PES joins team behind British world-record golf drive bid

DESIGN engineering specialist Performance Engineered Solutions (PES) is bringing its technological expertise to a British team’s attempts to break the world-record for the longest golf drive.

PES, based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham, joined the project formed by Zen Golf which aims to create the world’s most technologically-advanced golf driver, in an attempt to break the long-standing world carry record of 408 yards 10 inches.

Mike Maddock, managing director at PES, said: “As a company we’re honoured to be working on this project. This is an opportunity to push the boundaries of innovation, combining technologies to showcase the capabilities of British engineering.

Dan Fleetcroft, PES engineering design director, added: “What’s going to be interesting is using experience from engineering in Formula One, and putting that into the golf driver. In F1 every potential performance gain is explored to its fullest, and we’ll be looking for any area where we can find that extra something to help hit the ball a little bit further.”

The team has links with the Bloodhound SSC world land-speed project of Richard Noble OBE, and the golf record attempt is scheduled to take place in 2015 on the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa; the location where the Bloodhound SSC will also make its bid for the world title.

Mr Noble said: “The technical challenges facing Bloodhound SSC as we attempt to break the 1000mph barrier will undoubtedly lead to a quantum leap forward for British engineering. I’m really excited see how these emerging technologies can be harnessed to break barriers in golf sports engineering.”

Nick Middleton, founder of the Zen Golf project, has put together the team which also includes current world-record holder, British golfer Karl Woodward.

Mr Middleton said: “Now that Golf is an Olympic sport, this Bloodhound Driver project will drive forward the momentum from London 2012 and will create an enduring legacy through the great work being produced by British sports engineering and innovation.

“The club will be a completely new design, with grip, shaft and club head all being created from the archetypal clean sheet of paper. This is an opportunity for British design and engineering to show that it still leads the world – and in the most spectacular way possible.”

Although most of the technology behind the new driver is being kept under wraps for now, the golf club, and the car, will share some of the same DNA.

Rotherham-based high-tech precision manufacturing firm Newburgh Engineering is already working with the Bloodhound SSC project, which is intended to highlight British innovation and inspire the next generation of engineers in line with the government’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and apprenticeship goals.