PING’s Boring Patent Application Could Be the Next Big Thing

PING has a reputation for being steady, dependable, and perhaps even a little bit boring. As a company, it’s not much for hyperbole, so despite being among the game’s most radical innovators, the company’s technology often gets lost in the shuffle.
I mean, think about it for a minute…Turbulators…that’s radical stuff by golf standards, and yet despite being widely embraced by golfers, because they’re a PING creation they weren’t really talked about with the same type of mind-blowing enthusiasm as movable weights, adjustable hosels, and whatever else that gets pushed as the latest and greatest.

Now take a moment to consider the stuff we don’t see. We’ve talked about center of gravity and why it matters quite a bit. We talk about carbon fiber, and weight savings, and everything manufacturers are doing to push CG as far back, and in many cases, as low as they can. And yet, despite all of their efforts, no company has been able to push the CG farther back than PING.

PING makes the most forgiving drivers in golf – and has for quite some time. Its lower than average CG height makes the drivers playable too, and if that’s not enough, PING has managed to maintain, and even grow its position in the driver market, while still using all-titanium construction.

While it’s not readily apparent, what PING does from an engineering standpoint is arguably the most under-celebrated bit of innovation in the golf industry.

All of that said, if there’s one area where PING hasn’t really pushed the envelope it’s with face technology. Sure, they’ve tweaked materials and added some surface texture, but the PING driver face of today isn’t significantly different from the PING driver face of several years ago. Much like TaylorMade, the company has something it feels works, and so it hasn’t t felt any need to change it.

Until now…or at leas maybe until not long from now.

The Next Big Face Technology?

I recently stumbled upon a patent application that was published on December 12th of this year, although its origins date back to at least 2013. It’s titled Golf Club Heads with Frequency Modulation Devices and Related Methods.

Now that title, exciting as it may (or may not) be, probably isn’t going to grab your immediate attention, but what’s interesting about the actually technology described within is that, not only does it suggest a major overhaul of PING’s face technology, it introduces the idea of using different (though not interchangeable) face configurations to fine tune golf club performance.

At the heart of the patent is the idea that by controlling, and perhaps even manipulating the vibration that occurs at impact, you can change the way energy is imparted on the golf ball.

This isn’t a totally new concept. Vibration control and it’s performance implications have been hinted at in several of the deep technology dives I’ve sat in on, but as a tangible technology, nobody other than perhaps Nike (FlyBrace), has tried to bring it into the mainstream discussion.

This PING patent application may change that.

The Abstract

Congratulations, you now have a pretty good sense of what it’s like to be in the room when PING’s engineering team drills their latest technology into your head. Of course, were we actually in a PING conference room, I’m relatively certain the science-y stuff would be followed with an easily digestible real-world example that makes that particular abstract just a little bit more concrete. What PING does infinitely better than anyone else in golf is make really difficult concepts really easy for average golfers to understand.

Unfortunately the simply explanation will have to wait until PING actually bundles this new face structure into a product, but a cursory read suggests it’s grounded in Newton’s theory that every action has an equal and opposite action. Basically when a club hits a ball not only does the club impart force on the golf ball, but the ball also imparts force on the club. The application, it would seem, is that if you can somehow tune that force…the flex and the vibration, you can actually effect and ideally improve launch conditions.

As with most any patent, team PING provides several examples (embodiments) of how they might actually accomplish this – and in event that your cable goes out (for a week) –  you might want to read through them. There’s a whole lot of talk about oscillation frequencies, anti-stiffeners, and strikeplate modulation mechanisms with the apparent end goal being the achievement of a golf ball vibration frequency range of between 3000 Hz and 4000 Hz.

That’s apparently ideal. If PING says so. I’m certainly in no position to argue otherwise.

Why Does This Matter?

By their very nature patents make for a tedious read. I suspect the goal is to write them in such a way that any potential competitors fall asleep before ascertaining what it is you’re actually driving at.

I managed to keep my eyes open long enough to determine that by adding frequency modulators (which could be milled, forged, welded, or brazed) to the strikeplate (the face). Depending on the placement, the modulation mechanisms can either increase or decrease effective loft. The effective result is that that the modulation mechanisms slow down (limit rebound) one part of the face, while allowing another part of the face to have greater pushing power.

Essentially, if you’re a bang it of the bottom of the face kind of guy, one implementation of PING’s idea would slow down the top of the face in order to maximize performance on your below center strikes. The same rules could also apply to heel and toe strikes, with some implementations potentially being used in combination.

The actual implications (HOW MANY YARDS?) haven’t been laid out. In fact, it’s entire possible that some implementations of this technology could be non-conforming. We won’t know what, if anything, this actually is, until PING actually does something with it.

Until then, I’ll leave you with this excerpt from the patent application:

For those looking to dig deeper, the full text of the patent application can be found here.