Should you buy a new driver?
I have no doubt that a lot of you are starting to look at new equipment as the new season looms in the distance and, sure enough, the big boys, with Taylormade well out front, are out with new products to entice you. As many of you will be aware every time something new comes out the marketing speel makes you wonder how on earth you could possibly continue playing with your current equipment as clearly, according to the claims surrounding the new kit, you must be at a massive disadvantage if you do. I’m pretty certain that if you followed Taylormade’s claims for their past five new drivers you should be hitting the ball fifty or so yards further than you are. Just to prove the point: last year I sold my last Nike Vapor Fly Pro driver and reverted for a few months to a five year old Taylormade R1. I actually hit that further than my Nike driver and when I then changed to the new Taylormade M1 I gained no ball speed at all. I did achieve a better flight with the new driver (R1s gave a notoriously low launch) but the truth is I got the new driver because I loved how it looked and because I wanted a new one! So, whatever I say don’t get me wrong: if you fancy something new then get the one you want for the right reasons. It will not put thirty yards on your drives unless you are currently using something that’s at least 8 years old. The right reasons are because it makes you feel good to have something new and because it also gives you more confidence. Nothing wrong with either of those reasons. The manufacturers are always going to give you lots of others to justify you buying something new and expensive but the vast majority of this is just marketing blurb that won’t make any difference to any of us. With all that in mind let’s talk about Taylormade’s new offerings, the M3 and M4 drivers. There are a couple of tiny changes that aren’t worth talking about but there’s one that is, for reasons other than they would want us to be talking about. Their newest ‘game changer‘ is ‘twist face’ technology. After all these years they alone have realised that if you hit the ball out of the heel you need less loft there and out of the toe, more loft. This is based on an assumption that to hit the ball out of the heel of the club it must be open and therefore will have more loft on it and the reverse for toe strikes. There is an obvious problem with this which means this is not the case for the vast majority of players. Put simply, most amateurs will hit the ball out of the heel because they have come ‘over the top’ and swung out to in. This does indeed leave the club face open (in relation to your swing plane) but by definition it means the arms and hands are ahead of the ball at impact so, if anything, the club is de-lofted. The last thing you want is someone to take more loft off the club face. That’s why most heeled drives are low and ‘squirty‘ starting well left of where you intended and cutting back towards the fairway. The reverse is basically true of toe shots. So is my point that no one should buy this driver? Absolutely not. My point is that this is just another marketing ploy that is actually going to make almost no difference to the vast majority of players. If you are a very good player who has a lovely release from the inside then this driver will help those tiny off centre hits, but only a tiny bit, and even then you’d need a computer to prove it. As a Taylormade driver user myself I can confirm the following without seeing the new drivers: they will look fantastic and have adjustability that is second to none in the marketplace. That means with the right help you will be able to set the driver up to give you maximum distance and reliability. If you are looking for a new driver and you agree with me about the looks, as against perhaps the Callaway range for example, then you will not be disappointed. It will not, however, give you lots more distance over last year’s model or make you irresistible to women. Unfortunately, you are still the important bit, on both counts! If you’d like to talk about changing your driver, or any other equipment, come and see me. I can source almost any make and with the indoor studio I can custom fit you in the warm with a cup of tea thrown in.
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