True Game Changing Drivers for Each Company in the Last Decade?

[PepsiDuck]

After reading through the threads on the SIM and Mavrik, it made me wonder, what drivers from each of the major companies in the last ten years (or so) were truly revolutionary (e.g., Titleist 975D, PING TiSI, Callaway Big Bertha, etc.)? Year after year, we see drivers get released and touted as the next big thing, only to fall short and disappoint. Or worse, they are essentially re-paint jobs of the past year's model with no performance improvements besides a bigger number or added adjective to the name. So which drivers really pushed the bar forward in driver performance? And do you think the latest batch of drivers will make the list?

TaylormadeCallawayTitleistCobraPINGMizunoOthers (PXG, XXIO, Srixon, Cleveland, etc.)

[3puttsRLife]

Cobra has to be the Ltd pro. Mizuno with last years st190. Taylormade sldr really started the low spin high launch phase and that's still one of my all time favorite heads.

[Nessism]

True Game Changing Driver is an oxymoron.

[Doyouevenblade]

Each company has put their money on a certain design element.

Cobra - milled face

TM - Twist face

Callaway - flash face and jailbreak

Ping - turbulators / dragonfly.

 

I don't think we'll see any great.game changing drivers for a.while with the limits in place. Every company seems to know that and the trend now seems to release multiple variations of each driver to best fit each player. (Low spin, normal, draw bias)

[cgasucks]

The only game changing driver I know that happened in the last decade is the original R9 with its adjustable hosel technology which as been a Godsend to fitters, clubmakers and tour van technicians. It has been since been imitated by other OEMs and considered a mandatory feature these days. All drivers made after that is just a repacking and remarketing of the wheel.

[95124hacker]

TM r7 Quad was the first with moveable weights (albeit in 4 fixed locations not sliding). First time any club came with a wrench!

 

Apoligize if not in the last decade.

[RogerinNewZealand]

Had a few Quads.

And an XR3 non conforming super accurate. 905 T 400cc and I15 i20 and FT IZ and J33R.......

[MtlJeff]

who ever the first one was that put adjustable hosels, that was the last true "game changer" in the literal sense. Enabled easy shaft changing, great thing for people in markets without easy access to builders

[Titleist84]

Overall biggest advances were adjustable heads for both weight and shafts, as well as maintaining distance on off-center hits.

 

[manima1]

For TM - it's obviously the first gen M1/M2 drivers. Those changed the game in regards to providing in providing a low-spin but forgiving product. First to begin to de-couple launch and spin.

[PepsiDuck]

Great points...perhaps I asked the wrong question, as there are very few "game changing" technologies in the driver department, and as @Doyouevenblade said, each company is committing to their own proprietary technology.
So instead, which drivers in the last ten (or 20) years in the era of the modern max COI driver were really "special"...e.g., TM 2016 M2?

[ShallowbutDeadly]

For a dozen years I gamed the Titleist 905S with GD YS-7+ shaft. Every year I demoed the new stuff and couldn't find anything that was longer with better dispersion. I credit that mostly to the shaft.

Last year I finally found something that out performed. Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero with a Tensei Pro Blue shaft. My dispersion is roughly the same as my old driver but I picked up 20 yards; this was game changing for me.

[plim123]

2018-19 was probably the biggest collective leap forward in drivers. Ping G400, Titleist TS, Callaway Epic Flash, Cobra F9, Mizuno ST190 (although TM's M1 was before). Before that, they were a lot of evolutions not revolutions (titleist 910-917, ping g10-g30, callaway raxr x to x hot to xr16, etc, and cobra/mizuno had barely any driver market share).

[Myherobobhope]

First company I remember doing it was in 2005... google is failing me... it was a small company that’s gone... their drivers also had like a golf ball indentation for aerodynamics. I remember them vividly. Company started with an m?

[JungleJimbo]

i'm guessing you might be thinking of JDM golf brand "Nakashima Golf" = one of the first adjustable hosels? (circa ~2006/07-ish?)

[BB28403]

The manufacturer who sells 9 degree drivers that are really 13.5 degrees.

”I hit it so good bro!”

[AmazinBlue]

For Taylormade it's to be the SLDR. It brought two major factors to the forefront ok not of custom fitting that are at the center of driver design today. 1. The low/forward CG ti allow for lower spin and higher launch to create greater carry. 2. The sliding moveable weight that has been the staple of TM drivers for years since and Callaway was so threatened they patented every "sliding" term used in describing a driver ever since.

Overall the greatest invention was the adjustable hosel adapter, allowing fitters and consumers the opportunity to swap shafts in seconds and find the right shaft for a player, not just the shaft that comes standard.

[GMR2iron]

This. TM came out with SLDR with weight low and forward, reducing spin and increasing launch. The 430 still is the longest driver I have ever hit; however, the tech wasn't refined and SLDR was difficult to control. One or two big bombs per round weren't worth the three of four big duck hooks. Since SLDR, TM and the other OEM's have improved and refined this tech, giving up a tad of the low spin high launch, in order to make the club more playable, hence, M2, Cally SZ, Titleist D4/TS4, LTD Pro.

[Mike_C]

Agreed about the SLDR 430. Still the longest driver I have probably ever hit, but I also hit some of the worst drives I have hit over the past 10 years with it. Glad the technology has evolved....

[Myherobobhope]

Nope. It was an american company based in Carlsbad. I think the driver you bought was fixed hosel, but the demo cart allowed you to adjust. This is going to drive me crazy.

[juststeve]

Since the ruling bodies placed a limit on COR all manufacturers can do is tinker around the edges. Tinkering around the edges won't produce game changers.

Steve

[cjpsse]

Like the adjustable hosel, it was a "game changer" when the major manufacturers realized not every driver had to be pear-shaped and Titleist grey. When they started going out on a limb to increase MOI, ball speeds, edgier looks, etc., we started seeing all the turbulators, movable weights, sliders, black faces, white and carbon crowns (and the HiBore...) Seemed like a mentality/marketing flip when they found out these things will still sell.

[crapula]

I was trying to find the first adjustable hosel driver and came across an article about a patent submitted in the 1940's for an adjustable hosel. Crazy.

[cardoustie]

TM510tp and 2016 m2

Ping has had multiple ,,, Tisi Tec, original Rapture, g400

Titleist is 975d

Callaway, way back, the first big bertha . .EVERYONE has one, ditto for Great Big Bertha and then Biggest Big Bertha

i ignored the 10 years

[JMJ]

Is the company you are thinking of McAdams?

[dmecca2]

SLDR was the best by far when it came out. Twist face is cool but who knows how much it helps. I would guess a couple years before the next game changer

[Myherobobhope]

No. It wasn’t a major company... my club pro in Idaho just happened to be a staffer. The settings didn’t change but you could swap shafts easily. I remember a blue and white bag, I remember the weird golf ball indentation for aerodynamics... I don’t remember much else.

[Myherobobhope]

Boom. Mac driver from burrows golf.https://www.liveabout.com/mac-powersphere-driver-burrows-golf-1560664

[PepsiDuck]

 

[AmazinBlue]

I bought a Tour Issue SLDR 460 (with the + on the top of the hostel and the screw weight in the toe cavity). I have dialed it in with the shaft that came with it and it is the longest straightest driver I've hit in a while. Best driver trajectory I have have ever had. I hit it out onto my frozen lake and pick up the balls and laser the distance back to my house. I got it for $86, and it is looking like my gamer going into the season when the snow and ice melt here in northern Michigan.