Todd graduated with his bachelor’s degree in Engineering Sciences and his master’s degree in Applied Mechanics from UC San Diego. After graduation Todd worked for an aerospace/defense technology company in San Diego before joining TaylorMade Golf Company in 1995. At TaylorMade, he started as a product development engineer specializing in shaft design and advanced technologies. In 2003, he took over leadership of the Metalwood R&D team which went on to launch revolutionary products including the first movable weight driver, R7, the first adjustable loft sleeve, R9, the RocketBallz fairway wood franchise, and the multimaterial M-Series franchise. In 2016, Todd took over as Senior VP of R&D / Engineering for all clubs and balls which has since launched the carbon wood driver franchises (Stealth and Qi10) that have helped TaylorMade become the #1 global equipment brand in golf. When he is not busy with work Todd enjoys playing golf, riding his bike, travelling with his wife, and spending time with his two daughters.
Golf equipment research and development (R&D) has evolved into a sophisticated process which uses some of the best available materials and manufacturing methods to create products that enhance performance every year for both high level tour professionals and amateurs alike. The Physics of golf can be very challenging to model, test and optimize as the ball goes from 0 to 190 mph in 0.5 milliseconds for a top professional driver. The golf club engineer needs to deeply understand all the key parameters (both club and ball) during this violent collision to design them to have the proper speed, launch angle, spin, sound, feel, aesthetics, durability and cost/producibility. The golf equipment industry is a multi-billion dollar global industry, with millions of clubs and balls manufactured and sold every year. Golf companies need to have a specialized team and a development process that allows them to be competitive in this industry. The most successful companies manage to have their products validated by key influencers and top professionals (pyramid of influence), and must stand up against competition under camparison testing or fitting using readily available launch monitors. The products are sourced globally, produced in high volume and sold into a seasonal market. Marketing helps drive demand, and the process needs to be agile enough to react to market feedback, new technologies, intellectual property (IP) and any new rule changes (USGA) each year. This seminar will give an overview of these challenges and associated product development process that can be used to successfully develop products for this industry.