Is driver technology advancing as quickly as the marketing men would have us believe - Or are they feeding us a bunch of baloney?
The big manufacturers are constantly bringing out "longer" "faster" "better" drivers.
Their advertising campaigns tell us that we would be crazy to struggle on with "outdated" drivers, because the "new" ones offer us so much more.
Golf - 300 Yards on a Shoestring!
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Watch this video - It is a true eye-opener!
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So, after sixteen years of improving their technology and bragging about how much each new club would improve our distance, Callaway managed to
increase their distance by just five yards! Callaway drivers have become five yards longer since 1996! That's not very impressive really - is it!
I'm not saying that we should all go back to using sixteen year old clubs, but maybe we should take what the marketing people tell us with a pinch of salt.
Their job is to separate us from our money, and they appear to be willing to make all kinds of questionable claims in order to sell us their latest products.
These were the latest, greatest, hottest drivers on the market less than a year ago.
Only three of these drivers (Srixon Z545, Mizuno JPX 850, and Titleist 915) are still being made.
All of the others have been deemed obsolete and have been replaced by new, "better" drivers.
Do the "new" models offer us anything that will significantly improve our driving?
Check out these videos comparing "old" TaylorMade v "new" Taylormade drivers.
We have seen similar outcomes in our own tests time after time after time. Taylormade have been the worst offenders in recent years, but most of the
big name manufacturers are playing the same game. In our experience, Titleist and Mizuno appear to be above this practise - they only bring out "new"
drivers when they actually have something genuinely new or better to offer.
We all want the best possible results from our drivers. But we shouldn't be fooled by the marketing men. It's not necessary to buy a new driver every few
months, or even every few years! In terms of performance, nothing much changes from year to year. This is partly because the technology is not
advancing anywhere near as fast as "they" would have us believe, but mostly because golf's governing bodies have placed severe restrictions on driver
performance, so any driver that was seriously longer than the current crop would be banned. The manufacturers can't really sell us extra distance, so
they are selling us hot air, bright lights, and empty promises. Don't be fooled.
You don't need to pay the excessive price-tags of the latest drivers. You can get equal performance for far less money if you buy "last year's model".
And if you really want to save a fortune without sacrificing distance, scour the bargain-barrels in your local golf stores for pre-owned versions of the
clubs below. They were all top dogs (at premium prices) a year or two back. They are still a match for anything on today's market, and you can buy them
for a handful of change! We found good-condition examples of all of them for less than £25 each. And that's a bargain!
