How It Works: Bridgestone Golf Power Milled Face
Drivers

How It Works: Bridgestone Golf Power Milled Face

How It Works: Bridgestone Golf Power Milled Face

Written By: Tony Covey

When Bridgestone announced the J715 (and now J815) drivers, perhaps the most compelling bit of included technology is what Brdigestone is calling a Power Milled Face. Unlike most drivers which may have a few score lines and a relatively smooth face, Bridgestone’s Power Milling adds a series of narrowly spaced grooves to the hitting area.

Here’s what, according to Bridgestone, Power Milling accomplishes:

“Patented face milling pattern works to reduce the common ball slippage at impact problem that drivers today encounter. Maintaining the ball’s position of impact leads to increased quality compression time that results in reduced spin (200-300 RPMs based on robot testing) for straighter and longer drives.”

The guys at Bridgestone provided us this video (all the way from Japan) that shows how the ball better sticks to the milled face.

We’ve added subtitles to help you follow along (be sure to move your cursor off the video).

Technology in Action

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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      graham thom

      9 years ago

      This is the best few minutes golf tip I have had since I started playing golf some 55 years ago , and I have been as low as a 3 handicap —–thanks a mill. Graham Thom . Johannesburg South Africa

      Reply

      Matt W

      9 years ago

      Tony,
      Will this driver be part of the best of 2015 drivers?

      Reply

      Dave S.

      9 years ago

      Why not provide all the facts ? Side by side testing of drivers with and without power milling and the resultant performance data should prove if there is a benefit in what Bridgestone say.This sort of claim should be demonstrated by Iron Byron!

      Reply

      Fozcycle

      9 years ago

      So the milled surface goes back to the old days of persimmon drivers when there were definite grooves on the club face. I wonder if you could compare the spin off the persimmon “grooved” drivers versus the modern flat drivers.

      Reply

      vince

      9 years ago

      Bridgestone milled face is a sales pitch to golfers who need the newest equipment at the 19 hole. Golfers like to brag that their driver can deliver longer drives. I am retired and have all used equipment & consistently out play & out drive my league friends. I do not need to spend $400. to drive 5 yds. more; that is why you have 14 clubs in the bag!

      Reply

      Dave S

      9 years ago

      Ok, so maybe I’m missing something here (please tell me if so)…

      Wouldn’t the grooves produce MORE spin since the face of the driver has loft (albeit not much)? Doesn’t the slippage of the ball on a smooth face actually reduce the spin force imparted by the head? How do the physics of grooves on a driver differ from that of a wedge or iron? Grooves have always been used to create spin, not retard it.

      Reply

      Darren Tan

      9 years ago

      The way I see it, the driver is like a vertical wall and the grooves help the ball to slip less versus a smooth surface. Hence it compresses better and the flight is slightly flatter.
      Once past a certain loft angle, then the grooves will add spin.

      But that’s just me, a layman’s understanding of ball physics.

      Reply

      Joe Golfer

      9 years ago

      Tony Covey seemed to explain that question a few posts above yours, Dave S.
      He mentioned that it only reduces spin on drivers with lofts of 8-14 degrees.
      At some point, the grooves would increase spin. Perhaps on clubs with a loft above 14*?

      I suppose it also depends on one’s angle of attack.
      I had always heard that hitting up on the ball was a means of taking spin off the ball.
      So perhaps this spin reducing technology is more for golfers who hit down on the ball or straight through as opposed to an upwards angle of attack?

      Reply

      JoeD

      9 years ago

      Well, if most golfers problems with drivers is left/right shot bias. Why not make the lines vertical or is there already a prohibition from the R&A and the USGA?

      Reply

      mr_divots

      9 years ago

      I’ve referenced “dwell time” as the feeling of a better “adhesion” with the face facilitating a better compression for a few years now. If you want to do an experiment, take a very low compression ball and a very high compression ball and see and feel the results. Better compression makes the ball flatter, so that it doesn’t glance off the face in the “slipping” manner B-stone describes.
      Funny enough, their own ball, the Tour B-330, a fine ball, but much too firm for me, I can almost feel the ball glancing off the face instead of compressing, and as a result, my accuracy goes down a lot with that ball. So factor in the ball in this equation too!

      Reply

      William Beal

      9 years ago

      I think they may have changed the outer layer for their new tour line balls this year.

      If I remember correctly, it was the Bridgestone booth that had an ongoing demonstration on Demo Day that compared “slippage” between their golf balls and various competitors. The theory, as they explained it, was better contact and compression with better “adhesion.”

      Reply

      Gil B.

      9 years ago

      Interesting thought about how it holds the ball longer on the face but the technology begs the question(s) 1)doesn’t the addition of the grooves actually create spin instead of reducing spin, 2) the amount of time that the ball is on the face can be measured in micro-seconds so do the grooves really help in terms of compressing the ball to increase distance? Also, it would be helpful if I understood Japanese, but I don’t. I love Bridgestone products so I’d give the driver a look if I could find one. Thanks guys.

      Reply

      Tony Covey

      9 years ago

      If you pull the cursor of the video it should show the subtitles on the bottom. Not sure it works on mobile though…joys of youtube and whatnot.

