One of my favourite pastimes is playing golf with friends and family and has been since I was a young whippersnapper. Like many golfers I do not belong to a club, but not due to fees (there are some great deals out there) but for the love of playing different courses. So I cannot give you an official handicap to judge my level but in the societies I play in I am currently between 4-10 (so not great but I can hold my own).
Sports psychology is key in golf but having the right equipment can make a huge difference. Towards the end of 2014 I got given some bad advice by a golf megastore worker about what driver to buy and against my better judgement I went with it. My problem revolved around a regular shaft with a highish swing speed. Essentially the shaft will not keep up with a fast swing leaving the club face open at impact blocking the majority of shots right. A serious issue when you are used to having a natural draw. Halfway through 2015 (having given the club a go) I decided to cut my losses and change clubs, In order to lay the foundation of this purchase journey i will share my golf vital statistics:
- Average 250-260 yard drive
- Hcp 4-10
- Naturally favour a draw (curl the ball right to left)
- Bad shot is a snap hook
- Swing speed 92-97 mph
- Previously owned a Ping G5 with stiff shaft (bought second hand)
- Swapped to a Ping G15 driver with a regular shaft (bad advice)
I am brand loyal and have had Ping drivers for years, my G5 lasted 8 years, and i could have just swapped shafts over but I wanted to experience what the other manufacturers offered. With a quick internet search for “top drivers” returned the link Golf Best Driver Review 2015 which looked pretty comprehensive and gave me a good starting point.
As said I am brand loyal and equally over the years i have formed opinions of manufacturers which I should challenge but generally just accept. So I started culling
- Nike (not golf specialists – get rid)
- Srixon (great balls not sure of shaft quality – get rid)
- Cobra (had one in the 90’s, face caved in – get rid)
- Mizuno (my favourite brand of irons, never had anything else. Had a driver once and hated it – get rid)
This pretty much left me with Callaway, Titleist, Ping and TaylorMade. There are many other brands out there (Wilson, Cleveland etc) but as said i am a brand snob and won’t entertain these options (you have to love marketing).
My next conundrum was what do i want my driver to give me? Extra distance, extra control, higher flight, more spin – as I read all of the reviews I realised all I wanted was a better chance of being near the right hole (being a golfer with limited control but excellent powers of recovery and the belief that if i can see the flag i have a chance). With this in mind I tried the following clubs:
They are all very nice clubs and each have their own pros and cons but what I find a pro maybe a con for you and vice versa so I will not extol the virtues of each club but rather encourage you to try these down your local driving range. But as this blog is supposed to help you make a decision I will bring a conclusion to what I bought.
As well as being an avid golfer I also like to get value for my money and spending £350+ on one club which I may use 4-6 times a round does not make sense to me on any level. So after spending some time in the nets on the monitor in the aforementioned golf megastore (guilt free due to the bad advice – will abuse the facilities but never buy from there again) I decided the Ping was everything I wanted (predictable), the Callaway and TaylorMade did the job but the chav related design and garish nature of each wasn’t for me and the Titleist had the inherent quality i expect from the brand.
I will always encourage fellow golfers to buy from their pro shops, we should always support the local business and especially those looking after the next generation of golfers and ensuring grass routes have the funding and support needed to grow. BUT as said i don’t have a club and always want a good deal so my favourite place to buy is Golfbidder, a great site for offers on secondhand and new clubs and a good delivery service (this is my opinion others may vary – if you’ve not tried it then liken it shopping at TK Max, you have sift through a lot of stuff before finding something you want). So off i went to have a look for Ping and Titleist drivers. So with Ping in my heart I searched for G30’s, then G25’s, G20’s etc (you get the picture) but with no avail so then started on the Ping I series which i realised was ridiculous as I hadn’t hit one and was basing a buying decision on the hope it would be like a G series driver – nonsense. Having been unsuccessful I moved to Titleist and still couldn’t find anything to suit my requirements. Then a ray of sunshine poked through the golf bidder cloud and it started calling to me, a Titleist 913 D2.
Again I had no experience of this club and wanted to try before i buy but the golf megastore had none in stock and nor did my other favourite golf shop near me (who have a plethora of second hand clubs and has been a happy hunting ground for me). So I went against my betted judgement and bought this bad boy. Ok so it wasn’t wholly untried, I hit a D3 with stiff shaft and found a D2 with regular shaft (the closest I could get to a real test) and found them both ok – incidentally I told my story about bad advice to my man at the golf store and he agreed that with my swing speed I should never have been recommended a regular shaft).
Anyway it arrived within 48 hours and i eagerly rushed down the range to hit 50 balls with the new beast. I teed it high and let it fly. I teed it low and kept my swing slow. I adjusted it to try with every angle on offer and thoroughly enjoyed my time down the range with it. I found my optimum setting and sent another 50 balls down the range and 35/40 of them went pretty much where I wanted them to. But i still wasn’t happy – the ball was going slightly further than i was used too (quality), drawing nicely when I wanted it to and even faded a few on purpose (loving the control) and the flight was beautiful, starting low and rising to full height (i love it when shots do that). So what was the problem – the noise. Whether I have been spoilt by Ping for years or whether my tone deaf ears are perceiving it differently I cannot get over the dull thunk of the ball hitting the face (and yes I am hitting it right – I gave it to pro friend just in case who gets the same noise).
So having started on a journey to get a driver to improve my game I did exactly that. The club aesthetics are nice, the adjustment is quite cool (first club I have had this on) and the price was spot on but it wasn’t the brand I wanted and it sounds like a tin can when hit. So what can you take from this – don’t buy what you want, buy what is good for your game. Since having my new driver I am hitting more fairways in regulation (the right one most of the time) and putting myself in better scoring situations. I am very happy with my purchase but i do miss the sound of a Ping
There is an epilogue to my tail with a note you should take much heed of. If you buy a club with an adjustment tool hide it because if you don’t, and your mates are like mine, they will do anything to take the money…….
Spiffy Smiffy 