Truth or myth?

Frank Thomas spent 26 years as technical director for the U.S. Golf Association. During that time, every single piece of equipment that was approved — or disapproved — by the USGA passed through Thomas.

That’s true.

Thomas is a leading authority on equipment. Before joining the USGA, he worked for Shakespeare Sporting Goods where Thomas invented the graphite shaft. Later, at the USGA he introduced the Stimpmeter, taking an existing notion and refining it.

True again.

The point of all this is Thomas knows his stuff. Add to that his straightforward approach and honest opinions, and he has earned the reputation as someone who is always Frank.

We mention that only because the putter Thomas designed and developed is called Frankly Frog. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Thomas spreads his wisdom through many channels, including leading national publications and Golf Channel.

These days, from his home base in Orlando, Fla., Thomas is making the rounds promoting his new book, “Just Hit It.” That made the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill a home game.

Thomas offers some interesting views on equipment and the game itself. He reinforces some things that need it, and devotes many pages to golf’s core values that he finds lacking and, quite frankly, facing extinction as the game goes forward.

“One of the major reasons for writing the book is trying to make golfers a little more aware what their equipment does and why,” Thomas said. “It makes them aware of technical terms and how simple they are.

“It’s about how technology has improved their ability to perform a little bit better so that when it comes time to select their clubs they do it from an informed position.”

Part and parcel of playing the game is understanding why we play, he said.

“Why we believe in magic,” Thomas said. “It sort of puts a different perspective on the game and the clubs we buy.”
There are plenty of misconceptions about the equipment used by PGA Tour players. Their clubs are juiced. They play with stronger lofts. Their composite shafts have Kryptonite. Their balls are hot, not the same cotton balls they sell us off the shelf. We asked Thomas to settle a few things by sharing a few myths about equipment on the PGA Tour.

1. Tour professionals play with “special” equipment. Thomas: “They may tweak their equipment but they really don’t play with anything special.”

2. Hot balls. Thomas: “I know the ball is no different than we can buy or use.”

3. All the pros smash it 300 yards or more. Thomas: “That’s not true. And those who do, 25 to 30 yards of that come from advances in equipment in the last 15 years.

“If Jack (Nicklaus) had the same equipment they have today, he would have been driving 305, 310 yards on average. I’ve discussed this at length with Jack. It was impossible to achieve optimum launch angle with the persimmon drivers and high-spin balls he played with.”

4. The best equipment, which is used by tour pros, will make the rest of us perform better. Thomas: “The average golfer is not prepared to work at the game the same way pros do, so they’re not benefiting very much. The average handicap has gone down two strokes in three generations.”

The book and the Frankly Frog putter are both available in retail stores and online at www.franklygolf.com.

Thomas is proud of the putter that, he said, “is very simple, very basic and follows the basic concepts of inertia and balance.”

In his time at the USGA, Thomas estimates he made 6,000 to 7,000 decisions on golf, two-thirds of those relating to putters.

“One night I woke up and said, ‘I know exactly what I want,’” Thomas said of his quest to design a putter.

He sketched it out and, when he looked at the completed design, said, “Wow, that looks like a frog.”

Of course, he hoped that nobody else would recognize the similarity. Fat chance.

The first time an acquaintance looked at the proposed putter, he turned to Thomas and said, “Frank, this looks like a frog.”

It certainly made simple an often difficult task of putting a name on a new product.