Driver Head Size...Is Larger, Longer off the Tee?

I have noticed playing with people in the men's club that the Taylor Made R7 460 is very popular and a huge hitting driver. Most guys are 290 minimum and usually 300-350.

I use a Louisville Smart F2 Persimmon (newer style) and I am usually 240-285 off the tee and straight as an arrow. The guys in the club all say my game would imporve if I went to this other style of driver.

I did play a round with the R7 and did not notice anything other than my score going up. Since I was hitting longer, my accuracy went down. This may have been due to my unfamiliarity with the club, but I felt the extra yardage was not worth the poor placement down the hole. I did not feel like I had the control over the ball anymore, the driver took over...

Do these monster hitting clubs really help our overall game or are they there to stroke our egos for more distance? I am wondering if I need to just go out there and upgrade and work through the kinks of these newer drivers.

Thanks for the advice...

Wm

i think the reason we all use big headed drivers (i use the callaway x460) is because misshits (like off the toe or hell) go almost as far as a dead center hit, where as w/ my adams ovation 3 wood when i hit off the toe, the ball goes like nowhere
there is a HUGE difference in accuracy, but i believe in being 260 down most fairways, or slightly in the rough, than 210 down dead center of every fairway
just because that's the way just about every golf course is designed, you have to be able to hit the long ball

[quote=hart3856]I have noticed playing with people in the men's club that the Taylor Made R7 460 is very popular and a huge hitting driver. Most guys are 290 minimum and usually 300-350.

I use a Louisville Smart F2 Persimmon (newer style) and I am usually 240-285 off the tee and straight as an arrow. The guys in the club all say my game would imporve if I went to this other style of driver.

I did play a round with the R7 and did not notice anything other than my score going up. Since I was hitting longer, my accuracy went down. This may have been due to my unfamiliarity with the club, but I felt the extra yardage was not worth the poor placement down the hole. I did not feel like I had the control over the ball anymore, the driver took over...

Do these monster hitting clubs really help our overall game or are they there to stroke our egos for more distance? I am wondering if I need to just go out there and upgrade and work through the kinks of these newer drivers.

Thanks for the advice...

Wm[/quote]

Larger clubheads have the mass and dimension to produce spring-like effect when contacting the ball. If your current driver's COR is not the same as the latest allowable limit, then it may be worth upgrading. However, the decision is up to you since you know your game best.

If it ain't broke, leave it alone.

Not trying to flame you or anything but I take it that the guys you play with are semi pro.

290 minimum and usually 300 - 350 strikes me as pretty long for the average player, even with a Taylor Made 460 Rocket Launcher.

As the earlier reply stated, they are longer if hit correctly but the major plus is that they are much more forgiving.

The key is to try them all, find one you like and then get fitted.

I have a 460cc and a 400cc and they are c.o.r.'d out. The 460 is about 10 yards longer or so. I can bring the 460 around faster than normal and have less chance of a miss hit though.

I have a 460cc Cleveland Comp and a 400cc Nickent Genex Comp both claim to be at the max allowable COR. There is little if any distance difference between the 2 on well struck shots. The 460cc is noticably longer on mishits though, especially toe hits.

Geez,does everyone on this forum hits 300+ yard drives and 150 yd 9 irons:rolleyes: ..? i would estimate maybe 1% of the golfers I've seen can 300 yd drives consistantly.Almost every kid at my home course claims to hit 300 yarders. and yet when I play a round with them more often than not my drives are equal or longer.and I rarely hit a drive over 250.

[QUOTE=enduro]I have a 460cc Cleveland Comp and a 400cc Nickent Genex Comp both claim to be at the max allowable COR. There is little if any distance difference between the 2 on well struck shots. The 460cc is noticably longer on mishits though, especially toe hits.

Geez,does everyone on this forum hits 300+ yard drives and 150 yd 9 irons:rolleyes: ..? i would estimate maybe 1% of the golfers I've seen can 300 yd drives consistantly.Almost every kid at my home course claims to hit 300 yarders. and yet when I play a round with them more often than not my drives are equal or longer.and I rarely hit a drive over 250.[/QUOTE]
Yes enduro, we all know they're smokin' crack when they quote their yardages. I just asume they're liers and move on. But to be fair, hart3856 never quoted any crazy yardages for himself, it was just his fellow member's distances that seem suspect. Perhaps he's only guilty of believing their stories.

