Golf clubs come in a variety of different types. Drivers are designed to generate distance, wedges to lift the ball out of difficult situations, and putters to gently place the ball in the hole. Golf club manufacturers are constantly pushing the technology in all of their clubs to achieve an edge over their competition with new designs that need to be experimentally analyzed and verified. One critical feature of a golf club is how it responds when the club impacts the ball. This response will affect the movement of the ball and the feel in the hands of the golfer. Polytec’s Multipoint Vibrometer (MPV-800) is an instrument that captures dynamic response data simultaneously at up to 48 points using lasers. Vibration can be captured at 48 discrete locations in 1D mode, or up to 16 points for resolving the complete 3D motion. The MPV-800 will measure the response to a single transient event, such as a golf ball impacting the head of a golf club. Some clubs are more forgiving than others, so that exact point of impact can affect its response and a small deviation may change how that club responds; therefore, it is important to strike the club only once and to capture data simultaneously. In our example we measured on the shaft, but this measurement can also be performed easily on the club head. We tested a 9-iron and a putter with the MPV-800 system.

1. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
Anthony Brock • Applications Engineer
info@polytec.com
949-943-3033
Multipoint Vibrometer: Golf Club Dynamics

2. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
Multipoint Vibrometer (MPV-800)
October 2017 2
Polytec’s Multipoint Vibrometer
(MPV-800) captures dynamic
response data simultaneously at
up to 48 points.
The system used in these
experiments is configured for 1D
measurements at up to 24 points
or full 3D motion response at up
to 8 points.

3. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
Golf Clubs
Golf clubs come in a variety of different
types. There are drivers to hit the ball far,
wedges to lift the ball out of difficult
situations, and putters to gently place the
ball in the hole. Golf club manufacturers
are constantly pushing the technology in
all of their clubs to achieve an edge over
their competition with new designs that
need to be experimentally analyzed and
verified. One critical feature of a golf club
is how it responds when the club impacts
the ball. This response will affect the
movement of the ball and the feel in the
hands of the golfer.
October 2017 3
9-iron putter

4. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Setup
The 9-iron and the putter in the previous slide are
suspended from a stand and the response due to
an impact on the club is measured with the
Polytec MPV-800. Each club is excited with a
single impact to its face. The putter setup is
shown to the left.
October 2017 4

5. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (9-iron)
24 measurement points are aligned onto
the rear side of the 9-iron golf club. The
impact response is measured
simultaneously for all points.
Measurement locations are the laser dots
seen in the image below.
October 2017 5

6. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (9-iron)
The frequency response of the measured data shows the fundamental bending mode as well as
higher order modes of the shaft of the golf club.
October 2017 6
50 Hz
5.4 Hz 160 Hz
316 Hz
539 Hz
813 Hz

7. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (9-iron)
This video shows an animation of the impact response in the time domain lasting
approximately 1.5 seconds. The head of the golf club is seen rotating at approximately 5.4Hz
and higher frequency waves are seen traveling through the shaft.
October 2017 7

8. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (9-iron)
This video animates the first 25 ms of the time domain response. By slowing down the
playback and looking at a small section of time, a wave is seen propagating down the shaft
after the impact. This wave is at approximately 300-400Hz.
October 2017 8

9. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (putter)
24 measurement points are aligned onto
the rear surface of the putter golf club.
The impact response is measured
simultaneously for all points.
Measurement locations are the laser dots
seen in the image below.
October 2017 9

10. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (putter)
The frequency response of the measured data shows the fundamental bending mode as well as
higher order modes of the shaft of the golf club.
October 2017 10
2.4 Hz
163 Hz
308 Hz
542 Hz

11. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (putter)
This video shows an animation of the impact response in the time domain lasting
approximately 1.5 seconds. The head of the golf club is seen rotating at approximately 2.4Hz
and higher frequency waves are seen traveling through the shaft.
October 2017 11
Note: Download
the presentation
to view the video.

12. · www.polytec.com · © Polytec
MPV Data (putter)
By slowing down the playback and looking at a small section of time, a wave is seen
propagating down the shaft after the impact. This wave is at approximately 400-600Hz.
October 2017 12
Note: Download
the presentation
to view the video.