I've got no worries or gremlins in my head, my friend, I was just messing with you. I changed my clubs primarily for the new shafts but the new kit does perform better than the old. 'Turbulators' are the newest innovation from Ping, they stop air from stalling over the upper surface of the club to reduce drag. The theory is sound (an air trafficer by trade and know a little about aero) but how much difference it makes is 'debatable' at best.
Not sure how much club heads make a difference as it's so nailed down in the regs now but they make some and shafts do make a measurable difference. Here's an example, with irons rather than driver admittedly but makes the point - Had Bob round mine the other day as some may know and he was hitting his clubs very consistently distance wise. Tried mine and he was noticeably longer, think it was about 7 yards longer with each iron. The interesting point though was that it wasn't due to a change in launch angle and it wasn't due to less spin, he was spot on the same with his and mine. The difference was that with mine he got a higher ball speed and that gave him the extra length. I know the reasons why and I won't bore you with them but it was interesting non-the-less
What I was taught was that, while the club heads have to be 'ok' it's really the shaft that is the 'engine' of the club and that needs to be right for you in order to get the most out of the kit. I went from a standard stiff shafts to X flex. I needed to in order to get the most from the kit. Trust me, it's not in my head, it makes a difference
I'm certain that there is elements of all the variables in what makes a player hit a particular Driver well - shaft and heads (both of them) and the 'fit' with the player's swing. Some just don't like either the colour, shape or sound of certain heads. I prefer a particular feel from a shaft, which can either encourage me to swing faster (and hopefully as well or better) with one that is 'slightly too stiff' than one that is 'slightly too soft' (I'm back to my 'just right with headroom' one again now, so quite happy!).
Certain heads/shafts seem to be particularly good combinations and the SLDR/Black Tie seems to be one of those, though Black Tie does seem to be the 'shaft of the year'!
Quite 'happy' to believe 'turbulators' do make a difference, but a few yards is certainly not worth the cost of upgrading from a model that is pretty recent imo. My Ping addict mate upgrades every year, but a year behind, which is a far less expensive way of doing it.
Tom Wishon, correctly (as usual) imo, equates the shaft to the 'transmission' rather than the 'engine'. The 'engine' is the player/swing!
I'm almost certain it'll take more than 7 yards to convince Bob to change btw!
