Variable Face Milling to Normalize Putter Ball Speed and Maximize Forgiveness

Jacob Lambeth,Dustin Brekke,Jeff Brunski

doi:10.3390/proceedings2060248

Abstract

The forgiveness of golf putters is traditionally achieved through weight distribution. Higher MOI (moment of inertia) putters will show less ball speed loss on impacts away from the sweet spot. A very large MOI putter, however, may not be desired by a golfer due to weight or appearance. The relationship between ball speed and impact location is affected by the mass properties of the putter (i.e., CG location, mass, moments of inertia, products of inertia) and the putter face. It has been shown that certain face properties, such as milling patterns, grooves, or soft inserts, can have small effects on ball speed. This paper proposes a method to normalize the ball speed on laterally miss-hit putter impacts using a “model-specific” milling pattern of variable depth and pitch, resulting in the largest possible region of the face providing consistent putt distances, thus improving performance given the average player’s impact pattern.

Highlights

IntroductionLike drivers and irons, are designed with strong consideration for forgiveness
Golf putters, like drivers and irons, are designed with strong consideration for forgiveness.Amateur golfers tend to impact the putter face over a relatively large area, increasing the need for performance on poor strikes
There is much variety in the market for putter shapes and sizes. These putters all have different amounts of forgiveness based on their mass distribution

Summary

Introduction

Like drivers and irons, are designed with strong consideration for forgiveness. Amateur golfers tend to impact the putter face over a relatively large area, increasing the need for performance on poor strikes. The primary metric for forgiveness in golf clubs is MOI (moment of inertia). The MOI is a measure of an object’s resistance to angular acceleration (rotation) around an axis for a given torque. It is a function of an object’s mass distribution relative to the axis of rotation. Most modern putters use perimeter weighting to increase MOI around the vertical axis. A golf club with large MOI will twist less when presented with a torque due to an off-center strike [2] More energy (velocity) will be transferred to the ball, essentially decreasing the penalty for a poor swing

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion