While there are approximately six million women golfers, their presence and participation in the game needs to continue to be grown and encouraged. Today, female golfers represent one of the fastest growing segments of the golfing population; more and more women are becoming very serious about their equipment. Female golfers are all too often a forgotten element when it comes to a wide selection of golf equipment.

Within the golf industry, introducing new goals, plans and incentives for new golfers and retention of the old, is an underlying problem that continues to pester the experts – why are there not more women in the sport?

The answers that are glaringly obvious are that:

1. Women are different and need equipment to suit their characteristics.
2. The levels of professional instruction are erratic and shortsighted as they pertain to women. (This subject will be covered in a future article)
3. Perception of distance between irons is hardly noticeable.
4. Marketing needs to be specifically aimed at the lady golfer.
5. Women want good quality at a reasonable price.

In years past, the accommodation of women was almost an afterthought in that the equipment women had to choose from was nothing more than modifications to existing men’s equipment. Softer shafts were used and a new paint job added.

With the proliferation of new materials, availability of golf specific data, superfluous or not, massive R & D departments at the major manufacturers have now allocated resources to fill the critical need to solely supply female golfers with equipment based on their needs.

Within the last few years, companies such as Cobra, PING, Adams, La Jolla Club, Callaway, GolfGear, Nancy Lopez, Pat Lange and Wilson Golf have developed “ladies clubs”. The majority of these companies changed shafts to a lighter weight as their primary improvement and enhancement for women players based on slower swing speeds for women. Ignored were varying lofts (higher), shaft length and grip sizes.

TaylorMade Golf, known for its history of innovation in golf equipment and the top ranked driver, irons and fairway woods company, has introduced Miscela, a revolutionary new set of women's golf clubs consisting of 10 clubs. The set features the perfect combination of head design, lie, weight, length, flex and grip size to meet the unique form, swing and goals of women around the world.

Miscela, which means "blend" or "mixture" in Italian, features a driver, 3-wood, three Mid Woods (Mid 4, Mid 5 and Mid 6) and five irons (7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron, pitching wedge and sand wedge).

TaylorMade eliminated the hard-to-hit long irons in favor of Mid Woods, an innovative new club that features a large head and broad sole, making Mid Woods both easy and fun to play with. The design of the Miscela Mid Wood is based directly on TaylorMade's Rescue Mid, which has proved exceedingly popular on the PGA Tour. However, the Mid Wood features more offset than the Rescue Mid, making the Mid Wood easier to hit straight.

Like the Rescue Mid, the Miscela Mid Wood is engineered to produce a high launch angle and high spin-rate, helping the player to get the ball in the air easily and to keep the ball in the air for long-carrying shots that stop quickly on the green. Mid Woods also boast high moment of inertia for exceptional forgiveness on mis-hits.

TaylorMade engineers also paid significant attention to making sure that each Miscela club delivers a specific distance that's significantly different from the next club. This was achieved by carefully coordinating the length, loft and design dynamics of each consecutive club with the next, throughout the set.

And, as always with TaylorMade, the aesthetics of the clubs are simply outstanding. The Miscela offers additional positive and important attributes; the whole set imbues player confidence and the responsiveness of all the clubs is remarkable.

The Miscela set of golf clubs offers exceptional quality at a reasonable price.

MSRP: $ 1,200 for a set of 10
             $ 700 for 7 clubs (without woods)

www.taylormadegolf.com

Barry Lotz, J.D., Ph.D. is the director of the Professional Golf Teachers Association of America. He is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, the California Golf Writers Association, and serves both as a Consultant and Mediator to the golf industry. He is also the author of numerous books, including "333 Best Web Sites for Golfers" and his current book, "How to Build Business Relationships Through Golf" is in the Top Ten Golf Business Book's best seller list.

He can be reached at www.pgtaa.com or drlotz@cbsgolf.net