The following is a list and description of the golf club technology Firsts developed by Tom Wishon Golf Technology since TWGT was started in 2002. For a brief list of Tom Wishon’s career design technology Firsts prior to starting his own company, click here.
- First Shallow Face Height Fairway Woods with 0.830
COR
2007– TWGT went one better by engineering the first shallow face woods with a COR of 0.830! - First Wedges With a CNC Milled Face and Micro-Groove
Scorelines for Increased Backspin
2007– Wishon Golf CX-Micro Wedges - First Driver to achieve a COR of 0.900
2006 – Wishon Golf 0.9OL Driver (developed for foreign markets where the USGA rule for 0.830 COR limit does not go into effect until 2008) - Driver with CNC machined crown for moving the center
of gravity more rearward and lower in the head for higher launch
angle
2006 – Wishon Golf 949MC Driver - Driver with internal rotating weight arm for greater
flight control
2005 – Wishon Golf 715CLC Driver - Interchangeable loft faces on putters
2005 – Wishon Golf CLF Series Putters - Driver with center of gravity more than 40mm behind
the face for higher launch angle with higher ball speed
2004 – Wishon Golf 949G/Ti Driver - Small tip diameter hybrid shaft for higher launch
angle
2004 – Wishon Golf 321Li Hybrid Long Irons - The first variable thickness high COR iron design
2004 – Wishon Golf 770CFE Irons - True Moment of Intertia matching of golf clubs
2004 – MOI - The first 0.830 COR fairway woodhead design
2004 – Wishon Golf 515GRT Fairway Woods - GRT woodhead face design for more consistent launch
angle
2004 – Wishon Golf 515GRT - First forged iron design to incorporate a 5-step
forging process for improved metal density and face profile consistency
in finishing
2003 – Wishon Golf 550C and 550M forged carbon steel irons - First Driver with flat-topline crown surface to maximize
face flexing at impact
2003 – Wishon Golf 915CFE Forged Beta Titanium Drivers
1. First Shallow Face Height Fairway
Woods with 0.830 COR
2007 – Wishon Golf 949MC Fairway Woods
In
2004, TWGT was the first company to introduce a fairway wood design
which achieved the 0.830 COR limit imposed by the USGA. Previously,
it had been felt that the much smaller face height and face area of
typical fairway woods prevented the face from being able to flex inward
enough to achieve such a high COR. In 2007, TWGT went one better by
engineering the first shallow face woods with a COR of 0.830!
This breakthrough in ball velocity technology became possible with a completely new type of forged cup-face construction which utilized a totally new ultra-high strength steel alloy to enable the 949MC faces to be made to an ultra-thin but durable face thickness of only 1.6mm. With their 32mm face height, the 949MC fairway woods offer golfers a completely unique performance combination of a shallow face for easier playability with a 0.830 COR for more distance.
2. First Wedges With a CNC Milled
Face and Micro-Groove Scorelines for Increased Backspin
2007 – Wishon Golf CX-Micro Wedges
In
1991, Tom Wishon was the first to design a set of irons and wedges
with a fully CNC Milled Face #10.
In 2007, Tom added a unique new scoreline design to a CNC Milled Face
to enable the CX-Micro Wedges to offer golfers a substantial increase
in face to ball friction for enhanced backspin.
In 2006, it was verified in a technical report published by the USGA that the edges of U-shaped scorelines did combine with the face surface between scorelines to increase the total face to ball friction. Virtually every other golf company utilizes U-shaped scorelines of 0.8mm wide and 2.8mm in line to line spacing on the faces of their irons and wedges. Through impact studies, TWGT discovered that the typical scoreline design used by all other companies allowed the edges of 3 scorelines to contact the surface of the ball at impact. By reducing the U-shaped scoreline width to 0.6mm and the line to line spacing to 2.0mm. TWGT’s new “micro-grooves” were not only within the USGA’s minimum spacing of 1.91mm, but would put the edges of 5 micro-groove scorelines in contact with the ball at impact. This substantial increase in line edge friction with the ball, combined with CNC face milling, resulted in a Trackman launch monitor verified increase of 1000rpms of backspin over wedges of the same loft and headweight with typical 0.8mm x 2.8mm scorelines.
