Innovation is concentrated in three main areas — dimpled balls, driver heads and club shafts.

“Some people say technology has really taken over the game in many ways,” Davis says. “But it has made it easier for many people to play.”

Differences are measured in hundreds of an inch and grams. And cool-sounding names. “The Deep Red?” Yeah. “Penley Stealth.” “Titanium” anything. Nice. And then there’s the MaxFli Noodle golf ball, which the company claims offers a “long and soft” ball flight.

Tiger Woods uses Nike Tour Accuracy balls and a Nike Forged Titanium 350cc driver off the tee. Why do other companies bother competing at all with Nike? Golf course professionals say it’s because one player’s titanium, split-level, four-bedroom, wall-to-wall-carpeted-with-a-swimming-pool-and-a-garage driver is another’s expensive toy that may do nothing for his or her game.

“The Nike driver is the hottest driver out there now,” said Gold Mountain teaching pro Doug Gullikson. “But the technology of the game means it has to fit your game.”

He said if people are honest with themselves, they can play a better, more consistent and less expensive game. Todd Hudanish agrees, saying the talent has to exist for subtle equipment changes to have any effect.

“The new shafts and drivers can’t be underestimated,” said Hudanish, the PGA golf pro and operations manager at Rolling Hills. “But if someone has the Titleist Pro V1 [ball] in mind and they don’t have the speed in their swing they still won’t be able to produce.

“I ask, so what’s your 150-yard club and if they say, a 5-iron, then the Pro V1 isn’t for them.”

Golf balls look deceptively simple. But millions of dollars go into improving the speed and direction of their flight through the air.

“The size and number of dimples can make a golf ball move left or less left,” said Gullikson. “They can make it spin more and stop better on the green.”

There are between 330 and 500 dimples on a golf ball, depending on the manufacturer.

But the latest technology shift in shaft materials, “may be having the most significant impact in the game, Hudanish said. Davis, who is affiliated with Wilson Sporting Goods believes their Fat Shaft does as advertised.

“It hits the ball straighter,” he said. “It lessens the torque where the ball face of the club hits the ball. Someone has a 30-yard slice. Will it take it out? No. But it will make it go straighter.”

There’s also the Fujikura graphite shaft, said Gullikson, which is light and adds distance to a person’s stroke off the fairway. Forty-seven players at the Masters tournament used it.

“The companies are moving so fast it’s unbelievable,” says Chris Haffly, head golf pro at the Alderbrook Golf and Yacht Club in Union. “They come out with the latest thing and then they have the next latest thing three months later.”

Haffly said he is personally involved in an entirely different area of golf modernization.

“Heated clothing is something that’s never been done for the game of golf,” he said.

It’s juiced up with power from a golf cart battery. Gerbing’s Heated Clothing, the company involved, is also developing a portable power source that could be stowed in the golf bag.

“They already sell it big for motorcycle racing,” Haffly said. “The biggest benefit is a person doesn’t have to wear as many layers of clothing. It allows a better range of swing motion.”

In short, the twin goals of a new golf toolbox are practical and psychological.

“Distance and feel that’s all anyone wants,” Hudanish said. “A person needs control.”.