Gear: 2024 will likely see new lineups, more AI-designs, and effects of the golf ball rollback

The year in gear for 2024

By Tony Dear

It’s natural at this time of year for publications focusing on golf equipment , well…everyone really, to look forward to the year ahead. But will the resulting article predict, even specify, what we might see in the weeks and months to come, or will it discuss what we hope to see happen?

Predicting what we might be using in the short term is made considerably easier these days by monitoring the USGA’s lists of conforming equipment, watching out for new club appearances on the professional tours, and by keeping tabs on manufacturers’ social media accounts which offer teasers on upcoming releases. And though it would be wrong to count on them entirely, we can also thank two-year product cycles for having a pretty good idea when a certain clubmaker is about to introduce a new item.

We know then that Callaway (Paradym Ai Smoke – Max, Max D, Max Fast), TaylorMade (Qi10 – Max, LS), Cobra (Darkspeed – LS, Max, X), Ping (G430 Max 10K), PXG (Black Ops, Tour-1, Tour-3), or Kirkland Signature drivers could well be in our future, as well as irons from Callaway (Apex), Ping (Blueprint S and T) and Wilson (Staff Model CB and Blades).

Beyond what we can safely predict though, what do we hope is stirring in the equipment industry? What might R&D departments be working on or dreaming up?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the current buzzword in golf gear. But it’s not really a buzzword. Golfers and non-golfers have realized by now there’s nothing temporary about artificial intelligence. It’s obviously here to stay and golf’s use of AI is not some passing fad. Most readers will know the larger gear manufacturers have been using it to build driver faces with variable thickness for five years now, but its use is becoming prevalent in numerous other areas of the game. Odyssey recently introduced it in their latest putter – the Ai One, and it is used to create the head and faces of numerous irons. Beyond golf clubs though, AI is similarly rampant.

It is now a major component of club-fitting – see Club Champion’s Co-Pilot and Wilson’s impressive new Fit AI app. This incredible tool learns and gets ever-more accurate with every swing, recommendation, and fitting carried out anywhere in the world by a certified Wilson fitter who uploads all the results to the Cloud.

AI likewise benefits instructors who use Trackman, Uneekor, VI, and K-Motion technology to help students; superintendents in their efforts to make courses more sustainable; and course operators. Tagmarshal, an increasingly-popular courseflow-management system uses AI to ensure golfers get round a course efficiently and without holdups or slowdowns. A number of the world’s top courses use the product which was developed in South Africa. In 2020, Carnoustie in Scotland says rounds played within the club’s desired timeframe rose from 29% to 53%, while Erin Hills in Wisconsin recorded an additional $140,000 in green fee revenue in its first year using it.

AI has also helped improve fans’ enjoyment of the game through shot-tracking technology, data gathering and predictive scoring analysis. These capabilities help enhance the viewing experience.

Artificial intelligence is clearly having a profound effect on the game already. But how might it continue to improve it? For sure, you can lose yourself down a very deep and very dark rabbit hole trying to get a handle on what’s next for AI in golf – one that recently had me with 37 (seriously) open tabs.

One would hope, however, that a world in which supercomputers can complete thousands of calculations in a single second (Frontier, a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise computer housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is capable of carrying out one quintillion – a billion billion – operations every second) could find a way to standardize shaft flex across manufacturers or shirt/shoe sizes. Yes, the same world that put a man on the moon before it added wheels to heavy luggage also creates these feature-rich, digital machines while countries drive on different sides of the road, use very different weight and distance measurements, and even have conflicting ways of communicating the date – 12/25 or 25/12 for Christmas Day.

Anyway, back to the point in hand. That shaft-makers still use different flexes nearly halfway through the third decade of the 21^st century suggests there is a good reason for doing so, and the fact so few of us can see it is neither here nor there.  Could 2024 be the year we finally see universal standards, however?

Another hope for this year is that we see more Callaway Apex Utility Wood-type clubs hit the market. Neither a fairway nor a hybrid but something in between, the U-Wood is very versatile, relatively easy to hit, and found a place in a lot of people’s bags.

Golf equipment will continue to evolve and improve, of course, but there’s just so much quality throughout the industry that whatever you need most likely already exists. One thing golfers should be wary of though is changing equipment rules. The governing bodies recently rolled back the ball, of course, and there is a sizeable segment of the golfing population that thinks they didn’t go far enough and that changes to driver heads may be coming next. If that does indeed happen, it’s conceivable we could see heads reduced to 400cc or smaller. Might it be wise, therefore, to consider trying an old 260cc TaylorMade SLDR Mini Driver or the 304cc TaylorMade BRNR Mini which its maker describes as a Tesla with the body of a ’65 Mustang – smaller, but full of tech?

If that ever does happen it likely won’t be for a few years yet. So for now, I’m looking for standardized shaft flexes, more U-Wood type clubs, and the eternal cry for a drop in prices. $600 or more for top-of-the-range drivers and $1,500 for irons? Really? People are obviously paying those sums which is how capitalism works plus, of course, artificial intelligence doesn’t come cheap.

 

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Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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