Crossfield - best driver over the years vid.

[spongebob59]

Actually one of his better ones, IMO.

 

[User20204]

Watched it, enjoyed it, in fact I enjoy all his vids where he questions the game.

 

[USER1999]

Watched it at lunchtime. Backs up my theory that my last 5 drivers have all been the same.

 

[spongebob59]

Aye, it got me looking at 5 year old drivers in ebay. 😆

 

[GG26]

Interesting video. I use a Nike Vapor Fly driver. Definitely going to compare it against others before the new season starts - was thinking it was the one club in the bag that needed a change and this has added weight to that thought.

 

[Imurg]

Drivers have been virtually the same for the last 6-8 years when hit from the middle of the club. I think that's pretty generally accepted.
The CoR/CT limits will see to that. There's a limit to the ball speed from the centre of the club
I find the biggest problem with these sort of tests by these sort of people is that, although they say they don't hit the middle every time, I bet they're a darn sight closer to the middle far more regularly than most of us.
The main improvement in drivers over this period of time has been in maintaining ball speeds across the face. This is something that can only be tested by robot.
Mark and James will be within a cm or two of the middle almost every time.
We heel it, toe it, sky it and thin it. A modern driver will keep more ball speed from those very off centre hits than the older ones.
And that's why you lose less distance with the modern driver.
So it's a test of something that an awful lot of people accept as being true - drivers are not much longer now than they were 6-8 years ago.
If they were able to do a test of real miss hits - the kind we do - I think you'd see a different outcome.

 

[clubchamp98]

I had a go at a Ping G last week just because it was in the pro shop.
I hit it really well and almost exactly the same places as my custom Epic.(AD DI 6s)
It had the tour reg shaft and I must say I really liked it.
Went to buy it yesterday (£90) but he sold it on eBay.

 

[robinthehood]

I've the m2 for a few years. Can't see me changing it any time soon.

 

[USER1999]

Interesting video. I use a Nike Vapor Fly driver. Definitely going to compare it against others before the new season starts - was thinking it was the one club in the bag that needed a change and this has added weight to that thought.

I had / have the black/volt vapor driver. It was up there with the best I have hit, and it sat beautifully behind the ball. The blue monstrosity I had for 3 weeks. Nasty thing. Went no where, and was ugly to boot.

 

[cliveb]

We heel it, toe it, sky it and thin it. A modern driver will keep more ball speed from those very off centre hits than the older ones.
And that's why you lose less distance with the modern driver.

I'm not sure you need a modern driver to get away with mis-hits.
I use a Mizuno MX700, which must be a 10 year old design at least. Sometimes I'll hit a drive that doesn't feel right but manages to go a reasonable distance anyway - perhaps losing only 30 yards or so. Then when I check the impact location on the face (you can often see the dimple marks), it turns out that I've hit it WAY off centre, sometimes right out the heel with part of the ball not even on the clubface.

 

[Orikoru]

I'm not sure you need a modern driver to get away with mis-hits.
I use a Mizuno MX700, which must be a 10 year old design at least. Sometimes I'll hit a drive that doesn't feel right but manages to go a reasonable distance anyway - perhaps losing only 30 yards or so. Then when I check the impact location on the face (you can often see the dimple marks), it turns out that I've hit it WAY off centre, sometimes right out the heel with part of the ball not even on the clubface.

Well a newer one you'd only lose 15 yards.

Drivers have been virtually the same for the last 6-8 years when hit from the middle of the club. I think that's pretty generally accepted.
The CoR/CT limits will see to that. There's a limit to the ball speed from the centre of the club
I find the biggest problem with these sort of tests by these sort of people is that, although they say they don't hit the middle every time, I bet they're a darn sight closer to the middle far more regularly than most of us.
The main improvement in drivers over this period of time has been in maintaining ball speeds across the face. This is something that can only be tested by robot.
Mark and James will be within a cm or two of the middle almost every time.
We heel it, toe it, sky it and thin it. A modern driver will keep more ball speed from those very off centre hits than the older ones.
And that's why you lose less distance with the modern driver.
So it's a test of something that an awful lot of people accept as being true - drivers are not much longer now than they were 6-8 years ago.
If they were able to do a test of real miss hits - the kind we do - I think you'd see a different outcome.

