Talking About Drivers Part 1: Real Loft

Driver Distance
The driver ultimately is all about distance in golf and we golf enthusiasts are on a never ending quest to find the longest driver out there. Yes we sometimes forget that accuracy should trump distance especially if you are 300 yards out in the woods vs 260 yards straight down the fairway. The truth is, pretty much all of the emails I get regarding driver recommendations and choices start out with “I am looking for the longest driver TSG has”.  My answer always is, “There is no such thing as the longest driver out there otherwise everyone would be buying it”.  It’s all about finding the right driver for the specific individual. The longest driver for me may not be the longest driver for Tourspecgolfer and vice versa. There are many things that will affect how a driver feels and performs and I’ll start by talking about trajectory and real loft of drivers.

Real Loft versus Stated Loft
The real loft or actual measured loft of a driver may not affect most average golfers but for some enthusiasts or hardcore players, real loft will have an impact on the fine tuning of ones trajectory and ultimately distance. Due to manufacturing margin of error and different manufacturing methods themselves, real or actual loft is many times not what is marked on a driver. I’ve read many publications in Japan which have test real lofts and we have done some of our own checking with certain brands. Depending on the brand, some real lofts are very close to stated lofts while some are off by more than a degree or even 2. In most cases way off means much higher than stated. For the average golfer or slower swinger, this is not necessarily a bad thing as we could all use more carry but for the player looking for lower launch, buying a driver with stated loft at 9* but a real measured loft of 12.5* is not a good thing. Last year for example, Albatross Magazine measured random off the shelf drivers and the worst was a Cobra L5V with stated loft of 10.5* and a real loft of 14.0*.  Three drivers, the Callaway Legacy, Titleist 909D2 and the Mizuno MP Craft T1 actually came in very slightly below stated loft.

Results off the Shelf
Its not easy checking the real loft of a driver when buying it off the shelf. Sometimes we can only depend on a manufacturer/brand’s reputation for good quality control and acceptable margins of error. In the past Tourstage and Srixon have been known to be very good with real loft and companies like Epon Golf even let you choose the real loft of your driver ie 10.2*. Choice Magazine recently did a writeup comparing several off the shelf drivers old and new and their trajectory + carry and run. For this real loft post lets take a look at some of the real loft results they reported.

PRGR GN502 Silver Stated Loft: 10.5* Real Loft: 11.3*	ONOFF 46D Stated Loft : 11* Real Loft: 12.5*	Tourstage ViQ HT Stated Loft: 11.75* Real Loft 12.0*
TM Burner TP (2009) Stated Loft: 9.5* Real Loft: 10.3*	MacTec NVR Type 1 Stated Loft: 10.0* Real Loft: 11.8*	Nike SQ Dymo Stated Loft 9.5* Real Loft 10.2*
Tourstage X-Drive GR Stated Loft: 10.5* Real Loft: 10.5*	XXIO Revo Stated Loft: 10.5* Real Loft 11.7*	Yonex Nextage 460 Stated Loft: 10.0* Real Loft: 12.6*
TM r7 CGB Max (2008) Stated Loft: 10.5* Real Loft: 12.9*	TM R9 FCT Stated Loft: 9.5* Real Loft 9.5*	Yamaha Inpres X 4.6V Stated Loft: 9.0* Real Loft 8.4*
Tourstage X-Drive 901 Stated Loft: 9.5* Real Loft 9.7*	Callaway Legacy Aero Stated Loft: 10.5* Real Loft 10.5*	Ping Rapture V2 Stated Loft: 10.5* Real Loft 12.5*
Titleist 909D2 Stated Loft: 9.5* Real Loft 8.7*	Yamaha Inpres X 4.6D Type S Stated Loft: 10.0* Real Loft 10.0*	Cobra S9-1 Pro S Stated Loft: 9.5* Real Loft 10.4*
Mizuno MP Craft S-1 Stated Loft: 9.5* Real Loft 10.0*	Callaway FT-9 Draw Stated Loft: 10.0* Real Loft 12.2*	Srixon ZR-30 Stated Loft: 9.5* Real Loft 10.5*

The above chart is just a sample of random drivers grabbed off the shelf and may not be representative of that specific model in general but it definitely gives some idea about the differences a golfer might encounter when buying a driver off the shelf. In the end, real loft may not matter to some golfers, if they hit a driver well, they hit it well whether or not the loft is accurate. But for those who are launch monitor fanatics and specs are everyting a good clubmaker or even retail store with pro shop can measure the loft you are getting.  Loft is just one piece of the puzzle for how a driver will perform so in the next few parts on this topic, I’ll talk a bit about CG, face angle, and face height.