Now that Memorial Day has come and gone and summer season has unofficially commenced, it’s time to ask a fairly severe query.
Are you, pricey reader, able to improve your driver?
I’m not speaking to those that rushed out to get fitted earlier than the snow melted. I’m not speaking to you fortunate so-and-sos who stay the place you don’t get snow and suppose winter solely because the time of 12 months when you may’t put on shorts on the golf course.
I’m speaking to you hard-core, cynical readers who scoff at every year’s new driver choices with intelligent observations reminiscent of, “Nothing new right here, transfer alongside.”
Or “Identical advertising and marketing BS.”
Or “A brand new driver received’t repair your crappy swing.”
And my private favourite: “GET LESSONS!”
I do know you’re not the kind to take recommendation from a mere golf weblog. However because you’ve learn this far, we humbly invite you to take a position the subsequent 5 – 6 minutes and browse the remaining. On the very least you’ll be amused.
You may discover a nugget or two that you could possibly use.
Or you could possibly inform us to take an aerial intercourse at a motivated piece of pastry.
Both approach, you win.
Is It Time To Improve Your Driver? Signal #1
In case your driver was a toddler, might you signal it up for kindergarten?
With apologies to Invoice Engvall, “Right here’s your signal.”
OEMs will inform you straight: year-to-year driver upgrades are pretty minimal with just about no distinction in efficiency on a dead-center strike. However even the sport’s finest will miss the middle extra typically than they’d like and that’s the place OEMs are making efficiency strides.
This 12 months is slightly completely different. The PING, TaylorMade and PXG 10K revolution and Callaway’s new AI-designed face have flipped the script barely. However half a decade’s value of small enhancements can add as much as one thing you’ll discover on the course. It may very well be tighter dispersion, it may very well be straighter drives or it may very well be mishits that aren’t fairly as punishing.
Possibly new will probably be higher for you. Possibly it received’t. However you received’t know till you undergo the method, ideally beneath the watchful eye of a talented fitter. However when it comes to driver expertise, 5 years is sufficient time to see some tangible variations.
Due to this fact, with apologies to that different Blue-Collar comic …
In case your final driver buy predates the worldwide stay-at-home celebration we fondly consult with because the COVID-19 lockdown, you may simply be a brand new driver shopper.
Is It Time To Improve Your Driver? Signal #2
Quiz time!
Since you obtain your present driver, have you ever:
A: Grown older?B: Grown older however gained velocity by way of exercises?C: Grown older however improved your swing by way of teaching?
In case you answered “sure” to any of those, right here’s your signal. In case you answered “no” to any of those, we’ll ship you again to Engvall and he’ll offer you that different signal.
Tiger famously instructed us that Father Time is undefeated. All of us get older and, whereas a few of us age like advantageous wine, others age like Memorial Day potato salad left within the scorching solar. Whereas instruments reminiscent of Tremendous Velocity Golf or The Stack System (choose a aspect and seize your popcorn) can preserve Father Time’s inevitable velocity loss at bay, we’ll all want to regulate.
In case you’ve gained velocity since your final driver becoming, congratulations! You’ve earned your self a brand new driver. Take delight in going from a stiff shaft to an X-stiff shaft. Go get fitted and bomb the hell out of it. In case you’ve improved your approach by way of teaching and tamed that hook or slice, you, too, deserve a brand new driver.
If, nonetheless, you’ve misplaced some swing velocity, don’t fret. OEMs know we sexagenarians, whereas ageing gracefully, are an enormous market phase. They’re following XXIO’s lead and making lighter-weight, easier-to-swing drivers that, for lack of a greater time period, are the finders of misplaced yards.
Due to this fact, when you’ve survived the final half decade or so and might nonetheless swing a membership, you may simply be a brand new driver shopper.
Is It Time To Improve Your Driver? Signal #3
While you have a look at your driver stats, do you discover that you just hit fairways on the identical charge as Storm Troopers hit Skywalkers? In that case, right here’s your signal.
OK, you’re slicing the ball like Hannibal Lecter. Your launch monitor numbers verify an out-to-in swing path with an open membership face is providing you with spin numbers within the 4,000 rpm vary. Your swing is an issue however can the precise driver assist?
A brand new driver received’t “repair your crappy swing” (critically, verify any social media publish on any new driver. It comes up each time) however the precise new driver can take a foul shot and make it higher.
“Drivers are getting much more forgiving,” says Steve Thomson, a fitter and teacher at Golftec in Danvers, Mass. “MOI is greater, CG is additional again. Larger lofts now produce extra spin so decreasing static loft helps so much. I see much more individuals becoming right into a nine- or a 9.5-degree driver head than I did 5 – 6 years in the past.”
Whereas we all the time suggest teaching, the precise driver can assist mitigate that slice to the purpose the place you may have enjoyable on the course.
“These are probably the most gratifying ones,” says Thomson. “Give an enormous slicer a draw-type head that may cut back that slice by 10 or 15 yards? That may change somebody’s golf sport.”
In case your slice is the envy of any hibachi steakhouse chef, you may simply be a brand new driver shopper.
Is It Time To Improve Your Driver? Signal #4
This one may rile up the plenty, however what the hell …
It doesn’t matter what your handicap is, when you love golf, play repeatedly and have by no means been fitted for a driver, right here’s your signal.
A standard false impression is that membership becoming on the whole and driver becoming specifically is just for the completed golfer.
“And not using a constant swing, driver becoming is a waste of cash,” say golf’s on-line illuminati. However any teacher value his licensed PGA standing will inform you a mid- to high-handicapper will profit extra from a driver becoming than a low-handicapper.
The low handicapper is a stick to the ability to adapt to virtually something and, whereas he received’t play his finest with an ill-fitted driver, he’ll handle. The mid-to-high-handicapper might not have a constantly good swing however he/she probably has sufficient tendencies for a very good fitter to discover a sample and supply a useful resolution.
Possibly it’s a draw-biased head. Possibly it’s a shorter shaft or possibly it’s a better MOI. The underside line is irrespective of your handicap, when you’ve by no means been fitted for a driver, you may simply be a driver shopper.
Is It Time To Improve Your Driver? Signal #5
In case you’re nonetheless not riled up, preserve studying.
We did cite 5 years as a driver benchmark. However the backside line is that this: In case you merely desire a new driver, right here’s your signal.
Sure, we stated it. As a shopper, you earn your personal cash and might spend it any approach you need. If shopping for a brand new driver makes you content, what anybody else thinks is simply noise.
Will it magically remodel your sport? Presumably, however provided that you change an off-the-rack, ill-fitting driver with one thing fitted to your swing. Will it make you a greater golfer? No, but it surely might show you how to play higher golf.
And, sure, there’s a distinction.
In case you’re gaming a 2022 Callaway Rogue or an authentic TaylorMade Stealth and also you need to go full PING G430 MAX 10K, go for it.
When you shouldn’t fall prey to any OEM’s mass advertising and marketing machine, additionally keep away from the rising anti-OEM mass advertising and marketing machine. It’s straightforward to dismiss every year’s choices with a cynical crack or two and cry “Get Classes!” Single classes are good however are usually Band-Aids at finest. Teaching is long-term and that’s the place actual enchancment is made. Why you play golf and what you’re searching for will in the end show you how to determine the best way to spend your cash.
For many of us, golf is a sport. And video games are alleged to be enjoyable.
Assume it by way of logically. In case you actually desire a new driver, that’s ok for us. You may simply be a brand new driver shopper.
Git ‘er achieved.
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