How Golf Clubs Really Work and How to Optimize Their Designs

Explains what goes on in a golf shot, from impact until the ball stops, and backs it up with good science. Contains 37 short chapters with general information for golfers and technical notes for club designers, plus definitions and illustrations. Topics covered include characteristics of the scatter of hits on the faces of clubs, full and partial shots with irons, factors that affect distance, and aiming. The authors are affiliated with product development firms in the private sector. Much material was adapted from some 70 articles written for the Japanese monthly publication Golf Equipment World . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

DR. FRANK D. WERNER

Werner was born in Kansas in 1922. His education includes B.S. degree in physics at Kansas State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering at the University of Minnesota.

He first worked at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, in Silver Spring, Maryland, on proximity fuse research for anti-aircraft artillery and radar improvements. From 1947 to 1956, he was a researcher in addition to his graduate work, at the University of Minnesota, Department of Aerospace Mechanics. His specialty was aeronautical measuring instruments at U of M’s Rosemount Aeronautical Laboratories.

In 1956 Werner was the principal founder and president of Rosemount Engineering Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, now a part of Fischer-Rosemount, a major division of Emerson Electric. Rosemount’s early products were measuring instruments for the aeronautical and space industry-still widely used. The firm has since become a leader in industrial experimentation.

Werner moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 1968 and founded Origin Inc, a small product development firm. One of Origin’s several significant products was windshield repair system now used worldwide.

In the late 1980’s, for various reasons, he and Dick Greig, vice president of Origin Inc and president of Tech Line Corp, undertook a highly refined and technical analysis of exactly what happens when a putter hits the golf ball. Next, they applied these analytical methods to the design of innovative drivers which are on the market today.

Werner’s creative thinking has produced 80 patents. While his hobbies have included golf, skiing, fishing and the mountains (he lives at the foot of the Teton Range), Werner says his greatest enjoyment is in problem solving. “Good solutions often require extensive creative thinking.”

He and his wife, Alice, have 3 children and 8 grandchildren. RICHARD C. GREIG

Dick Greig was born in New Jersey in 1943, and raised in Minnesota from early childhood. His education includes B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Minnesota. He completed the coursework and the requirements for a Ph.D. degree in the same field

He has over 30 years of research and developments of technical products along with extensive managing and marketing experience at Origin Inc. Mathematical analysis and modeling has been a special interest. His major areas of study were fluid mechanics, kinetic theory of gases, applied mathematics and thermodynamics.

While at the university, Greig taught courses in fluid dynamics, dynamics, statics and deformable body mechanics at the undergraduate level and worked part time in research at the aeronautics lab.

Greig left the university to work for Origin Inc in 1971. He continues that association and is president of Tech Line Corp. He applied his expertise to the thermal and economic modeling of domestic solar heating systems, economic trend analysis, and golf club design. He gained considerable experience in developing extrusion and injection molding and metal machining operations, and has a number of patents.

He and his wife Judy have 3 children.