For most golfers, no other club in their bag has more of an effect on their confidence, or lack of it, than their driver.
For the player who owns a driver he/she is comfortable and confident with. It is THE golf club they can't wait to hit. Conversely, for the player who has always struggled with hitting a driver with any consistency, it becomes the club they avoid hitting, if they use it at all. What's the difference? How can YOU find a driver you can ALWAYS feel confident with, and benefit from the distance it can deliver on the golf course?
First of all, for several reasons, you may think you do better with, say, a Callaway, or a PING. Maybe once you hit a Cleveland driver, and it soared… so you look for YOUR Cleveland driver. Many players like the Titleist or the Hogan name. Others like Taylor Made. All are good products, but the name on the golf club has little to do with why you hit it well, or not, and why you like it, or not.
More and more golfers have come to understand that how ANY driver works (or doesn't work!) has a lot more to do with you than what company makes the club.
Now that might seem obvious, but it usually doesn't turn into finding THAT driver. Expensive marketing by the big-name companies have done a great job of convincing you that 'this' club or 'that' club is the driver “I can hit”… until we hit a great shot with (don't say it) a no-name club we try during a round with a new foursome. Now how did THAT happen?
What does this all point to? THE driver for you should be built…FOR you! It's called custom fitting, and while most golfers have heard the term, and even probably think it makes sense, most golfers have not taken that step to a custom-fitted driver.
The Confidence Club – Finding the Driver You Can't Wait to Hit Again
In an ideal world, you would have complete confidence in all 14 clubs in your bag. Of course, that isn't likely to happen anytime soon, as this is a hard game and some of your clubs are more difficult to hit properly than others. For instance, you might have one specific iron that never seems to perform quite right, or you might not trust your putter. Whatever the case, confidence can be hard to come by in this game.
The focus of this article is to help you find a driver that gives you the confidence necessary to hit fairway after fairway, all day long. It should go without saying that being confident in your driver is a great bonus when out on the course. If you believe in your ability to hit your driver long and straight, you'll be in great shape to hit plenty of approach shots from the short grass. The putter might be the single most important club in the game of golf, but the driver isn't far behind. Once you find a driver that you love, you should do everything you can to keep using that club for as long as possible.
To understand the importance of trusting your driver, it might be helpful to imagine the status of your game if you had a driver that gave you no confidence at all. How would you perform on the course if you didn't trust your driver to perform properly? You would probably keep it in the bag whenever possible, and when you did need to hit it, your swings would be cautious and tentative. Not only would your scores suffer as a result of your poor performance with the driver, but you wouldn't have as much fun, either. Hitting long and straight drives is one of the great thrills available in this game, so you need to find a club which is capable of delivering that experience.
This isn't about buying a better game – it is simply about finding a club which matches up with your swing. It might turn out that the right driver for you is one of the high-end models on the market, or it might be that you can perform just as well with a lower-priced club. We are going to provide advice in this article on how to track down the driver that is going to lead to feelings of confidence and trust when you stand over your ball on the tee. With this information in mind, it will be up to you to go out and actually locate the perfect driver for your game.
All of the content below is based on a right-handed golfer. If you happen to play left-handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary.
Elements of Confidence
What is it that makes you believe in a given club? This question is a bit more complicated than it seems at first. In this section, we are going to outline three specific points that you need to keep in mind when trying to find a driver which will foster confidence above all else. You'll still need to swing that driver correctly in order to achieve great results, of course, but starting out with confident feelings will put you ahead of the game.
Let's take a look at three keys that will help you find a positive frame of mind when your driver comes out of the bag.
- Appealing looks. For starters, you need to like the look of your driver as you stare down at the ball from your address position. Driver heads these days are extremely large – usually 460cc in volume – meaning you can't help but notice the look of the club as it sits behind the ball. Do you like a club head with loud, bright colors and bold lines? Or do you like something more understated, a driver head which manages to look smaller than it really is? There are plenty of drivers to pick from on the market today, and they come in a variety of shapes, colors, designs, and more. There is almost certain to be something out there which fits your eye, but you'll need to take a bit of time to track it down. Remember, this point is about nothing more than personal preference, so it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about the look of your driver. Everyone else can think it's the ugliest club on the market, and that's just fine. As long as you like it, you're good to go.
