Flogton And Saving Golf Through Non-Conforming Equipment

It's a Friday, there's little news and I'm headed to the USGA Annual Meeting to hear how the bluecoats are progressing on year eight of the ball study. Since I couldn't find any interesting news to post, my time was spent giving the Flogton website a look. These are the Northern California dudes who have enlisted former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy to promote their concept to make golf more accessible, more fun and younger.

Excessive USGA equipment regulation appears to be the area Flogton is most convinced is holding the game back. They turned the equipment page over to "engineer and inventor Bob Zider, originator of Project Flogton," who is "always testing the outer limits on what is possible." His claims are rather impressive!

On Drivers:

Drivers
Available now: Some of the nonconforming clubs offer slight improvement, but usually they are just barely nonconforming – not far off the USGA limits on COR (0.83) and size (460), probably because the designers hoped to sneak under the USGA radar.

Probably the best aid right now is a low-friction face, created by either lubricating the face of the club and ball or by applying a stick-on face to the driver. By simply reducing the face/ball friction, you can reduce slices and hooks by over 50 percent.

The Flogton Project hopes to bring forward existing drivers we are not aware of today.

And on wedges:

Wedges
Available now:  The USGA, in its effort to preserve pro/course scores from the 1930s, set new groove standards that reduce spin for wedges that is much-needed for the rest of us.

Oh boy. Trying to preserve scores from the 1930s. Nice spin, but an utter credibility killer. Go on...

Some companies, including Feel, have decided to keep making the grooved wedges no longer in the USGA’s favor.  But, as with drivers and irons, they do not explore what can be readily made for improved spin.

Flogton future: Flogton has test wedges that increase spin 100 percent, just by improving the grooves and adding friction-inducing surfaces. With new, soft-but-durable-skin balls, we believe we can give “the rest of us” the ability to stop a well-hit ball on the green just like the pros.

Alright you get the picture.

The Flogton philosophy suggests equipment regulation is holding folks back from playing more and enjoying golf. 

Silly me would list the economy first, time to play second as the top two reasons play is down. What do you think of Flogton's message?