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Busted Drivers Hard To Replace, Even for Pros |
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News -
Editorials
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Written by Jennifer Gardner
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
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Tiger Woods cracked the face on his Nike SQ Tour driver in a Wednesday practice round during the week of Dubai, but kept quiet about the change to his back up - even after he was visibly struggling off the tee in the second and third rounds in Dubai.  Could this be Tigers New Driver?
"I didn't tell you guys this," Woods revealed to the media on Sunday, "but I broke my driver on Wednesday and had to use my backup, which I didn't like very much. I spun it too much."
So why did Woods have such a good showing off the tee in the first round?
"It was fine on Thursday because the wind didn't blow, but as soon as the wind started blowing, I had a hard time controlling the driver because it kept spinning too much," Woods said.
Woods said the spin that the second driver put on the ball didn't help his shots penetrate into the wind as he was used to. Instead, his tee shots got too much height - "Iittle up-shooters," as Woods called them.
It might be a challenge for Woods to find a driver that exactly matches his old one. That's what happened to Srixon staff player Jim Furyk in late 2006. He broke his Srixon W-506 driver at a tournament in China and, even though he won the next month in South Africa, couldn't find another Srixon driver that performed exactly as his original did.
"You know, you think in this day and age with as good as we are at making equipment, measuring equipment would be easier than that to get a replacement but I really haven't been that happy with my driver," Furyk said in 2007 when he explained he was using a TaylorMade driver until Srixon could find a suitable replacement.
Srixon officials say they have worked extensively with Furyk and they hope he'll have a Srixon driver in the bag soon. Still, the incident with Furyk spells out just how difficult it is to exactly match a driver for a pro who has great sensitivity to the smallest of differences.
Plus, golfers can often develop emotional attachments to equipment that has helped them win.
"That driver that broke, I used it for the last year and I had some pretty good success with it," Woods said.
Woods, who has been rumored to have tested the Nike Sumo2 square driver, may have a brand-new Nike driver in the bag soon. If it's not a square club - which Woods said he liked but couldn't work quite as much as he wished - it may be Nike's new SQ Sumo 5000, which along with the new SQ Sumo2 5900, debuted to consumers last week.
The new Sumo 5000 has a slightly different body shape with more weight at the back of the club head for an improved center of gravity. The driver is also easier to work than the 5900, which may make it more appealing to Woods.
For more information on the new Nike drivers, see www.nikegolf.com. |
