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Golf's BLOCK HEAD Lisa L. Miller, PGA Master Professional Just over a decade ago amateurs and some PGA touring professionals like Davis Love III, were using drivers with heads made of wood. Today the "metal" woods were made of space age materials such as titanium and carbon composites. Now, major equipment companies are producing drivers with geometric shaped heads.
This new generation of drivers was all the rage at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando this winter. PGA Professionals and golf buyers were either excited about the new clubs or were quite skeptical about their possible success in the market place. The new drivers come with a considerable financial commitment retailing at $399-$499. Square headed drivers are being offered by Callaway (FT-i) and Nike (SQ sumo2) and a triangular head is being offered by Titleist (907D1).
The unusual footprint of these new drivers will take some getting use to in appearance but they will enable the amateur golfer to hit the ball much straighter. It will also take awhile for golfers to acclimate to the unfamiliar sound of these new drivers hitting a golf ball. The Nike Sumo2 is more familiar to an aluminum bat hitting a softball than a metal wood hitting a golf ball. The Callaway and Titleist sound is a much lower pitch than the Nike and has more of a "pop" to the sound from striking a golf ball. The new driver technology allows weight to be distributed in extreme heel/toe or back locations, creating a higher moment of inertia. In short, there is less twisting of the clubface at impact resulting in straighter shots from off-center ball strikes.
Not all premium equipment companies have a square shaped driver. As mentioned earlier, Titleist is introducing the 907D1 which is triangular in shape and accomplishes the same straight shot result as the square headed drivers. The 907D1 does have a shallower face then either the Callaway or Nike drivers and only needs weight placement in one location toward the back of the driver to increase its moment of inertia.. Taylor Made has no immediate plans for a geometric shaped driver claiming their SuperQuad with its removable weights is the best driver on the market. Geometric shaped golf clubs may have just hit the retail floor but did you know that Ping designed a prototype of a square head driver over 15 years ago? The Ping developers didn't like the hollow sound of the square headed design and they didn't find much advantage to the square headed driver over their product offerings at the time, so further design was tabled.
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