Thanks to Jessamy Baldwin for the interview and article on GrabCAD. Unbeknownst to many, the functional performance of a golf club is tightly related to its appearance, as opposed to products where form has little impact on function (e.g. car styling is mostly independent from its under-the-hood performance).
In other product categories, moving a detail a tenth of an inch may not impact on how well the product functions. In golf clubs, that modification can add 1000rpms of ball spin or 5 to 10 yards of distance.
