they think will change the golf world forever. And you never know…one of those guys might just be on to something. That’s one of the things I love most about the golf equipment industry... some of the best inventions in golf started out on something as simple as a napkin by a guy you had never heard of before. And you never know the next BIG golf invention on a list like this might just come from a reader like you. (Source)

GolfSpyX over at My Golf Spy Dot Com reached out to three of the industry's top equipment designers to gather their opinions, and then to create a great article. They are Nike's Tom Stites, Nickent Golf's John Hoeflich, and Sheets Design Group's Tom Sheets.

Here's a snippet of what each designer had to say about their "Top-10 Golf Inventions" (all 3 specified "in no particular order"):

Tom Stites:
HEEL AND TOE WEIGHTED PUTTERS – Putters with mass located on the heel and toe are more stable than other geometries. This increases greatly the MOI of putters and improves the performance of putts when hit off center. (example- the original Anser putter)

OPEN CORE METAL WOODS - Before the first stainless steel driver all woods were solid core. If the core is open the club will have a much higher MOI and be much more forgiving to hit. Bigger metal woods for over all footprint and size will also have higher MOI’s and higher performance. This is only possible if the core is open without material and mass. Solid core woods and irons do not have a chance to compete against the performance of open core clubs. (example all metal woods)

TITANIUM METAL WOOD DRIVERS - Titanium is the ideal material for metal woods. It is very strong compared to its weight and allows very large high MOI drivers. There is nothing even close for drivers. (Example all titanium metal woods.)

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John Hoeflich:
ETONIC CORFAM SHOE 1960′s – this was really the first “waterproof” shoe that sold in big quantities. The fit was awful, but it started a revolution in shoes.

RAM/MAXFLI WOUND SURLYN BALLS - late 60′s/early 70s. Started the synthetic cover revolution.

TAYLORMADE METALWOOD – Pinseeker bombshell was first, but TM perfected the art.

ALDILA GRAPHITE SHAFTS EARLY 70′s - Shakespeare and Frank Thomas started it all, but aldila made it a hit

SOLID GOLF BALL – Topflite solid ball. Nike solid ball. When Tiger switched, it was the beginning of the end for wound balls and paved the way for the Pro V1.

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Jeff Sheets:
STEEL SHAFTS - Brought a level of consistency in shaft performance that didn’t exist with hickory. Led to today’s more upright swing plane. Hickory had about 14 degrees of torque and worked best with a flatter wristier swing plane.

MOLDED GOLF BALLS – Consistency in the product, speed in the production, consistency in the performance. Sure beats a feathery.

INVESTMENT CAST STEEL WOODS – Although aluminum and other metal woods pre-dated the first TaylorMades none of them cold hold a candle to the performance and versatility of the new generation launched in the late 1970′s.

TITANIUM DRIVERS – If stainless steel metal woods are good the larger titanium drivers are better. Deeper CG and the taller faces enabled the vertical gear effect to be a big distance factor (low/rear CG leads to higher launch and lower spin).

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And when you go to the main article be sure to check out the readers' comments at the bottom! For me the top inventions are steel shafts, graphite shafts, multi-layered golf balls, better mowing technology, and much-improved irrigation systems.

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