Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Mortgage rates for Wednesday, April 27
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FIRST LOOK – The Fujikura Iron?
The folks over at CNX Golf, the elite custom club builders in Bangkok provided some info on a new iron that might turn a gear-head or two.
The company known more for shafts than anything else, Fujikura seems to possibly be dipping its toes in to a new market. Irons.
The new Fujikura iron is reportedly going to be available in about 4 weeks. It will supposedly be sold as a component via their Asia distributor. No word yet on name or specifics, but as the information comes in we will be sure to update you.
So, what are your thoughts about a shaft company entering the iron market? Think they can survive? They do have some advantages, such as an established distribution network and database. Does this iron move the needle for YOU?
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SERIES: An Insider’s Look At Modern Golf Club Design | PART 1
Let’s take an insider’s look at R&D in the golf biz – you may find it quite surprising in many ways.
What Does R&D Look Like?
Many of us might envision a visit to one of these OEM’s R&D facilities as some secluded laboratory site, where we pass through layers of security into a huge glass and steel building. Inside, it is populated by golf geeks in white lab coats with pocket protectors. We pass through rows of cubicles with computer displays of spinning CAD files and simulations.
In the lab itself, we see mysterious fabricated equipment with servomotors and sensors monitored by exotic computer systems with walls of LED displays. And from another direction, we can hear the audible “crack” of a golfer robot rifling shots into a simulator’s virtual display – surrounded by Ph.D. “chin-pullers” pensively studying launch data and hypothesizing, “Hmmm, what if we... ”
Actually, the great majority of golf club R&D is not like that at all – only a few brands have anything that even resembles this. The real world of golf club R&D is much different – and much less sophisticated than you might expect.
Several OEMs have robots and computer simulations, but contemporary R&D is instead much more about email threads, CAD files with the toolmakers, emails and spec sheets for the factory, equipment for building prototypes, cubicles and conference rooms (with endless meetings), and scores of discarded prototype test clubs leaning against walls gathering dust… with just a dab of REAL research going on.
Those are the parts of R&D that you can see, but it is actually the things you cannot see that make the greatest difference. So, let’s take a deeper look into what kind of thinking and what realities drive these golf industry R&D groups.
R&D Leadership begins With Perspective
I remember attending a Golf Digest Technical Panel meeting in late 1990’s, where our guest (Technical Director for one of golf’s governing bodies) told the attendees, “I think all of us in this room know there is really very little left to do now in golf club design… it is pretty much a marketing game from here on!” I was sitting next to Callaway’s VP of R&D, and we both gasped simultaneously (probably audibly)! Good grief, modern golf club design was only then getting started!
My point is that perspective changes… it evolves over time, it grows and matures, and it often holds its fair share of surprises for all of us in the end.
The extraordinary transition to real R&D that occurred in the years just before and following that meeting actually only began around the turn of this century with the availability of both better robots and launch monitors – finally enabling real data gathering for research to begin.
Despite some products today being very good, Golf Club R&D is still honestly in its infancy from the standpoint of using applied research methodologies and understanding many basic club design elements – the “Golden Age of Golf Club Design” has only just begun.
Evidence of that is the currently broad range of observed CG locations for drivers (as reported by MyGolfSpy a few months ago), which suggests a lack of consensus on even the most basic of design understandings – there is surely an optimum performing CG location for the golfing population that is slightly adjustable – where is it?
The Unique Realities Golf OEMs Face In R&D
The golf equipment community is like any other business in many respects – there are leaders and followers, aggressive vs. conservative companies, capable vs. fluff design efforts, and financially strong companies vs. weak and struggling companies. And there are the smaller companies who cannot afford to invest in R&D at all, so they do a little “r” with some big “D” instead and make up some good marketing stories for the consumer. It is in the end a business, though – much like any other in many respects.
And even in golf, R&D is regrettably the first place many companies will look to cut operating expenses when times get tough – new golf club graphics and reloaded marketing claims are both easy and inexpensive to do, and they will fool most consumers temporarily. Even deep cuts in R&D will not be evident to the consumer for a while.
