A little tidbit.... All who follow the PGA Tour will know that Tiger was whining about drivers that exceed the legal COR limit being used. I figured I'd tap into the folks I know to see what specific drivers are at issue, and found that the TM prototype 510 deep face driver is the suspected 'hot' driver. (As an aside, TM recently released this driver to the public as the '510 Tour Preferred' with an Edwin Watts price tag of $599 with a factory fuji 757 Speeder.)
The driver is 390cc with a very deep face. I obtained a 9.5 degree model from the Van with a Harmon Tour GXX shaft. They said that the 'identical' head is now in stores (510 TP), no internal difference except the TP graphic on it. I visually compared it to the retail 510 TP and it's the same visually, and the Edwin Watts cheapo swing speed/ballspeed device data indicates that the 2 clubs (van and retail) perform very close to identical (757 vs Harmon notwithstanding) with respect to launch angle and smash factor. Both of these clubs have the USGA's blessing as legal, and based on the face design I'll offer that any grinding/milling on the face would only result on a paperweight for a clubhead rather than a longer driver. On the course, I understand what Tiger was whining about - this club flat out is over the top. I was using a TM 300 prototype that's 360cc. Although both clubs are basically identical on perfect impact shots (both on course and on measured smash factor data), the 510 produces MUCH straighter and longer drives on less than perfect impact. Certainly this is somewhat due to the larger size. Using the 750 yd bushnell yardage pro, we measured drives based on either yardage pro measured distance from tee to flag (when possible) or scorecard yardage. I hit the driver 9 times on a very level, slightly wet, costal South Carolina course. The longest was 343 yds, shortest 298, average 316. I missed 1 fairway by ~5yds where I didn't cut a corner enough (did I mention that this thing is LONG?). Interesting that Tiger went back to a driver that has less COR than the Nike he was playing. It's also funny that the media has re-earthed the Tiger/Phil Mick. comments regarding Nike's technology. Tiger goes back to an old-school, lower COR driver that he feels he controls better, and the 'intelligent' media says Nike's technology with higher COR is behind the times. >From what I've played, I can't understand why anyone playing for their dinner isn't >hitting this TM. FWIW ($599 at your local Edwin :-0 ) Pat K
