Almost every golfer Ive ever talked with has been unanimous in the desire for more yards off the tee. Even the ones that will tell me I hit it consistently 270 and always in the fairway. I often think, but rarely ask, why? The fact is there is only a small percentage of the golfing public that can hit a drive over 250 yards. Golfers seem to have a lot of unrealistic estimates of how far a ball travels when they are the hitter. Its not that golfers themselves are the entire problem, but partly its the way courses measure yardage. When a course measures the distance of holes they follow the shape of the hole, such as a dogleg. If a player cuts a bit of yardage off the dogleg and ends up with a certain yardage to the green the assumption is that the distance on the card minus the distance left to the hole is how long the drive is. Knowing that the majority of golfers hit their drives less than 250 yards, most can really use those extra yards.

There are a few ways that can give the golfer more distance. Length is the first. Using a longer club will give the golfer more distance when the ball is struck on the sweet spot, but the down side is the longer the club the harder to hit the sweet spot. Larger heads are the next way. Larger heads promote a greater MOI, which in turn gives the golfer more yards on shots hit off center. Using a softer flex club will also help the golfer with more distance, but again the golfer will sacrifice accuracy.

It would be a very good thing if a golfer could get the extra distance desired without the undesirable negative effects. The good news is that there is a specification of a driver that is often misunderstood and overlooked, the clubs loft. For a long time golfers and club fitters alike have been of the belief that for faster swinging golfers lower lofts having lower trajectories promoting more roll. Most players would want a driver with a loft between 8 degrees and 10.5 degrees. These were the lofts most widely produced by club head manufacturers. A large segment of the golfing population would have been more successful with higher lofts back then. More recently, the newest ball technology has made this belief untrue. Ball manufacturers are producing balls that have a much lower spin rate than at any time in the past. Hitting tests confirm that the higher the launch angle and trajectory, the longer the total distance of drives will be. Higher loft drivers are becoming more accepted be golfers of all levels. The manufacturers are making drivers with lofts as high as 18 degrees. Even with all the testing data available most golfers still ask for drivers with lofts in the range of 9-10 degrees.

Using a higher lofted driver will definitely give the golfer more distance, but that is not the only benefit. Higher lofted drivers will also help the driver hit the ball much straighter. Take the example of the irons. Lower loft irons are well known for their difficulty for the average golfer to hit consistently. The higher lofted scoring clubs are much easier to keep on the target line. So if you are looking for a new driver to give you the extra yards youre looking for and not sacrifice accuracy, look to a higher lofted club.