Is It Persimmon, or Modern Technology

A new golf club is entering the market slowly, carefully, available right now only through the web site and a handful of golf schools, teaching centers. It may be the next Taylor Made, the next true revolution in golf.

For 500 years, wooden clubs were made out of, well, wood. And the persimmon tree became the provider of choice, creating very solid, very beautiful clubs that had great feedback in the hands.

Then came Taylor Made, introducing in 1979 a "metal wood". It looked pretty much like a wooden club, but was made of stainless steel in a mold and was stuffed with foam. The beauty of this was many-fold - the stronger material wouldn't chip or crack, didn't require fifty hand-made steps, lasted longer, hit the ball further, and cost, as Gary Adams said in 1979, "$3 bucks to pop out". Once people got used to the sound, it was a stampede to the pro shops and stores. Within ten years, persimmon woods disappeared. Many of today's top young players have never hit a persimmon club.

We all know that Ely Callaway and Dick Helmstetter then created the "Big Bertha" by stretching the metal shell even larger, creating what they said was more "forgiveness, a larger sweet spot". Yes, it's a big head, but forgiveness in terms of direction was not part of the equation because the bigger heads (and they got bigger and bigger until the USGA said no more) created more spin and less directional control. We moved to titanium, even less forgiving in direction. Distance, however, they delivered.

This new club, now called the Malibu Woody, changes that. In fact, it changes everything except what modern technology does best - deliver distance. The Woody drives it as deep as any club according to all the testing that's been done at industry testing sites.

What the Woody does is mimic persimmon. It sounds like persimmon, has the incredible feel (feedback to the hands) that persimmon had, and HAS ROLL AND BULGE, as did persimmon. That means there is "gear affect" where the hits on the toe get turned towards the left and hits on the heel turn towards the right, bringing the shots back toward the fairway. That is the essence of "forgiveness": The club also has a smaller head and a patented lighter sole plate, which allows for different launch angles, and a higher lofted driving club. Amazingly, this face, which is actually made from a ceramic/plastic composite, actually reduces spin rate as well. This means that it will help the really strong players, the ones generating massive club head speed, to dampen spin and thus control the ball flight. With titanium heads, the spin is exacerbated by speed, so a ball hit to the right is going way to the right. With the Woody, with roll and bulge and spin dampening, the ball is going to be much more controllable, and there is an immense difference in "forgiveness".

Oh yes, it's going to take a bit of getting used to, just like metal did in the 80s - the sound is a solid little "twack", not a "Dingggg", the club has cork (yes, like in wine bottles and baseball bats) in it's center (yes, it's legal with the USGA) - it looks different (right now the heads are all white - it looks more like an old MacGregor Tourney from the 60s) - it's a challenge to be the first to try it, and it takes some getting used to in terms of shaft and loft - the construction is so different that you can use a more flexible shaft than you're used to and a more lofted face and still get the same distance you get with your titanium clubs. That also helps you hit the ball straighter.

The Malibu Woody is hard to find - but you can get all the information at www.caldwellgolf.com. You might change the world again by bringing the values of persimmon and titanium together in one club - yours.