Update on the 12* driver discussion.

Well, it didn't work out for me. I am one of those that elevates the head and squares it to the ball. With the 12* head, I had too much lag going on and was constantly pushing the ball.

So I ordered a 8.5* head off the bay for $30, like new, and I am now back to killing it down the fairway, with a baby draw. Playing it between 7.75* and 8.5*, depending on wind conditions.

It was all in the shaft, too.  Aldila Rip Phenom 60 Reg flex, skull with red eyes.

Oh, it's a 910D2.


Can't wait to see what it'll do when I get back up to NY next week.....Florida's been bliss

I tried a 12° driver too. Didn't work for me either.

Much happier with the 10.5° loft.

The highest lofted driver I ever had was an 11.5* Titleist 905R. The wife bought it for me off Ebay real cheap since it came with its stock Tit senior flex shaft. The first time I took it out to the range it was shits & giggles time because all I could hit were towering hooks whether I played it up with a high tee or back off a low tee. If the wind was at my back it went a pretty fair distance. Against the breeze it was "Around The World in 80 Days". Being a tinkerer, I tried a fair number of different shafts in it which was a pain in the ass due to the bore-through head. (Thank God I got over my infatuation with Tit bore-through woods.). The final shaft was perhaps the best-- a Dynamic Gold R300 (rare beast in .005" tip configuration) with which I could hit a 200 yard carry reliably. It breathed its last as I was using the old propane torch to remove that shaft to try something else. I left the flame on a bit too long and the hosel, which is a separate piece, came loose from the head. Oh well.

My gamer for about a year is a 9* Ping G-15. I am within sighting distance of 70 but can still poke it out there within pissing distance of some of the younger guns in my club and past blokes my age about all the time unless I flat out top it.

As far as loft, my philosophy is to use the lowest loft on driver that you can reliably square the clubface on with most of your swings. The lower the loft means less spin and higher ball speed.

Yeppers, I always liked the lower lofted driver. I feel like I have so much more control of the ball. And being able to keep it square to the ball.
the flirt with the 12* was all that talk last year about loft being your friend.
the shaft makes a huge difference.

Steel shafted driver....wow. Actually I found a Taylor Made 3W with a steel shaft and it's a monster off the turf. Head is a draw bias thing which sits too far closed for my setup.

Yeah, I made a couple of them with steel shafts. Still have a 905R in 9.5* that is intact. I cut the shaft to 43" and used it to shoot the lowest score on a local course that has been a nemesis since the mid-'90's. I can put them out 230-240 with that one. I made up a 909D2 8.5* with another steel shaft but never got around to butt-cutting it to length and putting a grip on it. Maybe I'll finish it this spring just to see what a beast it might be.

So how come we're all not using steel shafts in our woods????

Well, you have to play them at 44" at most or you'll get swingweights in the E's. Since they are heavier than almost all graphites save for a few gorilla pros, the swing speed goes down a good bit. I found that I can hit the center of the driver face more often with steel so that compensates. A center face 230 beats a 275 off the heel or toe in the weeds or water every time. And there can be a bit of joint pain after hitting that steel motherfucker 14 times a round. Even so, its kind of cool just to have one in the closet for when you can't hit your driver center-face and you're losing ten strokes per round because of it.

My league partner who is 69, always used ping drivers with R shafts and 10.5 loft. This winter he got a Taylormade with a senior shaft and 12 loft and loving it. Just as long but a little more control and he gets it up in the air much better.

In my eternal quest for a driver that I can consistently get in the fairway has ended. This winter took a set of clubs and various other drivers, woods, hybrids and wedges to 2nd swing (a very big seller of used clubs here in MN). After figuring out what all my shit was worth, ended up with about 250$ worth of store credit. Got in the booth and started trying out various drivers, Taylormade, Srixon, Bridgestone and Ping. Hadn't swung a club in a couple of months and everything was going right (which is my usual miss with a driver). The guy watching me left and came back with a Cobra Fly Z XL which is an offset driver. All of a sudden everything straightened out. Very good distance, straight, and nice spin numbers. Driver is the weakest part of my game so just swallowed my pride and got it. So far, I've been shooting some of my best early golf ever.

Most of the guys I play with are mid to upper sixties and retired. One of them always played an offset driver but couldn't find one and swung mine and liked it so much he bought it from me so I ordered another one online. His brother tried it, liked it so much had me order another one for him. Now another friend, who had triple bypass surgery this February, wants me to order one for him also. Not the prettiest club in the world but what the hey, if it works it works.

I've tried offset drivers and fairway woods in the past but none of them worked for me. So yesterday afternoon, after a Saturday club round in which I fucked myself on several holes hitting driver to the right, I went to the golf galaxy to see what used drivers they had. I picked up three Taylors and went to the hitting stall with the big screen. I hit the R11S 9.0* the best and bought it. Traded a shit Odyssey putter and two useless Vokey wedges and paid them $14 and some change for the Taylor. This white headed bastard is adjustable three ways and I'll have to score one of those torque wrenches to fuck with it and dial it in. It has a stiff Aldilla Rip 60 shaft that feels like it kicks good. It came at 45.5" with a jumbo grip and the grip was off five minutes after I got it home and I'll probably cut it to 45" max and put a new grip on it. I swore I'd never play a white head driver or an adjustable one. Now I got both.

A friend of mine that does body work had a white driver so he put a circle on top with the word slow inside to remind himself to swing easy. Works for him.

Yeah, that white head sure is a blank canvas. Maybe go the decal route. Rolling Stones lips? Flames? Pin stripes? Boobs? Arse? Swastika?

Picture of the Donald?

That's worth consideration. Ever seen him play? Total body rotation swing that hits it out there many yards past me with driver. That sumbitch is a couple of months older than me, too. Wife is hotter, too. And damn, a private 7 whatever 7 with leather out the ass and no TSA screeners. Something to be said for LIVING LARGE.

as a geezer who remembers, the 11* loft was the standard for persimmon drivers... if it was 12*, they called it a TWO wood.

Boy do I remember them. That's what I learned to play with when I was still in elementary school. The old man would cut the butts off the woods he no longer used, re-grip them and give them to me. Same with irons. Old forged blades cut way down. The young might fail to realize that the persimmon woods almost all had True Temper Dynamic steel shafts that weighed on average around 130 grams cut to length. When I was a teenager, my father gave me his driver and two wood that he said he played Pinehurst #2 with. They were the same model MacGregors that Nicklaus used with the thunderbird looking logo on the crown and the Cycolac face inert with the six screws. Talk about hitting it on the screws. If you ever hit those type of woods, you know what I mean. That two wood was a beast off the tee and I used it until the whipping unraveled. Man I hated that damn string and used to wrap the hosels with black electrical tape to keep it intact.

It took a real man with real swing speed to elevate those clubs. One of the most impressive drives I ever saw up close was by a guy who stood maybe 5' 5" and weighed maybe 130. I watched him hit driver during a tournament in the Philly suburbs in the mid 60's at a course that was a regular Tour stop for some years. This guy swung so hard and fast that both his feet were off the ground at impact and the ball carried over 300 yards. The weilder of that persimmon was Chi Chi Rodriguez.

Glad to see that the whole gang is still alive

As I said before I bought the TM Jetspeed 13* driver, hit it well , can't seem to do anything wrong with it... and I slowly adjust it , Now I optimize it at 11.5* for best trajectory and roll.... I have to admit, I love this cheap driver... Everything is about the 'angle of attack".
Couple wks ago I played at a local club and they team me up with an old man , later turn out to be Bob Pfister who was the PGA and Sr. PGA tour player . He was the head pro at The Glenmills golf course just outside of Philadelphia... Man, at 76 he still hit balls like you would not believe.... Anyway, he still gives lessons at Glenmills during weekends

http://www.glenmillsgolf.com/

How the hell is Mongrel doing? play any round at Pilgrim's Oak this yr? I plan to play it before the yr end... My game is quite consistent this yr so I am very pleased

Mongrel still vertical and utilizing oxygen and now with a 12* driver in the bag sharing the top slot with the 9* R11S. This Twelver (not to be confused with the bat-shit-crazy Iranians) is a SLDR S Mini Driver. Got it real cheap used several weeks ago and cut it down from its standard 43.5" to 42.25" or so. No lead tape added. Just pounds the snot out of the ball off a low tee and off a decent fairway lie. Played my third round with it two days ago at Royal Manchester just north of York in our club's first playoff round and it did great. On shorter par 4's, I used it off the tee and had short irons in every time. I used it off the deck for the first time on two of the par 5's and had 20-30 yard pitches to the greens. The other SLDR in my bag is a 17* "strong" three wood. It is money. Both Sliders have the stock Fuji Speeder shafts-- a stiff in the 12* and regular in the 17*. I did pull the shaft from the Mini Driver and reinstall it after FLOing it and now it hits the same way every time with no stray wild shots.

Now the biggie is that I made my first hole-in-one on the second hole, a short par 3, hitting a smooth 9 iron up into a breeze. Titleist NXT Tour S lands six inches front left of the hole and takes what I swear was two or three seconds to cozy up into the hole.

Haven't played Pilgrim's Oak this year. Our group played it but the tee times did not work for me.

When I was physically able to play, the high loft drivers worked out well for me.  

I could tee the ball lower, and especially important, I could play the ball less left in my stance.

In other words, I didn't have to use a special driver swing which was never good for me.

It's all academic now.  I'm done.

Congrats on the ace, Mongrel! First one at age 69! What age for first sixty-nine <slurp slurp>? I'll guess fifteen.

No, much later. The people I grew up with were mainly from stolid Pennsylvania-Germanic stock. Even in NY state in college, they like to fuck but drew the oral line just south of the navel. Yes, the Ace was a real big deal. Especially since I won a couple of hundred clams for the first one of the season in my club. Unlike some of the previous years' first acers, I picked up the tab for the guys' bar bill but admonished them that they all had an hour or more drive back to the Baltimore metro area from York, PA, and I would not be held liable for any DUI's, DWI's or fatalities. Now if it were 30 years ago, there would have been coke and weed treats. How the times change.

Mongrel wrote: Now if it were 30 years ago, there would have been coke and weed treats. How the times change.

I was down with the weed big time, but not with the coke. Except for coffee, to which I'm addicted, my body could never tolerate ^. My teeth would chatter and I'd get digestive issues.

I did have to be careful in the other direction, though. I've gotten relief from mass quantities of OXY, so I had to be very careful not to abuse them.