2014 Golf’s Most Wanted Driver – Show Me The Data!
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2014 Golf’s Most Wanted Driver – Show Me The Data!

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2014 Golf’s Most Wanted Driver – Show Me The Data!

As you know, we collect mountains of data during each and every one of our club tests. When it comes to winners, and I suppose losers too, that data is the judge, jury, and on occasion, executioner. Data is what drives our process. Data is the thing that separates us. Data is part of what makes us who we are.

We are datacratic.

See the Interactive Data Now

We don’t convene panels to decide what technology is actually innovative.

The data tells us what’s real and what isn’t.
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We don’t have retail experts to tell us what consumers will be buying.

We already have a pretty good idea what’s going to sell.

We look past all of the marketing, and the buzzwords. We’re not influenced by cartoons, or puppets, or anything else the manufacturers come up with to try and sell you their latest club…the one that’s sooooo much better than the one they released 6 months ago.

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We don’t reward noise. We reward performance.

We have our data, and because we think the process should be transparent, you have our data too.

Here it is.

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We give you several key metrics for each of our testers and all 23 clubs in our test. Distance, ball speed, launch angle, spin rates…here it is for you and anyone else to see. Sort it, filter it. Dig deep…or don’t. It’s totally up to you.

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This is Barely the Beginning

Our approach is not without its critics. Some of what we’ve heard is fair and reasoned, and we appreciate that. Some of it is little more than the misinformed and misguided ramblings of overzealous fanboys. And we appreciate that too (who doesn’t love a good laugh?).

All of it (the good, the bad, and the we’re-loosing-faith-in-humanity ugly) drives to take what we’ve done and make it better. It doesn’t matter if you love our process, or hate it, I promise you this is barely the beginning of what we have planned.

Wait until you see what we have in store for 2015.

See the Interactive Data Now

Full 2014 Most Wanted Driver Coverage

:: Coming Soon – MyGolfSpy’s 2014 Most Wanted Driver Test
:: 2014 Golf’s Most Wanted Driver – It’s Go Time
:: 2014 Most Wanted Driver – Distance Awards
:: 2014 Most Wanted Driver – Accuracy Awards
:: 2014 Most Wanted Driver – Overall Winners
:: 2014 Most Wanted Driver – Tester’s Pick
:: 2014 Most Wanted Driver – Beyond the Data
:: 2014 Most Wanted Driver – The Data 

For You

For You

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Tony Covey

Tony Covey

Tony Covey

Tony is the Editor of MyGolfSpy where his job is to bring fresh and innovative content to the site. In addition to his editorial responsibilities, he was instrumental in developing MyGolfSpy's data-driven testing methodologies and continues to sift through our data to find the insights that can help improve your game. Tony believes that golfers deserve to know what's real and what's not, and that means MyGolfSpy's equipment coverage must extend beyond the so-called facts as dictated by the same companies that created them. Most of all Tony believes in performance over hype and #PowerToThePlayer.

Tony Covey

Tony Covey

Tony Covey





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    Join The Discussion

      Don M

      10 years ago

      It’s too bad you did not separate the 588 Custom and Altitude models. So it appears some of your testers hit one, and some hit the other. Can you at least tell us who hit what? Thanks.

      Reply

      Joe Fields

      10 years ago

      I’m a little confused by some of this info. The 2 biggest in question are the SLDR and the Powerbilt.

      Go to accuracy: The SLDR had the lowest fairway hit %. The powerbilt had the highest offline. Remove Brian from this test (being the most inaccurate and inconsistent), and the SLDR also takes the highest offline by far, making it the most inaccurate driver of the top 5. The Powerbilt then falls in the average for the offline and the order for fairway % stays roughly the same.

      Go to launch/Spin: The Powerbilt was more than a full degree lower with a much lower apex than the other clubs in the top 5. This should have affected distance considerably. With a similar launch angle, its possible it would have gained considerable distance.

      Go to club head speed and ball speed. The powerbilt has the slowest swing speed and matches the SLDR for smash factor. Last year, the Powerbilt crushed every other club in smash factors.

      In my opinion, the Ping won this. The data on these two clubs shows the inconsistency in the test. They could have been at a close tie for second or even third (the Nike or OnOff could have slipped in ahead of both of them, actually).

