Every single new model of golf ball and club you buy the store has the seal of approval from the U.S. Golf Association's testing facility in Far Hills, N.J. A surprisingly scientific lab filled with robots and computers ensures that golf equipment isn't taking the challenge out of the game.
“Our main function here is to evaluate clubs and balls that are voluntarily submitted to us by manufacturers,” said Dick Rugge of the USGA. “We receive about 2,700 golf clubs and about 800 balls every year to evaluate for conformance to our rules. Basically, what the tests make sure of [is] that new clubs don't have too much bounce or create too much spin and that balls don't fly too far.”
Every single new model of golf ball and club you buy the store has the seal of approval from the U.S. Golf Association's testing facility in Far Hills, N.J. A surprisingly scientific lab filled with robots and computers ensures that golf equipment isn't taking the challenge out of the game.
“We probably have close to 20 different testing equipment for both clubs and balls,” continued Rugge, “and some of those are for conformance testing, but a lot are for basic research. Because we do the type of research that needs to be done to make sure a new technology that comes into the game should be allowed within the rules.”
The main pieces of testing equipment are the mechanical golfer and this indoor test range -- for evaluating both clubs and balls.
“We measure the speed, we measure the angle of launch, and we also measure the backspin -- those are the three things that a golf club does to a golf ball,” said Rugge.
Besides the mechanical golfer which measures a ball's launch angle, there is also the indoor test range, developed by the USGA over eight years, to measure the flight path of the ball.
“A golf ball in flight is indeed in flight, it behaves like a wing and we have to measure how good that wing is -- and by that we mean the lift and drag,” said Rugge. “We fire a golf ball down the range measuring very precisely its trajectory as it goes down that range. From that, we calculate with a very sophisticated program the lift and drag. Lift and drag is then combined with the launch conditions we achieved hitting it with the mechanical golfer into another computer program, where we're allowed and enabled to measure very precisely just how far it'll go, including bounce and roll.”
The USGA says one of the most difficult issues it deals with is deciding on one set of rules that is strict enough to ensure pros won't render certain courses obsolete, yet loose enough to make sure the average duffer won't get overly frustrated.