How to Find the Right Driver for You

Video Credit: Golf Digest
Published on February 24, 2020 - Duration: 14:17s

How to Find the Right Driver for You

Golf Digest equipment editors Mike Stachura and Mike Johnson dive into the wide variety of drivers available on the 2020 Hot List, and what to look for when buying a new one.

The Hot List presented by DICK's Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy.


How to Find the Right Driver for You

- Wait a second old man.I wouldn't be me if I weren't rude.[ball thudding][Mike J.

Laughing]Can we do better than that?Welcome to the Hot List presentedby Dick's Sporting Goods,and Golf Galaxy.We're talking drivers.- And the drivers we'retalking about todayare not any old drivers.They're the driversspecifically for your game.We're gonna talk about thetechnologies that allowthe manufacturers to kinda dial that in.- I think what we've seen withthis year's crop of driversis this idea ofcustomization, specialization,no compromise; in otherwords, not getting a driverthat only works for allpeople in a limited way.These are drivers thatare specifically madefor your skillset, and that may beI want forgiveness all the time,that may be I need somethingthat kills spin no matter what.- Yeah, and there's noshortage of options to do that,as you can see from just whatwe have on the desk here.I mean, you take the CallawayMAVRIK series, for example.I mean, they have amax forgiveness driver,they have a standard versionthat'll fit a lot of folks,and then they have their Sub Zero versionwhich'll just absolutely kill spinno matter how bad someonekinda gets it out there.- Now exactly, TaylorMadeobviously has three drivers.With the SIM series, you'vegot the most adjustable driverin our lineup.the SIM Max driver, iskinda the opposite of that.It's still adjustable, butdoesn't have the moveable weightthat the SIM driver has,so you've got, again,a forgiveness-focused driver,and an adjustable driverwith forgiveness.All three of those driversemphasize aerodynamics.Certainly the Titleist family of driversruns the gamut from alighter weight driver,to a more forgiving driver,to a super spin-killing,low-launching, tour driverthat someone like Adam Scottwill be perfectly made for.I think sometimes we makethis more complicatedthan it actually is.Something that most golfers talk aboutis I want a driver that is forgiving.How would I know thata driver is forgiving?Well, one of the easy ways isto just look at the driver.Another easy way is to look at its name.So you look at what Cobra'sdone with the King Speedzone,you have the standard King Speedzone,and then you have theKing Speedzone Xtreme.- Anything named Xtreme is gonna bedefinitely somethingthat's gonna help you out.And like Mike said, you canjust look at the driver,the size of it front to back,but also look at the size of the face.A big face is usually asign that you can hit iton a wide swath of that, andget a fairly decent result.- And I will say this,obviously face technologyhas come a long way justin the last five years.I know for a fact thatmanufacturers were talking aboutessentially the hot area of the facebeing about the size of a dime.Today that hot area of the face,basically the area of theface that's really fast,is now the size of a quarter.- And if you don't thinkthat sounds like a lot,next time you're out hitting,really take a look atthe face of your driverand the impact points on it.Yeah, you'll hit some outsideof that area of a quarter,but you're gonna hit an awful lot of themwithin that spot.You're not gonna hitvery many within a dime.So you're really able to takeadvantage of that technology.- Or you could just say,how many things can you buywith a dime today?That would be an indicationthat a dime's not reallythat helpful anymore.- I mean, we should putsome of these to the test.I think many, many golfersstruggle with high spin.So I talked earlier aboutthe Callaways driver,the MAVRIK, and the MAVRIK Sub Zero,and the Sub Zero really helps kill spinby center of gravity movement.Basically, they're movingthe center of gravitycloser to the face.That's gonna get the ballusually going a little lower,a little less spin, and weshould be able to see that.- Wait a second.Wait a second, old man.- What?- We got a few moreepisodes to go through--- Old man?- And we need maybe a littleyoung blood in this situation.- Okay, you're being replaced then, right?- I'm not volunteering,but I think Greg is our manto might generate a littlebit of club head speedwithout going into traction,say, might be an issue for you.- We're doing that.- Help us out here, please.- No problem.- So we're starting--- So we're starting withthe standard version here.So Greg's a big, strongboy, so he's gonna bringsome club head speed here.We should be able to seesome noticeable differencesbetween the two clubs.And hopefully not ruining oursimulator at the same time.- [Mike S.] Ball go far.- [Mike J.] That's abig boy hit right there.284 yards, very nice,backspin 2693; decent.Not super low, but not super high, either.So why don't you give thelow-spin version a shot,and see what we get?- Again, when you look at these drivers,obviously they're adjustable for loft,they're adjustable for lie angle, as well,face angle, as well.The MAVRIK Sub Zero hasmoveable weights front and backso there's actually aheavier weight that you canput to the front, and thatshould lower the spin even morethan having the heavierweight at the back.So you should see aslightly lower flight--- [Mike J.] Even though he cut it.- [Mike S.] What?- [Mike J.] Let's see what the spin does.277 in the distance, 2658 rpm's.Greg, hit one more.You hit a little bit of a cut,that probably added to thatbackspin number a little bit.- And I think this isanother illustration,obviously, when you'regoing through a fittingyou don't wanna look for that one shotto base your decision on.You wanna kinda look at anaverage grouping of shotsand take the driver thatgives you the best average,the most consistent hit.- [Mike J.] Yeah, I think Mikemade a very important pointon fitting there.Too many golfers, they getenthralled in the cage,or with the launch monitor,and they end up saying,"Hey, I hit that one shot"eight yards further than anything else."Don't get fall into that trap.You wanna find what'sa typical hit for you,and then compare your clubsbased on your typical hit,not your Sunday punch.That one there, we seeGreg brought it downto 2251 rpm's, that's about 400 rpm's lessthan the standard version.A big boy like him may not need that,but someone like me very well might.