Driver performance reviews based on off-center hits only.

[Raj LP]

The TM Stealth release got me thinking about how much better a driver can get at all given the restrictions on COR and MOI. 

I feel l like for me as an 11 HCP, consistency on off days is what's most important.  I'd like to see which drivers maintain club head speed best, across the face. 

Could we do reviews based only on performance on off-center hits? 

• Measure Ball speed/spin/carry deviations
• See difference based on impact location on the face - High, Low, Left, Right. 

Could this information be grabbed just by slicing and dicing the data if club face impact location is captured via the monitor.  

[RickyBobby_PR]

You can do that yourself by going to get fit or a demo day. This way you get the driver and shaft combo that works best for your swing based on your swing and the info you provide the fitter.

While there are restrictions on cor/Ct and moi there’s a lot more that goes into the performance one sees from a driver. The material, weight, shaft pairing and how the golfer delivers that setup are what determines what the ball will do when the club is delivered. 

Unless you were looking at each swing recorded on a launch monitor and were told contact point unless you know how the golfer swings whether it’s an aggressive swing with early release or something else the data doesn’t translate to the reader.

You can’t do it by handicap because there’s some low/mid handicaps who can’t drive the ball for crap but have good short iron and wedge games and there could be others who smash the ball but suck with scoring clubs 

[Raj LP]

Yes, that part of it makes sense for me personally. However, I am thinking more about the MGS world of tests. When looking at the performance of a driver, the top 5 - 10 end up within about 10 yards or less of each other. Hence, I find myself wondering how to truly differentiate the best head just from a data perspective. 

I think it would an interesting test. 

[cnosil]

13 minutes ago, Raj LP said:

Yes, that part of it makes sense for me personally. However, I am thinking more about the MGS world of tests. When looking at the performance of a driver, the top 5 - 10 end up within about 10 yards or less of each other. Hence, I find myself wondering how to truly differentiate the best head just from a data perspective. 

I think it would an interesting test. 

You have to hit them to determine which is the best combination for you and your swing.  If you are blind buying then look at the top couple of drivers as those combinations can work for a larger percentage of golfers 

[fixyurdivot]

2 hours ago, Raj LP said:

The TM Stealth release got me thinking about how much better a driver can get at all given the restrictions on COR and MOI. 

I feel l like for me as an 11 HCP, consistency on off days is what's most important.  I'd like to see which drivers maintain club head speed best, across the face. 

Could we do reviews based only on performance on off-center hits? 

• Measure Ball speed/spin/carry deviations
• See difference based on impact location on the face - High, Low, Left, Right. 

Could this information be grabbed just by slicing and dicing the data if club face impact location is captured via the monitor.  

Good question and I'm thinking you mean data from the MGS Lab/Most Wanted tests?  I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the "forgiveness" aspect/scoring does look at ball strike location of the various Hit Squad Testers and that is compared to distance and dispersion... but maybe not?   While it would add lots more work, what about also using the swing robot set-up to hit dead center and crown/sole/heel/toe strikes?  It's ability to hit those locations consistently would make for some nice comparative data.

BTW,  anyone know if our MGS robot has a name? 

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

57 minutes ago, Raj LP said:

Yes, that part of it makes sense for me personally. However, I am thinking more about the MGS world of tests. When looking at the performance of a driver, the top 5 - 10 end up within about 10 yards or less of each other. Hence, I find myself wondering how to truly differentiate the best head just from a data perspective. 

I think it would an interesting test. 

The only way do to that is to hit them yourself. The best way is to get fit this way you get the right shaft, head and loft setting for your swing. Anything else is just a guess and even if you had just the averages from a test you have no way to determine what is best for you because you don’t know how close to your swing the person not listed swings like you. 
 

People don’t like to hear this but guessing at what works and blind buying is almost a guarantee of regretting the purchase and could end up being an expensive journey, especially for those who haven’t been multiple times and know what works and doesn’t work for them

[Firebird]

I tried a number of drivers before I settled on a Callaway Epic Flash. Recently I got to also play a rounds with the some of the latest drivers - Callaway Epic Speed, Cobra Rad Speed and TM Sim 2 and honestly I found them all disappointing. To me they lacked the feeling of power I get with the Flash and I think because of this off centre hits were 20-30m shorter than with the Flash. I have Arccos so the data was reasonably accurate.

So my suggestion is to if possible try to take them out and play at least 1 or two rounds with the ones you would like to try and try to record the stats. And do not be surprised if you find little difference between them as I found the latest versions were almost identical in the way they performed.