3. First Driver to achieve a COR
of 0.900
2006 –Wishon Golf 0.9OL Driver
(developed for foreign markets where the USGA rule for 0.830 COR limit does not
go into effect until 2008)
In his design career, Tom Wishon has been fascinated with learning how to continue to increase the amount of face flexing to increase ball velocity for more distance. When the USGA instituted a limit for the spring face capability of clubheads (COR limit of 0.830) in 1998, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which administers the rules for golfers in other countries, did not ascribe to the COR limit imposed by the USGA. Later, under pressure from the USGA, the R&A agreed to institute the 0.830 COR limit for clubheads starting in 2008.
As a result of numerous requests from TWGT clubmaking customers in foreign countries and motivated by a desire to see just how high he could engineer the COR of a large titanium driver head, Tom relied on his experience in high performance face design to create the Wishon Golf 0.9OL, the first driver head to “hit the 0.900 COR barrier” in the game.
4. Driver with CNC machined crown
for moving the center of gravity more rearward and lower in the head
for higher launch angle
2006 –Wishon Golf 949MC Driver
In 1995, Tom Wishon designed the first graphite + metal driver for the purpose of replacing metal with lightweight graphite to more radically move the center of gravity of the head. Many of the large brand name golf club companies did not begin making their version of a graphite + metal driver until 2005. Bonding graphite to a metal woodhead to allow for a more radical position of the center of gravity brings with it a greater chance for head failure; the stress of impact can eventually break the bond between the graphite and metal.
To overcome the higher incidence of head failure but to still be able to remove weight from the top of the driver to facilitate a more rear located center of gravity, Tom developed the process of CNC machining the underside of the top of the driver head to remove the weight necessary for moving the center of gravity more to the rear of the head. Specific areas of the top of the Wishon Golf 949MC driver head which are not subject to high stress were machined 60% thinner than is typical for conventional titanium driver design to accumulate weight which was re-positioned in the rear of the head to achieve the desired rear center of gravity position for higher launch angle and more control.
5. Driver with internal rotating
weight arm for greater flight control
2005 –Wishon Golf 715CLC Driver
Weight
adjustment drivers that offer a maximum of 24 grams to move around the head will
only allow the slightest of visible ball flight adjustment. To a tour pro, yes,
a 24 gram movement will create a visible flight change because they all have
such consistent ball flight that they will notice a 3-4 yard movement of the
ball in flight. To the average golfer who's normal ball flight varies from swing-to-swing,
no real change will be seen from moving only 24 grams around the outside of the
head.
Wishon Golf's 715CLC driver incorporates up to as much as 40 grams of discretionary
weight that can be moved virtually anywhere around the inside of the head cavity.
As a result, a change of 3.5 degrees in launch angle can be seen between the “at
face” to “away from face” positions of the weight arm, and
a correction of up to 20 yards of sideways ball movement can be made when the
weight arm is in its heel or toe bias positions. Designed to be custom fit to
the golfer's needs by serious custom clubmakers, the 715CLC departs from the
typical weight screw design on the outside of the head and offers a more dramatic
adjustment in ball flight through a much more unique internal weight design.
6. Interchangeable loft faces on putters
2005 –Wishon Golf CLF Series Putters
Superb
putters know the importance of using the proper loft angle on the face
of their putter. Without the correct putter loft, the ball will never
roll smoothly and consistently, which is a key to reducing 3-putts, and
making more putts overall.
Almost every putter offered in the game today is made with 3 or 4 degrees of loft. Yet golfers do not all arrive at impact with the putter with their hands in the same position. Golfers who forward press the putter compared to those who putt with a more “wristy stroke” cannot possibly roll the ball consistently using the same putter loft. By creating the CLF putters with the option of a full interchangeable face, CNC-Machined to accuracy in 2, 4 and 6 degree loft angles, Wishon Golf has afforded golfers a real chance to find the loft angle that rolls the ball smoother and more consistently, which will translate into lower scores.
7. Driver with center of gravity more
than 40mm behind the face for higher launch angle with higher ball
speed
2004 – Wishon Golf 949G/Ti Driver
In
its technical writing from its ongoing R&D, Wishon Golf exposed the industry
to the fact that a rear-located Center of Gravity has more of an effect on increasing
launch angle than a low CG position. From that, TWGT discovered that it was possible
to combine a much more rear-located CG with a conventional loft angle and achieve
a higher launch angle previously only possible from increasing the loft. Increasing
loft automatically lowers the ball velocity for all golfers.
