How far would golfs legends drive the ball using modern. Testing the performance of drivers of different eras miles. Additionally, the ball speeds were very different 9mph versus 151 mph. An important factor is the distance that many hybrids offer when compared to a typical 3. Case in point, taylormades new original one mini driver, which is simultaneously a celebration of the 40 th anniversary of the pittsburgh persimmon which taylormade bills as the original metalwood and the evolution of the mini driver. Loft is the angle of the face of the club relative to the ground. For a golfer with an 85mph swing speed and a downward angle of attack, a move from 9. Find out if you could be losing distance on the golf course from using the wrong loft in your driver. What is the correct driver loft for the average senior golfer when choosing a driver, senior golfers should be careful to select the correct loft. Skytrak data for titleist driver compared to 252yard carry and 272 total distance with my titleist, thats a pretty significant change.
The extreme x4 iron set is meant to mimic the callaway x24 set, which is widely considered one of the best performance enhancing iron sets in all of golf. The majority of drivers on the market today range between a 4degree and 20degree loft. For maximizing your driver distance is the loft angle on the face of your driver. Diospyros is in the family ebenaceae, and a number of nonpersimmon species of the genus are grown for ebony timber. The early stainless steel drivers of the 1980s did not show increased distance over persimmon clubs of the 1970 and 80s. Dec 08, 2017 in this persimmon driver test, gm digital editor neil tappin hits a 25 year old driver putting it up against his own titleist 917 d2. How hard is it to hit and how much of a difference did it. Our drivers are therefore available in three lofts to suit all swings. More than 100 steps go into manufacturing these clubs. Callaway did some tests three years ago with a persimmon driver and a ball from the 1990s, comparing it to an hx tour ball and modern driver. This called for a test using trackman my idea was to test the same golfer, clubhead and golf ball, but change. Its a frequently asked question and one that will vary from person to person and depend on a number of factors that could get very technical and indepth. This was the impetus for a test we conducted in the miles of golf cluboratory in ann arbor, michigan using a trackman ball.
The driver also called the 1 wood has the lowest loft of any golf club. Woods are mainly used for long distance fairway or tee shots. So far everything i have read on titaniums drivers vs persimmons woods, graphite vs steel shafts, blades vs cavatity back irons is. Secure parking secure entrance floor to ceiling windows. At the same time, balls dont tend to roll as far when theyre hit with a high trajectory. I have heard that altering the shaft length of your driver by an inch canshould alter the club speed by up to 4 mph. Aug 20, 2015 driver shaft 315 feet average 31 off line on my andrew rice golf facebook page i asked readers if they had any experience with shortening the shaft of their driver and here are a few of their responses.
Loft is just one part of the distance equation, and everyones equation is different. The sales person at the store said that was the best loft for me. Originally, the driver was only slightly larger than any other wood and was designed to be used from the tee or the fairway, but with the advent of hollow metal clubhead construction, the driver has become highly. Optimize your launch angle by getting tested on a launch monitor golf swing speed distance calculator. Too often, an amateur golfer will choose the loft of his or her new driver based on. Apr 24, 2019 another factor is loft the mini is offered in 11. One of the last master castings by the late mike just. You say there was not a big difference in total driving distance, but what loft is your wooden driver. But although we can say for sure that most golfers need more loft than they now use, the exact amount depends on several different aspects of their swings. The average dynamic loft for the wooden driver was. In general, the slower the swing or club speed, the higher the loft of the driver to optimize both carry and roll.
If we look at carry distance, less loft produced more distance only 4 times out of 12. Because of these differences one can use a higher lofted titanium driver and launch the ball higher with less spin than its persimmon counterpart giving one another 58 yards. As a general rule the slower the swing speed the more loft you will need. The most widely cultivated of these is the asian or japanese persimmon, diospyros kaki. Optimize driver loft for more distance dlance golfd. A popular swing speed is between 80mph and 90mph and this is where many golfers make a mistake as they will opt for a 9. Drivers are designed to maximize the balls carry distance, so a drivers loft angle ranges from 8 to degrees, depending on the specific brand or model of driver. There is a good chance that you are reading this post because you are looking at ways to increase driver distance which leads you to wanting to know what is the best loft for a driver having an advantage of distance from the tee is a huge benefit especially when combined with accuracy. I wasnt overly concerned about the static loft of each driver because trackman gives you dynamic loft, or the loft of the club at impact, which you can see was only slightly different between the two.
