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The Search for the Magic Driver (Part 4)

By Leith Anderson

In case you're wondering if the search for the Magic Driver will go on forever, why not? Did anyone ever really find one? Trying to find the Magic Driver might be a lot like the search for the Holy Grail?

Forever is too long but I've got at least two more subjects planned. Next month I'll do an in-depth review of the new head designs with a focus on what's working on the long drive tour. By then, the winners will be known from the National competition in Mesquite, Nevada. After that, I'll take another look at new shafts including a preview of what's coming in 2003. I also owe you a test on whether the "cryogenic" process adds distance.

My current "Magic Driver" still in the bag for the second month is the SST PUREd Nicklaus Airmax 360 9 degree with the proprietary Fujikura shaft. It's still too stiff and swingweights too light, but it's consistent. It promotes a slight draw but will let me fade. I'm still getting used to never missing right. It's been a great month for very steady rounds that come from being in play off the tee.

I even bought a backup Nicklaus driver off of eBay. That's a sign of a serious love affair. I was thinking about trying a regular flex since testing in the past has shown better distance with a little more kick in the shaft. The first thing I did was test it on my Professional Clubmakers' Society Equalizer frequency system. Wouldn't you know? It came in at 261 CPM at 45". That's a pretty solid "X". No wonder the poor guy who sold it on eBay couldn't hit it. He thought it was "R". This proves again the need to test every club. Quality control at the OEM level is inconsistent, to be polite.
This month I have a new discovery that has been great for me, great for the Magic Driver and is getting great reviews from every customer who has tried it at the Golf Lab.

It all started back in January at the PGA Show in Orlando. This is the biggest golf show of the year. I was working my way down the back aisles where all of the new companies get hidden and ran across a booth that was full and buzzing with excitement. The booth was the Balance-Certified Golf Company. It sounded a little too scientific and, as you will later find out, there was good reason for that. I got off to a rocky start when John Cranston confronted me with the question "What is feel?"

I thought it was just a little presumptuous for a company hidden in the back aisles of the PGA show to have the gall to say that they had discovered how to "quantify feel". I was thinking that about four hundred years of our golfing ancestors had been stumped by that question. And now a few "rocket scientists" from Huntsville, Alabama (I didn't know it was the center of golf discoveries in the Universe) had the answer.

Nevertheless, I stuck around for the demo which consisted of running a pen up and down the shaft of a putter suspended in a tuning fork connected to an amplifier. The vibrations up and down the shaft vibrated the pen except for one spot on the shaft which was called the "Node". Turns out, the "node" was right under the right hand position. Cranston's explanation was that "feel is vibration felt by your right hand". That was close enough to my traditional upbringing in golf folklore. I had always believed that my right hand was my "feel" hand. To say that "feel" was promoted by vibration sensed by your right hand was an interesting theory.

Balance-Certified was selling an adjustable weighting system that let you install 10-, 30- or 50-gram weights under the grip in your putter. By changing the weights, it was possible to move the "dead spot" up and down the shaft. The theory was that there would be a perfect weight and balance that permitted vibration to be located correctly under your right hand. It was interesting that Scott Hoch was an investor in the company and they even had one tournament winner, Steve Veriato, who was swearing that his late-blooming success was due to his improved putting from the weighting system.

So I ordered a few kits, installed one in my trusty White Hot and proceeded to have the best putting summer of my life. Whether it was direct cause and effect we'll never know, but at least the credibility of the company was way up. I no longer even want to test a putter that doesn't have the backweights installed. That's a pretty good testimonial.
A couple of months ago, Cranston called to say they had just invented a way to put a similar system in drivers and irons. This was a nontrivial engineering feat since the grip under the driver is subject to lots of pressure. I bought a couple to try. It took a while to screw up the courage to put one into my Nicklaus "Magic Driver". I'm more superstitious than most golfers and hate to ruin a good thing. But I did it anyway.

Forget feel. This new system was aimed at hitting the ball straighter and farther.

