National Golf Foundation reports that player frustration is contributing to declining participation
RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — According to recent published reports by the National Golf Foundation (www.ngf.org) participation in golf is in serious decline and the game's reputation as time consuming, difficult to learn and frustrating to play is largely responsible.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140115/PH46412-a)
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140115/PH46412-b)
It has been estimated that 99.9% of all the golfers who have ever played never once shot par, golf's benchmark of excellence, and that less than 10% of all players can regularly break 100. Dr. Richard Ferris, Founder and President of Macro Golf Inc. (www.macrogolf.com), headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, believes that much of this incredible record of failure and frustration has occurred because the golf swing has historically been made more difficult by an inherent design flaw hidden in the familiar wide-butt anti-ergonomic shape of standard golf grips. According to Dr. Ferris, this wide-butt tapered golf grip design, which has been traditionally accepted and played almost exclusively since the mid 19th century, causes an unintentional mid-swing club levering action; an undesirable off-plane golf swing club movement which a player unknowingly must reflexively manipulate to overcome on every swing. This "levering" consistently results in frustrating play and poor outcomes.
As a result of Dr. Ferris's work a US patent has been published as a remedy: a mid-tapered golf grip ergonomically designed to allow all the fingers of the player's non-dominant "left" hand to grasp and impact the grip's surface simultaneously. Ferris indicates this simultaneous golf grip finger impaction, unique to ergonomically designed grips, is the essential requirement necessary to avoid mid-swing club levering. His patent documents state that in the down-swing with an anti-ergonomic wide-butt traditional grip, the tightening ring, 2nd and index fingers of the "left" hand automatically move the thinner, tapered lower grip section and press it more firmly into the palm, levering it in the process against the unmoving wide-butt grip top section that was previously firmly impacted (at set-up/address) against the heel of the hand by the little finger.
In short, the Ferris patent states that in the down-swing of a golf shot with non-ergonomic wide-butt golf grips all the fingers of the "left hand" tighten but only some of them move, and by doing so lever the grip section on which they impact by moving it against the unmoving wide-butt section under the little finger.
Dr. Ferris indicated that the mid-tapered grip described in the recent patent is commercially called PowerStroke; that it is completely ergonomically designed and that a player's grasping fingers automatically impact its ergonomic shape simultaneously, making a more accurate non-levered golf swing consistently easier to perform, and a more successful and enjoyable golfing experience easier to achieve.
The PowerStroke grip is manufactured and sold through Macro Golf Inc. and has been ruled conforming by both the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the British Royal & Ancient (R&A) Society of Golfers.
Contact: Richard Galway 877 270-9402