Help for the Duffer

Like most weekend golfers, an Englishman named A. (for Arthur) P. Pedrick, 52, often found his game wanting. "I was frustrated with my slicing and hooking," he says, "and I spent a lot of time looking for the damn ball in the rough. It was infuriating." But Pedrick, a mechanical engineer by training, a tinkerer by inclination--and a better inventor than golfer--has now filed plans with the British Patent Office for a series of devices that could offer the suffering duffer new hope on the links.

Pedrick first attacked a major problem for both duffers and professionals. Unless the face of the golf club meets the ball absolutely perpendicular to the intended line of flight, the ball will either hook off to one side of the fairway or slice to the other. Sent into a spin by a glancing blow from the club, the ball acts like an airfoil; higher pressure develops on the side spinning in the direction of forward motion and pushes the ball toward the opposite side.

In the Pocket. The solution, Pedrick decided, was to find a way to keep the ball from going into its spin--even if it is imperfectly hit. His proposed club would do just that. Its secret: an array of tiny retractable blades jutting out from the club's metal face and imbedded in a soft elastic material (see diagram). Whenever the club made contact with the ball, some of the blades would retract, forming a small, temporary pocket. The pocket, in effect, would grip the ball and reduce its tendency to spin--regardless of the angle at which the golfer whacked it.

For the duffer who, despite the trick club, still managed to send off his shots with a spin, Pedrick dreamed up another gimmick: a golf ball with "wings." The wings, actually six tiny metal flaps, would be held tightly against the ball's outer surface by magnets implanted beneath them. But if the ball began spinning, the flaps would be flipped out by centrifugal force and act as an air brake, retarding the spin.

As his final contribution, Pedrick, whose tongue is, of course, in cheek, suggests equipping the ball with an interior wire mesh. The mesh would act as a reflector, or target, for a portable radar unit stashed inside the golf bag. Thus the ball could be easily recovered if, despite all of Pedrick's technological aids, it went astray in the woods.

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