How is golf gear made, what’s it made from and why does it matter?

You possibly can head to engineering scholar Katie Calderon’s viral TikTok web page to seek out solutions to those questions. Whether or not you watch her unveil the insides of golf balls, compete in long-drive tournaments or comply with her journey to develop a 3D-printed putter, Calderon’s web page regularly showcases the overlap between golf and engineering.

“After I take into consideration engineering ideas and rules, I relate them to golf,” Calderon stated. “Engineering has helped make me a greater golfer, and {golfing} has made me a greater engineer.”

Now a junior within the Division of Supplies Science and Engineering at Texas A&M College and a nationwide champion long-drive competitor, Calderon began {golfing} at age 4 when she obtained a free lesson provided at a lodge. Since that second, golf has remained a continuing in her life.

At age 16, she started working at a golf course, the place she fell in love with golf membership repairs and fittings. Though she all the time imagined enjoying golf in school, she was additionally excited about working within the analysis and improvement of golf golf equipment. She then reached out to the Callaway Golf Firm for route.

“I requested somebody I adopted on Instagram who labored at Callaway if they might put me involved with the crew who builds golf golf equipment,” Calderon stated. “After I was capable of converse with an individual on the event crew, they instantly advised me engineering was the best way to go.”

On the similar time that she determined to pursue engineering, she started her TikTok web page. After gaining a whole bunch of followers from a video of her making an attempt to make a desk out of golf balls, she found she might use the platform to showcase how golf golf equipment are engineered. Making use of the 3D printers at Texas A&M, Calderon started creating and testing a 3D-printed putter — the primary ever to be produced.

“I wished to begin exploring extra inside golf engineering, and my professors inspired me that I wanted to attempt designs out myself,” she stated. “I created my first 3D-printed putter, and it blew up on TikTok. I began posting extra movies of my design course of. Engineers within the business started commenting, giving me bits of data to enhance my putters. Skilled golfers have requested to attempt it out. This assist and encouragement from specialists impressed me to maintain working.”

By means of her sensible 3D printing expertise and her earlier jobs in golf, she understood how golf golf equipment had been constituted of a mechanical facet. However what had been her golf golf equipment made from, and the way does the membership’s materials make-up have an effect on its talents? These questions impressed her to pursue supplies science and engineering.

“With a level on this area, I even have a cooler angle on the way to produce golf golf equipment,” she stated. “I can study the fabric elements of wedges or putters and perceive how totally different metals come into play when making a membership.”

The summer season of her freshman 12 months, Calderon started an internship with CTRL, an Aggie-founded engineering firm that makes use of sensors to assist enhance golfers’ swings. Calderon stated she gained many helpful instruments from the internship which have helped her at school, on the inexperienced and in gaining a social media following.

When she’s not making putters from scratch or slicing video clips, she’s utilizing a driver to crush balls down the golf green. As knowledgeable long-drive competitor, Calderon is among the many nation’s prime 5 finest ladies within the sport. Her success is partially because of her means to grasp the make-up of a golf membership and the way this may have an effect on her energy, velocity and distance.

Her data was showcased when she partnered with an organization to create her driver for the nationwide long-drive competitors. As she conveyed her curiosity in golf membership design, the corporate requested Calderon if she’d prefer to take part within the improvement course of. When she obtained the primary mannequin of the membership and put it to make use of, she observed an issue along with her spin. She hypothesized it was possible attributable to a metal weight on the membership’s prime.

“They’d used 303 metal within the weight, the identical metal utilized in putters,” she stated. “I knew from repairs, fittings and supplies courses that tungsten could be a greater choice. It’s lighter, so the top will transfer quicker, and the tungsten will present a greater stability issue. After I would hit the ball, it will, theoretically, come off quicker. After I put the tungsten in, it mounted all the problems I had with spin.”

After two years of creating putters, posting TikTok movies and maintaining along with her research, Calderon landed a summer season internship at Callaway. She is at the moment in San Diego, California, on the Callaway headquarters, the place she assessments and opinions putters for the design crew.

As soon as she is again on the School Station campus, she plans to advance her 3D printing putter know-how utilizing what she has discovered all through her internship. After commencement, she hopes to proceed her profession in golf membership improvement whereas rising her TikTok web page, which has over 175,000 followers and over 10.1 million likes.

“All through my time at Texas A&M, I’ve by no means been afraid to take an opportunity and ask questions,” she stated. “I noticed that what I wished to do was one thing I might obtain if I simply stored attempting. I’ve performed golf competitively my complete life, so it’s superb to be part of the game otherwise.”