April 28, 2020
Are you ready for the new era of golf? Additive manufacturing is finding its way into golf. Functionality and aesthetics are the main drivers for manufacturers and end-users to tap into Additive Manufacturing (AM).
Golf grips reinvented
Positioning your hands correctly around the grip is one of the basic aspects to ensure a good technique. This is not as simple as it seems. Without the frequent feedback from a golf pro it is almost impossible to get that grip right as a beginning golf player. Even for advanced players it is recommended to check the position of your hands, given that a lot of bad ball flights result from a bad hand positioning.
A training grip has been called to life to build up muscle memory. In 2017, a team of students at Virginia Tech developed a training aid using a clay mold. With the Twikit software, it is now possible to make your perfectly fitted training aid, based on a scan of your hands. No molds are needed in this process. Although it is not allowed to use such aids during tournaments, it is perfect to optimize your grip during practice sessions
Kevin Vanden Bossche, golf pro at GC Drie Eycken, confirms that these grips will teach you the feeling of how your hands should be positioned at the moment of impact. The second advantage according to Kevin is that although a lot of people have different grips, this training aid will align your hands and clubhead straight to the target. This means the club will be in the optimal position.
Development of new golf clubs
A club head exists out of many different aspects: the surface area, contact face, cavities with different shapes and depths, bounce and club angle, weight distribution, etc. All these variables affect the performance of the club. This means that there are a lot of different configurations you can choose from when developing a new club head. To test all the different configurations, it would be very cost heavy to produce all the prototypes using traditional manufacturing methods. 3D-printing allows you to reduce costs substantially and increase time efficiency towards new product development.
Where traditional manufacturing methods struggle, additive manufacturing creates new and innovative ways to optimize designs and weight distributions. With AM finding its way into the sport, who knows how things will change and how performances will evolve.
Additive manufacturing for aesthetic purposes
Every golfer dreams of a completely customized set of golf clubs in a personalized bag with personalized golf balls. Additive manufacturing allows you to customize everything in your equipment, even the wheels of your golf cart.
With 3D printing you can add a lot of aesthetic features to your clubs. Also, adding your initials becomes very easy using additive manufacturing. There are no limits and the possibilities for customization are endless. Twikit built an online configurator to design the rear part of a putter model. Are you interested in letting your customers design their own putter? Reach out to us.