Living to invent

High-loft Big Dick and Big Jane drivers the latest in former high school teacher's long line of patented products that include the Spiral Wishing Well and the Whole-in-One Adjustable Golf Club

DAYTON, Ohio (January 17, 2004) - Tables in the workshop behind Steve Divnick's suburban Dayton home are covered with the multi-patented inventor's latest golf products - first-of-its-kind high-loft drivers called the Big Dick and Big Jane. Yet the drivers are not the only items here that have evolved from Divnick's mind. The workshop is filled with an assortment of machines, fixtures and gadgets the multi-patented inventor has created.

Some people would call the former high school physical education teacher a modern-day Thomas Edison, working into the early hours of the morning devising one-of-a-kind inventions. Divnick sees himself differently.

"I don't spend my days thinking of items to invent," Divnick explained. "I just see a problem, and I try to find a solution, or I see something that can use improvements, and I try to make it better."

Divnick, who is president and founder of DivnickGolf (www.divnickgolf.com), will introduce the Big Dick and Big Jane at the PGA Show in Orlando in late January. These drivers have evolved from the commercial success he has experienced from his other golf products - the Whole-In-One adjustable golf club, and telescopic drivers and putters.

Long before Divnick introduced the Whole-In-One in 1988, he demonstrated a passion for inventing.

While working as a teacher in the 1970s, Divnick designed and built the first prototype pickup-van combination. He admits he made a mistake by not getting a patent, and then he made another error by trying to spark the interest of the "big automakers" in Detroit. They passed on his prototype, but within a few years the modern-day extended cab pickup was on the market.

In 1980, Divnick modified a one-cylinder gasoline engine so it would demonstrate Slick 50, a product that coats the cylinders and bearings with Teflon and is now found in department store chains worldwide. He cut a see-through window on the side of the crankcase and covered it with Lexan so people could see the engine running dry. This device, which helped him become the largest distributor in SLICK-50's history, is still used to demonstrate Teflon metal coating products.

A year later, Divnick retired from teaching and has since invented a variety of patented products for worldwide distribution through manufacturing and marketing companies he has formed.

Some of his creations did not make it to the public - at least on his behalf - because he did not seek a patent fast enough. For example, Divnick cites the device he perfected that alerts drivers that their lights are on. Not long after he began selling the device in Michigan, it was offered as an option on Cadillacs, and eventually it became a standard option (on other models)," he said.

The Spiral Wishing Well - a plastic vortex where customers drop in coins and watch them spin around and around until they reach the bottom - was his first commercial success in 1985.

"I took my kids to a science museum in Columbus one day, and there was this vortex device that demonstrated gravity and inertia," Divnick said. "I thought to myself, 'Hey, this would make a neat item for children at our church to make their offerings with.'"

Divnick's first Spiral Wishing Well client was the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton. Now sold worldwide, the product has generated more than $200 million for charities and is found in many Wal-Mart and McDonald's locations as well as museums and zoos.

Divnick played his first round of golf in 1988 and thought it was cumbersome to carry a heavy set of clubs. Curious, he cut open a traditional club and started tinkering, trying to determine a way to perfect one club that can feature the lofts of every club in his bag. After four years of development and testing, he patented the DIVNICK(TM), which allows golfers to play 18 holes with one club. Lofts can be adjusted to replicate every club in a bag, even drivers and putters.

Not long after introducing the adjustable club, he started making telescopic drivers for players who wanted to hit the ball with greater distance than the shorter adjustable club was capable of, and putters that had the feel of a conventional putter. The result was a telescopic club and a telescopic putter that compose the portable three-club set.

The success of the adjustable club and the telescopic driver led Divnick to create the Big Dick and Big Jane drivers.

"Customers told me they hit the ball farther with our telescopic driver than they did with their $400 major brand name titanium graphites. They did so because of the high loft and weight distribution," Divnick said. "These customers encouraged me to create a high-end titanium driver with the same elements, and the result is the Big Dick and Big Jane."

In an elusive quest to improve their scores, many amateur golfers looking for an edge visit sporting goods retailers and golf superstores to buy clubs endorsed by stars on the PGA and LPGA tours. Yet none of these mass produced clubs are specially designed with the amateur golfer in mind, Divnick says. The Big Dick and Big Jane drivers will fill this void, he believes.

Divnick's new line of titanium drivers feature his high loft and low spin technology that has been perfected over the last decade.

Most recreational golfers blame themselves for inaccurate shots and high scores. Using the drivers designed more for a professional's swing mechanics and club head speed, they strike the ball too low off the tee. The trajectory is flat and the ball often becomes mired in tall grass instead of reaching the fairway. This leads most golfers to make attempts to lift the ball off the tee, often resulting in hooks, slices and shanks.

"It has never made sense to me that clubmakers design equipment for professionals. Pros have perfect swings and expert teachers," Divnick said. "There's no reason for the rest of us to use their equipment. We need our own tools. I'll let the traditional clubmakers supply the pros. I want to supply the amateurs."

Essentially, Divnick says, the Big Dick and Big Jane provide the distance of a driver with "the consistency, confidence and loft" of a 3-wood.

"It is the size of a driver - it has the same sweet spot - and it is the length and weight of a driver, but it has the higher lofts," Divnick explained. "A majority of golfers drive with 3-wood because it has higher loft and is more forgiving. I felt it was logical to combine loft of a 3-wood with other elements of driver."

Major club manufacturers have not made clubs like the Big Dick and the Big Jane because higher loft typically increases the ball's backspin, diminishing the advantages of the higher trajectory. Spurred by the success of his telescopic and adjustable clubs, Divnick developed the technology to eliminate the backspin issue after listening to customers who liked the telescopic driver but wanted him to create a high-end titanium driver.

Compared to traditional drivers, which offer lofts of 9 and 10 degrees, the Big Dick boasts lofts of 11, 13 and 15 degrees while the Big Jane offers 13 and 15 degree lofts.

Divnick has received positive data reports from companies like Blew-By-U, an Independent Launch Monitor Service in Texas: "Higher loft is easier to hit and gets better trajectory, but the laws of physics means it creates more back spin which largely defeats the benefits of the higher loft," Blew-By-U's report explains. "But DivnickGolf has engineered a design that defies those laws. The Big Dick is the most consistent driver with the tightest shot pattern in our entire inventory. We've never seen anything like it."

Designed to accompany the Big Dick and Big Jane, Divnick will also debut the Little Dick and Little Jane at the PGA Show this month. A fairway wood designed to help golfers get out of the grass, the Little Dick and Little Jane boast the size, length and weight of a 3-wood but have the loft of a 5-wood. The 17 and 20 degree lofts set the clubs apart from those of major manufacturers, Divnick believes

"Fairway woods are typically very difficult for the average golfer to use because the ball is resting on the grass, and sometimes buried deep within it, so the fairway shot requires a near-perfect contact to get it airborne," Divnick said. "Just like traditional drivers, fairway woods are designed for pros that have perfect swings and timing.

"The Little Dick and Little Jane make it much easier to launch the ball into the air. The ball flies far and has a tighter shot pattern," he added. "Greater accuracy is very important for a fairway wood because you want to land the ball on the green or in the best spot for your approach shot."


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