      The real problem here, is we have no idea on the loft of each clubhead, the shaft weights or stiffness, etc. One of my favorite clubs of all time is the Ping G25. Having said that, I sold my Taylormade and actually bought a Powerbilt AFO as a backup club that I scored on ebay for cheap. Distance wise, the Powerbilt is the farthest club I’ve ever hit by a long shot. The Ping is just so much more consistent though that its more of a golfers club. I’d be willing to give the new Powerbilt DFX a shot, though.

      Reply

      Joel

      10 years ago

      Based on this data I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable saying the SLDR smoked the field. For 2 guys it was longest. It was most accurate for nobody – not even close. Arguably, it’s not the right club for 4 or 5 out of 6 guys.

      Therefore having a “winner” in a test like seems is a bit dubious IMHO.

      I really applaud MyGolfSPY for all the work and great information!! It does seem like we all need to pick a couple heads and get it set up with the right loft and shaft. ‘

      I’m curious though – Is the shaft, the loft / cg or the head design that makes the MOST difference?? That would be fascinating to test.

      And are we so random as golfers that these results would change from one month to the next? The year to year results here seem to indicate real changes in your testers.

      I read an article somewhere that indicated the same golfer was fit completely differently by different fitters during the same week! Is it ALL BS?

      Reply

      proside

      10 years ago

      I agree with your TM assessment. The SLDR was very long for some but if only a small proportion of people have a swing reliable enough to hit it how can it rate as high.
      The CG and general manufacturing variances are so broad that a batch of clubs from any one manufactureor can produce a variety of results. even grip model could change the results enough.
      The variables are so expansive, the hit them as they are is the only way to conduct tests like this.
      I would say that an iron byron test would help solidify some of the results. even a simple three swing speed with 5 striking spots formate would do.
      Did you notice that not a single model had spin numbers anywhere near advertisement? How perfect a swing is actually required then?
      The testers really need to be picked on the basis of a repeatable swing whether it’s great or not so much. Without that baseline any data is really pointless just like the differences of striking at the begining vs middle vs end of session.

      Reply

      Vince

      10 years ago

      While much of this data is ” good stuff” there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that are missing, or at least I am unable to find it. For example: Shaft Length, Shaft Stiffness, Shaft Weight, Were shafts spine aligned for each golfer, was each shaft and club frequency matched, was a ball matched to each players swing speed to determine proper compression and spin rates.

      I play only fully custom fitted clubs from my putter to my driver. This is what the pros get, but what most consumers are unwilling to pay for. I can promise you, that you will reduce your score by 30-45% playing a “Full Fitted” club. I just fit my 14 year old son, and he could not keep a Taylor Made on the driving range grid. Built him a custom fit driver using a Miura Head at 390cc at 11.5 degrees, UST V2 shaft at 278cpm, spine aligned, weighing 58 grams, and measured 45 3/4″ long and he hit the 40 yard fairway grid 74% of the time, and tightened his shot dispersion to within 5 yards of each shot. He is a 10 handicap golfer.

      Reply

      Roy

      10 years ago

      I found the Smash Factors from everyone except Lou to be very low. When you get on a launch monitor you tend to want to swing for the fences, but if your ball speed doesn’t change to match the higher swing speed you are not making very good contact and not compressing the ball very well thus distance and accuracy can be off. In any event, thanks for sharing the data with us.

      Reply

      Adam

      10 years ago

      Actually i cant make sense of it either way. Brian’s results of 60 plus yds apex height seems out of the norm. But 66 feet would almost certainly be too low for his launch numbers as well. I realize these are averages and not individual shots. Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way….its been a long week here.

      Reply

      Adam

      10 years ago

      Hey guys…should the apex heights really be that high.

      Should the chart read “feet” not “yards” for that measurement?

      Reply

      Adam H

      10 years ago

      Just want to share a quick note. There are a lot of nuances to the a test like this one and the ones I do on my own that seem to throw numbers one direction or the other as MGS have already pointed out. “Stock” setups are an inherent part of the test but also shouldn’t be overlooked when you are testing these on your own as areas for possible improvement. My experience with these clubs over the weekend was no exception so I thought I might share.

      As I said I was able to test a good number of these clubs and after a while I found I had few contenders but my clear favorite was the Nike 2.0 tour. I chose the ACP from last years mix over the close second Covert tour primarily because of forgiveness. This year however the 460 head and other subtle changes made it the most accurate/forgiving that I tested for my swing, in fact it beat my current setup with aftermarket shaft for accuracy. It did however under perform in Swing speed, ballspeed, and in turn resultant distance.