      Regarding the grooves and adding vs. reducing spin. We touched on this in the PING G30 LS tech article, but basically, at driver lofts (8-14 degrees or so) grooves, textures, etc., actually serve to reduce spin. It’s why Bridgestone does Power Milling, why PING uses a rough texture on the new driver, and why, I’m told, many years ago guys in the Titliest tour van would occasionally use a sanding belt to create a little texture on the face.

      At some loft (I’m going to ask around to find out exactly what it is), grooves gradually begin to increase spin, but again, at driver lofts, Bridgestone and PING are telling us you can actually decrease spin.

      Bridgestone’s numbers suggest the grooves effectively reduce spin the same amount as a 1* decrease in loft, without actually decreasing the launch angle. Translation, less spin with higher launch.

      Reply

      Gil B.

      9 years ago

      Thanks for elaborating Tony, it’s much appreciated. Now, can you use your influence to have Bridgestone offer GolfSpy fans and contributors a discount or contest of some sort. Only kidding, thanks again.

      William Beal

      9 years ago

      Tony,

      While I’m not a fitter and don’t claim to understand all the math involved in spin calculations, I’ve got a GC2 I use for personal practice.

      Your analysis matches my experience perfectly.

      When using the GC2 indoors, over the winter and hitting from a mat, I’ll sometimes get some “crazy” high spin numbers (my mat’s getting worn and I need to replace it) and flight distance is reduced and/or further offline. Excessive “sidespin” produces hooks and slices, excessive “backspin” reduces distance.

      High backspin on approach shots helps the ball stop quicker on a green, but I’m not sure that many of us need increased spin with our driver.

      The grooves MIGHT promote a more consistent spin rate, but that’s the only potential benefit I can think of.

      Reply

      Teaj

      9 years ago

      my understanding is that once you get to a certain loft face milling becomes useless, once you go past that point (less loft) face milling reduces spin. my understanding is that a ball slipping up the face will at some point be inflicted by friction and produce a roll (backwards roll) up the face. by adding more friction it does away with that slippage reducing the (backwards roll) up the face. also if you have a positive angle of attack on the ball one could say that the milling would produce a more forward spin, not enough forward spin to get ride of the backspin all together but will help in the reduction of the backspin.

      just a thought

      Reply

      proside

      9 years ago

      If it is anything like the callaway laser etching it will last less than half a season and then what? Buy a new shaft after a fitting session? Sand paper?
      I am all for innovation but I don’t want to rent it.

      Reply

      Taylo59

      9 years ago

      Ughhhh now I need a new driver.

      Reply

      Taylor59

      9 years ago

      How does reducing spin increase accuracy?

      I thought it was the other way around?

      Reply

      Tony Covey

      9 years ago

      I’m actually looking into this exact thing right now. Somewhere down the line somebody decided that more spin = more accuracy, or at a minimum more CONTROL (golf companies love words like control because there’s no strict definition as far as physics is concerned). The old age is that backspin counteracts sidespin – which basically argues that a ball can simultaneously spin along two axes, which is nonsense.

      I’ve run a few scenarios – and as soon as I can I’m going to run more detailed analysis on our Foresight software, but when it comes to the sort of numbers that most golfers produce with their driver, less spin does in fact equal more distance, and tighter dispersion. All other relevant factors being equal (ball speed, launch angle, and axis tilt), a ball that spins more will be both carry shorter and travel farther offline than a comparable shot hit with less spin.

      In nearly every scenario, higher spin (assuming adequate loft) is undesirable. If for whatever reason you cannot produce adequate loft, then more spin may be necessary, however; at average swing speeds, anything above 1800 RPM or produces diminishing returns (allowing for the fact there is often an MOI sacrifice necessary to produce spin numbers that low).

      These scenarios assume calm conditions, once wind – particularly crosswinds come into the play, the results might be different (and I suspect this is where the control argument comes from), but otherwise, the scenarios I’ve run suggest lower spin offers both more distance and greater accuracy.

      Reply

      golfer4life

      9 years ago

      Maybe Tom Wishon can find his way over to chime in on this, as he had a pretty clear explanation on how spin works. I can’t find the article but, it was the easiest to understand article on what spin does to effect ball flight .

      gunmetal

      9 years ago

      Contrary to what the fine folks here at MGS would say (at least they test for it), ACCURACY has almost nothing to do with the clubs. Provided that the clubs lie angle has been adjusted to the golfers delivery, accuracy or dispersion is all on the golfer and his or her strike.

      This Bridgestone Tech seems cool and interesting…even if it is 8 years old or so. I just went through my inbox and found an email and an image of a driver by Versus Golf (now defunct) and their LST Driver. Versus was featured a couple times on MSG back in 2009 but the designs never materialized. I received a proto of this driver and liked it. This was back in late 2006 early 2007.

      Adam

      9 years ago

      This tech caught my eye when I first read about it. Pretty interesting.

      I wonder how well the “milling” will hold up over time but other than that I look forward to giving one a go.

      Maybe what I should be worried about is how well the ball will hold up…

      Reply

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