Are the New, Bigger Drivers Better?

If you want to take advantage of technology advances in golf equipment, you should consider updating your “old” driver. The new, larger headed drivers will provide the following benefits over those designed twenty five to thirty years ago:

1. The first thing that helps all golfers, is that the heads have increased in size from about 300 cc (the volume measured in cubic centimeters) to as much as 500 cc. There seems to have been a race to see who could make the biggest head.
2. Unfortunately bigger is not always better. There are diminishing returns with head size and about 400cc seems to be close to the optimum.
3. The reason the bigger hollow heads (300cc or 400cc) are better than the 200 cc model is that more weight can be distributed farther away from the center of gravity, in the shell itself. This increases the MOI (Moment of Inertia), which means that the club head is inclined to twist less if you miss the sweet spot. The loss in ball speed is about six mph if you miss the sweet spot by ½ an inch or more. This is considerably better than with heads 200 cc in size.
4. Another advantage one gains from the bigger heads is that most of them are made of titanium and have bigger faces. This allows for a spring like effect. The face actually deforms and recovers during impact. The energy losses in the face are less than the energy losses in the ball and as a result the overall efficiency of the energy transfer to the ball from the club is better. The COR (Coefficient of Restitution) is higher. This means that the ball will leave the face of the club faster and more distance will be the end result.

That’s the good news. You need to know, however, that the actual gains you get on average, will be less than the technology can provide. Impacts that you and I make are generally less than perfect hits on the sweet spot. Therefore, I’m afraid it is back to the range and the old faithful BOB system (Buckets Of Balls)!