The GXz Ti a GigaGolf’s latest design. It’s a 460cc forged titanium driver shaped to provide maxumum moment of inertia to make off center hits travel longer and straigher. The GXz Ti features an aero foil channel and a cup face design. The face is enhanced with GigaGolf’s Graduated Thickness Design, which is thinner on the edges than the center. This allows the ball to be hotter in the traditionally “dead” areas on the outside, while still conforming to the USGA’s coefficient of restitution limits in the center. Like all GigaGolf drivers, it comes with a 30 Day Play Guarantee.

GigaGolf Drivers

COBRA Long Tom Raw Limted Edition Driver

While other companies release drivers painted in glossy shades of black, white and red, Cobra has gone raw: their Limited Edition Long Tom has no paint or other cosmetics. They’re only going to release five hundred of these, so get them while you can.

Naked aesthetics aside, the Long Tom offers some pretty interesting specs. Here’s the official writeup:

The Cobra Long Tom Driver comes at the maximum length allowed by the USGA, with an ultralight and durable shaft, and with a Tour-style grip, all delivering the maximum distance possible. Additional features: Highest length-to-weight ratio of any driver Crown construction: titanium Head size: 445 cc Advanced material placement: with a high strength thin Titanium 8111 alloy face repositions up to 20 grams of weight to move the center of gravity extremely low and deep E9 Face Technology with Dual Roll - has an elliptical face featuring a new canted bulge with dual roll design providing more distance to shots that are hit above and below the centerline Ultralight Grafalloy Blackbird shaft: with a 275 gram overall weight and Speed Coat Technology, this shaft improves aerodynamics and increases clubhead speed

There’s a golf porn joke here somewhere. Naked. Raw. Long. Low and Deep. Need I go on?

NIKE SQ MachSpeed Black Round Driver

My current driver of choice, the Nike MachSpeed Black (Round) is on sale at GolfSmith at $100 off the original price. You can see my review here.

Acer XF Leggera Driver

Grade: B
Teacher’s Comments: Another solid value

If you’re in the market for a very reasonably priced, solidly performing driver, the Acer Leggera XF just might be the ticket. Designed for a length of at least 46 inches, the Acer XF Leggera Driver is longer than the driver standard. That should translate into more clubhead speed, and thus more distance. Unfortunately—ceteris paribus—lengthening a club also increases the swingweight, potentially making the driver feel heavy and upsetting a player’s balance and rhythm. So to offset this, Acer designed this stick with a lighter clubhead and shaft.

Does it work? Yes. I did get considerable distance out of the Leggera. But that length also comes with another price: decreasing accuracy. Again, all things being equal, the longer the club, the less accurate it is. I wasnt’t spraying this one all over the course, but it’s not as straight as my Nike MachSpeed or my TaylorMade R7.  But it’s also not a club that better player will likely be able to work, with its 1 degree closed face angle.

On the other hand, Hireko did do the job on the swing weight. The Acer XF Leggera swings as smoothly as any club in my bag.

From address, the club is very nice looking, with the white crown that these days is all the rage.

Build quallity on the Acer XF Leggera is very good. The seams on the driver head are smooth, and the ferrules and grip properly installed.

As with all the Hireko products, the Acer XF Leggera is a bargain for what you get: a 460cc titanium driver built to custom specs for just over $100.

NIKE SQ MachSpeed Black Round Driver

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Simply the best driver I’ve played.

A measure of just how much I like the Nike MachSpeed Black lies in the fact that it has replaced the trusty TaylorMade R7 in my bag. For me, the MachSpeed Black is yards longer and much straighter.

I haven’t come to this decision lightly. I actually received the Black from Nike in February (they had to know that it’s snowing in Michigan until late March, but there it was), and carried both drivers in my bag for several rounds, hitting two off each tee.

There’s a wealth of technology in the MachSpeed Black, of which the most prominent is the STr8-Fit adjustment system. It consists of a special shaft tip that screws into an adjustable hosel. Alignment of the shaft into different positions allows you to make eight different adjustments to the lie and face angles.

Mechanically, the change is very easy to accomplish: just insert the shaft and screw it down with the special wrench. However, I had some difficulty figuring out from the diagram which way the shaft actually was supposed to align. It’s based on the symbols on the top of the grip, but even with the guide, it was dicey. I’m a bit thick, I guess. But this difficulty is the only reason why I didn’t grade the club an A+.

I’m also a little concerned about what happens when the time comes for a grip change.

A nice touch with the wrench. It has audible and visual indicators to tell you when you’ve tightened it properly. Or at least, I assume that it has a beep. I can’t hear it.

The adjustability is great, but I think that, like my R7, I’m going to find a position that works and just leave it there. Right now I have it one degree closed, and upright. That works pretty well.

A less obvious technology is the aerodynamic design of the clubhead. I have the MachSpeed Round, and it has a very traditional look at setup. But on the sole, you can see a swept-back molding – Nike calls it the Power Bow and Sole Diffuser – that’s supposed to reduce drag, and thus increase clubhead speed. Faster clubhead speed equals more distance. It’s an equation that works for me. I am absolutely getting more distance out of this driver than with any I’ve played or owned.

Ball flight for me is lower than I am used to, but that’s a good thing, because I’m getting quite a bit of roll.

The shaft on my model is a stock Fubuki, which comes in all the usual stiffness flavors. But if that shaft doesn’t thrill you, don’t despair. Nike has dozens of shafts available, and even more available through special order. There’s got to be one you like in the selection.

Visually, the club is quite nice. I like the black finish – I’ve always liked black clubheads; to me they mean business. The round version that I have also has a more traditional look. It’s large, but doesn’t look obnoxiously so. I think traditionalists will like the looks; I do.

As usual, I can’t tell you anything about the sound of the club, but it has a nice solid feel at impact. I can tell with relative certainty the point of impact on the clubface, which interestingly, I can nearly always verify. There’s something about the texture and composition of the clubface that always seems to leave a ball mark.

I predict it’ll be a long time before the Nike MachSpeed Black is supplanted in my bag.

Pinemeadow Golf

Pinemeadow Golf has joined the white driver revolution with its W7 Driver. From Pinemeadow:

The Command W7 is the newest driver in our best-selling Command series. Pairing a white finish with an oversize 460cc head gives players a big sweet spot along with a sharp look.

The driver features aerodynamic speed slots in the sole of the club to increase head speed which will improve distance.

As you may be aware, white has become a popular color in golf. There is a reason why clubs heads are being designed with a white finish: the white finish on the crown improves the visibility of the head and helps you align the driver off the tee, helping you hit more fairways and improve accuracy. Join the pros, get the newest advantage for your bag.

All men’s drivers will include a Golf Pride Tour Wrap 2G White grip (pictured below) with unbelievable feel and performance.

COBRA White S3 Driver

The very cool Cobra S3 White driver is soon to hit the shelves. In limited quantities, and individually numbered, they are sure to be a collector’s item. The clubs feature standard tech from Cobra:  the E9 Face Technology, which creates a 30% larger sweet zone, and Adjustable Flight Technology, which consistenly delivers long distance and accuracy. This special release S3 Driver includes a unique white headcover and a white AFT torque wrench in a white pouch.