The first round report:
With no range time (due to no nearby range), I bust this baby out on the first hole.
And proceed to sky it. I hit it straight, mind you, but skied. Encouraging, but not the surge of confidence I was hoping for.
Next time I need to use it I hit a big slice - high on the face. So, I'm quickly learning that this driver is helping me 'bottom out' my swing (and I should hope so!) but it's not solving my OTT move. Oddly enough, the better feeling my swing, the more OTT I seem to get.
Anyway, pull it again, another slice. So I go into 'anti slice' mode. Start closing the stance, strenthening the grip, moving the ball up in my stance, etc. Now I was hitting pulls (pretty standard when I start playing that game). Most of my strikes are high on the face (no more skyballs, however).
The last time I pull it, I figure 'screw it'. I setup normally, and decide to hit with a steeper swing. Sparks fly, but I hit it well, and it fades (my normal driver ball flight).
The other thing I've come to realise is that I hit my absolutely best shots when I take my arms to the top then let them go passive; let gravity drop them into the slot. Long and straight (the 5 times out of 117 that I did it - including my tee shot on the par 3 18th).
So I'm starting to wonder if my issue is with the naturally flatter swing plane of the driver, and over-active arms and hands.
In the meantime, I'm subbing out the driver for a 1 iron hybrid. I can use my fantastic
irons swing for a while, I guess, until I sort this driver swing problem out.