Evan Hoffman has spent the past few months knowing full well he’d won Wilson Golf’s Driver vs. Driver season 2, a reality competition show for club designers to create the company’s next premium driver. His winning driver, the Cortex, features plenty on carbon fibre, a titanium structure, and sliding adjustable weights.
An industrial designer from San Diego, Hoffman, 27, entered the contest thinking he had the edge. After all, he had a working concept, and had used computer software to engineer a driver head, making it simple to move to a titanium prototype. But since the show wrapped taping in August, Hoffman has had to keep his success to himself.
“Everyone at work kept asking me if I won,” he said. “But I couldn’t say anything.
With the winner announced Tuesday night, it has been a whirlwind for the new golf designer.
We caught up with him about his success, and what it means for his career.
How fully formed was your concept?
When I went in I had a 3D model for them, but when I got there they had printed out the model and mine was four-and-a-half times bigger than everyone else’s. So I thought it was fully developed, but it still needed a lot of work.
Why design a driver in the first place?
I’ve had a passion for designing golf clubs, but it was just the aesthetic—I never thought about the engineering component. That was the longest process—I did a huge dive for a week before I put anything on paper. I researched what made a driver better than any other. So when I found out that moment of inertia and low centre of gravity is key and how to achieve it, that’s when I started drawing. And I just took it from there. My design had the carbon fibre inlays over the titanium substructure. I got rid of the weight and put it where we needed it.
When the show started, did you have any idea your design might prevail?
Initially when I saw what I was up against, I had a strong feeling I had a head start because I had that CAD model and it was sort of flushed out and had an aesthetic. The others just had an idea. The key successes of the top two was we each had three different technologies in our drivers that made it the whole package. Most of the competition had one idea and no design. When I got a good feeling was when the first 3D titanium prototypes came out. Mine had a great shape and was performing. If you have a prototype performing that well—whether it is a golf club or anything—you’re in good shape.
Any struggles to overcome?
To make the driver commercially viable was a huge component and struggle we had throughout the process. Carbon Fibre is a hard material to manufacture. And we used 44% total. You’re not going to use carbon on the face, so that’s a lot of carbon. And that was our biggest manufacturing concern. Our initial process had five pieces of carbon fibre … which really drove the cost up. We eliminated two pieces, which helped the weight and lowered the centre of gravity. That was huge and helped everything.
Was it hard to keep your win a secret?
I work in the centre of Callaway, TaylorMade, and Cobra. They make a triangle around our building in Carlsbad. And everyone knows each other. So I made sure I did not say anything. They had a launch party at my work the night the show aired and they were super excited.
As for what’s next for the 27 year-old, he says he wants to work in the golf industry one day.