And almost all of those golfers never take the idea beyond the idea stage. Because inventing a new golf club ain't easy. There's the idea, which is tough enough to come up with; then there's building a prototype, testing it, perfecting it; then there's manufacturing and marketing it.
Every one of those steps requires expertise - or gumption - that most of us just don't have.
Robert MacKeil has both. And he also has a brand new golf club, a metal wood unlike any other on the market: the Mac's Ax.
The Mac's Ax is currently only available directly from MacKeil or through his auctions on eBay or Yahoo.
Take a look at the photo of the Mac's Ax above (click on the photo to view two more). It's an unusual-looking club, no? You might notice that the clubhead is more oblong shaped along its width; the toe of the club is very upright at address, so that the clubface is slightly diagonal to the ground; the back of the clubhead juts out, and one of three screws of differing weights is inserted into the rear of the clubhead.
The club design is patented, and it's also USGA-conforming (although as of this writing only the 9-degree had been submitted to the USGA). MacKeil offers 7- and 9-degree clubs as drivers, a 12-degree club as a 2-wood and a 15-degree 3-wood.
The head is Beta Titanium and the club comes with a 56-gram, low torque, high modulus graphite shaft that is guaranteed against breakage for one year.
The clubhead design and weighting screws combine to create what MacKeil said is the "deepest center of gravity and longest radius of gyration of any clubhead ever manufactured."
The diagonal orientation of the face, MacKeil said, "allows for a face of a more reasonable size and saves weight to place on the back."
The brass weight screws allow golfers to adjust the weighting of the club themselves, in a matter of seconds, right on the golf course or range. In other words, you can easily play around with the club's weighting and watch the effects on your ball flight to determine which weight is best for your swing.
The weight distribution creates a very large sweet spot and a very deep center of gravity, both of which are staples of the major brands' game-improvement drivers. The Mac's Ax also features a rounded sole for easy gliding through grass.
MacKeil identifies five functions of the rear weighting system using the brass screws. First, it allows for proper adjustment to suit the personal strength or preference of the individual. Second, it puts as much weight as possible as far from the face as possible. "This dramatically increases stability on mishits," MacKeil said.
Third, it eliminates gear effect. "As the center of gravity moves past a point which is greater than about an inch or so from the face, the gear effect will start to decrease due to the stability of the clubhead," MacKeil said. "For this reason, the Mac's Ax has a relatively flat face, as little correction for gear effect is needed."
Fourth, the rear weighting does create a slightly higher trajectory, although MacKeil says the effect is minor and outweighed by other properpties. And fifth, the weight adjustments allow for the fine tuning of shaft flex for each golfer's tempo and swing speed.
"One size does not fit all and this system is particularly good for stronger golfers who need more weight to get the proper tempo," MacKeil said. "Added weight will not necessarily slow the swing speed but it will always increase the sweet spot."
MacKeil explains a few more of the characteristics of the Mac's Ax:
"Any of the lofts may be shafted to as long as 46 inches, but standard lengths are recommended. The 3-wood wood makes an excellent ladies driver and the 2-wood (12 degrees) is great for more accuracy or golfers with slower swing speeds. You may get optimum distance with the 12-degree model depending on the flight characteristics of your shots or the length you choose to shaft it. We strongly recommend using more loft for slower swing speeds and do not recommend weak shafts to get the ball higher. Mac's Ax tends to get the ball higher than other clubs because of the extremely rearward center of gravity and also tends to lessen any tendancy to slice because of the tilted design of the head. Golfers who swing hard should use stiffer shafts regardless of overall ability as weak shafts will create a slice when swung to fast."
Next Page: Taking the Mac's Ax from Concept to Club
