Coming Soon - RIFE Drivers??

[GolfSpy_X]

 

 

Have You Seen the New Rife Drivers?

by David Dawsey

Well, neither have I.... but a recently published patent application may indicate that Rife Putters is looking to branch out. Today Mr. Rife had a patent application publish that may give us an idea of what he has been thinking about; namely, the soles of metal woods.

 

The patent application publishes as US Pub. No. 20090124410 titled “Sole Configuration for Metal Wood Golf Club.� The application describes the invention as:

 

A metal wood type golf club head including a club head body and means for attachment to a golf shaft, the club head body including a frontal ball striking face having a center of percussion thereon, a rear face, a heel, toe, and top crown, and a rigid, non-deformable bottom sole having a forward section and at least one additional rear section.

 

 

 

 

 

The forward section provides a friction surface and is defined by a bounce angle extending downwardly from said frontal ball striking face to prevent the leading edge of the club head from digging into the turf or ground during the execution of a golf shot. The rear section of the bottom sole is a reduced friction surface and is recessed upwardly into the club head.

 

Want to see more patents...go to Golf-Patents.com

Patent Drawings

 

 

 

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[Moecat]

I wonder if this patent is supposed to be for a driver, or for a fairway wood?

 

I may be missing something, but having such a sole doesn't seem terribly useful for a driver unless it's a way to move weight around.

[GolfSpy Dave]

I would guess fairway too. I thought the term "bounce" refers to the part of the club that will strike the ground. Drivers should not hit the turf, right?

Figs 200, 210 and 220 really look like driver, fairway, hybrid progression. Maybe the shape has to be patented in all three configurations to secure the patent, but only the fairway will reach production.

[MmmmmmBuddy]

Remember this??

I wonder how close it is to these??

[TeamPowers]

oh yeah. I remember those. The fairways weren't bad.

 

Remember this??

I wonder how close it is to these??

[Matt Saternus]

I had the same thought: drivers should hit the ground. The suggestion that it's for weight shifting purposes makes sense to me.

[JohnBarry]

I love my Rife putter, so I surely would give the driver a try.

[Addicted2Golf]

I think Rife should stick with what it does best. Hasn't the industry learned anything from the Nickent debacle?

[Matt Saternus]

I think Rife should stick with what it does best. Hasn't the industry learned anything from the Nickent debacle?

 

I think I agree. Call me brand-washed, closed minded, whatever, but the jump from putters to drivers strikes me as weird and not something I'm overly excited about. Heavy Putters made the more logical (to me) progression from putters to wedges. Both putters and wedges are largely matters of personal taste, feel, looks, whereas drivers are (in my mind) about high tech materials & designs. The two things just don't mesh to me. Obviously the large OEMs (TM, Titleist, Cally, etc) do everything from drivers to putters, but that's different. It's one thing to do everything. It's another to be a putter company and then put out a driver.

 

Who knows, maybe this driver will rock and shut me up. I'm certainly not against it or trying to be a hater, just trying to explain why it seems odd to me.

[GolfSpy Dave]

I think I agree. Call me brand-washed, closed minded, whatever, but the jump from putters to drivers strikes me as weird and not something I'm overly excited about. Heavy Putters made the more logical (to me) progression from putters to wedges. Both putters and wedges are largely matters of personal taste, feel, looks, whereas drivers are (in my mind) about high tech materials & designs. The two things just don't mesh to me. Obviously the large OEMs (TM, Titleist, Cally, etc) do everything from drivers to putters, but that's different. It's one thing to do everything. It's another to be a putter company and then put out a driver.

 

Who knows, maybe this driver will rock and shut me up. I'm certainly not against it or trying to be a hater, just trying to explain why it seems odd to me.

The HEavy Putter thread said that they have a driver coming too. If you can make a light Heavy Putter, I guess all rules are gone...

[MmmmmmBuddy]

What happens when Scratch starts to market a Driver??? same thoughts then??

[jamo]

They bottom probably has someting to do with aerodynamics unless it is just trying to move weight around. I bet there are some adventageous aerodnamic properties though.

[Matt Saternus]

The HEavy Putter thread said that they have a driver coming too. If you can make a light Heavy Putter, I guess all rules are gone...

 

I guess my only thought with the heavy driver is that they will probably bring some kind of weighting "technology" to that. Again, it doesn't really excite me, personally.

 

 

What happens when Scratch starts to market a Driver??? same thoughts then??

