Make a practice driver by coating the face of a golf club with a thin layer of material that discolours temporarily on receiving an impact. 10-15 seconds of bold discolouration with recovery in 20-30 seconds sounds about right.

When on the driving range, look at the head of the club after a shot to see where on the head you are striking the ball. Adjust your stance and technique to hit the ball in the sweet spot of the club.
-- st3f, Oct 08 2003

Temperature Sensitive Paint http://www.halfbake...20Sensitive_20Paint
Might work. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

As I suspected... http://store.yahoo..../famesweetspot.html
there is a low tech solution out there already - put chalk on the ball. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

All kinds of baked http://www.extrapro...pact-tape-p-96.html
This is impact labels that will show you ball impact on clubface. High quality labels, at least 6 hits per label, often a lot more. [LoriZ, Sep 16 2012]

Nuts, I was hoping this would involve paintball.

I'll give you a vote on behalf of my parents though, they'd no doubt really like this idea.
-- madradish, Oct 08 2003


The first rule of the Bruising Club - nobody talks about the Bruising Club.
-- waugsqueke, Oct 08 2003


There used to be an idea for an impact-sensitive paint for cars, but I can't find it now. I don't see why this can't be done.
-- phoenix, Oct 08 2003


Sounds too eminently sensible not to be Baked already.
-- DrCurry, Oct 08 2003


Wonderful! You could do this with tennis strings, bats, fists, anything.
-- pluterday, Oct 08 2003


There is also tape that does this. I'm sure I've seen something in the past much like what you describe, but I can't find it anywhere on the web. Maybe they couldn't get it to work well enough.
-- kevindimie, Oct 08 2003


How about a really strong magnet in the ball so that it just sticks fast to the club head? That way you know exactly where the ball contacts the club surface.

Alternatively, lug your porta-foundry out onto the course with you and, before each swing, heat the head of the club up to a superplastic state. When you hit the ball an impression is left upon the surface of the club. This allows you to keep a record of your improvement.

Or, just maybe, develop a club that has an array microphone in the head (and some audio analysis foofraw in the handle) that sonically records the location of the point of impact and displays it on a little LCD screen in a real time 3D visualization.

Accelerometers! Put some in the ball (along with some with telemetry stuff) and in the club, too. As the ball arcs away from the club surface the accelerometer data from both the ball in flight and the club is gathered and sent out to an array of machines of various friends who have signed up to help, SETI like, where the data is meticulously analyzed, and the point of impact determined by correlating ball flight data to club swing data, and the results are sent via SMS to your cell phone.

Put a big, down-facing strobe on the handle of the club with an impact sensor in the club head and, beneath the golf tee, lay out a piece of photosensitive paper. When the club head strikes the ball the strobe is triggered and a silhouette of the moment, and point, of contact is recorded upon the photosensitive sheet. This probably works best at night or, at least, on dim days.

Breed a ball-impact point sniffing dog that bays when it finds the exact point of impact. A chihuahua is probably the best size for the course as it will fit in your golf bag.

Make the surface of the club like those pin-sculpture amusement desk toy thingies such that the depressed pins show you where the ball contacted the club.

Work with a calypso steel drum engineering type to develop a musically tuned golf club head. You'll be able to know where the ball hit just by the musical note it sounds upon impact. "C#! Just right!"

Oh! Oh! I know: Use red hot golf balls and a club head made of ice. A pock mark will be left at point of contact.

Finally, (I'll bet ya'll are glad, too) rig up the ball and club with those little silver balls and use a multi camera high-speed mo-cap system to capture the moment exactly. The mo-cap data is then sent out to an animation facility where a technician diligently cleans up the data and then lovingly renders the scene in 16-bit HDRI 3D images, records it to 60fps Showscan-format film and you and your golfing buddies watch it that night at the local theatre you have rented for the occasion. You'll have to rent the projection equipment, too, but what fun it would be.

You could even serve special popcorn that looks (a little) like golf balls.
-- bristolz, Oct 08 2003


foofraw?
-- st3f, Oct 08 2003


It's a technical term.

Wish I could croissant that anno, bris.
-- krelnik, Oct 08 2003


Me too. It must have taken a great deal more effort and thought than I took writing the original idea.

Feeling creative tonight, bz?
-- st3f, Oct 08 2003


Yeah. I'm better now.
-- bristolz, Oct 08 2003


You can do this by sprinkling talcum powder on the ball.
-- Nemmy, Dec 29 2004


Why not manufacture a driver with a sweet spot standing proud from the club face. It would then be apparent if the club is not connecting correctly by the way the ball flies off on a tangent Personally I would prefer a club with the entire face used as a sweet spot.
-- Lesser Spotted Kiwi, Sep 16 2012


That's the idea behind the "putter ball"
-- LoriZ, Jan 30 2013



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