The first day I used it was the Member-Guest at Shoreline GC in Mountain View. I snapped the first one left out of bounds. The second one was headed the same direction but got saved by a tree. After that, I hit every fairway and made eight birdies. We were playing white tees so the approaches were shorter than normal, but it was clear that playing from the middle of the fairway was a big advantage. The second time I used the system was the Mountain View City Championship, also at Shoreline. I pured one on the seventh hole into the wind for the longest drive of the year. I was just about ready to post my all time best driving day when I slashed one out of bounds on the 18th. The third time was the Palo Alto Seniors. After bogies on five of the first seven from the middle of the fairway, I settled down to a 1 under back side. Overall, a very positive driving month with just a couple of mistakes from being perfect. I'm stating the facts so you don't expect miracles. A bad swing will still deliver a bad shot.

We even did some quasi-scientific testing. Last month we were evaluating launch monitors at the Golf Lab. Tim Tomlinson from Swing Dynamics brought their launch monitor into the store and we invited our customers to test their drivers to determine optimal launch angle and spin rate. While we were doing the customer tests, we decided to test our own drivers with the Balance-Certified system. The results were extraordinary. There was little change with the 10 gram weight. But with the 20 gram weight the ball speed off the face of the driver increased by 4-6 miles per hour. This was with no increase in swingspeed. We were surprised but Tim was incredulous. He has tested clubs for professionals all over the US and said he "never saw anything like it". The 30 gram weight seemed to bring the ball speed off the face up another MPH or so. Everyone who saw the tests installed the system in their drivers and they have all been back with positive reports. This experience is consistent with the Balance-Certified marketing claims which also report an increase of ball speed with no increase in swing speed. Somehow, that sounds like turning lead into gold.

Here's another data point. A Buy.com qualifier, Shane Dews wandered into the shop. He's still looking for an edge. This is a problem for a generation of golfers that rates a 300-yard drive as "average." We discussed the weight system and I loaned Shane my magic driver. He took it to the range and survived derisive comments from the Titleist and Ping loyalists, ("where'd you get that P.O.S"). He then started to bounce his drives off the back fence. He took the driver to the Stanford course and reported that he was "straighter and longer" than with any other driver he's tried. I got mine back. He ordered a system for his Nike.

Further data point. From my ancient memories I remember that Jack Nicklaus experimented with lead tape under the grip. I'm wondering what happened to that idea? Some research will be in order.

So here are my conclusions. I think that this could be an important discovery. Players are reporting things like "it feels more solid", "it lets you drop it into the slot better", "I'm hitting more fairways", and "better distance".

I have a set of weights ordered for my irons. I'm going to take the next step and gamble the best set of irons I ever had on trying the Balance-Certified system in my entire set of clubs. I'll report an update next month.

You're probably thinking, "What does this do to swingweight?" The simple answer is that swingweight comes way down. A driver with a 20 gram weight under the grip that weighs in at D-2 is going to lose at least 5 swingweight points measured on the traditional scale. But, swingweight is a measurement of "head feel". When you put the weight way back under the grip the head feel stay the same, even though the swingweight goes down.

My partner Bob Huff has said he'll never play another driver without the system. Shane Dews still hasn't had the chance to play his own driver with the Balance-Certified system installed so that will be an interesting test. If you want more information, the company has a website at http://www.balance-certified.com.

Buy the way, just so you don't think that this is a "no-brainer" there is a cost involved. The system is totally over-engineered with multiple weights, wrenches and a double locking mechanism that is intended to retail at $120. That's per club. Magic comes at a price. The putter system has a MSRP of $74.95. Most clubmakers include installation, but some charge extra.

Leith Anderson (mailto:Leith@calgolftech.com) is a partner in the Golf Lab in Palo Alto. (650) 493-1770. http://www.calgolftech.com

Jeff Lindner, Inventor and President of the company just left NASA after 15 years of testing hardware going into space. The third partner, Greg Laue, is also an Engineer.