A pinned introduction to my driver reviews: why new drivers are so tempting as we get older, what we’re really buying, and how I test them in the real world.
I'll be intrigued to see what metric you use for ranking them Keith. I know my tendency when testing drivers is to remove all the worst shots and compare the best 5-10 drives from each driver, seeing which gives me the best ball speed, most optimum spin numbers etc. in order to see which one has the capacity to go the furthest on a god hit, which is what I expect most people do when considering a new driver (without the help of a fitter). I suspect, and knowing what you have looked at in the past, what we should do is also consider the dispersion on "all" of the shots (I'll let you take out the cold top if you must😉) and see which driver produces the most consistent results and decide which dispersion pattern is best for your game.
That might be a driver that produces a smaller l-r pattern, but is slightly shorter, or for some people depending on the courses they play they may prefer to accept an increase in l-r dispersion with a 10y longer average. Horses for courses....
For me I want a driver that when I stand on the tee, I'm looking at my target spot and have the confidence to swing it freely and believe I can hit it there. Not be worrying that I might pull it, or slice it into the trees / OOB.
Thanks Col, ranking will be relative to my GT2 gamer. Is there enough in Club B to replace Club A?
The use of actual data presents an interesting challenge. Most of all, data needs to be appropriate and relevant. My swing, my delivery, my release etc are all unique to me and my data is likely not that relevant for you. For example, I don't have a particularly "fast" swing, but with driver I do seem to produce spin and have therefore often been fitted for "players" heads (which I often then struggle to use consistently). Another player with the same swing speed will likely have totally different results. Balancing subjective aspects with objective data is the challenge.
There won't be a vast number of driver reviews either, as they are much harder on my old body and take longer to conduct properly too as I really want to have course time with them wherever possible. That's where the trust comes from.
But it's a work in progress, and I'm really keen to get reader feedback on their usefulness and relevance. Watch this space for the first review......
A really great take and one I completely agree with/have come to agree with, In 2022 I bought the TaylorMade Sim2 for all the reasons you highlighted in this piece, after a real period of struggle on the course which lead to my subsequent break from the game I returned with an old friend in the form of the Cobra F8+ Driver from 2017. I'm probably 20/25 yards shorter at present but I'm more controlled, have more confidence off the tee and is making me plot my way round the course far more strategically. I'm currently in the market for a new Driver or the possibility of completely removing Driver from my bag and focussing on fairway woods and driving irons.
I'll be intrigued to see what metric you use for ranking them Keith. I know my tendency when testing drivers is to remove all the worst shots and compare the best 5-10 drives from each driver, seeing which gives me the best ball speed, most optimum spin numbers etc. in order to see which one has the capacity to go the furthest on a god hit, which is what I expect most people do when considering a new driver (without the help of a fitter). I suspect, and knowing what you have looked at in the past, what we should do is also consider the dispersion on "all" of the shots (I'll let you take out the cold top if you must😉) and see which driver produces the most consistent results and decide which dispersion pattern is best for your game.
That might be a driver that produces a smaller l-r pattern, but is slightly shorter, or for some people depending on the courses they play they may prefer to accept an increase in l-r dispersion with a 10y longer average. Horses for courses....
For me I want a driver that when I stand on the tee, I'm looking at my target spot and have the confidence to swing it freely and believe I can hit it there. Not be worrying that I might pull it, or slice it into the trees / OOB.
Thanks Col, ranking will be relative to my GT2 gamer. Is there enough in Club B to replace Club A?
The use of actual data presents an interesting challenge. Most of all, data needs to be appropriate and relevant. My swing, my delivery, my release etc are all unique to me and my data is likely not that relevant for you. For example, I don't have a particularly "fast" swing, but with driver I do seem to produce spin and have therefore often been fitted for "players" heads (which I often then struggle to use consistently). Another player with the same swing speed will likely have totally different results. Balancing subjective aspects with objective data is the challenge.
There won't be a vast number of driver reviews either, as they are much harder on my old body and take longer to conduct properly too as I really want to have course time with them wherever possible. That's where the trust comes from.
But it's a work in progress, and I'm really keen to get reader feedback on their usefulness and relevance. Watch this space for the first review......
A really great take and one I completely agree with/have come to agree with, In 2022 I bought the TaylorMade Sim2 for all the reasons you highlighted in this piece, after a real period of struggle on the course which lead to my subsequent break from the game I returned with an old friend in the form of the Cobra F8+ Driver from 2017. I'm probably 20/25 yards shorter at present but I'm more controlled, have more confidence off the tee and is making me plot my way round the course far more strategically. I'm currently in the market for a new Driver or the possibility of completely removing Driver from my bag and focussing on fairway woods and driving irons.
Thanks Andy, you might be interested in the next post coming later this week in that case!
I’ll certainly keep an eye out! Thank you
Looking forward to your new adventure in driver posts Keith!!
Let's see how many my body can cope with. Putters are much easier on my back 🤪