But the golf equipment design and R&D challenges are unlike any product development problems for “widgets”. In what other business might any R&D effort be required to consider the influences of things like a PGA Tour, the golf media (TV, print, digital), the marketing hyperbole, the passion of the end consumer, and the requirement for fitting of the end user with the product? What other product development challenge carries with it such extraordinary breadth and complexity? How about that Widgets Tour and the Widgets Monthly Magazine that every Widgets consumer reads cover-to-cover?
“Size Matters” in R&D
Most of us golfer-consumers likely suffer similar misconceptions regarding the size and sophistication of R&D groups among the name brands. We naively assume there is much R&D behind whatever shiny new clubs we see in the marketplace from the “brands”. But these R&D groups come in different sizes – they may in fact be anywhere from just a couple of “design guys” to a very capable professional staff of over 100.
Three tiers of companies are present in the golf biz today from an R&D standpoint – the full product line major OEMs that are doing real R&D and getting it pretty much correct, a second tier of mostly “identity” companies that tend to focus on and succeed primarily in one product category and who are doing focused and limited R&D (though they may also be full product line medium-sized companies), and the little “niche” and “garage tinkerer” guys that generally have one thing they sell and rarely any REAL technology.
Needless to say, all OEM products are not equal with regards to the R&D behind them. Size matters greatly for suggesting R&D capabilities, but other things can matter even more!
Management and Direction of R&D Efforts
There are corporate culture and leadership issues that greatly influence R&D. Corporate ownership, management dogma, “great player” influence, desired brand positioning, and company “identity” can and do greatly shape the products that come out of R&D. In fact, brand identity considerations can even overwhelm all other priorities of an R&D effort – i.e. we are a “metal woods” company or a “forged irons” company or maybe even a “ball” company. What the R&D group is doing is many times dictated to them with a predetermined focus due to identity.
Direction is key for what happens in R&D, because a whole herd of Ph.D.s heading in the wrong direction will never be as productive as a single golf club design engineer with a correct vision of the future!
There is always the huge temptation for successful second tier golf companies to chase growth through product category diversification. The danger to them is diversification to the point of being really good at nothing – ergo, achieving mediocrity! So, focus and identity are not always bad things… sometimes, “You gotta dance with the one who brung ‘ya!”
Golf Club Design Philosophy
A “Race Car” design analogy is to me actually the essential formula for the development of better golf club designs. First of all, it is about performance above all else. A championship-winning race car is the result of synergistically optimizing the performance of many design variables simultaneously – weight and balance, materials, aerodynamics, horsepower, gearing, handling and suspension, driver interaction, tires, driver skills, pit performance, etc.
Golf clubs too should be high performance combinations of many product design possibilities optimized for a multi-dimensional set of appropriate performance criteria.
The doors to real R&D are finally creaking open. Only now are some OEMs seriously beginning to explore “other” design basics like looking beyond loft alone for distance. They are now examining instead the totality of launch conditions – loft, lie angles, ball spin, CG locations, dynamic loft, launch angle, COR, MOI, dynamic alignment properties, gear effect, shaft design, head weights, grip designs, etc.
Golf club design is indeed a “multi-dimensional” problem of MANY variables, and ALL of these things (and much more) do indeed matter to us as players.
Other Complications in Golf Club R&D
Setting golf club development apart from the rest of the world of R&D are several other unique factors adding to its breadth and complexity.
Great golf club R&D is not an end unto itself, because it ultimately must consider the things that come next as well. Getting a golf club into the hands of you the consumer in the 21st century is a 3-step process at the very least:
- Development of new product ideas through great R&D,
- Delivering those new product ideas through carefully managed manufacturing execution, and
- Properly fitting that new product to you the consumer.
It takes all three elements (like the 3-legged stool example) to deliver acceptable product nowadays. Even getting two out of the three right is just not good enough - i.e. heavily customized exotic steel forged irons but with little real design behind them, or CNC milled putter guys copying 50 year old designs – both leave the design opportunity on the table (and NOT in your golf bag)!
Finding the Right People
One of the other great challenges to advancing the state of the art in golf club design is properly staffing the R&D groups. There is nowhere to go to learn golf club design except inside the R&D groups of the golf industry OEMs, so every new designer starts from zero and must learn the design basics from his older and more experienced colleagues and mentors – or dig it out for himself. This slows the advance of technology and encourages secrecy somewhat, but it also promotes a constant “re-thinking” of what golf club designs should be, so it keeps us focused and fresh.
