Simon Adelman (1999)

Simon Adelman is a Materials Scientist and a regular participant at Johnian Society golf events. Simon carried out his PhD work at Birmingham University in conjunction with the R&A on the performance of golf clubs. At the time, there was concern that with the ever increasing driving distances some of the most historic golf courses in the UK would become unsuitable for professional golf.

Simon and co-workers looked at all aspects of equipment performance, including driver head technology, iron and wedge-play, ball construction and aerodynamics. This work still underpins the equipment rules we use today. More recently, professional golfers such as Bryson DeChambeau have been advocating a 'bomb and gouge' strategy of hitting drives as far as possible to leave sports shots to the green, figuring that a short shot from the rough is preferable to a longer shot from the fairway. This has led to a number of people questioning whether it is time to change the specifications again.