What does golf — the sport of a lifetime — have to do with creating a signature sound?
Golf is the topic du jour. In honor of the Masters Tournament, which is coming up quickly (April 9th, 2026, I believe), we are going to talk about the grand old game of golf and more specifically designing golf clubs and acoustic signatures.
With origins in 15th century Scotland, golf is one of the most popularly played sports globally. Over 100 million people play golf in some shape or form on beautiful historic courses like the Augusta National Golf Course, home to the Masters.
Something for everyone
What I like personally about golf is its flexibility. It is the “sport of a lifetime”. You can start young and play well into your 80s or even 90s. You can play weekly with the same foursome, like my Dad did for years. Or you can play occasionally when you happen to find the time, like me. You can play a quick twilight round of 9 holes on a summer evening at your local public course or splurge on your green-fee budget with 18 holes at an elite course (like the Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba course with its stunning views of Mount Fuji). Or maybe all you feel like is just hitting some practice balls at the local driving range.
Golf is a polite, social game that requires a rather good chunk of dedicated time without your smart phone (something we all need more of, in my humble opinion). It offers a superb low-impact workout usually in a stunning setting. And then there is the gear…golf balls, bags and accessories (like my lucky driver headcover), tees, glove, sportswear, shoes….and most important: your clubs.
The one thing you love as a golfer is a great tee shot to start a hole. There is something magical about placing that little white ball on the tee, the swift swish of a decent swing, and the pleasantly powerful “zingy-clang” of your titanium alloy driver hitting the ball, giving you a sense of confidence and satisfaction as your ball lands on the fairway perfectly.
The sound of a great drive is music to the ears of any golfer.
Hideki Kimura, chief product officer, MAJESTY GOLF
But what is behind that pleasant impact sound? Does it just magically happen? Last year, I was lucky enough to meet the team at MAJESTY GOLF in Japan. Via Teams and technology, we were able to explore their world of golf club acoustics and create a very unique story about how the MAJESTY GOLF engineers use advanced Simcenter and Designcenter NX to predict and optimize their unique sound signature early in the design process.
But before we do that, let’s backtrack a bit because sound signature development is quite niche in the already rather niche world of modern-day acoustic engineering.
What’s a sound signature?
Simply stated, a sound signature creates immediate brand recognition. Harley Davidson motorcycles and Apple computers (if you count the startup sound) are probably some of the most iconic products when it comes to sound signatures. So, when you consider sound as a core part of your brand DNA, you can see that creating the right acoustic signature is priceless.
This is probably why luxury automotive, motorcycle and even e-bike manufacturers have invested so much time, effort and allotted R&D budget into signature sounds for their products.
While rather common in the mobility market, signature sounds that create immediate brand recognition (and the emotional link that goes with it) are popping up in unexpected places of late. Take MAJESTY GOLF clubs, an ultra-luxurious Japanese brand with a bespoke customer base, including Nobuo Serizawa, a senior professional golfer from Japan, who plays MAJESTY GOLF clubs on his home course, the stellar Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba course.
The magic of a MAJESTY GOLF club
“The majority of Majesty clients are golfers with the means to play some of the most prestigious courses in the world,” says Hideki Kimura, chief product officer, MAJESTY GOLF. “We want them to be able to play with confidence, which is why we place such importance on acoustics and the signature sound of our clubs.”
“Our work on the Majesty clubs’ acoustic signature starts during the concept stage,” says Shuhei Tanibuchi, research lead, MAJESTY GOLF. “It’s one of the first things that we start to think about when we design and engineer a new series of clubs.”
MAJESTY GOLF produces one of the most expensive set of clubs, but they aren’t just about luxury: They are also known for outstanding performance and technical excellence.
For more than 50 years, Japanese craftsmen, designers and engineers have been blending innovation and artisanal skills into these clubs. The company uses high-end materials such as titanium, ultra-lightweight alloys and composites, and luxury finishes like pearl coatings, laser-etching and gold-plating on certain series.
“Many customers see Majesty clubs like works of art as well as sports equipment,” says Tanibuchi. “They value the craftmanship, the exceptional quality and the material choice. Any time we save in the engineering development process can be spent on handcrafting and designing more bespoke club models.”
Finding the right signature sound
This investment in artisanship extends to R&D and overall performance engineering. In addition to adding weight for stability and accuracy and designing face angles for straightforward performance, the engineers also design the sound the club makes when it strikes the ball.
