Photo courtesy Nike Golf

Nike Golf
Air Zoom TW shoe

Photo courtesy Callaway

Callaway
Hyperbolic X shoe

Photo courtesy Callaway

Callaway
FT-9 driver

Photo courtesy Nike Golf

Nike Golf
SQ Sumo 2 driver

Photo courtesy Adams Golf

Adams Golf
Speedline 9032LS driver

Get in gear with the latest equipment for golfing

The PGA Championship this year returns to Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. The last time the PGA visited Hazeltine was in 2002, when then unheralded Rich Beem held off Tiger Woods to win, celebrating on the 18th hole with a victory dance inspired by the loveable gopher from the movie Caddy Shack. Hazeltine brings up a bittersweet memory for Hawaii golf fans – in 1991, former local boy Scott Simpson sadly lost late-round leads in both the final round and the play-off round to the late Payne Stewart.

Last year, I had the pleasure of attending the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills, Mich., to watch one of Hawaii’s homegrown stars, Parker McLachlin, compete in his first PGA Championship. The PGA is the year’s final major and the last chance at glory for the top players in the game. Joining me was Scott Head, a fellow PGA professional and director of golf at Waikoloa Resort on the Big Island. Scott and I shared the pleasure of helping to coach McLachlin in golf since he first took up the game at age 7 at Waialae Country Club. We’re proud of both the player and the person he has become, and it was a thrill for us to see him compete in his second major championship.

McLachlin had qualified the week prior by winning his first PGA tournament at the Reno Tahoe Open. We also got to follow and cheer on Dean Wilson, another great Hawaii player. Wilson is an old friend of Head’s, going back to their high school days when they competed against one another. Wilson tells a funny story about how even though Head was the better player and would usually win, it didn’t bother him because he was convinced he would make it to the PGA Tour one day and prove to him who was really the better player. Shows the power of positive thinking!

A major championship golf course is generally set up to play much more difficultly than the normal PGA Tour event. The greens are faster, the fairways are more narrow and the rough deeper. Adding to the “fun” is the increased pressure that every player feels as they try to get their name on a trophy alongside some of the best players in the game’s history.

Hazeltine National is an extremely long golf course, and the winner will have to be long and accurate off the tee. The players are always looking for more distance, and recent improvements in technology have certainly helped push the limits a ball can go with a driver. The trend in technology now is toward improving club aerodynamics. The physics of the golf swing is that speed equals distance, and the theory is that a driver with a more efficient aerodynamic shape will move through the air faster than one with a poor aerodynamic shape.

Aerodynamics helped Lucas Glover become the first player to win a major championship with a square-headed driver when he won the U.S. Open this year at Bethpage using the Nike SQ Sumo 2 driver. Callaway also is tinkering with club-head shapes, and recently made changes to the contours of its FT-9 and FT-iQ drivers to help improve clubhead speed.

Adams Golf designed its latest driver, the Speedline, using similar wind tunnel technology that Boeing and NASA use to test their latest equipment. It’s no coincidence that many older players on the Champions Tour, including Tom Watson, have put the Adams driver into their bag in a search for more youthful distance. TaylorMade is trying to increase speed through face construction and shaft length; this has been accomplished with its new driver, the R-9 460.

Technology also is helping to make the game more comfortable from the ground up. In April, Italian shoemaker GEOX announced that it was entering the game with its first line of golf shoes. GEOX’s patented “NET System Technology,” which utilizes an actual net inside the shoe’s sole to help keep a golfer’s foot dry, will be perfect for a sport in which players have to walk miles through the countryside, oftentimes in wet conditions.

The industry’s major powers also are introducing their own improved shoe technology. Callaway has the Hyperbolic X, featuring “Outlast Technology,” which helps regulate temperature inside the shoe to maintain comfort. Adidas offers the Powerband 2.0, designed with a low-profile outsole that positions the foot closer to the ground to enhance stability during the swing. Nike has its players on tour strolling in the Nike Air Zoom TW with lightweight, breathable ballistic mesh planes that have been treated with Repel DuPont Teflon for increased waterproofing. Puma has introduced the Swing Crown GTX, with a fiberglass outsole that reduces weight, while the Smart Quill cleat design provides green-friendly traction. The FootJoy FJ Icon has “memory foam” in the collar and under the tongue, which adds stability while producing a more precise fit.

Now, if they could just produce a shoe that would remember our best swing, the game would be much easier.