Heavy-Handed

BOCIERI GOLF MAKES A SPLASH WITH NEW DRIVER, SWINGING CLUBS

The landscape of golf equipment is dominated by a handful of companies that use their muscle and might (and advertising dollars) to push their brands into the hands of players who so desperately want their games to even slightly resemble those of the PGA Tour professionals.

One little-known fact is that a lot of the equipment being sold by the “big boys” is so similar in technology that if it weren’t for the branding, it would be tough to tell them apart. Some are painted white, while others are black, but they all conform to the USGA regulations and therefore end up being very similar in what they do for today’s golfer.

The PGA Tour professionals, on the other hand, have all realized that the clubs themselves are eerily similar, so they play the brand that pays them the most, even though they realize that their game is not going to change very much based on that decision. The biggest dif- By ZaNE RussELL Ference is that every PGA Tour professional has an equipment company sponsored “tour van” at their disposal. The tour vans help change the shafts, lofts and any weight adjustments their players might need. It is the shafts and other slight modifications that are not readily available to the average golfer and these adjustments are what make the biggest impact in the professionals’ ball flight.

Now meet Stephen Boccieri, founder of Boccieri Golf and inventor of the Heavy Putter, which has now turned into a whole line of swinging clubs, including the Heavy Driver, Heavy Woods, Heavy Hybrids, Heavy Irons and Heavy Wedges. With a grip mass about 8 grams heavier than a common club, these sticks use a Tourproven back-weighting system that is installed in the grip end of every club. Boccieri described it to me like this: “If you can add mass to the head and still move the club at the same speed you will create more force at impact.”Which do you think would hurt more: getting hit by a Mack truck or a Volkswagen?”

What is remarkable is that “backweighted” technology has been used by professional golfers such as Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus—and in modern days Sergio Garcia—but is not normally available to the everyday golfer who doesn’t understand how to back-weight their clubs themselves.

Boccieri started out making Heavy Putters to help his own golf game. Before long, touring pros, people with the “yips,” and golfers interested in putting better started learning about the technology. So Boccieri decided that his technology Worked with swing clubs as well and began offering counter-balanced wedges, which led to irons, then to woods, hybrids and drivers. He insists the concept wasn’t designed just to hit the ball farther, but to make the golfer more consistent by improving their body mechanics.

After hearing all this, I was anxious to step up and swing the Heavy Clubs. When I hit the ball, I heard the impact, but didn’t feel it hit the club, like a bug hitting my car windshield. The description that Boccieri gave me was that clubs that are built with more mass have the distinct advantage of imparting a higher moment of inertia (MOI). Clubs with a higher MOI are more forgiving on mis-hits. When hit on the sweet spot, you're in heaven. Overall I didn’t notice any more or less distance, but the ball flew straighter than with my normal driver The ball certainly knows it has a collision with the Boccieri Clubs, but I didn’t. Because of the counter balance, the club doesn’t feel any heavier when swinging it and therefore felt natural in my hands. I have to admit, the overall experience was a lot better than I had expected and the clubs felt good and made me want to take them out on the course. That is what Boccieri wants to happen in his grassroots Heavyweight Challenge campaign to change golf.

So now we have Boccieri Golf climbing into the ring to battle the Giants of the Golf World who are nowadays promoting that “lighter is better.” Who knows, with a product that is built to do more damage, Boccieri just might get the attention of his competition.