Defending the Tee Shot

[Mike Hendren]

Before.getting to  the architecture issue I first need confirmation of my premise:  Is the modern driver the “easiest” club in the bag to hit.  For me it is.  How about you?

[Ben Sims]

—Whew boy here we go. This topic seems to have been on many people’s minds of late —


The modern driver is not the easiest club to hit for me.

[Kalen Braley]

A big no from me, although its not the hardest one.  Long irons first (3-4), then driver...

[Matt Schoolfield]

As a mid-handicapper I'd say my easiest to hardest are: Putter, W, 9i, 8i, SW, 7i, 60º, 4h, 6i, Driver, 5w, 5i, 4i

[Mike Hendren]

Matt if you are most successful with the putter how on earth are you a mid-capper?😁

[Matt Schoolfield]

Matt if you are most successful with the putter how on earth are you a mid-capper?

Ha! Not in the way you think. Growing up in Texas you just learn to hit it from distance because of all the hardpan. I was recently playing a 2v2 best ball match at a fancy club in the Bay Area, where they cut the fairway to near-green height. I putt from 40+ yards out to six feet multiple times, where I would usually two-putt. But, yea, it happened so much so that the guys we were playing against were yelling about my handicap too.

I mean I don't really know what to say. Where I usually play out here it's kikuyu or poa and you have to basically hit flop shots from 15 feet off the green if you're short sided. You give me a course that's manicured, and it's just a lot easier for me. Put me on dormant Bermuda on hardpan and I'm gonna bump-and-run anything inside of 115 yards.

[Carl Johnson]

From Matt, reply No. 5: "You give me a course that's manicured, and it's just a lot easier for me. Put me on dormant Bermuda on hardpan and I'm gonna bump-and-run anything inside of 115 yards."

My range is is a little shorter, 80 yds. or so, but you also need the green to open in front and the intervening terrain contours suitable.  (I use an old H&B Powerbilt steel shaft forged 8 iron for long range bump and run.) In my limited experience, properly maintained Ross courses fit the bill.

(I don't (can't) hit driver any more so I have no idea how the modern ones work.)

[Charlie Goerges]

For me, the driver is the relatively easiest club to hit. It's not easier to hit than a wedge, but it's so much easier than drivers used to be, whereas a wedge is about as easy to hit as it used to be.


It's also my best club in relation to the other players I play with (average players). Most of them can hit a wedge on the green, but few can keep it in play off the tee as well as I do.

[Keith Williams]

Looking forward to this conversation, but to answer part 1 - yes, I think so.


Unlike much of the general golfing populace, I figure that many here in the forum have been playing long enough that they lived through the driver revolution. I remember my first driver was a TaylorMade Original One and only after showing I could hit it consistently did my father let me move on to drivers from the TaylorMade Burner series.  I still have my old 7, 8 and 9.5 Tour Burners.  It was all so different before the Great Big Bertha; drivers were difficult to hit well and the penalty/remaining challenge after a poorly struck drive was so severe and different than today.  That shift alone might be worth an architectural discussion.  The driver I play today isn't even the most current technology, but getting off the tee reliably and in the generally correct direction is about the most consistent part of my game now.


-Keith

[Brian Finn]

Before.getting to  the architecture issue I first need confirmation of my premise:  Is the modern driver the “easiest” club in the bag to hit.  For me it is.  How about you?

For me, driver is currently the easiest club to hit well BY FAR. 

For the past few years, I used a driver for which I was fit in ~2019 and every time I considered getting a new one, friends and playing partners asked me why I would ever consider that when driver was the best part of my game (basically the only part that consistently worked).  I attributed most of my success with the club to familiarity, but recently (due mostly to boredom, and to a lesser extent desire to hit it longer) I was fit into a new 2025 model.  In my first 6 or 7 rounds with the new driver, my accuracy remains unchanged, and I am hitting it longer.

[Thomas Dai]

The modern Driver might not be the easiest club for everyone, although I reckon it likely is for almost everyone, but it's a damn sight easier to use than the equivalents from previous generations.

atb

[cary lichtenstein]

Without a shadow of a doubt, it became the easier club to hit compared to what came before it

[Mike Hendren]

My premise appears to be questionable.  Let’s go at it a different way - has the driver become easier to hit over the past 40-50 years compared to other clubs? For you smart guys has the standard deviation narrowed more with the driver than with other clubs?


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