The inspiration came from an example that was used in Douglas Montgomery’s book where the game of golf was used as an example for an experiment. Why not invent a golf toy that can be used to teach design of experiments (DOE)? Golf is universal, and many people are really fanatical about the game.
The golf experiment has wider appeal than previous demonstrations such as the table hockey experiment described in DOE Simplified by Anderson and Whitcomb (2000) and the catapult described in Understanding Industrial Designed Experiments by Schmidt and Launsby (1994). The catapult appeals more to the younger students but not to “older” students. Table hockey is great as well but students from overseas do not find it as fascinating. The DOE-GolferTM, however, seems to appeal to all students. It appears that everybody wants to be as good as Tiger Woods.