- Yeah, exactly.When we're talking about low-spin drivers,the tendency is to thinkthat, oh, well that's onlyfor a tour player.And I think, again, wewant to emphasize thatyou wanna be open-mindedin this whole processbecause you, as ahigh-slice, high-spin player,might wanna explore thepossibility of a low-spin driverbecause it's a good way to knock off spin.Instead of, for instance, feeling like,well, I've just gotta getthe lowest loft possibleto knock off spin, if Ihave a low-spin driver,I can play maybe a little higher loft.So I'm gonna launch ithigher, but not as much spinas I've been doing, and it might be a moreplayable alternative foryou even though you're notnecessarily quote alow-spin driver player,or tour level-type player.So again, expand the mind.There's opportunities to get betterthat are outside what you think normally.- And Greg, I apologizefor my rude partner.Thank you very much forhelping us out there.- I wouldn't be me if I weren't rude.- That's true.Hey, but part of what we seewith all of this, though,is there may be low-spindriver, max-forgiveness driver,drivers that give you a high launch,but one thing all these drivers dois bring plenty of heat with them.The face designs are really impressive,they're getting super-thin,you're coming with areally big trampoline now,all of them are buttingup against the USGA limitfor spring-like effect,and sometimes if you're Xander Schauffele,or some of the otherplayers on the PGA Tour,may be a little bit overthat limit accidentally.- Yeah, it's a very complicated idea,but essentially what's happening is thatdriver faces are getting sothin, so close to the limit,that there is a tendencyfor some of them, over time,to get closer and closer to that limit,and maybe over that limit.Like Mike said, the ideawith manufacturing and designis to get as close tothe rules as possible,but still stay within the rules.When we do the Hot List at Golf Digest,we bring in the USGA to doperformance testing for usin terms of CT, what's knownas characteristic time,which is spring-like effect,and we occasionally finddrivers that are over the limit.We find drivers that arevery close to the limit,but we wanted to talk about what it meansto be quote non-conforming.These are not drivers that aretrying to be non-conforming.These are drivers that aretrying to be at the limit,and get just a little bit over,and what does that meanin terms of performance?Is it really that much of an advantageto have a non-conforming driver?I think what we should seewith an average player is--- Probably very average.- Probably more informativethan what we'd seewith a tour player.- So what we're gonna do iswe have got two drivers here.One of them conforming,one of them non-conforming.We have hid, as best we can,the names to protect the innocent because,as we were saying, no onegoes out with the intentof making a non-conforming driver.I know some people think they do.I can guarantee you nota single manufacturersets out to make a non-conforming driver.- So before you get here,as it turns out, we actuallyhave a question from a readerthat kinda fits rightinto this discussion.This is from @CountDownDave,and excuse the reading glasses,but this is the most complicatedquestion I've ever seen.Do you foresee the big manufacturersincreasing the safetyband on face conformancein reaction to the newdriver testing initiationannounced by the PGA Tour?Can we do better than that, Dave?Can we somehow approachthe English languageand simplify the discussion?- Well, Dave's not aprofessional writer like we are,so what Dave's trying to sayis actually a very good question.He's saying with all thistalk about hot drivers,and tour spicy drivers,and drivers that maybeare over the limit, arethe manufacturers actuallygonna throttle back for fearof going over that limit?And the answer is no, andthere's a very good reasonwhy the answer is no.It's kind of akin to you goingout and driving your car.You know the speedlimit's 65 miles an hour,you know if you go over that speed limita couples miles per hour,you're not gonna get caughtspeeding, and that'skinda the thought here,is there's really no penalty for makingan unintentional hot driverthat's one or two points over the limit.On the tour it's just going to bewe'll take your driver awaybefore you put it in play,and you have to play with your backup.So no one's gonna throttleway back and give up yards.The other reason, though,is the difference reallyshouldn't be that big.So if you take a look at the numbers here,the last one I hit went 225yards, a total distance of 241,with a conforming head,and now we're gonna hit onewith a non-conforminghead, and the guess isit may be a few yards, maybe.And it's not always even that.- And I think there's another reasonwhy manufacturers arenot gonna throttle back,and it's that launch monitor right there.We got--the GCQuad from ForesightSports that is giving usall this data, and that'sin a lot of golf shopsacross the country, it'show fitting is done.You're not gonna give up speedwhen you're trying to selldrivers, and I think that's whymanufacturers are gonna continueto push wherever they can.- Yeah, I mean, theyweren't terribly different,and the conforming driver went further.If it was really that big a deal,you would see distanceincreases on every type of shot.And we just don't see that here,and I don't think you'll ever see that.The difference between adriver just under the limit,just over the limit, canliterally be measuredin feet, not yards.- Yeah, I think it's anissue of manufacturingprobably getting tighter inhow manufacturing is done.I think that's one of theintents about the USGA's rule,and the PGA Tour's increasedtesting, is like, hey guys,we're watching you a littlebit more closely that we have.Let's keep this thing maybeunder wraps a little bitso that everybody's playingon a even playing field.- Yeah, and I think at their base,everyone wants to play within the rules.I don't know anyone that I play golf with.Do you play golf with anyone on tourwants to play outside the rules?So this is a good way tomake sure everyone is,but I also think everyone understandsfrom a performance standpoint,just not that big a deal.- And I think the biggerdeal is if you're lookingto get more yards, it's notgonna be from purchasinga non-conforming driver.- It's gonna be from getting fit.- Getting fit, gettingthe right driver for you.And I think that's what we're trying to dowith these littleinstructional episodes here.We're trying to get you in a positionto embrace finding the right driverthrough a proper fitting.- Till next time.[electronic sounds]

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