Trend towards ‘metal woods’

Press, 11 April 1979, Page 31

Trend towards ‘metal woods’

PA Wellington Metal-headed golf woods are on the way in, according to the Australian managing director of a big golf club manufacturing company.

It may sound like sacrilege, but Mr John Steel of Precision Golf Forging (P.G.F.) said that there would be an accelerating trend towards metal woods in the next five years.

“All our good woodmakers are dying,” he said. “It’s a matter of necessity to move into metal woods.”

Metal woods, usually made out of stainless steel or aluminium, are not yet available in Australia or New Zealand.

“But they will be in the not-too-distant future, and they are going to get a gaining share of the market because the cost of wood making will continue to accelerate,” he said. Mr Steel said there was little difference for the golfer between metal woods and good old wooden woods. “The difference is purely psychological. At the moment the average golfer is striking woods on a piece of plastic anyway — the plastic insert on the face .of the club.

“The handcrafting involved in making woods is becoming less and less practical because of the cost and because the craftsmen are no longer around,” he said.

“We are going to have to rely more and more on mechanical methods,” said Mr Steel He said that metal woods would be as expensive as wooden woods initially: “But the cost of metal clubs won’t

increase as rapidly in the long term.”'

The move to metal woods is one .of three trends Mr Steel sees in golf club manufacture.

The others are: A movement back to the low profile club of the 19205, with the weight in the sole to help the players get the ball in the air, and A distinct trend back to the forged club, which plays a little softer than the investment-casted club and enables better control off the blade. Mr Steel, wh,o is in New Zealand for talks with P.G.F. New Zealand, also said that women’s golf was the fastest growing area at the moment for equipment manufacturers.