Our Drivers
There is no club that is more important to most golfers than the driver. It’s the "Big Dog". Every year, every major company competes for the "sweepstakes" prize – the best selling driver of the year. The reward? Immediate riches. That’s better than hitting the lottery.
In the last few years, Taylor Made has won the most sweepstakes prizes. They popularized MWT (moveable weight technology) with their first R7 driver six years ago. Since then, there have been a dozen new models, some with MWT, some without. They followed the interchangeable shaft trend. Like all really good new technology, interchangeable shafts took a while to catch on. There are so many models from Taylor Made that even those of us who watch the industry every day can’t keep track of them.
Taylor Made has cured most of us from thinking that every new release must perform better. Sometimes they discontinue a new driver before it has even hit the shelves. So, with Taylor Made, our advice is "go with the classics".
Is the newest model ALWAYS better? Never.
There will never be one "best" driver. If there were, we would all buy it and there would be only one. There are a lot of very good drivers. You need to find the one that suits your eye and delivers the best ball speed with the correct launch angle and spin rate. That’s a job for the launch monitor. But even more important than raw data, the best driver is one that keeps your ball in play and never causes a "catastrophic mistake".
If you’re thinking Taylor Made, you can go with the original R7 Quad, the 425 TP or the 2007 Burner – all bargains today. You also can’t miss with the Super Quad TP. The jury is still out on the entire R9 family. Smart money is going to wait for the R10. Given the current cap on performance decreed by the USGA, buying the newest model driver for the most money is not a good investment. That goes for all manufacturers. Plenty of Tour Professionals are playing "old" driver models.
Where does that leave us on the "decision tree?" It doesn’t really make sense to choose a driver because you like the advertising or because your childhood hero used to play the brand. Your first step should be to understand your swing and your "launch ballistics". If you do that, you will choose a driver that produces the best launch ballistics with your swing.
If you’re a "high spin" player with a driver – you have three good choices – the Nike Sumo "Tour" head, the Bridgestone J-33 from a couple of years ago and the Adams 9015D.
If you’re looking for a new driver, the Adams line is the most underrated company in the world – definitely the Rodney Dangerfield of driver companies. They have had a string of good drivers going back to the 460D. All were good but didn’t sell worth beans. That covers the BUL and BTY models and the Tour 4250. They finally made the Big Time with last years 9015D and this year’s Speedline. The latest model, the 9032LS was the winner of this year’s World Long Drive Championship. All Adams drivers come with good shafts and they’re relatively cheap. What’s not to like?
If you care about the vitality and diversity of the golf equipment industry, consider supporting one of the creative smaller component companies. Alpha, SMT, Wishon and Infiniti have each created seminal designs. The little companies will never match the price of a monster multi-National conglomerate on closeout pricing. Take a close look at the quality and test their products for yourself. You will be doing yourself and the industry a favor to support an underdog.
Why not pick one up from the Golf Lab website?