By pushing the CG back to an amazing 44mm behind the face in the 949G/Ti driver, Wishon Golf has been able to deliver the launch angle of a 12 degree driver with the ball velocity of a driver with a loft of 10.5 degrees. As a result, golfers custom fit to the 949 G/Ti have experienced the best of all worlds – higher launch angle for more carry distance with a higher ball speed not previously possible with that optimum launch angle. The 949G/Ti CG is 6mm (1/4”) farther back from the face than the CG of the Callaway Fusion™ driver and thus stands as the most rear CG designed driver measured in the game today.
8. Small tip diameter hybrid shaft
for higher launch angle
2004 – Wishon Golf 321Li Hybrid Irons
While
hybrid clubs have achieved a high demand in the golf business, Wishon
Golf developed a true hybrid shaft to pull the most performance from
their 321Li hybrid ironheads. The shaft can be a major contributor
to increasing launch angle but only if its design is a result of true “thinking
outside the box”. By departing from the typical larger tip diameter
construction of all iron shafts and incorporating a smaller 0.335” tip
design in their GI-335 shaft for the 321Li hybrids, Wishon Golf was
able to offer golfers a 3.5 degree higher launch angle than any other
hybrid of the same loft tested with a conventional iron shaft. Thus
the combination of the unique small tip GI-335 iron shaft with the
extreme rear-CG design of the 321Li hybrid heads, TWGT once again proved
its ability to understand ALL of the elements of golf club performance
to create a truly easy-to-hit long iron replacement that can be experienced
by golfers from the very first hit.
9. The first variable thickness high
COR iron design
2004 – Wishon Golf 770CFE Irons
Ironhead
design has languished in countless variations of heel and toe weighting
for decades. With the 770CFE Wishon Golf has opened an entirely new
door to improving the performance of irons by proving that superior
face engineering can increase the COR of an iron, and with it deliver
a full club more distance to all golfers. In addition, by creating
the faces of the 770CFE irons from different steel alloys and CNC-machining
the faces thin on the perimeter and 0.4mm thicker in the center, Wishon
Golf has improved ball velocity from off-center hits for all heads
in the set regardless of loft angle change. The 770CFE irons won the “Top
Concept” award for clubhead design from Golf Tips magazine and
were recognized by Golf Digest as being the “Best Iron from a
New Company” in their noteworthy Hot List 2005 issue (GD Feb.
2005).
10. True Moment of Intertia matching
of golf clubs
2004 – Wishon Golf MOI Matching System
Engineers
with a working knowledge of golf clubs have long known that matching
all clubs in the set to Moment of Inertia (MOI) is superior to matching
all clubs by swingweight. By building all clubs in a golfer's set to
have the same MOI, each club will swing with exactly the same feel
and effort from the golfer. Swingweight matching cannot do that, so
the golfer has to use a different effort to swing each club. MOI matching
is truly a custom fitting parameter because each golfer has a different
combination of strength, athletic ability and swing tempo.
MOI matched clubs must be individually fit to each golfer so that the benefit of more consistent on-center hits will be achieved by each golfer. Real MOI matching has never been pursued by any OEM because their business model is to make standard made golf clubs. By developing the golf industry's first MOI Matching System, TWGT has enabled professional and serious custom clubmakers to offer golfers a manner of matching swing feel and improving their on-center hit percentage.
11. The first 0.830 COR fairway woodhead
design
2004 – Wishon Golf 515GRT Fairway Woods
In
1999, Tom Wishon became the first to design a high strength steel driver
that exceeded the USGA's limit for COR for foreign market sales. In
2004 Wishon Golf elevated its skill in woodhead face design by creating
the first fairway woods to reach the USGA's 0.830 COR/257 CT limit.
Previously thought to be impossible because of the much smaller face area of fairway woods, Wishon Golf achieved its “high COR fairway wood face” breakthrough by combining a forged cup-face construction with a vertically flat zero Roll face and a totally new high strength steel alloy from Carpenter Steel. Launch monitor testing reveals a ball velocity increase of 4mph with the 515GRT fairway woods over the majority of the industry's brand name fairway woods, and golfers who have been custom fit with the 515GRT fairway woods are completely amazed that such a distance increase with fairway woods is now theirs.