- A comfortable ball flight pattern. When testing out a potential new driver, you should pay attention to the ball flight pattern that is resulting from your swings. Does this driver want to send the ball high in the air, or are your shots flying rather low to the ground? You should be comfortable with the natural ball flight, and not feeling like you have to work hard to produce a different type of flight. For example, if you are a player who likes to keep the ball down close to the ground, you don't want to use a driver which naturally sends the ball high into the sky. There is nothing wrong with hitting high drives, but don't choose a club which hits those kinds of shots if that doesn't suit your game. Again, you need to be true to yourself. Think about the ball flight pattern you would like to use, and then track down a driver that takes you in that direction.
- An enjoyable sound. This last point might not seem important, but it is something that needs to be considered before you make a purchase. As drivers have gotten bigger and bigger, some of them have been designed in a way that causes them to make an 'interesting' sound at impact. You don't want to use a club that you hate listening to every time you blast the ball off the tee. The sound your driver makes is not as important as the first two entries in this list, but do give it some consideration. You can think of this last point as a tiebreaker – if you are trying to decide between two clubs that perform similarly, pick the one that sounds best to your ears.
To sum it up, you should be looking for a club that sounds great, looks great, and produces a ball flight that fits with your playing style. As these are all points which relate to personal preference and taste, the driver that you fall in love with might not be a particularly popular model. Or it might be the most popular driver in the game at the moment – you won't' know until you start shopping and testing out various options. Do your best to avoid letting the opinions of other golfers influence your choice too dramatically, as you are on the only golfer who needs to use this club. It's okay to read a few reviews as you do your research, but this needs to be your decision in the end.
Getting Scientific
If you walk into your local golf shop, you will find a large selection of drivers for you to consider. Just looking at them on the shelves can give you a good idea of which one you will like visually – but it really isn't going to tell you anything about their performance. For that, you'll actually need to hit some balls with a variety of drivers, so you can compare one against the next until you come up with a winner.
So, how do you go about making that happen? The best option is to sign up for a club fitting session at your local golf course or retail shop. Most golf shops these days offer club fitting services, either on a driving range or just in a hitting bay near the back of the store. You'll want to find a facility which uses a launch monitor as part of their fitting process so you can leverage modern technology to your advantage. By the end of your fitting session, you should have identified a couple of options for your next driver purchase. From there, it will be up to you to decide which is the perfect club to add to your set.
You will need to spend a bit of money in order to go through a club fitting session, but the cost is usually rather affordable. Also, if you decide to buy a driver from the shop that performed the fitting, the fee for the fitting session may be refundable (ask in advance on this point, of course). Not only will the fitting process help you find the right driver, but it will also allow you to learn some valuable things about your swing. If you decide to set up a fitting session at your local golf shop, keep these tips in mind to get the most out of the experience.
- Trust, trust, trust. Your fitting session is going to be handled by a golf pro, or at least someone who has been trained in the process of fitting golfers for clubs. It is essential that you trust this person and listen carefully to his or her feedback and input as you move along with the process. Remember, the fitting professional is the one with the training on this subject, so it would be wise to value their opinion. Feel free to ask questions, of course, but don't make the common mistake of thinking that you know more than the person who does this kind of work day in and day out.
- Keep your ego in check. When going through a club fitting process using a launch monitor, there will be a lot of data collected each time you make a swing. When the computer ready and waiting to measure your swing, it will be tempting to swing as hard as possible in order to 'impress' the computer. Don't give in to this temptation. By swinging harder than you would out on the course, you are going to take away from the value of the data which is collected during the process. In other words, you will be wasting the opportunity to measure your swing by changing the way you move the club back and through. Set aside any pride that might be getting in the way and simply make the same swing that you would use during a normal round of golf. Taking this approach is going to lead to the best possible outcome from your club fitting.
- Take some time to review the results. You shouldn't feel like you have to make a purchase immediately upon finishing your fitting session. Instead, feel free to take the results home with you, review them, and think about the various drivers that you tested. Does one of them stand out in your mind above the rest? There is room in this decision-making process for both the science of a launch monitor and the personal preference that you develop based on the look and feel of each club. Blend these two elements together in order to pick out the right club for your bag.
Modern drivers can easily cost in excess of $300, with some of them carrying a price tag of $500 or more. With that kind of money on the line, it would be a mistake to just buy the first club on the shelf that catches your eye. By taking a bit of time to go through a club fitting session, you will have the data you need you make an educated buying decision, and you should come away with a club that is perfectly suited for your swing.
