Video: Behind the scenes of Today’s Golfer umbrella test

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It began in a small room during a Today’s Golfer planning meeting. “We’ve got an equipment-tastic 84-page What Gear 2010 supplement in the next issue,” stated editor-in-chief Andy Calton, “so I want you to come up with a different kind of test to anything we’ve done before.”

“How about an umbrella test?” said one of our esteemed journalists, jokingly. But the boss’ face lit up and that was it, TG’s gear team had just been issued a challenge: find a way to test umbrellas!

So after accepting that every single umbrella on the planet would repel water, we decided the best way to separate the wheat from the chaff would be with wind – and lots of it!

We descended upon the Aircraft Research Association in Bedford where they regularly test models of supersonic jet fighters and airliners at wind speeds of more than 1000mph – the perfect setting for TG’s most ambitious test to date.

Thankfully, they were an accommodating bunch and they us loose in their state-of-the-art wind tunnel after a rigorous safety briefing. Now, at this point we know you are desperate to see how we got on. You can pick up the latest issue of Today’s Golfer magazine to see the full results but for a sneek peek watch the video below.

NB – many thanks to all at the ARA who couldn’t have been more helpful and accommodating during this test. As well as aircraft, the facilities are perfectly suited to testing golf equipment and we would urge any manufacturer looking for top notch facilties to check them out. You can visit their website here.

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