12. GRT face design by TWGT delivers
far more consistent launch angle
2004 – Wishon Golf 515GRT drivers and fairway
woods, 915CFE drivers, 949MC drivers and fairway woods, 715CLC
driver, 0.9OL driver
Wishon
Golf demonstrated the knowledge and the courage to buck more than 100
years of woodhead face design to eliminate the old vertical roll radius
and replace it with a unique vertical face design that ensures consistent
loft up and down the face. As driver heads have grown from 200cc to
460cc in the past 15 years, driver face heights have increased from
1.5” (39mm) to 2.4” (60mm). That means when all other companies
choose to use a typical 10-12” vertical roll radius up and down
the face, the loft of the driver will be 3-4 degrees lower on the bottom
of the face and 3-4 degrees higher on the top of the face.
For golfers to achieve a consistent launch angle with such drivers, they have to develop the skill to hit the ball in an area the size of a thumbtack! Wishon Golf's Graduated Roll Technology (GRT) face design is now incorporated on virtually all of the company's driver and woodhead designs and delivers a far more consistent launch angle for much more consistent distance and flight for every single golfer.
13. First forged iron design to
incorporate a 5-step forging process for improved metal density and
face profile
consistency in finishing
2003 – Wishon Golf 550C and 550M forged
carbon steel irons
In
2002, Tom was asked by one of the top production foundries
for which he consulted to help solve a problem for one of the
foundry's other clubmaking company customers. This company
was trying to promote a brand new forged iron on the PGA Tour
but had been receiving criticism from a number of the tour
players that the face profile shape at the leading edge position
of the different heads in the set was too inconsistent. After
researching the problem, Tom determined the inconsistency in
the shape of the leading edge came because the preparation
of the heads required the foundry's workers to grind too much
off the bottom of the sole directly under the leading edge
to remove the wide flat section left from the shearing off
of the excess steel after the typical 4th and final step in
the forging process. By making another forging die mold, and
forging the heads one more time, the area under the leading
edge of the face which had to be ground to blend with the sole
radius was greatly reduced to a very small section of steel.
Thus the workers could more accurately remove this small section
of excess steel without changing the profile of the leading
edge, and the result was the foundry could now deliver heads
which demonstrated a very high level of consistency for overall
face profile shape.
However, an additional benefit of adding a 5th step to the forging process was not realized until the Wishon Golf 550C and 550M forged cavity and muscle-back irons were being designed and tested in the early fall of 2002. While the 550's displayed the same high level of face profile consistency known to come from the additional forging step, golfers involved in the testing of the 550's reported a much softer feel of impact than they had ever felt with previous forged carbon steel irons.
Investigation of these claims eventually showed that by forging the heads one more time than had been done before, the carbon steel was packed much tighter in the 5th die mold. Photomicrograph analysis showed the additional 5th forging step had also compressed the steel in each head much tighter, which had the effect of greatly reducing the natural ‘voids' (microscopic holes) inside the grain structure of the steel that are present in all forged ironheads. By eliminating a huge number of these voids, the internal vibrations from impact were also reduced, which had the effect of transmitting a softer and more solid feel to the golfer.
14. First Driver with flat-topline
crown surface to reduce crown flexing at impact
2003 – Wishon Golf 915CFE Forged Beta Titanium Drivers.
A little known source of energy loss and possible distance
loss during driver impact with the ball that can reduce the
ball speed even from a high C.O.R. face design comes from a
high face impact that causes the traditionally curved shape
of the top crown to “flex”. With the advent of
much taller face, larger driver head shapes, this possible
energy loss became even greater.
To counteract this and allow the high C.O.R. face to perform at its optimal level for generating maximum ball speed, the Wishon Golf 915CFE forged Beta Ti drivers were designed so that the traditional curve upward of the top crown surface of the heads was created to be a flatter shape for the first 10mm back from the top of the face. By greatly reducing this typical top surface curve, a greater “brace” was created to better resist and prevent the top crown surface of the head from flexing when impact occurred on the top half of the face.