Because the design guys also learn from one another as competitors, it retards the development of new ideas somewhat to know that even the best product ideas will not always become visible or even commercially successful. Many innovative ideas fail miserably for want of sufficient capital or media attention or other good reasons, thereby slowing or limiting their influence with the consumer by shaping the marketplace of new ideas.
Alternatively, a highly visible Pro Tour win using a mediocre new product technology (with the attendant media buzz) will sometimes catapult that mediocre design technology into an undeserved and misleading prominence in the marketplace, though it may have been of little technical merit and had very little to do with the player’s success – which is in fact driven by so many other possibilities.
Manufacturing
Is “Made in China” really a problem for the golf consumer? The labor unions and EPA pretty much ran golf club manufacturing out of the U.S. 30 years ago – ergo, the skills and capabilities for golf club manufacturing and finishing are not present in the U.S. anymore (grinding, polishing, shaping, plating). The Chinese actually have become quite good at making golf clubs now. They will give us basically whatever design the R&D group can create at whatever level of manufacturing integrity is desired.
You have heard it rumored, too, that factories in China are making product for multiple brands under a single roof – it is true! I have been there. They made my very premium golf clubs in the same building as clubs from two of the largest OEMs and a handful of other smaller good niche companies – and this was in one of the top suppliers in China. They do, however, segregate the production of these different brands to different areas of the same building with unique production lines and personnel.
The Rules
The USGA Rules on golf club design pretty much define the “design envelope” wherein the R&D guys should operate, but intentional challenges to the USGA regarding the rules of golf for club design from some OEMs (you guys know who you are) have been real eye-openers for many of us industry veterans, because they have ultimately driven innovation greatly. The USGA’s reluctance to defend its turf has been troubling – where “thinking outside the box” has been replaced with “thinking outside the rules” at times.
Intellectual Property
Patent infringement is a serious problem in golf – particularly for the smaller companies with good ideas. Most consumers do not realize that there are no “patent police” to enforce patent protection. Patent enforcement is instead the responsibility of the inventor himself, and it involves lots of “lawyering” and very expensive lawsuits, so the little inventors are at a disadvantage when it comes to protecting their IP against infringers. The larger OEMs know this and exploit it to their advantage.
Famous Bottom Line
Obviously there is much going on in golf nowadays to complicate things, but the foundations of industry-leading 21st century golf club R&D must be grounded in a proper perspective, pointed in the correct directions, and studied with a disciplined intellectual curiosity.
Some of the R&D you are offered is - but much is not! The era of "longer" and "feel" is coming to a close, and it will yield a new era of products with objectively measured quantifiable performance advantages.
Some golf clubs are already much better than others, because there is much good thinking behind them.
Maybe you should think about it too.
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3 Benefit of Keyless Locks
Keyless locks give homeowners more control over their own security. Thus, it provides wide varieties of benefits such as: convenience, high security and improved lifestyle.
Below are 3 benefits of keyless locks:
Convenience
With keyless door locks, you no longer have to search your pockets or fumble around in your bag to find your keys. Instead, you can unlock the doors with your mobile device or press the button on your key fob before you even get out of your car. This is especially helpful if you have grocery bags in your hands and can’t dig through your purse to find the house key. We all know your cell phone is more likely to be in your hand anyway.
Keyless door locks can help if you’re concerned about being alone outside for too long, especially in the dark. Also, if it’s storming or freezing cold, you’ll get into the warm, dry house quicker by not having to dig for your keys. Source: SafeWise
High Security
Preventing trouble before it occurs is one of the best security benefits of keyless locks and access control. Yes, these security systems are great for ‘fixing’ a problem, but we’d rather see you avoid one in the first place.
When your keys are out of your possession — valet your car, leave your keys on your desk — they can be copied. This gives someone who would wish you, your family, your children, or your employees harm, the opportunity to do so. Keyless locks let you take your keys out of your pocket, out of your purse, off your key ring, and out from under your special hiding place. Source: GoKeyLess
Improved Lifestyle
One of the main advantages of a keyless door lock is not needing to carry a key. You’ll no longer need to worry about losing your key or fidgeting at the door to get it open.
