My best drive yesterday was on the 5th hole(my 17th as I played the holes out of order to get in front of a slow 3) an uphill tee shot and I carried the bunker on the inside of the dogleg at 214m and left me with 77m to the pin. Hit lots of other 200m drives.
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Hey J, The ADAMS 9088 UL 9.5 weighs exactly 10.2 ounces I am currently using and I love it! My partner also loves using it, he hits the ball 10-15 yds longer with it. My smash factor ranges from a low end of 1.44 to a high end of 1.52. I am avg somewhere around 1.46-1.47 SF. Ball speed is like 133 to 138…It took a complete overhaul to get there. At 62…I’m still looking for a bit more if I can gain some flexibility, but 245-255 is pretty good! It is a 460cc Head and has a higher launch than I’m used to…but I really like it…for $50 I couldn’t go wrong. I wanted it 12 years ago but it was $400 back then!.
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I stayed with smaller drivers for quite a while. When they went to 460cc I stuck with a KZG PFT 300. Finally went to 360 (Adams I think) then 380, 400 and 420 before caving in and going 450-460cc.
I have a TM Mini driver from a few years back that I still use. I hit the Mini just as far (at times) and sometimes farther (lower spin so it rolls out more), but my Epic Max LS is a LOT more forgiving.
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Feels good, man. Feels good.
214m is about 235 yards. Which, when faced with similar carries, I ‘know’ I can do it, and yet often don’t. The often is turning to seldom though, so that’s good.
Best part of the game for me, is watching that little white ball get really small, really fast. And it’s so effortless when you do.
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So, 133-138 Ball speed, high 1.4s for SF, and 250-ish carry, you sound like your driver/ball is dialed in about as well as it possibly can be. (Per Ping’s Driver launch optimization chart: https://ping.com/en-us/blogs/proving-grounds/optimal-launch-and-spin) Provided dispersion is good, of course.
Great job!
From the weekend. I had a couple duds 2. Those were the top 4
Thanks for all replies. Head and shaft agnostic fitting it is. Totally agree swing remains somewhat of a work in progress but with same swing I would pay a fair amount for an extra 10-15 yds. Dispersion / mishit forgiveness not quite so high on my list as driver a relative strength (compared to 8 ft putts FML !!)
you think, being 20 years old back then had anything to do with the distance ? 
Although, I had tried and owned a couple of newer drivers; can’t seem to kick the 2012 Adams Speedline Tech ( 8.5 degree) out of my golf bag.
Never compared them on L/M. What I did was a few rounds of drives at my favorite par-5. Each driver will enjoy a new sleeve of golf balls from a new box. There be no excuse of how I feel, nor the condition, at the time of testing.
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Ping is one of the very few that works with other manufacturers shaft engineers to match heads/shafts for optimal performance. So if you can hit a Ping driver well then it might last you longer. Maybe.
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You guys are so lucky these days, to have the adjustable hosel which could switch shafts in seconds.
Back in the days, we had to pull the shaft and epoxy the new one in and wait for the epoxy to cure. Quite a bit a hassle to test out another shaft.
What took us days if not weeks to find out which shaft would work for our swing, you can do it in less than an hour with launch monitor and inter-changeable shafts.
Yeah but the courses were only 5,000 yards!!
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We have a few shorter golf courses here which are quite popular. Tighter fairways and smaller greens.
Still need to putt the golf ball into the cup, right? A low scoring round at any of the golf course is no easy feat.
The chase for “perfect” equipment is endless, as we all seek an easier solution as in life in general, especially with the younger generation, always looking for a “boxed” solution as the culture is that way.
Getting a new piece of equipment is much easier than hours of labor on the driving range.
Of course, but I have a few friends that love the chase of the Holy Grail, it is what they do. But in the days you are talking about, the driver manufacturer tried hard to marry the shaft to the driver (except way back in time in the crooked stick days) and today I know of only Ping that have the engineers intimately involved with the shaft development for their heads. The rest just pass along specs. Mainly because of cost. But yes it is much easier now to try and find shafts that work for the individual, and I like it that way. Not every one is the same and not every driver head is the same. Early on I player the TM Burners and not every year was ‘hot’ some were, some were not. But in all my trial and error I found that Graphite Design shafts worked very well for me.
Can’t agree with you more!
My feeling is, the chase for the Holy Grail had been heavy on the equipment side. Often golfers forgot the one holding the tools meant more than the tools.
I know those who could basically play any set of golf clubs to score close to par.
Ping had been true to the function of the golf clubs, but they seemed to make less noise in the product lines in recent years.
Yeah, and I am not sure why. Their drivers and fairways are still among the best and I have tried their irons but always thought they were ugly (i and G series). I hit the Ping driver long just couldn’t control it. Again the G series of drivers. My opinion of PING is one of a company with integrity and committed to the art form as well as engineering. Others such as TM and Calloway - not so much. I say this butI have Cobra woods, Mizuno irons and Vokey wedges but my putter is PING!!
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Odd. Wouldn’t have expected that from any of the G400 on up. They may not be the longest, but by God they’ll stay mostly straight. Different people have different experiences.
Agreed that the irons are butt ugly if you’re a Mizuno/Miura/JDM-in-general kind of guy. I am…meh about mine. They work. They muffle mishits pretty well. They’ve got spin…
I dunno. Need to play them more.
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I admit I didn’t play all models but my son and my best friend both play Ping G drivers and I still occasionally try them, especially if they inserted a new shaft. But in all honesty I am pretty satisfied with my Cobras.
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