We’re well into the golfing year and most new offerings are already on the shelves. As we all know, the eternal quest for distance and accuracy has made one club the most marketable among the fourteen we have in our bags — the driver. While it’s not exactly practical to swap drivers every year (even if the manufacturers wish we would), buying a new driver is a splurge that always brings a thrill to any golfer.
My driver purchase early this year came after 7 years of playing with my previous driver.
For me, it’s a pretty big deal — and it would take a lot to convince me to part with my trusty gamer.
It got me thinking about all the drivers I’ve owned over the years — and a few I wanted but never pulled the trigger on. I started playing seriously as a teen back in 1993, so I’ll be covering equipment from that era onward.
Some of them were revolutionary, while some were just successful marketing gimmicks. Let’s look at some of the iconic drivers of the past.
In the early 90s, Callaway and their Big Bertha model was all the buzz. Even non-golfers would have heard of the brand as it was that popular. Metal woods were already around by then, and the concept of oversized heads wasn’t something Callaway invented.
Before the Big Bertha, the Japanese brand Yonex already had an oversized driver. But the combination of a larger head (190 cm3 ) and the S2H2 (straight short hollow hosel), produced a driver that had the biggest sweet spot in golf at the time.
TaylorMade’s answer to Callaway in the early ’90s was a driver with a sleek, traditional profile, foam-filled for enhanced sound and feel, and paired with the unique Flextwist shaft. Back then, it earned a reputation as the top pick for serious players chasing precision and performance.
Fred Couples had his own Lynx driver in the early ‘90s. Known for his impressive length off the tee and nicknamed “Boom Boom,” his 1992 Masters victory made him a household name. Naturally, golfers like me wanted to play with the same gear he was using.
Made famous by John Daly, the Killer Whale was popular for its size (250cc). That was huge for the early 90s.
Although not widely known, this model was the first to feature titanium in a driver. The more popular driver that brought titanium to the mass market, however, was Callaway’s Great Big Bertha.
None other than Tiger Woods used this driver to win his US Amateur titles and continue into his pro career. He famously played with steel shafts, even when most golfers had already switched to graphite.
In addition to their distinctive bronze/rust color, these drivers were known for their bubble shafts, which featured a thick “bubble” just below the grip. The design was marketed for better stability and became quite popular in the mid to late ‘90s.
This model didn’t gain much traction with pros and didn’t sell well either. However, to my knowledge, it was the first all-carbon driver — a design that’s now common in today’s market. While it was ahead of its time in 2002, they just didn’t quite get it right back then.
These drivers revolutionized driver adjustability with moveable weight technology. Four screws with different weights enabled golfers to customize the flight and spin characteristics by moving the weights around.
This driver was the first to feature sliding weights at the back, allowing players to adjust the draw and fade bias to suit their game. While it didn’t offer the option to shift weight front to back, the introduction of the sliding mechanism marked a major step forward in golf club technology.
The R9 made a twofold contribution to golf. First, it combined titanium and carbon fiber in the same clubhead. More groundbreaking, however, was the loft sleeve, which allowed for easy loft and lie adjustments with just a turn of the hosel.
These drivers were more successful in creating fully carbon composite designs, including the clubface.
Forgiveness has been the name of the game in recent years. The combination of distance and forgiveness has put Ping’s G430 Max 10k in many bags in the last two years.