“Our clubs are for moderate-swing-speed golfers who play mostly for the pleasure of the sport and expect excellence in their choice of equipment,” explains Kimura. “Our innovative technology includes acoustic signature or impact sound. Not only do you feel in your hands that you nailed the shot, but you also hear it.”
Predicting impact sound from the start
When they start working on a new club, Tanibuchi and the engineering team use Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Designcenter NX CAD software for the design. Then the team makes a mesh to run structural analysis in Simcenter 3D Structures software in conjunction with the Simcenter Nastran solver. This is followed by a complete acoustic calculation in Simcenter 3D Acoustics software. The R&D team uses the acoustic simulation tool for both frequency response analysis and transient response analysis – depending on the accuracy and interaction required. Design and engineering data is primarily managed in Teamcenter software. Simcenter, Designcenter and Teamcenter are part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform or software, hardware and services.
“When you are studying the sound of an iron, you have more metal,” says Tanibuchi. “It is an easier simulation. But with some woods or drivers, you have a hollow structure and air inside, for instance, a cavity, so it’s a more complex exercise to connect the wall and air vibration effects on the sound.”
This simulation-driven design solution based on Designcenter NX and Simcenter lets the R&D team combine complex tasks like modal analysis, material selection, structural studies and impact sound analysis, all with a digital twin early in the process. This helps the team predict impact sound prior to molding the first golf head prototype.
“We knew we needed to push the limits of technology when it came to designing a signature impact sound for MAJESTY clubs,” states Shuhei Tanibuchi, Research Lead, MAJESTY GOLF. “As major NX users, we really appreciate the power of the Siemens tools and the seamless design possibilities. For our next step into digital acoustic engineering, we knew we needed the best possible tools the market could provide. This is why we turned to Siemens and our Siemens partner, Digital Process.”
A complete digital tool for signature sounds?
Working closely with Digital Process, who provided an expert team to help develop the acoustic simulation software tool, the MAJESTY GOLF engineers quickly designed and simulated signature sounds before molding the first prototype of the club.
“Our priority is to maximize the performance of every club,” says Tanibuchi. “This automatically places some restrictions on what we can do acoustically with our impact sound. There is also the artisanal side of things – the appearance to consider and this also causes restrictions for the sound signature.
“It takes two to three months to create a prototype club to test the sound. If it doesn’t sound right, there is wasted cost and human labor. We thought, ‘Why not create a simulation tool to shorten the development time cycle and reduce the need for a physical prototype?’ That’s why we created this acoustic simulation system.”
An acoustic simulation system
The acoustic simulation system, which is based on Simcenter 3D Acoustics, helps the team balance the brand-critical attributes – aesthetics, luxurious material choices, quality performance requirements and impact sound.
“Acoustic simulation is the only way to completely understand the acoustic science behind the sound of each MAJESTY club series,” says Motoyuki Nagawa, acoustic engineering expert, Digital Process Ltd. (a Fujitsu company). “We have all the data, all the amplitudes and frequencies of the various shapes and materials. This allows us to create a balanced sound amplitude that fits all the design elements required for performance and appearance.”
“In the future, we hope to have a more system-based development approach and link our impact sound prediction system directly to our product development process. It would be great to improve our accuracy and simulate the shape and the materials of a new club the first time and see how it will sound. We would be able to study a 100 percent accurate impact sound early on: What would the club impact sound like if we changed a certain material here or there? This is the type of full system development we expect to do in the future,” concludes Tanibuchi.
“We are a company that is constantly driven to improve,” adds Kimura. “It is not surprising there is still some space to improve our acoustic simulation tool. MAJESTY GOLF is continuously working with the teams at Siemens and Digital Process Ltd to strive toward achieving the ultimate acoustic simulation system solution for the Majesty signature golf club sound.”
We have completed a market-ready sound signature using our Simcenter acoustic simulation system in five days – and that impressed everyone on the team.
Shuhei Tanibuchi, Research Lead, MAJESTY GOLF
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Read the full case study in detail online.
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About the Masters
Since 1934, the Masters Tournament held at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia (USA) has been home to some of golf’s greatest moments from golf’s greatest players from Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who won in 2025. Watching the Masters with my Dad while growing up in Wisconsin meant spring was on its way – the course was always one of the prettiest with it blooming azaleas, pine forests and greens so perfectly groomed you could eat off them….Four days and 72 holes later, the winner is presented with the prized Green Jacket — one of the most iconic and time-honored traditions in this historic sport.