      In looking at this years testers overall and the ones that most closely resemble my swing characteristics I pay especially close attention to the results that “Brian” sees for his clubs. Like Brian I saw noticeable lower swing speeds for the CT 2.0 than many in the group including my own club and that puzzled me. I did no weight measurement comparisons that I might normally try as those things seem to have a large affect on my speed because this time I suspected it was something else. Something that I noticed the minute I picked up the Nike and that was the absolutely horrible stock grip. Chosen I for looks and price I assume but it made me feel as though the club would fly out of my hands if I went after it and as a result I would grip down more than I should and loose speed in my swing. Anyway that was my theory . Being friends with the guys in the shop they actually agreed to switch the grip to something that I preferred for a test. …and just like that ! the swing speed jumped up 3 mph right in line with the rest of the clubs I was considering.

      This of course is not an advertisement for the Nike by any means – though I know it looks like it. Really its just an example of how digging a little deeper in to these results and the ones you see on your own can make a huge difference.

      Hittem straight!

      A.

      Reply

      Krizar

      10 years ago

      Any chance of getting some additional data on everybody’s swing type? AoA and individual swingspeeds? Or did i miss it in the layout? It would be nice to see if anyone’s swing characteristics were similar to my own.

      Reply

      Adam H

      10 years ago

      They described swing AOA in the Testers pick article last week. http://mygolfspy.com/2014-most-wanted-driver-testers-picks/ The rest can be derived from the various charts.

      Enjoy!

      Reply

      Goose

      10 years ago

      I’ve mess up the grid. Sorry

      Reply

      Goose

      10 years ago

      I’ve tryed a different procedute to synthesize distance and accuracy. I think it’s more fair multiply distance and accuracy then add or subtract their numbers.
      This is the result:

      DRIVER DISTANCE ACCURACY DIST. X ACCUR.
      G 25 240,67 0,9226 222,042142
      ONOFF 240,33 0,908 218,21964
      NIKE 240,1 0,9068 217,72268
      SLDR 245,14 0,8872 217,488208
      YONEX I-EZONE 238,63 0,9086 216,819218
      CLEVELAND 588 238,41 0,9093 216,786213
      TOUREDGE 238,37 0,9071 216,225427
      WILSON D100 237,28 0,9082 215,497696
      COBRA BIO + 239,47 0,8983 215,115901
      WILSON FG 237,98 0,9024 214,753152
      CALLY ALPHA 238,49 0,8996 214,545604
      POWERBILT 240,53 0,8913 214,384389
      AGENT ORANGE 236,96 0,9004 213,358784
      MIZUNO 240,07 0,8869 212,918083
      JETSPEED 239,81 0,8866 212,615546
      TOMMY ARMOUR 233,83 0,9081 212,341023
      COBRA BIO 236,59 0,8971 212,244889
      KRANK 232,68 0,908 211,27344
      I 25 239,08 0,8811 210,653388
      X2 HOT 240,14 0,8733 209,714262
      ADAMS 239,34 0,8727 208,872018
      YONEX EZONE 239,58 0,8656 207,380448
      BIG BERTHA 239,06 0,8665 207,14549

      Reply

      Adam H

      10 years ago

      What?

      Reply

      MrSinister

      10 years ago

      So am I reading this correctly when I see that Brain hit the longest drive of the testing with the Agent Orange?

      Reply

      mygolfspy

      10 years ago

      It’s like when you feed a bunch of hungry kids…mighty quiet in here right now.

      Reply

      jondagcl

      10 years ago

      It’s kept me busy for a while. I really liked being able to filter by swing speed and accuracy specifically.

      Reply

      Bill

      10 years ago

      Love the data…Answers a lot of questions about how the TM got high ranks. But it’s accuracy numbers tell me you better be a smooth tempo guy or you’re going to be off in the woods…
      But for distance, it’s a monster.
      I broke it down to guys that resemble my ss and it reinforces what I’m finding about the Tour Edge. Great driver for high ss guys, slow ss guys look elsewhere.
      The one I don’t get is the Wilson. For a strong combination of distance and accuracy, it’s right up there.
      The Ping seems to come alive in a few testers hands, especially slower swingers. I have a long flight today and this will keep me busy for quite awhile. Great job guys!!

      Reply

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