The Inventor

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Aerospace, defence and F1 have all benefitted from design engineer David Hick’s uncanny ability to come up with a solution to a problem. Now it’s golf’s turn.

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Turn the clock back a decade, and David, a keen golfer and member of Brokenhurst Golf Club, Hampshire, with a single-figure handicap, designed the initial incarnation of Pro-Core to improve his putter by dampening the effect of the shaft’s vibration on his putts. By inserting a Pro-Core into the shaft, he made the ball’s roll more consistent and improved the consistency of distance it travelled.

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David followed up by launching his own range of putters featuring adjustable weights to improve ball roll and distance consistency and complemented these by designing a fitting tool that was recognised by the PGA of Great Britain and Ireland as a significant improvement on anything they had seen before.

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So much so that the PGA added the tool to its training programme at its Belfry headquarters. Furthermore, David has presented several seminars to PGA members on putter design, putting theory, custom-fitting, and shaft damping technology.

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Having tackled putters, David then turned his attention to the vibration and dynamic issues that prevented shafts in drivers, fairway woods, irons and wedges realising their full potential.

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Again, the solution was to insert a damping device into the shaft and pressurise it but, given that the initial version of Pro-Core used in putters weighed 50 grams, this made the clubs unmanageable.

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However, a significant reduction in weight – each Pro-Core currently weighs three grams – has resolved the problem and resulted in increases distance and, most importantly, golf ball dispersion.

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Simply put, Pro-Core minimises the ill-effects of mishits and improves accurate ones. All of which has been verified by stringent tests by the Sports Engineering Research Group at Sheffield University and the R&A, one member of whom said David’s invention ‘had changed golf forever’.

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Commenting on the positive reaction to Pro-Core, David says: “I am very proud of what we have achieved in such a difficult industry.

 

And to have testament from prestigious and respected bodies golfing bodies such as ‘we have changed golf forever’, created a ‘a genuine game-changer’, and had Pro-Core referred to as a golf club’s ‘fourth component’, plus testimonials from so many players at all levels, what more can you ask for?”