Nail on head I think. For a scratch player the difference is going to be negligible. For the mid to high handicappers you'll see a lot more difference given enough data. As well as forgiveness you've got stuff like the Straight Flight Tech in the Ping, and similar in other drivers which someone who hits consistently well isn't really going to see the benefit of.

 

[harpo_72]

They cannot make massive changes anyway. The energy you put in is the key and it’s how efficient they are converting it. So in the end it’s tiny. As for forgiveness of the head, some brands have managed to improve it, and that may be where it’s at, rather than total distance.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Crossfield was doing a break 90 video and playing with a massive slice. Went inside and on the launch monitor and by reducing the slice and 3 mph swing speed instantly found 30 yards in distance. I would say for most players, being more proficient with technique would give extra distance without making any changes to the make of driver

 

[pendodave]

Not sure that I buy this 'they're more forgiving' narrative.
The OEMs know that they can't claim more distance, as even fools like us have worked out that this can't happen.
So they try and sell us a nebulous 'forgiveness' variable which isn't limited by the R&A (except that it is via MOI to a certain extent), and is vanishingly hard to quantify or replicate in any meaningful way.
After we've read enough copy, or watched enough shill YouTubers talking about it, we repeat it as gospel.
I doubt most handicap golfers would lose anything if they just played a g10 from 15 years ago wherever they hit it on the face.
Man, I'm grumpy this morning...

 

[Roops]

Pretty much what I have found when trying new drivers. Nothing really went much further, but matched to the correct shaft for me, I was much more accurate. Interestingly, my fitter was saying that once you get up to and above 100mph swing speeds, each dimple missed from the centre equates to about 10 yards off the target line. So the forgiveness is a bit of a misnomer, if you are fairly long, off centre hits are still probably going to be in trouble. New or old, it's still all about the middle of the club face.

 

[patricks148]

i'd tried all the new drivers out earier this year and despite some strange demo day fittings from Callaway and Titleist none came close to my M2#1

 

[Coffey]

Pretty much what I have found when trying new drivers. Nothing really went much further, but matched to the correct shaft for me, I was much more accurate. Interestingly, my fitter was saying that once you get up to and above 100mph swing speeds, each dimple missed from the centre equates to about 10 yards off the target line. So the forgiveness is a bit of a misnomer, if you are fairly long, off centre hits are still probably going to be in trouble. New or old, it's still all about the middle of the club face.

I wonder how he worked that out?

Would have taken a lot of testing.

I have managed to hit target line from many places on the face, ok the ball may not fly straight but it gets there haha

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

They talked a bit about tee height. Now I'm thinking that I may be teeing ball a bit high - I still go for the half ball above top edge of face of driver. Now that is what I was told back in the day. Does it still apply for the modern driver - and OK - my Ping G10 is not current but for me it is fairly modern.

I just get a 'feeling' that I am not getting the sweetest of strikes even though I'm getting a good strike and good distance and consistency (I had to take a ball out of it's pitch mark last Saturday and Google Maps tells me about 235-240yds).

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Others have mentioned it but it is a shame they don't have a mid handicapper or a high one hitting them as well. Both of them hit the ball so well, I doubt there were any off centre hits in their test.

 

[USER1999]

They talked a bit about tee height. Now I'm thinking that I may be teeing ball a bit high - I still go for the half ball above top edge of face of driver. Now that is what I was told back in the day. Does it still apply for the modern driver - and OK - my Ping G10 is not current but for me it is fairly modern.

I just get a 'feeling' that I am not getting the sweetest of strikes even though I'm getting a good strike and good distance and consistency (I had to take a ball out of it's pitch mark last Saturday and Google Maps tells me about 235-240yds).

Last time I was on a launch monitor they had me tee it lower. The ball was coming off the face above the centre line, so the back spin was too high, with sub optimal run out. It looked odd tee'd down though.