Golf and Its Secrets

The Quest for a Better Club

Will Big Bertha and ping irons make you a scratch player?

Alchemists in the Middle Ages believed that a substance known as the philosophers' stone would transform base metals into gold or silver.

Add the substance to lead or some other cheap metal, they believed, and through a magical process laden with philosophical and religious implications, a much more valuable metal would emerge. The elusive search for such a substance – and for the accompanying riches – occupied them for centuries. Many golfers are on a modern-day quest for the philosophers' stone, spending thousands of dollars on the latest equipment in a desperate attempt to improve their game.

That money might better be spent on a lesson or two from a golf pro – equipment isn't nearly as important as technique in golf. Nonetheless, manufacturers of golf equipment seize on the search for ever more sophisticated equipment, churning out advance after advance, claiming to add distance or control to a duffer's game. “Most of the new products on the market are purely style rather than substance,” say representative of the U.S. Golf Association. “This game is so much in the mind. In general, what you believe will work for you will work, because it will increase your confidence.”

While some of the alleged technological advances of the last decade border on the ridiculous, some actually have made a difference. Mirroring the move to bigger racquets in tennis, for example, the trend to bigger clubs has won out on the links. The vast majority of golf clubs produced today have oversized heads, offering a larger effective hitting area – commonly known as a “sweet spot: - making bad hits more likely to fly straight.

In the same vein, it is uncommon to find a wood today that is actually made of wood; metal woods, crafted from steel, graphite, titanium or other compounds, nod dominate the market. The switch to metal heads has enabled manufacturers to distribute the weight around the perimeter of the head, also providing an expanded sweet spot.

Many of today's irons also have a cavity carved in the back, allowing further weight distribution around the perimeter. Manufacturing are also steadily improving the strength, durability, and consistency of shafts made of graphite and other light-weight materials, which allow golfers to increase their swing speed (and hence their power) without any change in strength.

Tiger Wood. Photo by Elena.

Dozens of new clubs hit the market every year. Here are a few recent ones that the experts recommend most highly:

Woods: Since 1991, Callaway Golf's Big Bertha driver has dominated the fairways, and its big heads and boron-graphite shaft have been imitated dozens of times over. Several experts say they have spotted Big Bertha's toughest competitor yet: Taylor Made's Bubble Burner, which has taken weight from the grip and distributed it along the shaft. With more weight near the end of the club, the Bubble Burner gives the golfer about 10 percent quicker swing speed. It seems the Burner could knock Big Bertha from the peak of drivers.

Irons: Big heads and back cavities came to irons several years ago, so the recent innovations in these clubs have primarily been a matter of fine tuning. Manufacturers are experimenting by expanding the size and shape of the back cavity and placing different patterns on the club face, for example. Ping irons, which started the back-cavity trend, are still leading the market, but among the newer irons recommended by experts are Cobra's King Cobra St. for older players, Lynx's Black Cat, and Nicklaus's The Bear, which is reportedly flying out of stores.

Putters: “Feel” is the byword in putters now as always and manufacturers are promoting with materials designed to offer a softer feel (Gary Player's PP12 putter is made of aluminum bronze) and with clubs that give a player aural feedback (Karsten's Ping-n-Ping makes a “ping” noise when it is hit solidly, and Cliker Golf's ASP Echo mallet has a rear “echo chamber”). Perhaps the most popular new putter is the Odyssey Dual Force Rossie, which has a soft black insert made of thermoplastic substance that is supposed to cushion the ball's impact and reduce its skid off the putter.

For all the technological advances in equipment, real and exaggerated, the advice of most golf experts remains the same: Check out what the better players are using. Ask your local pro to check out your swing, and use clubs that match up well with your stroke and skills. And most of all, use the clubs you have confidence in, and stick with them. You get people who try out every new gimmick that comes out, but chances are they're going to go back to their old favorites or the simplest designs.

Golfers' never-ending search for the perfect club is very profitable. In 1988 Callaway Golf had $5 millions in sales. Sales climbed to $54 million in 1992, when the company introduced the Big Bertha line of woods, and to $135 million in 2000. The profits go up since that every single year. So the search for the philosophers' stone has been very good for the golf industry. But has it been good for the golfer? Just remember this: Alchemists all but abandoned their search for the stone in the 18th century.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Golf may be the only sport in which people of differing ability can complete fairly. That's because handicapping allows golfers to shave strokes off their scores depending on the quality of their games and the difficulty of the courses on which they're playing.

In simple terms, your handicap is the number of strokes by which you typically exceed par over 18 holes. But the system now used by the U.S. Golf Association for figuring a handicap is far from simple. Each golfer has a USGA handicap index that ranges from +3.4 for outstanding golfers who regularly score under par to 40.4 for players whose scores soar well over 100.

Under USGA regulations, only a golf club can calculate your handicap index. Each course has its own handicap table, based on the course's handicap table, you can determine how many strokes to subtract from your score in that day's round. The tougher the course, the greater the deduction.

Some of the toughest courses in America, which are ranked on the basis of USGA-recognized slope ratings; courses with identical slopes are ranked by yardage. All slopes and distances are from the most difficult men's tees:

Koolau Golf Course, Kaneohe, Hawaii: Distance and demoralizing hazards make this course, designed in 1992 by Dick Nugent, the nation's toughest. The 474-yard, par 4, 18th hole carries over a ravine to a narrow landing guarded by a 330-yard waste bunker. Whatever your handicap is, that's how many balls you'll need.

Ridge & Canyon, La Paloma Country Club, Tucson, Arizona: La Paloma, designed by Jack Nicklaus in 1986, comprises three 9-hole desert courses: Ridge, Canyon, and Hill. The toughest 18-hole combo is Ridge and Canyon. The tee on Ridge 4, a 199-yard par 3, is 50 feet above the peninsula green, perched on the edge of a cliff with desert all around. It's like trying to hit a table top from a five-story building.

