Slow face drivers?

[TheOldCourse]

Hot, non-conforming driver faces have been in the news the past year or two, but are unusually slow driver faces out there too? That is to say, not merely a few points of CT, but enough to make a real significant impact on your game? The reason I ask is that I have a driver that I've been gaming for 5 or 6 years, and I'm a bit disappointed by my driver distance off the tee compared to the rest of my clubs. I don't know if it's always been the case since I used to like the club, but over the last year I've put a lot of time into my game with lessons and training and I've made significant swing speed increases and a discrepancy has become apparent. I've been playing a bit more with launch monitors lately and my ball speeds are usually low 140s on a decent strike whereas my swing speed is around 105mph with occasionally hitting the low 110s when I'm getting after it. I'm sure my contact is inconsistent since I'm still working on some swing changes, but I would think out of dumb luck I would occasionally get a center face strike and a smash factor near 1.5 but I've never seen it in hundreds of balls, maybe more.

Now the issue could be I'm getting bad swing speed or ball speed readings--I haven't gotten a chance to confirm on my pro's trackman yet--but my other club distances seem to line up about with the driver swing speeds I see. Is that much impact from a slow face possible? I was planning on waiting to get fit again for new clubs until I've better grooved my swing changes I made over the winter, but this has been driving (haha) me crazy and it's affecting my game since I'm starting to feel like I really need to swing for the fences to get what I consider a decent drive and accordingly my consistency has suffered. It also has me wondering about how much you are rolling the dice when you buy a driver without testing that individual driver rather than just the model/shaft combination.

[Stuart_G]

Well if you got it from some other source than an authorized retailer, knock offs and fakes can have poor performance.

Other than that, it's more likely that if it is an equipment issue (do verify with an LM and face impact location tests), it's more likely from damage or defect. More typically cracked or deformed faces or weld seems. That doesn't necessarily imply it's been abused, those can happen over time from normal use.

[TheOldCourse]

It was definitely from an authorized retailer. Damage is a possibility, I did hit my garage door lift rails a time or two with it on a follow through when practicing in my garage before I moved them out of the way. I inspected it for damage and didn't see anything but perhaps it isn't readily apparent.

[Stuart_G]

Not all damage will be. Only way to really verify is to test on an LM side-by-side with a similar head known to be good. But it doesn't necessarily have to be the exact same model, just a similar enough build (grip size, playing length, shaft and swing weight). Ideal would be if it's a head with an adjustable hosel and you can switch the same shaft between both heads for the test. Compare face impact location (foot powder spray or impact tape) club head speed, (and dynamic loft if possible). If impact location and club head speed are close to being the same but ball speed drops noticiably (significantly lower smash factor) with no other explaination, then it's a good bet the head is damaged somehow.

[ChitownM2]

Sounds like you should just take your driver to a store and compare it against something new. Either you'll hit the new club better in which case just ditch the old one and get fitted for a new one or you won't hit it better and you'll know that it isn't the club.