In the previous segment of this blog, we discussed hitting the ball on the sweet spot in order to optimize your smash factor or efficiency. Angie isnt much different from most male amateurs in that the quickest shortcut to more distance is getting a driver with more loft. Nov 16, 2018 golfers sometimes try to optimize their equipment for maximum distance and control. Second, you need to find a combination of loft and face angle that helps you produce playable, consistent shots. May 09, 2011 persimmon driver for distance and accuracy. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Carry distance varies by a large degree by where you golfie. How do the weight of persimmon driver heads compare to titanium or other materials. Yes, i realize that goes against your rationale for buying golf clubs. A gorgeous large headed period driver we had to add to our lineup in the wilsonian series. Compared to 252yard carry and 272 total distance with my titleist, thats a pretty significant change. I purchased a persimmon driver, blade iron, and some older golf balls off ebay just to. From the frankly frog putting studio we respond to a viewer. Add to this, a ball which spins less off the driver, than it did in the persimmon days, with a little higher speed, one can add another 8.
Subtract a half inch for every club after the driver to get the lengths of each wood, iron and wedge. Drivers with a low closed offset or no offset are often called game. How does low spin with your driver affect the trajectory of a. A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. This indicates that distance isnt the result of more loft or less loft, but of getting the right loft. Golf driver loft distance, degrees, and best club selection.
I was only able to carry the persimmon driver 219 yards for a total distance of 238 on average. The face of a persimmon driver does deform a little at impact but not very much and the resulting ball velocity off persimmon is dependent on the. A few months back i had an old steel shafted persimmon club out on my lesson tee. When i tested my old college driver a few weeks ago my interest was piqued by how close my swing speed with the 43. This angle provides the golfer with distance, with a little more loft than a driver. Ive actually played a couple rounds with it, and surprisingly, my scores didnt suffer.
In the golf equipment world, everything old is new againand nearly as often, newier just a few years later. If your swing speed is 8085 mph, the average driver swing speed of a male golfer today, youre giving up real. Youll notice the shape of a driver is straight up and down which mean it has almost no loft at all. It is true to a point that a driver with a lower lofted head will result in greater. Water, sewer, trash, heating, cooling, internet included in the rent. Do current drivers perform better than hickories from the 1920s. Lower than 45, but still nowhere near the angle of a driver. In 1979, golf was changed forever with the introduction of the pittsburgh persimmon the original metalwood. The 1wood, or driver, is the lowestlofted, longest, and often lightest club in a players bag, and is meant to launch the ball the longest distance of any club. Ever since a 2003 golf digest study said that most golfers needed more loft on their drivers, the quest for the correct loft has heated up. A change in driver loft will not achieve the same result for all golfers because of the relationship between loft and swing speed and angle of attack. And the distance here is still too low, only 336 feet 112. An appropriate loft choice will maximize your distance.
This is why golfers with a low swing speed with a low lofted driver this is the equivalent to lowering the nozzle pressure and lowering the nozzle angle. Nicknamed the pittsburgh persimmon, adams steel driver featured 12degrees of loft and was the first metal driver used by professional golfers on the pga tour. Aug 21, 2015 but before i convince you that your driver doesnt have enough loft, lets go through the 4 signs that you need more loft on your driver, which ill explain in more detail below. Rule of thumb is for every degree of change from level, add or subtract one degree of loft. So i went back to a persimmon driver last summer for a try, ill be darned. How to determine which loft you should get on your driver. When we found this in his office only excitement can explain what ensued. Alternatively, the average amateur golfer will have a swing speed somewhere between 60 and 100 mph depending on. The original one mini driver incorporates that heritage of innovation with. If you know your club speed, you can determine what loft driver optimizes distance for your swing. The ping g400 drivers highdensity tungsten back weight and dragonfly technology help bring the combined moi heeltoe and highlow over 9,000 gram cm2 for the first time and position the center of gravity lower and farther back than any current driver on the market making it the most forgiving driver in golf. And, depending on how you measured, given the size of head on the modern driver, you distance from the end of the shaft to the sweet spot.
The loft on your driver is a key factor that helps determine the success of your tee shots on longer holes. I started playing golf with a wood driver and quickly found my way into the. Most often, when numbers are associated with drivers it refers to the loft of the driver. Have you ever wondered why you sometimes hit your 3wood or even your 5wood as far or even further than you hit your driver. If your pro shop or local golfequipment store doesnt have a. Besides putters, drivers have the smallest loft angle of any club in your bag. Ive discovered something interesting and, quite frankly, truly groundbreaking in terms of a paradigm shift in what we think creates distance with the driver.
Many golfers select the wrong driver loft for their ability and strength. However, by producing 20 yards more distance with a tighter. How about early steel shafted clubs from the 1930s, or drivers from the 195060s, or the early metal drivers. A strong wood has a slightly lower loft than the standard wood of the same number. With such high emphasis on drive distance and accuracy by players. Loft is a measurement used that refers to the amount of angle a club is designed to have.
Every club has unique characteristics, most notably where the center of gravity is. Are titanium drivers really that much better than wood. However if your swing speed is faster, especially when it is 100 mph or over then the lower angle of the club actually provides extra driver distance than using a driver with a higher loft. Lets assume for now that you have a 100 mph club speed and your driver launch is 10.
