How to improve your ball-striking ability

Throughout the history of the sport, golfers have sought to improve their ball-striking -- and thus their games -- by adopting the latest in technology.

This is the theory known as: "Buy a better game."

Yes, lessons and practice are still important. In fact, very important. But, when it comes to putting equipment in your hands to "activate" all that preparation, technology is the buzzword today.

"How do you become a better ball striker?" asks CBS Sports analyst Gary McCord. "Buy the technology."

The theory works for golfers of all skill levels, from the best pros to advanced amateurs, to higher handicap and recreational players. What's key is matching the technology infused in clubs with the level of the golfer.

In talking technology, it's always interesting to take a brief look back at the evolution in equipment making.

As author Edward Willett explains: "When golf started out, and for centuries after, golf clubs were all made of wood. At a fairly leisurely pace, other materials began to be used for both the heads and the shafts. There were fiberglass shafts, aluminum shafts and steel shafts. Club heads eventually began to be made out of both wood (hence, "woods") and steel (hence, "irons"). But in recent years, more exotic materials have been used."

Today, the most popular material in making driver heads is titanium. For fairway metals, hybrids and irons, both titanium and steel heads are popular. Some clubs are also multimaterial, combining various materials in strategic ways.

Titanium is both light and strong. It's so light, clubheads can be made larger than they've ever been before. A large clubhead gives the golfer a larger "sweet spot," the point on the clubface where you want to hit the ball, because it's at that spot that the club is perfectly balanced and will send the ball on its way most efficiently. Yet, as we'll see, technology has also added a large degree of forgiveness on off-center hits.

Strength and light weight have also brought graphite into the forefront as a primary choice for golf club shafts, along with steel. A lighter shaft means a faster swing and more energy transferred to the ball. And where graphite shafts in their earlier stages were subject to inconsistencies in flex and durability, today’s graphite shafts are very responsive and reliable. Virtually all driver shafts today are graphite. For fairways, hybrids and irons, there's usually a choice between graphite and steel, depending on players' individual characteristics and preferences.

The period from 1900 to 1930 was marked by many innovations in club design, according to historian David Nicholls, such as "the hollow faced irons (which didn't work); Walter Hagen's concave faced (now illegal) sand iron with the extended flange, a variant of Gene Sarazen's initial idea (still universal); a club that could be adjusted to give different lofts; ... and experimentation with a variety of alloys. There were many bizarre clubs made in this period, such as the "giant niblicks" whose faces measured over 6 inches across! "Probably the most important change (back then) was the move from smooth faces on the irons to the grooves we use today. This started around 1908. The designers realized that you could get more backspin on a ball with a grooved club, and that this led to more distance."

Interestingly, grooves -- size and shape -- are a hot-button topic among rules officials and equipment manufacturers today, with new regulations about grooves possibly forthcoming.

Also in recent years, both science and the regulating organizations (U.S. Golf Association, R&A) have had considerable impact on what happens when a ball is struck. The Rules of Golf now set limits for how big a clubhead can be, its width versus depth dimensions, the spring-like effect of the clubface, length of shaft, responsiveness on off-center hits, and so forth. Just about all manufacturers have agreed to play by the rules, and it's within the limits of these regulations that technological advances are being made.