On the phone, Dr. Lawrence Rocks speaks a language I\u2019m not all that familiar with. The language of science, which waved goodbye to me in my sophomore year of high school. Our conversation was supposed to be about a new type of golf glove he invented, yet afterward I was typing things like \u201cAvogadro\u2019s number\u201d and \u201cantiviral compounds\u201d into my Google search bar. <\/p>\n
The thing is, golf and science have been the two constants in Dr. Rocks\u2019 entire life (Rocks got his start in the game by caddieing during World War II), so it makes sense that he can\u2019t talk about one of those interests without mentioning the other. An intense curiosity into both led Rocks, who helped in the creation of the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1970s, to create a new type of golf glove that could prove the ultimate cure to every weekend hacker\u2019s mortal enemy: the slice.<\/p>\n
There is no name for the glove, yet. \u201cA name too close to your own puts a target on you,\u201d says Rocks, who has never been one for the limelight. But there is both a patent as well as an equipment standards decision notification from the USGA stating that it has been examined and that the design does \u201cnot appear contrary to the Rules of Golf.\u201d However, a final determination cannot be made to the product\u2019s conformance until there is a finished sample. <\/p>\n
For now, it\u2019s being referred to as \u201cThe Torsion Recoil Glove.\u201d It features two elastomer strips on the palm and along the index finger to the base of the thumb, designed to prevent the clubhead from twisting at impact. <\/p>\n
Chris Crenshaw, the head golf professional at St. George\u2019s Golf and Country Club in East Setauket, N.Y., (the Long Island club where Dr. Rocks and his son Burton have been members for six years), teamed up with the family on marketing and development after Rocks approached him with the idea a few years back. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe said I have a theory that with the elasticity on a glove that it provides some kind of rebound effect,\u201d said Crenshaw, who is the nephew of two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw. \u201cAnd it reduces twist of the face. We made up some prototypes and then hit some shots.\u201d <\/p>\n
While Crenshaw says they don\u2019t have the equipment to do the proper robot testing at the club, it\u2019s hard to prove just how effective the glove is. But after using it himself, he said he believes everyday golfers would find less twist to the clubface, more online hits and more velocity of the golf ball rebound should they get their hands on one. <\/p>\n
The challenge, from the USGA conformance standpoint, has been making the rubber portion of the glove thin enough. Getting someone to manufacturer it has proved difficult, too. Crenshaw reached out to a number of OEMs including TaylorMade, Callaway and Titleist. He did not receive a response from the first two and Titleist officials informed him that because he\u2019s a golf professional and has an account with Titleist, they do not solicit ideas from their own account holders. <\/p>\n
Being told no\u2014or being ignored entirely\u2014has never stopped Dr. Rocks before, though. In the early 1970s, his manuscript, titled \u201cThe Energy Crisis,\u201d was turned down by publishers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey said there is no such thing,\u201d Dr. Rocks said. \u201cEnergy is never going to interest the public. One publisher said that they sent [the manuscript] to the physics department at Harvard and said the same. It\u2019s too complicated.\u201d <\/p>\n
Two years later, a different publisher picked it up (the book published in 1972), and the Harvard Club invited Dr. Rocks to speak to a local group about energy. He later found out that in all the years the Harvard Club existed, he was one of the few invited to speak who was not a professor at the university. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a full cycle thing,\u201d he said. The book coincided with the 1973 Oil Crisis and influenced the government to create the Department of Energy in 1977. <\/p>\n
The invention of a golf glove that could cure your slice pales in comparison, but the process has been similarly long and arduous. It was just after COVID when Dr. Rocks first came up with the idea for the glove, noticing something while looking at slow-motion photography of golf swing. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody notices that you sometimes slice the ball, or hook it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reason for that is a lot of times the clubface is set at an angle when you\u2019re trying to hit the ball in one direction and the face of the club is actually in another direction. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, the golfer hits the ball and the ball pushes on the face of the club and it makes it twist. People say a golf glove will correct that, but it doesn\u2019t, because skin does not respond quickly to being stretched. So it\u2019s that torsion and recoil phenomenon. This glove incorporates rubber that responds quickly.\u201d <\/p>\n
In 2022, the USGA sent its equipment standards decision notification to Crenshaw of the glove’s likely conformance.<\/p>\n
The manufacturing and marketing portion of the process is where things have mostly stalled. At 92, Dr. Rocks doesn\u2019t have much time for either. He had major heart surgery in February, and while recovery has taken longer than expected, he\u2019s back riding in the golf cart with his son Burton at St. George\u2019s. He\u2019s been unable to take swings for more than a year now, though he did play golf on his 91st birthday. <\/p>\n
If Dr. Rocks has learned anything in his life, it\u2019s that his ideas are worth fighting for, even if \u201ceverything nowadays takes forever,\u201d as he says. He hopes to find a company, perhaps one that\u2019s not in the golf-glove business, that might take a chance on his prototype. If it truly is a cure for a slice (or a hook), he is sitting on a potential gold mine, something he\u2019d never tout. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a chemist,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat do I know about these matters?\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn more about Dr. Rocks and the glove, check out the short cartoon film “Larry the Caddie,” which was directed by his son Burton and executive produced by his wife of 58 years, Marlene, who just passed on June 29.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the phone, Dr. Lawrence Rocks speaks a language I\u2019m not all that familiar with. The language of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12806,12808,44,12805,12809,54,12807,2668,82,12810],"class_list":["post-31464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-cure-your-slice","tag-dr-lawrence-rocks","tag-golf","tag-golf-glove","tag-invention","tag-news","tag-products","tag-science","tag-story","tag-this-92-year-old-retired-chemist-wants-to-fix-your-slice-with-a-golf-glove"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}