Best Driver Tips: 5 ways to get hold of your perfect driver!

1. GET CUSTOM FITTED

Not so long ago, golfers would stroll into their local store or pro shop and pick a driver up off the shelf and hand over their hard-earned cash. Undertaking a custom fitting was thought to be far too expensive, time-consuming and not always available at certain brands.

Nowadays with the rapid rise of technology and all premium brands offering such a service, custom fitting is typically free within the price of a new driver.

Your local pro or store will be able to fit you for a new driver depending on your swing speed, angle of attack and strike. You will look very silly if you don’t take the opportunity to get fitted as there are so many factors than looks, shaft flex and loft.

Then again, there are FOUR BIG PROBLEMS with a custom fitting as World of Golf master pro Duncan Woolger indicates. Check out his piece for us here. 

2. CORRECT SHAFT FLEX

Measuring your swing speed is very important when finding your perfect driver.

Look at the speed you produce but also combine that with the force you deliver the club, which will be kickpoints.

Kickpoint refers to that region of a golf shaft at which the shaft exhibits the greatest amount of bend when the tip is pulled down. 

All new shafts have certain kickpoints depending on how where and how much force is delivered during the swing.

3. CORRECT LOFT AT IMPACT

This is hugely important when trying to maximise your distance.

Most golf clubs say the loft at the bottom of the club but in tests that isn’t always the case. I remember in one test I conducted with someone's driver a few years ago, it said 8.5-degrees on the club but when measured it was actually 10.2-degrees!

When you hit a drive, every golfer is different in how they present the club at impact. So you may have a 10-degree driver, but at impact you only have 6-degree of loft due to your angle of attack. That’s why it’s so important to get on a launch monitor to see your dynamic loft - this is the amount of loft on the club face at impact and is measured relative to the horizon.

4. CORRECT LENGTH OF SHAFT

The average length of driver on Tour is 44.5” and that is nearly a full inch shorter than the driver you probably have in your bag.

Most brands today are trying to maximise distance by creeping up the length of the shaft. Now this can have a big effect of your centeredness of strike since you may not be consistent with your strike and that can lead to serious dispersion issues and a loss of distance. Strike is king!

5. ONCE FITTED, DO NOT ADJUST! 

So you have been fitted by a PGA professional or product specialist and you have your brand new driver in the bag. You also have been given a wrench. You look confused and start to Google how to change the settings on your new club. This can be a huge mistake!

Don’t go playing around with you new driver, just because you can. The custom fitting has been done to maximise distance whilst keeping your ball down the fairway as much as possible.

Work with what you've been fitted to and keep going. Practice makes perfect remember... or so they say!