Now that Memorial Day has come and gone and summer has unofficially commenced, it’s time to ask a rather serious question.
Are you, dear reader, ready to upgrade your driver?
I’m not talking to those who rushed out to get fitted before the snow melted. I’m not talking to you lucky so-and-sos who live where you don’t get snow and think winter only as the time of year when you can’t wear shorts on the golf course.
I’m talking to you hard-core, cynical readers who scoff at each year’s new driver offerings with clever observations such as, “Nothing new here, move along.”
Or “Same marketing BS.”
Or “A new driver won’t fix your crappy swing.”
And my personal favorite: “GET LESSONS!”
I know you’re not the type to take advice from a mere golf blog. But since you’ve read this far, we humbly invite you to invest the next five or six minutes and read the rest. At the very least you’ll be amused.
You might find a nugget or two that you could use.
Or you could tell us to take an aerial intercourse at a motivated piece of pastry.
Either way, you win.
Is It Time To Upgrade Your Driver? Sign #1
If your driver was a child, could you sign it up for kindergarten?
With apologies to Bill Engvall, “Here’s your sign.”
OEMs will tell you straight: year-to-year driver upgrades are fairly minimal with virtually no difference in performance on a dead-center strike. But even the game’s best will miss the center more often than they’d like and that’s where OEMs are making performance strides.
This year is a little different. The PING, TaylorMade and PXG 10K revolution and Callaway’s new AI-designed face have flipped the script slightly. But half a decade’s worth of small improvements can add up to something you’ll notice on the course. It could be tighter dispersion, it could be straighter drives or it could be mishits that aren’t quite as punishing.
Maybe new will be better for you. Maybe it won’t. But you won’t know until you go through the process, preferably under the watchful eye of a skilled fitter. But in terms of driver technology, five years is enough time to see some tangible differences.
Therefore, with apologies to that other Blue-Collar comedian …
If your last driver purchase predates the global stay-at-home party we fondly refer to as the COVID-19 lockdown, you might just be a new driver shopper.
Is It Time To Upgrade Your Driver? Sign #2
Quiz time!
Since you bought your current driver, have you:
A: Grown older?
B: Grown older but gained speed through workouts?
C: Grown older but improved your swing through coaching?
If you answered “yes” to any of these, here’s your sign. If you answered “no” to any of these, we’ll send you back to Engvall and he’ll give you that other sign.
Tiger famously told us that Father Time is undefeated. We all grow older and, while some of us age like fine wine, others age like Memorial Day potato salad left in the hot sun. While tools such as Super Speed Golf or The Stack System (pick a side and grab your popcorn) can keep Father Time’s inevitable speed loss at bay, we’ll all need to adjust.
If you’ve gained speed since your last driver fitting, congratulations! You’ve earned yourself a new driver. Take pride in going from a stiff shaft to an X-stiff shaft. Go get fitted and bomb the hell out of it. If you’ve improved your technique through coaching and tamed that hook or slice, you, too, deserve a new driver.
If, however, you’ve lost some swing speed, don’t fret. OEMs know we sexagenarians, while aging gracefully, are a huge market segment. They’re following XXIO’s lead and making lighter-weight, easier-to-swing drivers that, for lack of a better term, are the finders of lost yards.
Therefore, if you’ve survived the last half decade or so and can still swing a club, you might just be a new driver shopper.
Is It Time To Upgrade Your Driver? Sign #3
When you look at your driver stats, do you find that you hit fairways at the same rate as Storm Troopers hit Skywalkers? If so, here’s your sign.
OK, you’re slicing the ball like Hannibal Lecter. Your launch monitor numbers confirm an out-to-in swing path with an open club face is giving you spin numbers in the 4,000 rpm range. Your swing is a problem but can the right driver help?
A new driver won’t “fix your crappy swing” (seriously, check any social media post on any new driver. It comes up every time) but the right new driver can take a bad shot and make it better.
“Drivers are getting even more forgiving,” says Steve Thomson, a fitter and instructor at Golftec in Danvers, Mass. “MOI is higher, CG is further back. Higher lofts now produce more spin so reducing static loft helps a lot. I see a lot more people fitting into a nine- or a 9.5-degree driver head than I did five or six years ago.”
While we always recommend coaching, the right driver can help mitigate that slice to the point where you can have fun on the course.
“Those are the most gratifying ones,” says Thomson. “Give a big slicer a draw-type head that can reduce that slice by 10 or 15 yards? That can change someone’s golf game.”
If your slice is the envy of any hibachi steakhouse chef, you might just be a new driver shopper.
Is It Time To Upgrade Your Driver? Sign #4
This one might rile up the masses, but what the hell …
It doesn’t matter what your handicap is, if you love golf, play regularly and have never been fitted for a driver, here’s your sign.
A common misconception is that club fitting in general and driver fitting in particular is only for the accomplished golfer.
“Without a consistent swing, driver fitting is a waste of money,” say golf’s online illuminati. But any instructor worth his certified PGA status will tell you a mid- to high-handicapper will benefit more from a driver fitting than a low-handicapper.
The low handicapper is a stick with the skill to adapt to almost anything and, while he won’t play his best with an ill-fitted driver, he’ll manage. The mid-to-high-handicapper may not have a consistently good swing but he/she likely has enough tendencies for a good fitter to find a pattern and offer a helpful solution.
Maybe it’s a draw-biased head. Maybe it’s a shorter shaft or maybe it’s a higher MOI. The bottom line is no matter your handicap, if you’ve never been fitted for a driver, you might just be a driver shopper.
Is It Time To Upgrade Your Driver? Sign #5
If you’re still not riled up, keep reading.
We did cite five years as a driver benchmark. But the bottom line is this: If you simply want a new driver, here’s your sign.
Yes, we said it. As a consumer, you earn your own money and can spend it any way you want. If buying a new driver makes you happy, what anyone else thinks is just noise.
Will it magically transform your game? Possibly, but only if you replace an off-the-rack, ill-fitting driver with something fitted to your swing. Will it make you a better golfer? No, but it could help you play better golf.
And, yes, there is a difference.
If you’re gaming a 2022 Callaway Rogue or an original TaylorMade Stealth and you want to go full PING G430 MAX 10K, go for it.
While you shouldn’t fall prey to any OEM’s mass marketing machine, also avoid the growing anti-OEM mass marketing machine. It’s easy to dismiss each year’s offerings with a cynical crack or two and cry “Get Lessons!” Single lessons are nice but tend to be Band-Aids at best. Coaching is long-term and that’s where real improvement is made. Why you play golf and what you’re looking for will ultimately help you decide how to spend your money.
For most of us, golf is a game. And games are supposed to be fun.
Think it through logically. If you really want a new driver, that’s good enough for us. You might just be a new driver shopper.
Git ‘er done.
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