Golf Driver Buying Guide

How important is the modern golf driver? Short game wizardry and putting accuracy may be golfing essentials, but if you are not whacking drives over 250 yards, you are losing out.

All the top players are now known primarily for their driving distance before any other stat. With advances in golf driver technology and the general fitness of a 21st century golfer, are we still driving for show?

When someone brings up the subject of golf technology, immediately we think about the huge headed drivers that cover pro shop floors across the world. Hard to imagine that is only 20 years since the majority of professionals would tee up a persimmon driver.

Advances in sweet spot technology, size, launch angle, composition, forgiveness, ball speed and aerodynamics are just some of the categories that the top manufactures now spend millions of pounds researching and developing.

The result to us is the vast array of drivers on the market. We are spoilt for choice as to what driver we should use in today' market, and finding the right one can open the door to an extra 20 yards or perhaps being able to get up to that testing par 5 in two!

The following is a description of everything you need to know about golf drivers and the drivers that we think are the best under certain criteria:

Steel

Steel headed drivers are slightly less expensive but heavier than the more modern titanium drivers. More traditional looking and metallic, they have a smaller head due to the increased weight of the steel, and the relative weakness of the metal means manufacturers had to limit the headsize. Very durable however, and still offers a solid, consistent connection.

Titanium

Probably the biggest breakthrough in recent golf technology was the development of the titanium driver. The relatively lightweight head allows manufacturers to produce larger headed drivers, which consequently increases the sweet spot. Not only does the larger size increase the sweet spot, but also the forgiveness of the club will be greater. The forgiveness of a driver is essential when playing with it, and titanium offers the most forgiveness of all the materials. The ability to hit decent shots from an off centre connection can save many golfers several shots a round. Titanium is also a long lasting material that will resist damage from impact or corrosion. The only draw back in titanium is that it is the most expensive material in driver technology that is represented in the price of titanium drivers.

Composite

A composite driver is a driver that combines non-metal materials with titanium. The advantage of this type of driver is that the composite part of the driver is very lightweight as it uses materials such as carbon, so reduces the weight of the driver.

The crown of the club may be carbon or some new drivers have the entire rear section of the driver crafted from carbon, leaving just the titanium face to hold the weight and strength of the driver. Therefore by reducing the overall weight of the head, makers can centre the weight of the driver nearer the face, offering more forgiveness and a larger sweet spot.

Mix that with the titanium core that produces explosive distance and an increased sweet spot. Becoming more and more popular with manufacturers the composite driver is the lightweight option that doesn't give up distance by using a titanium face. Which means the head is fairly lightweight, but the face is still solid and offers a large hitting area.

Launch Angle

The launch angle of a driver is the angle at which the ball is struck into the air from the driver, measured from the ground. Most drivers will have a launch angle of between 11 and 18 degrees under testing. It is important to find the right launch angle to produce the maximum amount of distance from your swing. The perfect launch angle will maximise both carry and roll.

Headsize

The headsize of a driver is the size of everything below the shaft. It is measured in cubic centimetres. The legal limit for a driver is 460cc set by the R&A.

Moment Of Inertia (MOI)

Moment of Inertia is the term applied to a club head's resistance to twisting when the ball is struck. For example, your swing is a little off and you hit the ball on the toe of the club head. A club head with a higher MOI will twist less as a result of the miss-hit, creating a better chance that the ball will still go where you intended and with less loss of distance. It is a strong indication of the "forgiveness" of a club head - that is, the extent to which a good result can be achieved from a less than ideal contact with the ball. Further increases to MOI could reduce the challenge of the game by reducing the skill required to hit the ball straight. In addition, that could also result in an increase in average driving distance by reducing the likelihood that swinging faster will produce a poor result.

Moment of Inertiais a physical property that can be expressed as a numerical measurement. On April 11 2006, the USGA announced that the maximum allowed MOI has been revised to 5,900 g-cm² (32.259 oz-in²) with a tolerance of /- 100 g-cm² . The limit is on moment of inertia around the vertical axis through the club head center of gravity

COR

The COR, or Coefficient of Restitution , is the measurement of the amount of energy transferred between the clubface and the ball at impact. Specifically, the COR measures the how well the ball rebounds off of the clubface. The higher the COR, the more energy is retained and the ball rebounds farther. If it were possible to transfer all of the energy in the clubhead to the ball, the COR would be 1.00 (100%) The USGA has set a maximum COR value that a club can have at 0.83. This means that there can be no more than an 83% energy transfer from the clubhead to the ball.

The R&A currently allow drivers with a COR of 0.89 to be used in general play by amateurs. However as of 1 January 2008 it will reduce to the USGA limnit of 0.83. However for Tour professionals and elite amateurs in the R&A juristiction, the 0.83 limit already applies now.

If you are unsure about your new driver being over the limit you can check our driver review section or go to the R&A's website at www.randa.org where you can find a full list of conforming drivers in the Rules > Equipment section.

Length & Weight

Many people could be forgiven for believing the length and weight of a driver is not important. This is untrue though. Drivers vary from 43-47 inches long typically. Increasing the length of your driver will increase you driver distance, but you will sacrifice control and is recommended only to experienced players. The reason for the increased length is the simple physics that the clubhead has further to travel to the ball, therefore picking up speed for longer. Similarly the lighter the driver, the faster the players swing speed will be, producing more distance. If you desire more control on your drives a heavier driver will offer more control.

Plugs/Weights

A recent breakthrough in driver technology is the incorporation of plugs or weights in the head of drivers. Manufacturers discovered this technology in the late 90s with tungsten inserts that were placed behind the face of the driver to add to the sweet spot. The position of the weight affects the way in which it works. The further the weight is away from the face, the higher the ball flight it will produce. In more recent years, companies have begun adding removable weights. Usually, up to four weights can be placed in the head of drivers to offer players different shapes and velocities. The rules of golf mean that the weights cannot be changed whilst in a round, but can be adjusted between rounds to change the player's ball flight.

Adjustability

Inspired by Tour players and custom fitting demands, many new drivers feature adjustability. In addition to plugs/weights (above), manufacturers have screw hosels to drivers allowing players to remove the head from the shaft, and adjust the lie, loft, face angle. Simply use the tool provided by the manufacturer to unscrew the head, follow the instructions for the desired setting, and reattach the clubhead. The resulting ease of adjustability allows players to alter their ball-flight with immediate results, rather than in the past when different heads would be fixed to corresponding shafts requiring players to test/try several different drivers. Some manufacturers claim the adjustability in their drivers produces up to 75 yards of left-to-right ball flight variance.

To help you choose the right shaft, please see our Golf Shafts Buying Guide