Conforming vs Non-Conforming aka is it "Hot" or "Not"!

Since the vast majority of us are amateurs, we won't be affected by the stringent rules in 2007/2008, so whether a driver is conforming or non conforming is largely irrelevant. We play for fun and enjoyment.

However, is there anyone who has tested the difference between a conforming and non conforming driver in terms of distance?

i.e. take a particular driver from manufacturer "X" in the conforming and non conforming forms, hit balls with them and then show the differences in distance.

Someone was telling me that the difference in distance is actually quite modest - only about 5 yards or so.

Can any one confirm these findings?

I think this is a really interesting question.

Firstly it will not affect anyone who plays for fun at the weekend.

I may be wrong, they are going to ban these club for Golf Club comps aren't they?

However I am starting to think if so, how can this be Policed at the comps every weekend, a bloke standing on the first tee shouting "right lads lets check your drivers".

Banning them on the tour is easy.


It will be intersting


Ian.

Non-conforming is for competitions. Weekend hackers will have no problem. Those that play in club championships and tournaments will have to 'downgrade' to .830 COR drivers.

Exactly ... that's what I was thinking.

Whilst the Pros have their own officials to check, I doubt that for the club monthly medal it can, or will, be enforced.

Indeed, for some club members, they will need their drivers to be as hot as possible simply to get 100 yards down the fairway.


Since the majority of amateur/weekend players do not have the sufficient swingspeed to hit a ball 300 yards consistently (otherwise they'd be on the PGA Tour), what does "conforming/non conforming" matter in the end?

I read somewhere that even with the improvement in equipment, balls etc the average score for an amateur golfer has remained in the 90s.
So what we gain in distance, we probably give away in a poor short game anyway, but at least we enjoy the big drive from the tee


Quote from the R and A website
"For most competitions and all recreational play, there will be no Rule limiting 'spring-like' effect in driving clubs until 1st January 2008. However, from 1st January 2004 until 31st December 2007, for competitions restricted to highly skilled players, a Condition of Competition may be introduced whereby a driving club is deemed not to conform with this Rule if, under specified test conditions, it has a characteristic time which is greater than 239 microseconds plus a tolerance of 18 microseconds. "

This makes me laugh - as an amateur/weekend player, are we deemed "highly skilled"? Is there someone going to be measuring the time with a highly sensitive clock each time we tee off?

Also, for the retailers, what are they going to do with the hundreds of drivers that are currently HiCor? Sell them off cheaply under a banner saying "Buy this driver - hits the ball a long way - use only if you are not highly skilled"?


But, returning to my original question - approximately how much further does a ball hit by a hot-faced, > 0.83 Cor driver travel, relative to its conforming counterpart?

Anyone viewing this thread from a club manufacturer - state your yards now please!

It's funny because the size of the window of people who actually benefit from high COR drivers is quite small. If I'm not mistake, you must be able to swing at a speed of over 105 mph. On the other hand, if you swing on average of over 115 mph, the faces simplely can not take that much spring action and they ultimately break. The benefit is not that much greater, but there is a measured amount of increase, depending on the distance you normally get.

As for using an illegal club during competition, it is an honor thing. For example:
Let's you were in the trees with no one close enough to see your ball. You were moving a twig from behind your ball and the ball moved, would you call yourself? If yes, then you probably won't use an illegal driver. If no, then you don't follow the rules closely enough to care whether your driver conforms or not.

__________________
Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall

Gord - valid point.

We play golf because we respect the history and adhere to the Rules, even when it requires us to call a penalty on ourselves ... though there are some people who have selective memory loss when it comes to applying the rules and who believe that they are invisible when in the undergrowth as they move their ball to a nice lie.


If your club or competition states "no non conforming drivers", then so be it, but it's the practicalities that make my mind boggle, plus, as I have stated earlier, what will happen to the population of hot-faced drivers that are currently in the market place.

Probably the same thing that happened to all the GBB Warbird drivers....

Well, I have a conforming Snake Eyes Viper Ti4 that goes further than my old GBBII+ so its obviously not all its cracked up to be.

Its the shaft where the distance comes from anyway.

Ernie Els tried the 983K in both hot and cold versions. He gained 4 yards illegally, big wows huh?

D.

Just found this ...

"Five or six yards carry and roll, when you're swinging at 110 mph [Tour speed] and hitting it on the screws." .. per **** Rugge, the USGA's senior Technical Director

For the rest of us a few inches is probably the best we can expect - so for amateurs or the "unskilled", what does it matter anyway?