Nothing is more exciting than taking a good rip from the tee box and watching the ball carry for 260 yards before it rolls for another 40 yards. Most golfers know that the best way to fire a ball down the fairway is to pull out a big gun -- a 460cc driver. These "Volkswagens on a stick" have allowed club designers to forge new ground in playability, distance and accuracy.
There's a reason why players such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, John Daly and others use a 460cc driver. The question for the amateur golfer is "which one's right for my bag?"
Independent tester GolfTest USA reports on 10 460cc drivers currently on the market. The final group of 10 tested clubs provides a mix of top clubmakers, as well as up-and-coming companies.
The 10 drivers were divided into two different groups. Golfers then hit five shots with each driver and evaluated 10 criteria after hitting each driver. The order in which each driver was hit was randomly rotated for each tester. In past tests, it's been found that testers' best swings come in their first 30 shots. After that mark, quality shots become harder to come by.
The nature of these tests is based on a group of golfers who may or may not be swinging their best at the time of the test. However, with a minimum of 50 golfers testing a club, the tests provide a fair representation of how golfers in general would rate the club. Each tester was asked to be fair and unbiased in their evaluations and not to let favoritism or prejudice affect the evaluations of each driver.
Sixty golfers from 0 to 25 in handicap participated in each group. Afterward, the 50 tests with the fairest and most consistent evaluations were selected. Those tests created the compilation of the final results. The results were based on 10 categories, each of which was scored on a one to 10 system, with 10 being the best possible score.
Distance - Each tester rated how far they hit each driver.
Control - Testers were asked how much control they had while hitting each driver.
Accuracy - Testers scored each driver's accuracy performance.
Forgiveness - The rate of how forgiving the driver was on off-center hits.
Sound - How the tester rated the sound of the club.
Appearance - How appealing the look of the club was to the tester.
Feel - How the club felt at setup and during the swing.
Ball Flight (Trajectory) - Testers rated how the ball came off the club.
Recommendation To Others - How strongly would they recommend the club to friends.
Overall - Testers took into consideration what is important to them in a driver and gave it an overall rating. (This is not an average of the other criteria.)
Besides numerical data, the testers also provided comments on each club they tested, offering what they did or didn't like about the club.
All of the tested drivers incorporate the latest technology and are designed to offer the best performance available to golfers looking to improve their game. Just a few years ago, the sweet spot on a driver was the size of a dime or quarter. These new 460cc drivers have a sweet spot that's the size of a silver dollar, although many clubmakers claim their driver has a hot spot the size of a large grade A egg. We'll leave it up to golfers to make their own determination as to the validity of that claim.
For more independent testing results, visit GolfTest USA at www.golftestusa.com |
