By John Oldenburg
In 1995, the earliest of the ‘baby boomer’ generation were turning 50 years old, a generation of extremely passionate golfers who grew up following the likes of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Arnie, and Jack. And playing ardently, too. But, with age can come aches, pains and injuries related to striking the ball, particularly to the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. Vibrations in the club resulting from impact reverberate through the body, causing joint and soft tissue discomfort, especially for players with arthritis and other joint maladies.
Bringing you insights from the PING Proving Grounds, where our talented team of engineers, researchers, fitting experts and data scientists design and develop the newest product and fitting technologies to help you play better. Using the most advanced tools available, we’ll explain and explore the science behind golf-equipment performance. We’ll separate fact from fiction with the goal of helping you make informed decisions when choosing the PING equipment best suited for maximizing your performance.
Good Vibrations
By John Oldenburg
In 1995, the earliest of the ‘baby boomer’ generation were turning 50 years old, a generation of extremely passionate golfers who grew up following the likes of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Arnie, and Jack. And playing ardently, too. But, with age can come aches, pains and injuries related to striking the ball, particularly to the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. Vibrations in the club resulting from impact reverberate through the body, causing joint and soft tissue discomfort, especially for players with arthritis and other joint maladies.
Our engineers began the research and development of the innovative Cushin insert back in 1995 after a number of recreational golfers, and some PING pros on the Senior PGA Tour, asked us for a way to soften the blow of impact and lessen the wear and tear of the game on their joints.
The goal was not to indiscriminately damp all vibrations and detract from the feel of a shot, only vibrations within bandwidths that make impact feel harsh and create muscle fatigue later in a round. So we got to work on this at the PING Proving Grounds and designed a ‘selective vibration filtering system’ to identify and eliminate injurious higher-frequency vibrations and retain desirable vibrations at lower frequencies. Through research and testing and reviewing literature from the scientific, medical and military communities regarding how mechanical vibration affects parts of the body, we were able to identify unwanted frequencies.
The Cushin insert improves feel and reduces fatigue, discomfort and the risk of injury by damping undesirable vibrations while maintaining frequencies that deliver positive feedback so you feel the purity of a hit. This selective filtering works by means of ball bearings encased in a resilient rubber-like material tuned to absorb vibrations.
