PING’s latest Vibration Dampening Design

PING Golf Co. recently submitted a new vibration dampening patent featuring a design that has an insert to absorb vibration. We have seen this before in several brands and most notably to TourSpecGolf is TourStage's  Turbo Rubber which TSG  later found to be a rubber very similar to an ear plug or more specifically a material used to transport drum sets. 

We began testing and found out that it did indeed help mute vibration in Wood's, Irons, and Wedges but we were using far more than TourStage did to get the desired effect.  We also noted that the majority of golfers can't tell the difference and that it took a very discerning ear to figure out any difference between two of the same club, one with our vibration material and the other without.

Practice  Increases Awareness
Golfers who hit all sorts of new clubs and were acute to sound vibration, material, along with the  little nuances of different features appeared to have the ability to pick out the addition of ear plugs, cork or dowels used in the making of a club. What was more difficult to notice was when club companies inserted a plastic piece or some sort of material in the original club head making it difficult to test the same head without the method used. We did however get a chance to test a Ping Iron one with the material plastic like insert attached then we removed it and hit the same club and indeed it did feel more harsh.
 

Everyday is Different
A vital factor in this was a players nose and ears.  As many of you already know when you close one of your senses it affects the other and what we found in testing is that by wearing ear plugs it reduced the feedback the golf club gave back to the player.  We also noticed that being congested affected your ears so that shots didnt feel as pure.  Lot's of variables here guy's the weather, your health, allergies, not to mention the club you are using.

The Shaft + Grip + Specifications
Ok so people always wonder where the soft pure feel comes from. Of course we all know that material makes a huge difference but so does the  shaft,  grip and surprisingly the club head's sole design and loft.  The weaker loft submits a softer feel.  Now we could never prove the that but a couple of the world's top factories believe in this and so do their top designers.  There really are a variety of things you can do to your club to make it feel less harsh, things like using a vibration dampening shaft for example like NSPRO or using a thicker rubber grip like NOWON or Iomic.  In some cases we found certain winn grips to actually increase the harsh sensation by off center shots rather than reduce it as advertised. The amount of tape used under the grip also played into it as well.

PING  files New Patent
Enter the latest entry into Iron head vibration reduction.  David Dawsey at Golf-Patents.com wrote about a new patent application submitted by PING golf today showing diagrams of what could be an adjustable vibration device or static piece . Now keep in mind that many of these patents dont become a reality and that the bigger golf OEM's simply put these out to protect their future IP rights but we do know a lot of time and research went into this and Ping Golf must have seen promise to proceed to the actual filing of the application.

Click Here or Keep Reading to view Multiple Images of the Patent...

The patent application describes the invention as:

Embodiments of golf clubs with a cavity and their methods of manufacture are generally described herein. In one embodiment, a golf club head comprises: a strike face, a back face opposite the strike face; a heel region; a toe region opposite the heel region; and a cavity integral with the golf club head. Among various embodiments, the cavity: extends from the heel region to the toe region; extends along a lower portion of the back face of the golf club head; extends approximately parallel to the strike face; and is approximately symmetrical about a centerline that bisects the golf club head between the heel region and the toe region. Among various embodiments, the cavity further comprises a vibration dampening material.