The Lagoon Legend, Mariott's bay Point Resort, Panamy City Beach, Florida: The aesthetics of the hazards, mounds, and water make this a great place to relax – if you're not worried about your score. If scoring, your despair will only be magnified by number 18, a 382-yard run on St.Andrew Bay that island-hops from tee station to fairway to green. Designed in 1986 by Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge.

PGA West: TPC Stadium Course, La Quinta, California: Beware of the 19-foot-deep bunker protecting the 16th green: Because of its chasmlike trap, the 571-yard par 5 is known as San Adreas Fault. Designed by Pete Dye in 1986.

Thunder Hill Golf Course, South Madison, Ohio: More difficulty per dollar than any other in the top 10. Designed in 1976 by Fred Slagle, the course features 75 lakes. Number 9 is a whopping 246-yard par 3 that crosses a lake; bring an extra ball to the tee.

Blackwold Run, River Course, Kohler, Wis.:  Named the best course in Wisconsin by Golf Digest, Pete Dye's 1988 design calls for target golf: Pot bunkers and severe mounds wait patiently for you to miss a fairway or green. Number 9 is a 337-yard par 4 that has three landing areas off the tee that get progressively riskier and provide three options for playing the hole.

The Ocean Course, Kiawah Island Resort, Kiawah Island, S.C.: Pete Dye's 1988 design for this wide-open beach course has an aesthetic upside (ocean views from every hole) and a practical downside (no break from the ocean winds). Professionals say, that all you'll hear is the wind, some birds, the ocean, and profanity. Number 17 is a 197-yard par 3 that carries over a lake; 30,000 balls were retrieved from it one year.

The Bear. Acme, Grand Taverns Resort, Mich.: No two holes are similar and not one is easy: No two holes are similar and not one is easy. Number 4's back tees are rarely used, even in tournaments. Architect Jack Nicklaus (1985) drew lots of criticism for the Bear's difficulty, so when a Michigan pro named Brent Veenstra shot a course-record of 62 in 1992, Nicklaus said: Thank God, maybe now those SOBs will get off my back.

Shattuck Golf Course, Jaffrey, N.H., Jaffrey, N.H.: Rated the best in New Hampshire by Golf Digest in the 1990s, it taked 33 bridges to navigate the water. They come into play on 16 holes. Number 5 is a 612-yard par 5. Designed by Brian Silva, in 1991.

Throughbred Golf Club, Rothbuy, Mich.: Part of a dude ranch, holes here are heavily wooded to protect horses from stray balls. Designed by Arthur Hills in 1993.

Green space, golf camp. Photo by Elena.

The Best 18 Holes in One Golf Course

Take 3 from Augusta, 1 from Pebble Beach, and 14 others and voilà!

Do you dream of driving the fairways and putting the unforgiving greens of Augusta National Golf Club, the vaunted home of The Masters? Unless you're one of the selective club's 300 members or a lucky friend, you're probably out of luck. But a course near Houston can offer you a taste of Augusta and some of the country's other top links. Tour 18 in Humble, Texas, replicates to near-perfection holes from 16 well-known courses, including Pebble Beach, Doral, Pinehurst, Merion, and the three-hole “Amen Corner” from Augusta National.

The course's designers have copied the layout and vegetation of each hole in exacting detail say golfers who've played Tour 18 and the originals. Doing so was no simple task. Building the course to match the terrain of the original holes required about a half-million cubic yards of bulldozed earth, twice the amount needed for a typical golf course.

Tour 18 opened another course in Flower Mound, Texas, 15 miles north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The hillier locale will enable the course to display 11 new holes from such courses as Muirfield Village, Medina, and Pine Valley, including some that were impossible to construct on the flatter Houston site.

The greens have proved lucrative for Tour 18: Duffers play 65,000 rounds in 1993, the course's first full year in business. A round costs moderate price on weekdays and on weekends and holidays.

How Many Dimples Are on Your Ball?

What's the difference between cheap golf balls and price ones? Not much

If choosing among the dizzying number of woods, irons, and putters doesn't make your head spin, picking out a golf ball to hit with them will. Manufacturers all claim their balls will add length, increase or decrease spin, lift the height of drives or – you get the idea.

Golf balls vary in size, compression, dimple configuration, and core and cover material. But the most significant difference is between two-piece and three-piece balls. Three-piece (or wound) balls were the originals; they feature a rubber or liquid center wrapped in thin rubber thread, and are typically covered in rubber or another soft material. They are softer and spin more, giving skillful golfers more control of the ball, but they tend not to be durable. Two-piece balls, introduced in the late 1960s, have a solid core and no thread. Because they are harder, they travel further, but some of them feel as if you're playing with rocks.

If you want extra distance, two-pieces balls may be for you; if you play a finesse game, you may prefer a would ball. Or you might check out recent innovations: some new three-piece balls have more durable covers and some new two-piece balls have higher spin rates.

Manufacturers are constantly seeking an edge in the marketplace. Wilson's new Ultra 600 ball has 500 dimples, compared to the standard 380, which it insists provides greater accuracy and distance. HPG's Laser TDX has dimples with a bump in the middle, which it promises will “let the good player work the ball.” But the U.S. Golf Association, which sets golf ball standards, says you shouldn't necessarily believe the hype about these or any other balls. The 400 top balls, all test within 10 yards of the maximum distance permitted by the USGA.

A breakdown of injuries for Professional Golf Association Tour golfers and for Senior PGA Tour golfers in the latest years: Neck – 5%, Wrist – 6%, Foot/toes – 6%, Elbow – 6%, Hand/fingers – 7%, Shoulder – 8%, Other – 12%.