For more than 200 years, humans have continued to find ways to reinvent the golf club. You’d think they’d eventually run out of ideas – I mean, how many different ways can you really repackage a grip, a shaft and a clubhead?
Well, until we are all able to hit that little white ball exactly where we want it to go, every time, the answer is apparently — not enough.
Fifteen years ago it was metal drivers (has it really only been 15 years?). Ten years ago it was oversized clubheads. Two years ago it was MOI (moment of inertia), and last year, all the buzz was about interchangeable shafts.
Proving that manufacturers are indeed picking up the pace of their redesign efforts, this year’s impressive crop of new clubs is all about a new kind of technology, what we are going to call “adjustable face technology.” Essentially it’s a spinoff of last year’s interchangeable shaft wave – only now, it’s about the clubheads, which feature adjustable lie, loft and face angles. By making small adjustments in the club, golfers can move the ball as much as 45 degrees left and right – all without making any changes to their swing.
Now, the pros use this technology to work their way around a course, setting the clubfaces to provide draws or fades as required to avoid hazards, maximize roll and set up the perfect approach angle to the green.
While there may be some of us skilled enough to take advantage of the technology in that way, what’s making these clubs – most notably the TaylorMade r9, Nike SQ DYMO (and DYMO2) STR8-FIT and Cobra L5V – so popular with everyday golfers isn’t their ability to help us hit a perfect draw or a gentle fade. Indeed, it’s the fact that for once in our lives, these drivers give amateur golfers the chance to hit the ball consistently the only direction which we rarely are able to go – dead straight.
Tend to leave everything out to the right (like a certain CG editor)? Use the clubhead’s closed settings to help the clubface come through the impact zone at a more consistent angle. Tired of watching your drives duck-hook left into another stand of pines? Try one of the open settings to add a natural fade and keep your ball centered on the fairway.
There’s no doubt that adjustable-face technology is the “it” trend of 2009, so we’ve picked out what seem to be the hottest new models on the market for review. We’ve also been reading the buzz about the new push carts, wedges and putters out for 2009, and have selected our favorites to feature here.
It seems those club designers just can’t stop trying to one-up themselves, year after year. But as long as we keep hitting ‘em longer and straighter, there’s really nothing to say but, “Thank you.”