To receive golfs allnew newsletters, subscribe for free here. For example, most golfers assume that getting a lower loft on their driver will increase distance. Compared to 252yard carry and 272 total distance with my titleist, thats a. Dec, 20 explaining the loft degrees on fairway woods loft degrees is tricky. Optimize driver loft for more distance true fit clubs. The idea is to hit up on the ball, to immediately launch the ball high, with low spin. The lofts on newer irons like the pxg are extremely aggressive at only 31. Nov 03, 2014 what advantage does modern driver technology actually provide the golfer over a steel shafted persimmon club. In this persimmon driver test, gm digital editor neil tappin hits a 25 year old driver putting it up against his own titleist 917 d2. I had one young female student ask about the club and she stated she had never before seen a wooden club she was born in the very late 90s let alone hit one. What is the correct driver loft for the average senior golfer. First, you should know that there are strong and standard woods.
Modern low spin golf balls wont spin enough off a low face loft persimmon driver, especially if an upward swing approach angle is used. For the past 40 years, taylormade has continued that legacy of innovation with gamechanging technologies, engineered to help golfers perform at their best. When it comes to golf club heads, each head is numbered differently according to its degree of loft. Metal wood players have swings tuned to low spin with driver sweet spots high on the face. Your angle of attack greatly affects your driver loft. Determining optimal driver loft can be confusing, angle of attack, swing speed, all come into play read how to determine your optimal driver loft. But before i convince you that your driver doesnt have enough loft, lets go through the 4 signs that you need more loft on your driver, which ill explain in more detail below. A 7 iron has a lower loft value which results in extra distance. At the byron nelson classic that year, he hit titleist balata 100 balls on the driving range with a persimmon driver supplied by noted golf author curt sampson, according to. It was a wilsonian driver, identified by the crown stamping clear as day on the casting.
While the majority of golfers dont have enough loft on their driver and would benefit from more, for the others and those using differently designed driver heads, more loft can in fact lose them distance. The standard fairway wood degrees, what degree for a good game. Persimmon golf faqs solid persimmon wooden golf clubs. Even though the weight, head speed, loft, and shaft flex were identical in both cases the results of collision will be different. Originally, the driver was only slightly larger than any other wood and was designed to be used from the tee or the fairway, but with the advent of hollow metal clubhead construction, the driver has become highly specialized. This is a popular driver tee option for golfers with smoother swings who require more loft to gain optimum trajectory for hitting it far and sure. I think an even bigger surprise is that the distance difference between the persimmon and a modern driver is not as big as youd expect. This results in a slightly lower, but longer shot than its regular counterpart. Jul 12, 2011 it does feel really, really nice when you hit one on the screws. Woods, ranging from a 2wood to a 5wood are also used for distance, but their loft angle is slightly greater than a driver. How does different driver lofts change ball flight 7. May 28, 20 most of us dont have the high swing speed which would equate to the example of the hose being on full blast, which means that a lower loft is required in order to get maximum distance.
For many of you that might actually decrease your distance. How to determine which loft you should get on your driver by jackson lewis. The other day i was shopping at a golf store and found a ping g5 7. Urban loft apartments in the heart of the downtown warehouse district. All else being equal, the more lofted your driver, the higher and straighter your shots will fly. One of the biggest trends seniors fall into is selecting a driver with a lower loft, the theory being the lower. Modern balls with multiple layers can produce different spin rates on each type of shot. Of our 12 sets each golfer produced 3 sets, 1 with each driver, we found that less loft produced more total distance only half the time, 6 out of 12. If youd like to see a more detailed chart on distance vs golf clubs, read my complete guide on golf club distances here. A golf digest test of 20 average golfers ranging in handicap from 3 to 20 showed that there was relatively little difference in accuracy between 3wood and driver tee shots, despite the typical 3. Testing the performance of drivers of different eras.
Are titanium drivers really that much better than wood drivers. More loft means numerically highera 12degree driver has more loft than a 9degree. This calculator has been updated to include carry distances and total distances for drivers of different lofts and different club speeds. The extreme x4 has perimeter weighting just like the callaway version, which lowers the sweet spot and helps golfers launch the ball higher and farther with more consistency. Golf drivers definitive buying guide must read before you buy. Titanium is lighter and stronger that steel so the golf driver heads can be made.
If your swing speed is 90100mph and your driver loft angle is lower than 11 degrees, 90% of you are losing distance by playing the wrong loft. The shaft will also have a low, mid or high kick point depending on how you. In general, this will be a spot that is slightly towards the toe and just above the center of the clubface. Many manufacturers provide custom fitting not only for the correct driver loft, shaft type and stiffness, but for the best type of golf ball to use as well.
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