Straighter Hitting Driver, Please?

[MadAdey]

thinking about getting fitted for a new BigDog in the spring so I have been looking around at all the offerings from the manafacturers. These are the sales pitches that they are using for the new drivers for 2014:

Callaway FT OptiForce - FAST IS LONGER THAN SLOW
Taylormade SLDR - OUR LONGEST. THAT YOU MAKE EVEN LONGER
Cobra Bio Cell - MEET YOUR MATCH GO LOOOOONG
NIKE VR_S Covert 2.0 - DIFFERENT FOR LONGERS SAKE
Mizuno JPX EZ - RISK REWARDED (not sure what that line is saying....lol)
Titleist 913 D2 & D3 - MORE SPEED, MORE DISTANCE, MORE PERFORMANCE

Even when you read the rest of the page all they talk about is how you will get more distance and gain forgiveness. What does forgiveness mean it will still go a long way on off centre hits?

The only site that I liked looking at had to be the PING i25. They do mention distance but they also say this "Tungsten weighting raises the MOI to increase forgivenss and IMPROVE ACCURACY" There it is, a manufacturer that cares about you hitting it straighter.

So no one is interested in giving you a driver that will help you hit it straight, they are just more interested in making you hit it further into the crap. When will they stop going on about distance because in all honesty my R11s does not appear to go any further on a good strike than my R7 did 8 years ago. Although I will say the consistency of distance on off centre hits is better.

RANT OVER :sbox: .............................LOL

 

[One Planer]

You should read the sticky at the top of the lounge

Ask the man himself why?

FWIW, I agree. I'd rather be 20 yards shorter off the tee if I was consistently on the short stuff.

 

[garyinderry]

Is it actually possible? Without the club morphing as it comes into impact it cant really cheat the ball flight laws!

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Correct me if I wrong, but isn't one of the ideas behind the SLDR that, because you can have a more lofted driver to attain the added distance it should be more accurate. As you're more likely to get excess side spin from lower loft?

 

[mefromhere]

Maybe it's because no club can improve accuracy? Only the swing can do that.

It's easy to compare distance to previous models because it can be tested on a robot with exactly the same swing, but putting that exact swing on all the different clubs will result in the same shot shape and finishing position.

 

[cookelad]

Don't some of those sales pitches read an awful lot like the subject line in emails that get caught up in the junk folder?

 

[HawkeyeMS]

To a certain extent, any fool who has high SS and achieves a decent smash factor can hit the ball a long way so it's easy to sell.

To be straight you need to be delivering the club head to the ball in a good position which is infinitely more difficult and is a direct result of your swing and can't be helped by the head design. Think about it, if you can produce a swing that has a good plane and delivers the club head to the ball square to the target, the ball will travel pretty straight, you don't need any help from the club, if you can't do that, all the club head technology in the world isn't going to help.

EDIT: I guess a better way to describe it is that accuracy is mostly achieved before you hit the ball, the club head is irrelevant until contact.

 

[Alex1975]

In tests the Titleist 913 comes out as one of or the most accurate of the 2013s


http://www.mygolfspy.com/2013-compare-drivers/

 

[delc]

It's not the driver, it's the nut holding the grip that matters!

 

[USER1999]

Straight hitting driver? It's a golf club, not a miracle worker.

 

[garyinderry]

You should read the sticky at the top of the lounge

Ask the man himself why?

FWIW, I agree. I'd rather be 20 yards shorter off the tee if I was consistently on the short stuff.

that's called a 3 wood g-mac !

 

[Deleted member 1147]

FWIW, I agree. I'd rather be 20 yards shorter off the tee if I was consistently on the short stuff.

That's what I love about golf, there are many ways to get the ball in the hole.
I prefer to be 20 yards further up the hole, even in the semi, as it gives me two clubs less for the approach shot.

 

[DAVEYBOY]

This is one of the reasons I have my new G25 arriving in an hours time from a good honest club manufacturer that is PING :thup:

 

[Junior]

That's what I love about golf, there are many ways to get the ball in the hole.
I prefer to be 20 yards further up the hole, even in the semi, as it gives me two clubs less for the approach shot.

I agree with this. I tried conservative at teh start of the year and played OK, but when I started to hit driver more I became more confident with it and now take it out on a lot of our tighter par4's.

Going in with a wedge instead of an 8 iron or a 7 iron instead of 4/5 iron has mad a big difference to my GIR !!

 

[MadAdey]

Is it actually possible? Without the club morphing as it comes into impact it cant really cheat the ball flight laws!

Not sure Gary, but then I am not a golf club designer.

To people that maybe know more than me, is it not possible to alter where the weighting is across the face to help get it straighter on off centre hits. Normally if you catch one out of the toe it goes high right and low left from the heel. If you moved the weighting up in the toe and down in the heel would this not help get a better trajectory and straighten it up on off centre hits. I wonder though if doind this has a major effect on the overall performance and distance of a driver, that is why they can't really do much about it.

I do agree though it does not matter what club you swing, if you go in to out with the club face open it is going to miss a mile to the right.

 

[Alex1975]

Not sure Gary, but then I am not a golf club designer.
I do agree though it does not matter what club you swing, if you go in to out with the club face open it is going to miss a mile to the right.

Depends on the degree of the path and face, but it in fact may well draw....

 

[Deleted member 1147]

I agree with this. I tried conservative at teh start of the year and played OK, but when I started to hit driver more I became more confident with it and now take it out on a lot of our tighter par4's.

Going in with a wedge instead of an 8 iron or a 7 iron instead of 4/5 iron has mad a big difference to my GIR !!

Most of the lower HC players I know are even more aggressive than me - maybe they're just so much better than me they can be - but I wonder if a lot of people are just too conservative.

 

[Mattyboy]

Does it not depend on the course you usually play at?

I used to have an R7 which went a long way (even by forum standards!). I switched to an I15 which doesn't go as far - but does go 20 yards straighter. So if I usually play on a tight course (which I do) I think this is the way to go........ne:

 

[Deleted member 1147]

That's what I meant in post 12, there are lots of ways to play the game.

 

[dufferman]

I have an SLDR (thanks Golf Monthly!!) and I've noticed that my bad shots are better, but then I also got fitted for a shaft so that might be the reason why. I found my old Nike driver would go terrible if I hit a bad shot, whereas the SLDR doesn't go as far right when I hit a bad one.

But accuracy? I think we'll have to wait for the SLDR GPS with fitted ball guidance system!