Driver Loft

Hey Brain Trust,

So about to get the kid a new driver. He hits his XR16 ok but it has just about come to the end of its life after 2 1/2 years of strong service to the empire. My son is 10, 60" tall and his driver swing speed is typically between 72-76. I am looking at the Cobra F8 since you can get some crazy stupid deals on them right now. Those of you with older lads when did you move away from the high lofted driver and go with a standard loft? I can go with either the men's head which is 9-12 with myloft or go with the women's head which is 11-14. His XR16 is 13.5, set in standard and his trajectory is fine with he hits a proper drive. Just want your thoughts.

You want the loft to be as high as it can go, in most cases, until they start seeing upper 90's swing speed. My kid is right at 99 and still swings at 10.5 degrees. If it is really wet out and getting no roll we will crank it up as high as it goes to get the maximum carry.

Bottom line, get him on a Flight Scope.

Without seeing his swing I don't think anyone here can really say what is perfect because it can go either way depending on how they hit the ball.. It's great having a trackman or flightscope but the true test is being able to use a demo club and actually play with it. Do you have a course or club you belong too? They might be able to lend a few clubs and shafts for you. It's a huge help. Even if they just have a few standard shafts you will still learn a lot.

I tend to think if you don't get any roll on a driver and it balloons too much you need to go with a lower loft. If you need pinpoint accuracy off the tee don't use a driver..

That is what I was thinking as well, keeping him in the women's loft for at least this go around but wanted to make sure before I pulled the trigger. We put him on a monitor a few months back when we played with his shafts and it seemed then the higher loft was still better as we popped a 10.5 Epic on his shaft and the numbers did not do well. Appreciate it.

If he needs accuracy on a tight fairway he pulls out his 3W (17 degree) or driving iron (21 degree). gonna stick with the 13 degree standard women's that can go up to a 14.5 if need be.

It really isn't a women's loft with the new technology in Driver's. There are tour guys that are above 10.5 degrees. 10 years ago you wouldn't have heard of it. It is all technology to get optimal carry and roll.

Are you going for max carry or max distance? Max carry I would stick for higher lofted drivers, max distance (I'm in Texas with at times very firm fairways) dropping the loft down can increase the roll-out just depends on what options you are looking for, but getting on a monitor could give you an idea if that is an option. 11- 14 sounds like a better option with you kids size and age.

You can get the desired launch characteristics you want with the right shaft on a 10.5 degree head. A high launch shaft + a high loft driver won't produce the results you'd expect.

Typically prefer to stick to carry. In Alabama our fairways rarely get particularly bare. We typically have enough rain to keep them decent. I was leaning heavily 11-14 but wanted to get some opinions. Sounds like my early assumption was best.

Cobra tends to launch high. 10.5 should be more than enough for that swing speed.

Not all drivers are honest about their stamped loft. That 12.5 could be a 13.5

You should always get them checked. I just got a brand new set of Callaway Irons in. Not one head was at the company spec for loft angle. Very first club was 4 degrees off.

Appreciate all the input everyone. I went ahead and grabbed the ladies that can go 11-14. We will see how it works out. When he was hitting properly with the 13.5 XR16 he really wasn't ballooning or losing much distance so I think it will be the best choice this go around. I asked his swing instructor what he thought and he agreed he liked the idea of the 11-14 more than the 9-12. Not particularly thrilled with the shaft it comes with (Aldilia NV 50) but we will see how it works out for him. The XR16 was really good for him when he was swinging in the 60s but ever since he got up in the mid 70s it has just not been the right fit for him even with different shafts.

IIRC the XR16 head was super light hence the propensity for a ton of juniors to game them. You'll probably get better results with a heavier head as SS goes up.

That is my belief to Leezer. I think the XR16 was great for the beginning but now I think the head is actually hindering him. Particularly since the rest of his bag is now adult clubs I think the super light driver is not helping him.

For any interested and still following along F8 12.5 with 50 g shaft vs. XR16 13.5 with 40 g shaft is night and day. Dispersion is drastically better with F8 and added around 10-15 yards. Huge change.

If you can increase mass while maintaining velocity the ball will go farther.

Thanks for reporting back, helpful to everyone! Did you stick with the Aldilia Shaft?

Yep. Ole NV for the win. Put him on the monitor and he indeed added about 15 yards over the Callaway. The shaft/head combo on the XR16 was causing some nasty ballooning. Also, randomly enough we lowered his tee height on the Cobra and saw a great increase in consistency of shot shape and distance. We use the 4 More Yards tees, not because I believe they add yardage but because they offer a consistent tee height without any guessing. We dropped him down to the yellows from the blues and it was a definite improvement.