It also means that you won’t need to store a spare key somewhere on your property, as many homeowners currently do. Because most criminals are used to looking around to find a spare key, eliminating the need for one will help make your home safer.
Another advantage of keyless door locks is that you can provide entry to your home for others at your discretion. You will not need to make copies of a key or leave keys for dog walkers, housekeepers, or house guests to get in to your home. Rather, you’ll simply need to tell those people the proper code in order to gain access. Source: DoItYourself
If you want more information about how keyless locks can help you in securing your home or property, please give us a call or contact us here.
Contact:
Mr. Locksmith Vancouver
555 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 4N4
Phone: (604) 239-0882
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016
2000
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A Laser To Rule Them ALL?
By: Dave Wolfe
New Rule, New Tool
Yesterday we took a look at how the USGA has changed their interpretation of Rule 14.3 for distance measuring devices. By making removal of non-tournament features a software rather than hardware issue, the USGA has effectively changed the device landscape that golfers are permitted to use when practicing and when playing tournaments.
This change may not seem like much on the surface, but it really will change the rangefinder game, laser and otherwise. Companies can now add new non-tournament legal features, limited only by the imaginations of their engineers, provided those non-tournament legal features can be disabled for tournament play.
Combine this new freedom with the expanding capabilities of shot trackers and swing analyzers, and we may in fact be at the dawn of a new golf technology revolution.
But before we get too far off into the tangential future of new tech toys, let’s look at the laser that I actually have in hand today - the Bushnell Tour V4 Slope Laser Rangefinder.
One Laser to Rule Them All
The difference with this slope reading laser and the ones that came before it is the ability to swap between tournament legal and non-legal slope displaying modes via software instead of hardware solutions.
How is this accomplished? Simple. When you turn the unit on by pressing the red button on top, you hold down the button and, after a few moments, it will begin cycling through modes featuring yards or meters, and slope or no slope.
Accessing the menu through the power button took me by surprise. I actually kept trying to press the now purely decorative silver B button on the side of the unit. That’s how you used to get the menu... really it was, I swear.
My inept start aside, changing modes is simple and easy once you know how. My worry is that it may actually be too easy. So easy that someone during a tournament round could use it with slope engaged, and then quickly turn it off if questioned about it. Older slope-swappable units had some readily visible physical color difference, letting observers know if the unit was reporting slope yardages or not. Now you can’t tell if slope is on with a quick glance at the unit. You’ll need to take a measurement, and that’s when the cheater may be able to quickly swap the setting.
Let’s face it though, some of the members of your club are cheaters. This new tech is something else that can be added to one’s dishonesty arsenal, but it’s not going to make someone dishonest. Cheaters gonna cheat.
Anyway, let’s get into a bit more about using the Tour V4 since that’s a whole lot more important to discuss than whether or not Steve or Sally Sandbagger use it to cheat.
Looks and Ergonomics
I was surprised at the size of the V4 when I first opened the packaging. I knew that it would be smaller than my familiar Tour V3, but I was not prepared for how much the body style actually changed.
The transition from Tour V2 to Tour V3 was not huge shape-wise. The most significant thing in that model change was a change in unit color. This time, the color is the same between old and new models, but now the body has definitely morphed.
My first impression of the new body shape was that I didn’t like it. I have played many a round with the Tour V3 and the Tour V4 didn’t feel like the V3. I believe I actually had a bit of a damn-kids-get-off-my-lawn moment, thinking the old shape was better and why did Bushnell have to go and mess it up.
Then I started actually using the laser. Once I started lasering the trees on my street (that’s my usual I-can’t-wait-to-get-to-the-course-and-laser-targets activity), I could tell that the new shape was not the old familiar one, but perhaps it was more comfortable and accessible than I first gave it credit for.
Accessibility may be a strange term to use when describing a laser, but I think it works well when you think about using one. How is the access to the working parts of the laser such as buttons, the eyepiece, and other components needed for operation?
