Tech already max out - just marketing gimmicks?

[bamfur]

Hi, I have a question for which I could not find a satisfying thorough enough answer by googling, so hopefully the experts here can advise... Here goes:

Since the USGA have had set limits on club production specs such as MOI, COR, maximum size, maximum shaft length, etc, have they not also implicitly or explicitly also put a cap on how far a club can hit a ball?

If so, and the technology has been capped, haven't manufacturers already been producing clubs that are at or near their max USGA limits for years? Yet every year new clubs keep coming out saying more distance, longer, straighter, like Taylormade is now saying about their ridiculously named RocketBallz clubs...

Is there any validity to these continuous claims of improvement? Is it just marginally enough (like 1 foot longer) to keep their advertisement from being false? I mean if it were of any significant improvement, wouldn't they shoot themselves in the foot, breach USGA limits and thus make their clubs illegal? I guess I want to know if I should even bother reading any further review of new clubs and/or consider upgrading ever again if my relatively new clubs will be 99.9% as good as newer/future clubs until any USGA standards are revised.

 

[natep]

I think the limit set by USGA is on the CoR of the clubface, and the manufacturers have had their driver faces at the limit for years. They could still make clubs lighter though, which could produce more clubhead speed, theoretically.

 

[ParHunter]

From what I read fairway woods are still a bit below the max COR so there is still some room there.
I am not sure but when you look at the smash factor woods and irons have a lower smash factor then the driver (max 1.5 I believe). Some of that is due to increased loft. Does the COR play a factor as well (I guess it should)?

 

[bamfur]

If they have put a cap on COR, MOI, head size, and shaft length, along with general shape guidelines/restrictions, how much more improvement could they possibly make without breaching one of these guidelines and making the club illegal? Is there still room for any progress without exceeding the limits that makes another $500 club worth it? For what - another foot of distance that makes it the longest ever?

 

[magicmarker]

It is my understanding some of those restrictions apply to Drivers only, not fairway woods.

That may be why the rocketballz distance claims are directed at the fairway woods if you look at most of their ads closely.

Most of the 'longer' claims each year are because they make the club with lighter materials, all things equal, producing greater clubhead speed. No limit to clubhead speed yet. Not every player on the planet needs MORE distance though, some of us actually know how to hit a solid drive more often than not so lighter may, for some, mean more distance but MUCH LESS fairways hit. Distance isn't always the answer, you can have too much of it contrary to the guys who can't stop staring at Sadlowski's pelvic moves.

Remember if Pingman or Iron Byron or whatever robot hits the ball 1 foot farther than it did with the last model on average in a controlled environment, that is, by definition, a longer club. That's marketing. If they could absolutely max it out, why would they? What would they launch the following year? Slight improvements and changes here and there, that's the name of the game. Don't be fooled, demo it side by side with whatever you think it will be able to replace.