GTi Gear Report: Talking About Drivers Part 1

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via golftoimpress.com

Driver Distance

The driver ultimately is all about distance in golf and we golf enthusiasts are on a never ending quest to find the longest driver out

there. Yes we sometimes forget that accuracy should trump distance especially if you are 300 yards out in the woods vs 260 yards straight down the fairway. The truth is, pretty much all of the emails I get regarding driver recommendations and choices start out with "I am looking for the longest driver TSG has". My answer always is, "There is no such thing as the longest driver out there otherwise everyone would be buying it". It's all about finding the right driver for the specific individual. The longest driver for me may not be the longest driver for Tourspecgolfer and vice versa. There are many things that will affect how a driver feels and performs and I'll start by talking about trajectory and real loft of drivers.

Real Loft versus Stated Loft

The real loft or actual measured loft of a driver may not affect most average golfers but for some enthusiasts or hardcore players, real loft will have an impact on the fine tuning of ones trajectory and ultimately distance. Due to manufacturing margin of error and different manufacturing methods themselves, real or actual loft is many times not what is marked on a driver.

I've read many publications in Japan which have test real lofts and we have done some of our own checking with certain brands. Depending on the brand, some real lofts are very close to stated lofts while some are off by more than a degree or even 2. In most cases way off means much higher than stated. For the average golfer or slower swinger, this is not necessarily a bad thing as we could all use more carry but for the player looking for lower launch, buying a driver with stated loft at 9* but a real measured loft of 12.5* is not a good thing. Last year for example, Albatross Magazine measured random off the shelf drivers and the worst was a Cobra L5V with stated loft of 10.5* and a real loft of 14.0*. Three drivers, the Callaway Legacy, Titleist 909D2 and the Mizuno MP Craft T1 actually came in very slightly below stated loft.

Results off the Shelf

Check out the rest of this article at GolftoImpress.com including real loft results!