Thank you all for the input...Seriously though...I am probably getting a line from a few of them. God knows there are mens clubs across the nation that are filled with bragards and drunks...but that is another story!! You are right, most people I play with are 250-300 yards off the tee and right into the soup :) Anyone can crank it, who doesn't care where it goes ultimately.

The ones I tend to believe are the guys playing from the gold tees (pro) and are scratch if not single digit handicap players. The most recent one I have played with, was an 11 handicap and it was demorilizing for me to be hitting from the whites (it goes gold, blue, white, red at our home course) and watch them out drive me everytime.

I know there are many players out there looking to lengthen their game. I guess I got tied up in it all. I will go back to hitting my second shot at 200 yards and be happy getting to the green in 3 and not 2 :)

Wm

[QUOTE=hart3856]I have noticed playing with people in the men's club that the Taylor Made R7 460 is very popular and a huge hitting driver. Most guys are 290 minimum and usually 300-350.

Do these monster hitting clubs really help our overall game or are they there to stroke our egos for more distance? I am wondering if I need to just go out there and upgrade and work through the kinks of these newer drivers.

Thanks for the advice...

Wm[/QUOTE]

Consider that the average driving distances of male Scratch Players are 250 yards, according to the USGA.

290 "minimum" would exceed even PGA competitors' average drives.

Bigger head makes it easier, but not much further

Oh somehting I may have forgot to mention that might help you all out...Our course is at 9300 feet above sea level....which is probably helping their distance considerably.

Wm

Hart, here's the deal...

No distance talk is really necessary. What the 400-460cc drivers are all about is primarily a bigger margin for error. Their COR's are no higher than the 300-390cc drivers out there from 3-5 years ago. Some posters may claim they are, but the facts show otherwise. Driver COR's maxed out about 5 years ago... In fact, there are a few clubs with <300cc that have equal or superior COR's to every 460cc club on the market.

The bigger clubs give you the assurance that if you hit your tee shot 1/4" off the optimum sweet spot, then your ball will go farther/straighter than it would with the 300cc driver. If you are money with a 240cc driver, and you've found no improvement with the 460cc drivers, then that probably means that your drives are grooved - you're as straight and as long as you're gonna be, give or take 3-5 yards of perfection.


Personally, I have a TaylorMade 200 Steel driver (yes, it's a steel head driver) that has a COR of .825+/- and I hit it about 240 yds in the middle of the fairway (avg 10+/14 fairways hit). I also have a Ping Si3 340 degree and a Ping Si3 380 degree driver. I hit them about 95+% as well as I do the Taylor Made. Distance & accuracy (230+ yds avg. & 9+/14 fairways hit). With my swing speed & ball flight, that's about all I'm going to get. The distance won't compete with the liars (on here) who pretend they hit everything 300+ yds, but then again, my ego doesn't need the stroking. Oh, sure, optimum for me would be about 250 yds in the middle, but honestly, how often do any of us hit the 'perfect' golf shot? The TM's COR means that if I had a driver with the max .830 COR, I'd get a whopping 1-2 yds of additional length, assuming that perfect hit, of course... The difference in .820 & .830 COR equals about 2-3 yards on a perfectly, PERFECTLY, hit ball. keep that in mind.

What does all that mean? It means that factors such as swing speed and swing plane are just as crucial as driver head size & COR & MOI & all the other selling points for the newer more expensive drivers. It most importantly means that if you hit your persimmon driver as well as you want, stick with it. If nothing else, it will freak out your fellow players that you're using a 'tiny' driver and playing so well...

I recently switched:

From: Taylor Made R540 350cc
To: Titleist 905R 460cc

I noticed a little more distance but not much. I think that is mainl because I am hiting it so much straighter. It is almost impossible for me to not hit this thing straight. My second round with it last week I hit 5/7 fairways with it. One of those ran too long past the fairway(bad course knowledge) so in reallity I only hit 1 out of seven off line. It was a slight pull hook into left rough.

I would not even consider going less than 460cc now. Off course the Titleist hides it size well. It doesnt seem as large as the other 460cc I have seen.

[QUOTE=hart3856]Oh somehting I may have forgot to mention that might help you all out...Our course is at 9300 feet above sea level....which is probably helping their distance considerably.

Wm[/QUOTE]
We've been punked.