With the Tour V4 there are definitely some accessibility improvements. For example, adjusting the focusing diopter is way easier with the V4. The little lever on top of the V4’s eyepiece is significantly easier to adjust when compared to rotating the rubber eyepiece on the V3. You can almost do it one-handed. It’s easier with two hands, but doable with one. This is not possible with the V3. It is actually a pain to adjust even with two hands.
Ease of Use and On Course Performance
Ergonomics and ease of operation definitely go hand in hand. This is why when we test lasers head to head, the most important component of the test is time required to get an accurate measurement. In other words, speed.
Most lasers on the market these days are accurate, but not all of them are fast. Poor ergonomics, poor display, poor optics, and so on can all lead to longer measurement times. So is the Tour V4 fast?
Yes Virginia, it’s fast.
Now since I don’t have a whole bunch of lasers to put head to head, I can’t really give you an X number of seconds value for the V4. However, I have shot a multitude of lasers over the past few years, and I can confidently say that the V4 is on the fast team.
That said, there were a few speed struggles on the course. Bushnell's patented PinSeeker technology does its job, picking up the pin when there are false targets in the immediate background. Sometimes the V4 did take a little longer when there were background objects. Here is a photo of a situation where the Tour V4 struggled for a second to get the accurate yardage.
No reflector on the flag and trees behind. I knew I was about 150 out, but the V4 initially told me that the distance was 205. It only struggled for a second though, literally a second, before locking in on the flag. When playing courses with prisms on the flags, the V4 was deadly accurate and lightning fast, and I don’t recall any issues with locking on non-flag targets.
As I mentioned above, the new shape proved to be very comfortable in play. It’s small and light enough to use one-handed, and when you add a second hand, the laser settles and stabilizes into your grip. One of the criticisms of laser rangefinders, compared to GPS units, is that a shaky hand makes using the laser difficult. I don’t personally have this shaky issue, but the observed stability of the unit, when gripped with two hands, should make the V4 usable by most anyone.
Bushnell Tour V4 Slope Specs:
- PinSeeker with JOLT technology
- Accurate to 1 yard
- Ranges 5-1,000 yards; 400+ yards to a flag
- 5x Magnification
- Slope Technology provides compensated distances for elevation changes
- Fast focus system
- Ergonomic design with Stabi-Grip technology
- Posi-Thread battery door
- Rainproof construction
- Waterproof
- 2 Year warranty
- 3-Volt CR2 battery and premium carry case included
- MSRP: $399
High Points for the Bushnell Tour V4 Slope:
- Optics: Excellent lens, and easy diopter adjustment for clear targeting.
- Speed: Turns on and measures immediately. No lag.
- Great Case: The Bushnell case is awesome, as always. Elastic closure for quick access, and a hook to attach it to a cart or bag. Longevity is excellent.
- Targeting Non-Flag Objects: Adeptly measured trees, hazards, and other non-flag objects.
- Range: 400 yards to a flag seems like enough. Most of the time I tested it from 220 or less, and it worked well from what I consider approach range.
- Targeting: With a prism, killer. Without a prism, there were occasional momentary struggles while PinSeeker worked through the options.
Summary
So there are a couple of take home messages from all of this. First, the Bushnell Tour V4 Slope is an excellent laser rangefinder. If you are considering buying a laser to measure yardages this season, this is an excellent candidate. I’d support that purchase without reservation. If you are debating between the $299 no-slope version, and the $399 slope-swappable version, I’d say that improved versatility is worth the extra $100.
That thought also ties into the tougher question of should one upgrade to the V4 from a previous model? I’d say that you need to look at what type of rounds you play. If your current laser matches the type of golf you play, such as no-slope for tournament play, then upgrading may not be necessary. How valuable is it for you to be able to switch modes? As one who is playing casual and tournament golf this season, I find the Tour V4 to be a great tool, and it will likely cause me to leave the Tour V3 with dedicated slope readings at home.
Overall, I think that Bushnell has put together a fine little laser rangefinder that marries nicely with the new USGA ruling. The expected Bushnell quality is there, along with a new, potentially more comfortable body, and the with-slope/no-slope versatility.
Win a Tour V4 Slope
How would you like to have one of these for your very own? Just leave a comment below describing your current method for measuring yardages and you’ll be entered to win. One entry per person, with the winner being selected on or around April 29, 2016.
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