Maybe It’s Time for New Golf Equipment
August 24, 2022
Although there’s nothing wrong with taking out your grandfather’s clubs to play an occasional round of golf, older equipment just doesn’t make the grade when it comes to shooting the best score possible. However, there is no denying that golf equipment, and especially the driver, has changed significantly during this millennium. That said, it didn’t come cheap. Manufacturers like Krank Golf have made considerable investments to do the research, hire the right engineers, and deliver a finished a product to the golfing community that really does make a difference on the course. Compared to the persimmon drivers the pros hit in the late 1970s, a Krank High COR Driver is truly a weapon in the hands of today’s recreational golfer.
TaylorMade golf company is often given credit for one of golf’s greatest oxymorons – the “metal wood”. The company was one of the first to release a line of drivers and fairway woods that used metal heads. At the time, many professional golfers chose to stick with a wooden-headed driver. Phil Mickelson even said he still tested both drivers on the range as late as 2007. Recently, it was discovered that Ron Streck should be credited with being the first player to win on the PGA Tour using a metal driver, when he won the rain-shortened 1981 Houston Open. Although a wood head provided the golfer with a unique feel, wood is wood and is very limited in how much engineering can be manufactured into a clubhead.
USGA Rules for Size and Spring Effect
When metal-headed drivers first showed up on tournament tee boxes, the size of the clubhead wasn’t much different than the popular persimmon wood driver. Moreover, spring effect wasn’t even a topic of discussion early on but it didn’t take long for golf club manufacturers to realize metals were much easier to engineer. The first assumption that the bigger the head size the easier it would be to hit the ball led to almost comical over-sized variations that looked like a bucket on a stick. The USGA responded by establishing dimensional specifications and volume limits. Today, the maximum club head size approved by the USGA is 460cc in volume, plus a tolerance of 10 cubic centimeters. Although there are bigger driving heads around, they do not conform to the R&A (Royal & Ancient) or USGA rules and are not allowed for official competitions.
From a practical point of view, maximum spring effect of a surface is governed by the Laws of Physics. If you drop a ball onto a surface, it cannot bounce back higher than from where it was dropped, so matter how technologically advanced the metal, the resilience is limited. The spring effect for a driver is measured as a coefficient of restitution (COR) and according to USGA regulations must be under .830. Where there is little or no advantage of hitting a bucket-sized driver, a high COR face can help to level the playing field by allowing golfers with a slower swing speed to get the maximum distance from each drive. With a precision milled face, a high COR design flexes inward to ensure the ball is not compressed as much. This means the face loses more energy in the collision, whereas the compression of the ball is much less allowing the ball to fly farther.
High (COR) Coefficient of Restitution Design
Since COR is the measurement of how a ball slingshots off the face of a driver with the ball compression against the face reduced, manufacturers like Krank Golf have capitalized on this measure to match their Formula Fire X HIGH-COR and Formula Fire XX Super HIGH-COR drivers to the golfer’s ability to generate clubhead speed. “Here’s the problem,” says Lance Reader, the founder of Krank Golf, “only one percent of golfers swing a club 115 mph or faster. Unless you do, you cannot taking advantage of the latest driver technology.” Since a vast majority of recreational golfers will never tee-it-up in USGA-governed event, it is going to be a much more enjoyable day on the course when you’re hitting a driver designed to fit your swing.
The majority of golf played today is played under the rules of the group(s) on course. For example, hitting mulligans off the first tee box are not allowed under USGA regulations. So, if you play golf for fun, Krank’s ultra-hardened beta titanium drivers are micro milled and forged into a cupped shape to optimize the face surface area for maximum spring effect based on your swing speed. This way you are not being penalized when you tee it up. Nonetheless, if you frequently play in USGA-sanctioned tournaments or long drive events, you will want to hit a Krank Formula Fire PRO or Formula LD (long drive) with adjustable shaft. Here at Krank Golf, our pro golfers have been winning sanctioned events for decades hitting a USGA-conforming design that was built using the latest clubhead technology.
Find out for yourself how we have been able to dominate the world of distance by creating drivers that generate faster ball speed, allow for better control, and provide a better ball flight. To schedule a custom fitting and start designing the driver that is right for your swing, click here now and stop giving away distance off the tee.
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