It is not always definitive, let alone mind-bogglingly dramatic, to talk about how much golf equipment has improved over time. Yet, it’s always the case that the eternal question golf consumers are always asking remains the relatively unanswerable, “How much better are the new clubs really?”
Sometimes, though, we have a tiny snippet of data that answers that question in a practical and measurable way. Of course, that improvement almost always leads to other avenues of development. That’s why we remain intrigued at the latest new clubs and balls. Quite simply, there are lots of smart people looking for small keys that might open some pretty big doors.
We found one of those snippets, one of those small keys, the other day while we were looking over an old Golf Digest Hot List spreadsheet from a decade ago. We were looking specifically at driver spin and whether there is any sense that it’s improving, in other words, testing the theory that drivers are getting better at achieving this ideal distance-enhancing scenario of less spin with higher launch. Short answer: they are. They most definitely are.
What we looked at is the idea of the amount of spin generated per degree of launch. In other words, you could have a driver that produced less spin but if its launch angle were lower, that doesn’t really mean that it had achieved “lower spin” in terms of enhancing distance. In fact, you can just lower the loft and always get less spin (or increase the loft and get more spin), but when you do that you always get less distance. So instead, we focused on the idea of spin per degree of launch. This is a more efficient way of understanding the most effective spin on a driver.
What we found out when we compared drivers from the Hot List of a decade ago to drivers from the 2024 Hot List is definitive evidence that drivers are getting better. Specifically, we were using data from the Rapsodo MLM2 Pro launch monitor, which recorded more than 5,000 shots from more than 30 drivers hit by all 32 players at the most recent Hot List Summit. When we compared that data to similar launch data from drivers at the 2014 Hot List, we found that the spin per degree of launch was about 10 percent lower for the current crop of drivers vs the drivers from a decade ago.
Now, what does 10 percent less spin mean? That’s a more complicated answer. On the most basic level, holding everything else equal, 10 percent less spin is going to equate to about two extra metres. That’s at average male golfer swing speeds.
What less spin per launch angle really means, though, is new opportunities for more distance. In other words, a more efficient spin per degree of launch also allows a golfer and his fitter to opt for more loft without paying the penalty that increased spin might usually bring. In short, higher launch less spin will help almost every player achieve more distance. Also, what a more efficient spin-to-launch ratio tells us is how that aspect is true for impacts that happen not just in the centre of the face. That’s going to mean less of a penalty on those off-centre hits, too, less slice or hook spin, and potentially more shots that land in the fairway. Of course, shots that land in the fairway will roll out more than those that land in the rough. Again, more distance.
What’s happened with drivers in the past decade is the introduction of new lightweight components (think composite materials in the crown, sole, skirt and even face) that save weight. That leads to a lower centre of gravity (more in line with the height of the centre of the face), and a lower centre of gravity creates the potential for more efficient launch conditions. As Titleist’s Stephanie Luttrell, director of metalwoods design, recently explained the technology of the company’s new GT driver line, “We know by getting that CG closer to the neutral axis it helps with momentum and the physics of the impact for unlocking more speed,” she said. “But it also helps with our goals of generating a better spin to launch ratio. It gets us higher launch, lower spin, or higher launch, same spin.”
Now, lower spin isn’t the only way drivers are getting better. Indeed, there were drivers from a decade ago that produce less spin than some different kinds of drivers today. But drivers with a little more spin today are designed that way specifically for certain players, while the lower-spinning models of a generation ago almost always didn’t have the forgiveness found in today’s low-spin drivers.
More importantly, there also are aerodynamic improvements, lighter weights in shafts that create more potential for swing speed, and better face designs that create more ball speed consistency across a wider area of the face. Drivers get a little bit better in lots of seemingly little ways, and that can mean significant improvements over time. Does that mean if you were fit for a driver last year by a quality fitter, you’re going to see 20 metres with a new model from this year? Not if nothing else has changed about you and your game. But significant improvements are the result of little developments that combine over time. It’s what’s been called aggregate incrementalism. In other words, in the past decade driver designs increasingly arrive without compromises, and lower spin per degree of launch is one key that unlocks not only a driver’s potential for distance, but your potential, too.
