New Square Drivers – Hype or Not?

February 19th, 2007 · No Comments

If you haven’t heard the latest golf equipment hype by now, the newest marketing sensation is the square driver. Is this new design of golf driver an investment that will improve your golf game and improve your scoring ability or is it just another marketing ploy to get access to your wallet?
The new technology is based on increasing the moment of inertia (MOI), which is the golf clubs ability to resist twisting when you have off center hits on the clubface. By increasing the moment of inertia, theoretically, the golf ball is supposed to go farther and straighter even when you hit the ball off center on the clubface.
The USGA has been confining the limits of golf equipment design which has pushed manufacturers to higher limits of creativity The USGA limits the dimensions of the driver head to 5” X 5” looking down at it from the top. The driver club faces are already square and at their maximum external dimension, thus the only place left for manufacturers to play with is the back side of the driver which has traditionally been rounded.
As I’m sure you’ve already seen, Nike and Callaway’s new square drivers are the SQ Sumo, and FT-i. You can purchase brand name golf equipment by Nike and Callaway for $400-$500 dollars or purchase very similar clones from a number of clone golf equipment manufacturers like GigaGolf, Pinemeadow and Hireko for about $100.
To date, square drivers have claimed one Tour victory by Nike’s KJ Choi. Callaway’s Phil Mickelson threatens to swap between Fusion F-5 and FT-i, depending the accuracy he needs for certain PGA tour courses. Annika Sorenstam, who plays Callaway clubs on the LPGA tour, has yet to be convinced about the square driver until she hits it “a few more times.”
Component clubmaker Tom Wishon, who wrote the book, “The Search For The Perfect Golf Club,” wonders if this square technology and the chase for high MOI is really another type of chase…to win the golfer’s dollar. “Wishon said since golf companies have hit the limits for face rebound speed and head size, now the race will be on to figure out who can get the MOI to the specified limit.” But he wonders if golfers who already have drivers that have a reasonable high MOI currently will notice much of a difference with the new geometrically challenged breed of clubs.
Golf Digest in its recent golf equipment test gave the new square drivers high marks. The Callaway square driver earned an Editors Choice award and also ranking the Sumo highly. Regarding the Nike square driver, Golf Digest said “It has a nice high ball flight…Better players would rate it a 6 out of 10, but high-handicappers might like it.”
The Sumo has been reviewed on some golf forums. On GolfMagic.com, Bob Warters and his buddies took the Sumo and a clone version out for a test ride. They said all the clubs were long and straight and might actually live up to the hype. He said, ‘It’s not perhaps what a leading manufacturer like Nike Golf would want to hear, but first impressions comparing the company’s latest SasQuatch Sumo 2 (square-headed) drivers and a cheaper copy - the Turbo Power XQ MUTO 460Ti by GigaGolf.com- detected little difference in performance.”
The only real way to know whether a club lives up to the hype is to try it for yourself. Every golfers swings and abilities are different. If you need some extra distance and or to hit a straighter drive, this new square driver might be a highly recommended golf equipment purchase for you.

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