 

Hmmm...if it happened right now, then yeah, same thoughts. Just like I associate Rife with roll grooves, I associate Scratch with wedges and great forged clubs. Neither of those things connects, in my mind, to drivers. Now, if Scratch brought in Mr. _____ who has some kind of credentials for driver design and then released something that he designed, it would make more "sense" to me.

[jamo]

Hmmm...if it happened right now, then yeah, same thoughts. Just like I associate Rife with roll grooves, I associate Scratch with wedges and great forged clubs. Neither of those things connects, in my mind, to drivers. Now, if Scratch brought in Mr. _____ who has some kind of credentials for driver design and then released something that he designed, it would make more "sense" to me.

 

That's what I was thinking, I just couldn't come up with a good joke for roll grooves on a driver.

[GolfSpy Dave]

I guess my only thought with the heavy driver is that they will probably bring some kind of weighting "technology" to that. Again, it doesn't really excite me, personally.

 

 

 

 

Hmmm...if it happened right now, then yeah, same thoughts. Just like I associate Rife with roll grooves, I associate Scratch with wedges and great forged clubs. Neither of those things connects, in my mind, to drivers. Now, if Scratch brought in Mr. _____ who has some kind of credentials for driver design and then released something that he designed, it would make more "sense" to me.

Slight tangent...

Does the "driver guru" exist? Obviously we see individuals associated with puttercraft and wedges. But drivers are just by brand, these days. The Bobby Jones stuff with Ortiz is the only think that comes to mind.

[Matt Saternus]

Slight tangent...

Does the "driver guru" exist? Obviously we see individuals associated with puttercraft and wedges. But drivers are just by brand, these days. The Bobby Jones stuff with Ortiz is the only think that comes to mind.

 

Tom Stites (sp?) at Nike? Not sure if he's a driver designer, but that's the only name I can think of. It's a bit odd that other types of clubs have a signature guy, but not drivers.

[Addicted2Golf]

Tom Stites (sp?) at Nike? Not sure if he's a driver designer, but that's the only name I can think of. It's a bit odd that other types of clubs have a signature guy, but not drivers.

 

Maybe because Drivers are mostly designed and manufactured by machines without as much craftsmanship involved? Back in the days of persimmon, I bet there were guys known for driver design. I'm just too young to know who they are.

[Addicted2Golf]

What happens when Scratch starts to market a Driver??? same thoughts then??

 

Yeah, I'm just afraid of these companies stretching themselves too thin. It would be a shame for a great company with such a promising future to bury itself by trying to grow too fast and into too many niches. Stick with what you do and do it well unless market forces dictate a change. You don't see Scotty Cameron doing drivers, right?

[GolfSpy Dave]

Yeah, I'm just afraid of these companies stretching themselves too thin. It would be a shame for a great company with such a promising future to bury itself by trying to grow too fast and into too many niches. Stick with what you do and do it well unless market forces dictate a change. You don't see Scotty Cameron doing drivers, right?

Even the driver headcovers cameron made seemed a stretch.

Drivers may just be harder to design. Materials, strain on construction, CAD work. The knowledge may be too broad for any one person to the the Guru, I guess.

[jamo]

Yeah, I'm just afraid of these companies stretching themselves too thin. It would be a shame for a great company with such a promising future to bury itself by trying to grow too fast and into too many niches. Stick with what you do and do it well unless market forces dictate a change. You don't see Scotty Cameron doing drivers, right?

 

That's true. Vokey doesn't do drivers either. I think that the small companies sort of need to either latch on (like Scotty, Vokey) or make everything if they want to compete with the big boys.

[Matt Saternus]

Even the driver headcovers cameron made seemed a stretch.

Drivers may just be harder to design. Materials, strain on construction, CAD work. The knowledge may be too broad for any one person to the the Guru, I guess.

 

In short, putters, wedges, and irons are made by master craftsmen, and drivers are made by rooms full of machines and nerds.

 

It seems like the comments I posted earlier are being echoed by many others, but what I wrote bothers me a bit, so I would like to give it one more try because I really don't want to seem like I'm hating on a company trying something new:

 

I look at Rife or Heavy Putters making drivers as being analogous to Saternus Woodworking making something out of metal. It is entirely possible that, without the consumer knowing it, I bought metalworking equipment and was trained in metals, and am capable of making great metal craft. Nonetheless, people would scratch their heads and say, "I thought that was a woodworking company..." That is my reaction to a Rife driver; it might be awesome, but it doesn't fit my conception of what the company is.