CALLAWAY FT-iQ Tour Driver

The clubs just keep getting stranger looking. I wonder at what point they run afoul of the USGA rule on the traditional shape and form of clubs:

The club must not be substantially different from the traditionally and customary form and make. The club must be composed of a shaft and a head. All parts must be fixed so that the club is one unit, and it must have no external attachments except as otherwise permitted by the Rules.

This one apparently is ok.

The goal of the Callaway FT-iQ—like all strangely shaped clubs—is to use geometry to raise the moment of intertia. That’s supposed to increase distance and accuracy on off-center hits. Callaway also has packed an entire mad-scientist’s lab worth of technology into the club. It’s got a “Hyperbolic Face Technology” that’s supposed to raise ball speeds across the entire face; “Face Fusion Technology”, which is supposed to create maximum perimeter weighting by fusing a carbon composite body to the titanium face cup; and “Complete Intertial Design,” which Calllaway says moves weight down and to the corners.

The key of all of this, though, is that the iQ Tour is designed to produce a lower, more penetrating ball flight than its cousins—clearly a club designed for better players.

TAYLORMADE Burner Driver

TaylorMade continues its inexorable march of new products with their new Burner Driver. The 2009 version uses “Dual Crown Technology” to lower the center of gravity, resulting in higher launches (more carry, more distance). High Moment of Intertia and TaylorMade’s ubiquitous inverted cone technology offer better distance and accuracy on off-center hits. And with a redesign of the shaft, they promise great distance on every shot.

Its interesting to me how the golf manufacturers have adopted the auto makers’ marketing strategy: new models every year; sometimes with minor changes, others with complete redesigns.

Pinemeadow Excel Lightning Driver

Pinemeadow’s latest entry in the funny-shaped driver sweepstates is the square Excel Lightening. With these, it’s all about getting a higher moment of intertia (resistant to twisting). The square shape allows designers to move the weight further away from the center, resulting in longer, straighter shots even on off-center hits.

Pinemeadow also has worked to fine-tune the sound of these to help avoid the strange sound of so many of these “geometric” drivers.

The club measures 460cc and is constructed from titanium.

You can get a customized Excel Lightening Driver from Pinemeadow for as little as $100.

Yukon Anti-Slice Driver

Golfers slice balls because they can’t get the clubface back to square at impact. It’s really no more complicated than that.

So the Yukon Anti-Slice Driver incorporates two technologies intended to help you get things back to square.

First, it has five millimeters of offset. That means that the leading edge of the clubface is 5mm behind the leading edge of the hosel. What this does is to allow the golfer a fraction of a second more to square the face before impact.

The other bit of helpful tech is that the face is one degree closed. That also will help you get the face closed in time.

It also come sin inly 10.5 and 12 degree lofts. Higher lofts equal more backspin, which equal straighter shots.

The only other trick you could pull with this club is to cut it an inch or so shorter. A shorter club also will be easier to square. That’s why you slice your driver, but not your pitching wedge.

Caiman Fairway Wood

The Caiman Fairway woods are another of those geometrically odd clubs that are designed to offer a high moment of inertia and high launch. Hireko engineered these fairway woods with a variable crown thickness (as little as 0.5mm which is as little as the thickness of 5 sheets of paper!) All the unwanted weight normally reserved for the crown of ordinary fairway wood was repositioned deep within the head. Hireko says that this offers a high launching ball flight with incredible accuracy