{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
The term artificial intelligence comes shrouded in mystery, its potential giving rise to both enthusiasm and alarm. It’s so ubiquitous in everyday life — whether it’s a ride-sharing app searching for the best route for your commute home, or taking a mobile picture of a check to be deposited on the spot — most of us assume the devices around us can somehow learn information and adjust in real-time.
How that same AI has manifested in golf, a game of countless inefficiencies waiting to be optimized, is a fascinating study. Last month, we wrote about Toptracer implementing its shot-tracing, statistic-producing technology at driving ranges across the world. Other companies such as Arccos are using similar technology to evaluate data from a player’s game. Just one month ago, the company launched an AI-powered rangefinder that factors in wind, temperature and altitude to reach conclusions beyond what a human can process. And to think that some of us still locate a yardage marker and count steps.
AI in golf, with computers adapting to behavior, seems every bit as predictable as booking a single tee time online and having an ad for that course follow you like a single waiting on a foursome.
But another AI implementation has been far more surprising. The technology, which has been slowly developing for decades at some major manufacturers, is being heavily relied upon to produce golf clubs. It’s not as complex as creating self-driving cars, but AI-inspired golf clubs are, at least in part, designing themselves and offering answers that run contrary to expectations.
“The process used to be something where a human made design choices and a computer went to analyze it and came back with data where we had to decide what happens next,” said Alan Hocknell, Callaway Golf’s senior vice president of research and development. “Now the computer is running simulations, we are asking more difficult questions, and then it’s making the judgments for itself. We have to be open to the idea that it’s going to come up with something that us humans don’t even understand.
“That is thrilling and frightening all at the same time.”
Want the complete story?Subscribe today at Global Golf Post+