Playing Fair: Frank Thomas in 2005 at a PGA teaching and coaching conference in Germany.

Johannesburg - World-renowned expert on golf equipment and former technical director of the USGA Frank Thomas will speak at the PGA of South Africa’s Fitness and Coaching Conference to take place at the Southern Sun hotel at OR Tambo Airport from 17 to 20 May.

Thomas, 69, who hails from South Africa originally, retired in 2000 after 26 years as the technical director of the U.S. Golf Association. He now lives near Orlando, Florida, oversees his small putter company, plays golf twice a week and frequently writes about the game on his website (www.franklygolf.com) and for magazines and the Golf Channel. Recently he published a book called Just Hit It: Our Equipment and Our Game that summarizes all he has learned over the years.

He is a great advocate of keeping the game as traditional as possible when it comes to equipment and strongly believes that there is a disproportionate amount of attention paid to the equipment of the tiny percentage of players who compete at elite levels.

"Certainly there has been a lot of progress in equipment. Anybody who hasn't bought a new driver in the last five years is really missing out," he said. "But a lot of what's advertised is hokum. That's understandable, perhaps, because the market is extremely competitive. The equipment makers have to convince you that this year's model is better than last year's model so that you'll part with another $500. But the fact is that in most cases, players will do just fine with what they have. Significant changes are rare."

In his keynote address at the PGA’s conference entitled “Equipment Technology – The REAL Truth”, Thomas will expose some of the secrets that many of the equipment manufacturers would prefer you not to know.

In the last 30 years, Thomas contends, there have been only three innovations that had a major, beneficial impact on the game. The first, led by Karsten Solheim at Ping, was perimeter weighting on putters, irons and, later, metal woods, which helps keep shots on line by preventing clubheads from deflecting as much on off-centre strikes. The second was graphite shafts, which make clubs lighter and thus easier to swing faster. (He believes that in time graphite shafts will become nearly as common in irons as they now are in woods.)

The third innovation, spring-like effect in driver heads, came about by accident and, in Thomas's opinion, was regrettable. "In the 1990s clubmakers started using titanium in drivers because it was lighter and stronger than steel and they could make the clubheads larger. That made them more forgiving, which was the purpose. But then they discovered that the big heads were hitting the ball farther, too, because of the trampoline effect it got from the thinner, bigger clubfaces," he said. For pros who swing at 115 mph and make perfect contact, the added distance is 8 to 10 yards from increased ball velocity alone.

Thomas will be one of several international speakers at the four-day conference. Other notable golfing experts include Dr Karl Morris (mental coach specialist to a number of top European Tour players), as well as Dr Greg Rose, founder of the Titleist Performance Institute.]

For further information and bookings for the conference, please contact janna@thehedgehogevent.com or contact Janyne Marais at the PGA of SA on (011) 485 1370