Diamonds: a golfer's best friend?

Tiger Woods has made long-driving an art form

Big-hitting golfers could soon be launching even longer drives if a revolutionary new driver with a diamond face is given the go ahead.

A British company has submitted a diamond-faced driver to the Royal and Ancient for approval.

Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man and the makers claim that in machine tests the club has outdistanced leading drivers by over 10 yards.

The DR4E (Diamonds Roll For Ever) uses industrial grade diamonds gound on to a tungsten carbide metal base.

The material itself does not confer any particular rule or regulation

R & A rules secretary David Rickman

The idea came from a Texan oil company executive who resorted to extreme measures when his two sons began outdriving him.

He glued a diamond disc - similar to those used in drilling for oil - onto the club face and added yards to his game.

The club, being developed by an offshoot of British golf club manufacturer, John Letters, has been lodged with the R & A for scrutiny before it is manufactured commercially.

The R&A's rules secretary David Rickman said: "A number of clubs have been submitted for testing, one of which is the diamond club which has been re-submitted following adjustments.

"It has to conform to the usual rules of club face markings, design, size and shape.

"But the material itself does not confer any particular rule or regulation that it has to conform with."

The tests on the club could take up to two weeks but according to Rickman, if it is "precedent-setting," it could take much longer.

Hard and rigid

The DR4E is the latest in a long line of wierd and wonderful designs to reach the R&A's Implements and Ball Committee for sanctioning.

As early as 1924 the R&A issued a statement which "deplored that players... should endeavour to overcome difficulties of the game by using implements which have never been associated with it".

The rules of golf applying to club design say that a club face should be hard and rigid and not behave like a spring.

Nor should it have any agents which could influence the movement of the ball.

Monty could not use the Callaway ERC driver in America

Golf has been hit by a technological barrage in recent times, with new materials and designs producing clubs and balls which offer prodigious length and spin.

Players are also generally stronger and fitter and some courses are being virtually reduced to pitch and putts.

At last year's US Masters, 19-time Major winner Jack Nicklaus suggested that if the Augusta course was adapted any further in the face of technological advancements the tees would end up in downtown Augusta.

The most recent club controversy was caused by the Callaway ERC driver which satisfied the R&A but failed the United States Golf Association's rebound test on its clubface.

Top players such as seven-time European number one Colin Montgomrie were thus able to use it in Europe but not in US events.