Pat: You're right in that there is no human on the planet, not Tiger or anyone, who can tell the COR by the sound or any other method other than to have an accurate COR measuring device. No way. You know these specs on a head that control the COR are so sensitive and interact with each other so intricately that you can create the same COR in two drivers of the same exact face size that would have two different face thicknesses, but are different in MOI and bulge and roll only. And you tell me if Tiger hears these two heads hit and hears a different sound because of the different face thickness, that he could determine they had the same COR. He would not know that even if he hit them both.
But with so many people thinking the golf sun rises and sets in Tiger, I don't doubt there are people who believe him. One thing that bothered me in this latest part where Tiger was so public with his switch back to the 975 is that this really put the heat on Tom Stites, the Nike designer. He is such a nice guy and so here he is taking the flack on this when his hands are tied half by Nike's lack of a major R&D budget and the other half by Tiger's sensitivity and upper area swing speed making him a very difficult person to please for any company. Don't get me wrong, Tiger is a really super good guy for all the pressures he inherits with his talent and position, but there are some areas I think he needs to demit to people who know more. TOM W -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 10:32 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Re: ShopTalk: Stirring the pot.... Tom, I am somewhat in the same camp as the folks you've spoken with regarding the Tiger situation. Although I doubt that he has any peers as far as playing ability goes, his claims (like knowing how hot a driver is by listening to it as it's brushed on the grass or switching to the old, thicker faced 975D because he can feel the ball staying on the face a bit longer than the newer, hot faced drivers) are VERY far fetched for someone even with his ability. I think you're spot-on WRT Tiger's situation - Nike simply doesn't have the same resources for measurement and prototype development that the other big 3 routinely use. Tiger was reportedly hitting 3-4 different Nike prototype drivers about every month, and they still never got it right for him. I'll offer that Titleist or TM (and almost certainly Callaway too although I've got no personal knowledge of them) would have him measured and spec'd out in 1 day, and would deliver a cart of potential prototype drivers within 1 week or so. It's about certain that they'd find the best match for him right there. Pat > > From: "Tom Wishon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 2003/08/06 Wed AM 11:31:37 EDT > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: RE: Re: ShopTalk: Stirring the pot.... > > Bernie, Pat - > > In the past week I have gotten several phone calls from a number of > people in the industry including several of the magazines asking for my > comments on Tiger's various recent comments about the drivers and his > switch back to the 975. I get the impression that a lot of people in > the industry who are even with companies that compete with Nike are very > much down on how public Tiger has been in areas about which he > personally has no expertise, as well as how public this whole driver > switch was made. Dick Rugge from the USGA even released a statement > refuting Tiger's comments about other players who supposedly were > getting "30 yards" from playing illegal drivers. From a technical > standpoint, Dick's comments were right on because he was just > reiterating what most of you guys know from your technical studies, that > while there are probably some drivers out there that are above the 0.830 > limit due to +/- tolerances in production, that no COR increase even up > as high as 0.900 could ever deliver 30 yards, much less 10 yards more > for these guys. > > Tiger's problem is that he is and incredibly sensitive player for his > equipment who happens to be attached to an equipment company now that > does not have a fraction of the R&D commitment as do the other OEMs that > pay players to use their equipment. While Tom Stites is a superb > designer and a super nice guy, he does not have the staff or the budget > commitment to allow him to perform the same Nth degree analysis either > in design modeling or player analysis testing as do the Titleists, > Callaways, Taylor Mades, Pings or the world. Tiger's move downward in > driving distance this year while having seen other players move up from > where they were in past years is more a case of Tiger not being able to > have all of the detailed launch monitor analysis, access to tons of > head/shaft variations of designs and top engineering analysis for > completely optimizing his swing characteristics as do players on staff > with these other 4 major OEMs, primarily because Nike is much more of a > sales and marketing company with far less desire to budget the tens of > millions of dollars to create all of that R&D capability. > > Also, it does not help his driving performance that he still seems to > swing with a controlled beauty and rhythm with the irons, but seems to > come out of his shoes every time he puts the number 1 in his hands and > sticks the ball up on a tee peg. Given that, I tend to believe that > even if Tiger were on staff with one of the other 4 big OEMs and > spending hours and hours in launch analysis in the off season, they too > would be having troubles keeping him happy with a driver. At 130mph+ > the margin for error is a whole lot less than it is at 110mph. > > Just my 2 cents on this, > > TOM WISHON > > -----Original Message----- > From: Bernie Baymiller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 7:52 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Re: ShopTalk: Stirring the pot.... > > Pat, > > >They claim he can accurately identify the current crop of hot faced > drivers > vs older models (without looking at them) by listening to the sound they > make as he rubs the sole on the grass. > > Certainly a simpler test than the one which the USGA has come up with. > :-) > > Bernie > Writeto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >
