Driver Clubhead Size and Performance – Who Wins?
There are a number of golfers who dislike drivers which look so large to them in size they perceive it as being like a “grapefruit on the end of a stick.” Online golf equipment forums will occasionally include threads in which golfers ask golf companies to develop and introduce sub 400cc drivers. Within such comments invariably the question is asked, “can a smaller size driver perform as well as a larger one, and if so, why haven’t the golf companies offered at least an alternative smaller size driver?”
In a nutshell, if a company can be sure a smaller size driver will sell enough units to far exceed the cost of development and marketing, you can be absolutely sure they will make it. All the golf companies are in the business of making money. That’s why if you don’t see smaller size drivers being offered, the companies are convinced the demand is not going to be significant enough to merit the introduction of a smaller size driver. Period.
Way too many golfers still believe that “bigger is better” when it comes to driver head performance. This is a key reason companies do not spend the money to develop a smaller size model. From a pure performance standpoint, the larger the size of a clubhead, the higher its Moment of Inertia could be. In turn that means the larger the head, the better it’s off center hit performance could be.
Likewise, the larger the size of the head, the larger the face area could be as well. Larger size face does not mean a higher COR for more distance because we all know it is eminently possible to reach the USGA’s limit on spring face capability on a face that would be commensurate with a sub 400cc size driver head. For that matter we proved it is possible to achieve a high COR with the far smaller size of a fairway wood or hybrid. But it is true that a larger size face can make it easier to design a variable thickness face that can offer a very high level of off center hit performance.
The bottom line is that it is definitely possible to make a driver head with a volume of 380cc to 400cc that would perform every bit as well for distance and off center hit performance as any of the 460cc heads currently on the market. Yes, the 460cc head’s MOI would likely be higher, but not by so much that it could bring about a significant improvement in off center hit performance. MOI modeling studies for Wishon Golf have shown that a difference of 1400 g/cm2 in the MOI of a driver head, basically the difference between a 360cc and 460cc volume head, offers only a difference of ¼ of 1 degree in resistance to off center hit head twisting. And that’s for a golfer with a 109mph clubhead speed. For golfers with a 100mph and lower swing speed, the additional off center hit improvement from a 1400 g/cm2 difference in MOI is much less.
If all the golf companies could be convinced that enough golfers would buy a smaller size driver to make it worth the expense to develop and introduce such a model, golfers would not skip a beat in terms of the performance they could achieve with a smaller size head. It’s all a matter of supply and demand – and right now there is just not enough demand to generate a supply.
Me. Miura says that the miura baby blade is easy to hit . The theory goes , it’s easier to find the sweet spot . And it has more mass . I agree a cavity back offers more forgiveness, but there is less mass behind the sweetspot , so maybe a muscle cavity would be best way to go ? As for big headed drivers , personally found more clubhead speed and directional forgiveness using a 12 degree two wood . A side note , thank you Mr. Wishon for all your contributions to this wonderful game and thank you… Read more »
PAOLO I hate to disagree with the ‘God like” status that some golfers like to award to Mr Miura but that statement about a blade being easier to find the sweet spot because it has more mass behind the sweet spot is absolutely false and a marketing myth. An iron head only needs to have a face thickness of 4mm on the heads with less than 30* of loft made from carbon steel and 3.5mm on heads made from 431 or 17-4 stainless steel to feel completely solid and to have the face be completely rigid for impact with a… Read more »
It is acutely hard to consider the effects
of the loss that you will get particularly if you are inside the top of the sensations
while enjoying the game.
Hi Tom, I have noticed if I balance the club on my finger at the balance point of the shaft the toe of all my clubs will spin clockwise until the toe points straight down. If I then try to use the forefinger and thumb of my free hand to rotate the shaft to point the toe back towards the sky it is extremely difficult near the balance point of the shaft but relatively easy using the grip end. So I decided to advance the head about 30 degrees closed while perpendicular to my body. The club is in my… Read more »
ALAN After a total of 43 yrs with golf clubs, the last 31 yrs of which I have been a clubhead designer and the past 26 yrs spent in detailed clubfitting analysis and research, at this point in my career I feel that I have come to a point where I believe it is far more important to focus on the things about equipment that we know for sure do matter for which golfer swing types, and to forget about splitting the hairs too thin on matters that don’t have as much chance of making a real difference. I feel… Read more »
Would a shorter shaft on the driver be more user friendly for us higher handy capers?
Jerry Absolutely, positively and for sure 98% of all golfers would benefit from a shorter length driver vs the ridiculous driver lengths of 45 to 46″ that is on just about every golf company’s driver that is sold off the rack in retail stores, pro shops or on line. The ONLY golfer who could benefit from that long of a driver is a golfer with the characteristics of, 1) very smooth controlled tempo + 2) inside out to square swing path + 3) slightly flatter swing plane + 4) no tendency to slice the ball at all + 5) a… Read more »
Hi Tom.
I was wondering if you can help me out with a question i get asked all the time.
Will i get more distance with a smaller driver head or a bigger driver head?
COURTNEY: Head size has absolutely nothing to do with distance. Getting the most possible distance comes from a combination of a couple of things. On the head side of this, having a head with the highest legal COR for the face and then having the loft that properly matches the golfer’s combination of clubhead speed + angle of attack is the head’s contribution to distance. Then it is a matter of being fit for the right length, shaft weight, shaft flex/bend profile, total weight, swingweight and grip size. None of these things have anything to do with head size. Head… Read more »
Hi Tom, I’ve been playing with a Cleveland VAS 9.5* driver for years. I’ve tried the newer bigger heads but for me they go way too high and it seems I have more of a fade bias with them. Even though many of them are 1-2 degrees closed I find that I fade them no matter what I do. I play to scratch so I know a good swing from a bad one. When I put my best swing on a 460cc driver with a Matrix Black Tie stiff it goes right and fades right. Same shaft in my Cleveland… Read more »
MIKE: Whenever a golfer reports different performance with two different clubs, the ONLY WAY that the real answer to explain the difference can be known is for ALL of the specs for BOTH of the clubs to be ACCURATELY measured, one at a time, so that each spec can be compared to see what’s different and from that, to be able to know what differences could be causing the performance difference. It’s just not possible to determine that in any other way because there can be a spec here, two specs there, that when different, explain the performance difference. On… Read more »
I often play a mint Cleveland Launcher 330Ccc driver because I like the smaller head. A solid hit goes as far as my Ping G2 460cc.
I can hit my Adams 3 rescue as far as my Taylormade driver and more accurate. I am to the point I just leave the driver in the bag.
Hi Tom,
I wanted your opinion on square headed drivers from a few years ago. Other than their slightly unusual looks (I am fine with how my Callaway FT-IQ looks), the argument that it enabled the manufacturers to place more weight in the right places (deep and perimeter)seems a good one to me.
Are there really any benefits to a square driver, and was it only timid customers that made the manufacturers drop them from their ranges?
Richard One of the things we have gotten very good at over the past many years of our research is to be able to know what changes to a golf club really make a difference, and which other ones simply do not. If you listen to all the marketing, it is easy to believe that ALL the changes and “advancements” are earth shattering in their effect on shotmaking. But that’s not the case. And this one regarding moving weight around a clubhead or even making a heavier weight head to improve performance is one of these many things that you… Read more »
Head sizes will reduce when the manufacturers run out of marketing ideas for the 460 cc models. Then, low and behold, the line will be that they are aerodynamically superior, i.e. less air resistance. I took years to get used to Big Bertha and now drivers are larger than the big plastic ones we played with as kids in the ’60s.
Brian Head sizes will reduce when two things happen, 1) when the focus groups that all the big golf companies convene to assess the opinion of the golf market tell them that they would be interested in smaller heads. 2) when some other company takes a chance and markets a smaller head and finds that golfers will buy them, at which point all the companies will follow. These companies put tens of millions of dollars in marketing behind a model to drive demand. Before they do that they want to have as much assurance as possible that they can actually… Read more »
Tom as somebody who is an expert on club design, what do you think of these companies that advertise that their driver heads are specifically designed for long distance competitors? I notice some of the faces of their clubs don’t have score lines. Will these clubs really hit the ball any farther if the average golfer uses them?
Thanks.
GARY: The main difference between the driver heads made for the long drive guys and “normal” driver heads is a slightly increased face thickness, though not too much thicker because they can’t give these guys heads that have a much lower COR. The 130mph to 150mph clubhead speeds of these guys is a huge increase in stress on the face compared to what “normal” heads undergo with regular golfers. The COR of the face controls the smash factor of the shot for ALL players, regardless of their swing speed. Smash factor is ball speed divided by clubhead speed. With the… Read more »
Hi Tom, I have a related question in relation to iron head design. Is a blade more accurate than a cavity or GI iron on strikes right out of the center? have you done any research into this? I understand the technology that makes a GI iron more forgiving on off center hits, but does this same technology detract from the accuracy of center strikes? Will a blade have tighter dispersion right out of the middle than the same strike right out of the middle of a players cavity or GI iron? If so, why? I always assumed that a… Read more »
AG: Good questions and fun to answer. Thanks for asking! No, in my opinion from 26 yrs of club design and testing, a blade is not more accurate for on center hits than any other iron head design. You can make some GI designs with a thin, high COR face so they generate a higher smash factor (ball speed divided by clubhead speed) than a blade for sure. But accuracy wise for on center hits, if everything is equal for COR, loft, lie, CG and all assembly specs of a blade vs cavity back, they will be the same for… Read more »
Thanks Tom.
Your response is as I thought but I appreciate the way you can convey this knowledge in simple terms.
But did I read correctly that blades generally have a lower COG than a full cavity?
AG Yes, every muscleback blade I have ever designed or analyzed, regardless of who made it, did have a lower CG than any cavity back that I have designed or analyzed. It is logical when you think about it. It is because in a blade, because there is no cavity on the back, for the heads to all not be heavier than their assigned headweights, the blade HEIGHT has to be shorter. But on a cavity back where you have removed all this weight from the back, for it to be made to the proper headweight, the cavity back has… Read more »
I don’t automatically find 460cc clubheads to look too big. It kind of depends on their shape and graphics. Some TM Burner heads from 3-5 yrs ago with the pointy back ends didn’t appeal to me. My gamer is a Wishon 919 8* model but I have a Golfsmith Hi Cor Plus 7.5* from 10 plus years ago that I won’t give up, which is 400cc. Both are traditional shapes. I’ve built several Golfsmith, Snake Eyes or Maltby heads over the years which varied in size but none them hit it better than the Hi Cor until the 919. Another… Read more »
DAN You’re absolutely right that 460cc of volume can be packaged in any number of combinations of length x width x height. So there are 460 heads that look balanced and not so large behind the ball and then there are other 460 heads that just look gaunt, ungainly and too big when you set them down in the playing position. Happy to hear that the 919 is winning a spot in your starting line up. In all honesty I do not think I can ever hope to design a better driver that can offer the overall performance balance for… Read more »
I wonder how the big companies determine what people want. Polling?
I know I sure wouldn’t mind having smaller driver heads again. :-p
Jaacob Most of the big OEMS will have consumer golfer focus groups that they convene from time to time to obtain feedback on various things they are considering to offer in their product line. I’ve been told that some of this focus group polling even includes showing these groups different colors they might be considering to use on models to get input even for the cosmetics side of a product in development. Focus groups are usually done by the OEM’s marketing agencies and not by the OEMs themselves so the agencies can bring their professional independent approach to the process.… Read more »