12 degree driver. Leaving yards on the table?

[jl923]

So I have an r1 that I have at 12 degrees Bc I struggled in the past to hit it well. My ball flight is high with little roll. Do you feel like I would gain any distance with a new driver or less loft? My distances are as follows - 

pw (48 degrees) - 125, 4 degree increments

9 - 135

8 - 145

7 - 155

6 - 165-170

5 - 175-185

4h - 195

3h(20 degrees) - 205

3w - 235 - 245

driver - 250-260

 

Anyone else game a 12 degree?

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

How high?

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

The yardages look self consistent.

[jl923]

Ok. That’s what I thought. I don’t know how high but considerably higher than my playing partners. They constantly comment on the height. I also get no roll all carry while they do. Also I’ve hit some drives that felt low spin and roll an additional 20-30 yards. But those are few and far in between.

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

40 minutes ago, jl923 said:

Ok. That’s what I thought. I don’t know how high but considerably higher than my playing partners. They constantly comment on the height. I also get no roll all carry while they do. Also I’ve hit some drives that felt low spin and roll an additional 20-30 yards. But those are few and far in between.

Quite honestly, your swing speed likely warrants a stiffer shaft and lower loft?

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

We carry roughly the same 260 yard distance with driver. I have a 9.5 degree driver. Serves me well.

[Justsomeguy]

It's tricky right where your distances are. Up to x ss, you can benefit from more loft. Past x ss, you benefit from less loft to get roll.

It's affected by AoA, and other more drilled down delivery abstracts.

It's also gonna be course and weather dependent at that rate.

I would say you're at the max where 12 is gonna help a slow ss.

What will really tell the take of the tape is if you get up to your ball and you see a pitch mark right in front of it in the fairway.

I experimented with high lofted drivers a couple years back and that wound up being the case because I have a very upward angle of attack with my driver. My swing speed is not so high but because of my delivery characteristics it was not a good fit for me.

[jl923]

I do see a pitch mark on my drives sometimes. I use a regular flex shaft too. I’ve tried stiff but I can’t feel my swing loading the shaft. So what I’m hearing is that since I use a regular flex, lower loft can help reduce spin. The stiffer the shaft, the more loft will help? I did not know that. Thanks 

[Kdaniel72]

5 hours ago, jl923 said:

So I have an r1 that I have at 12 degrees Bc I struggled in the past to hit it well. My ball flight is high with little roll. Do you feel like I would gain any distance with a new driver or less loft? My distances are as follows - 

pw (48 degrees) - 125, 4 degree increments

9 - 135

8 - 145

7 - 155

6 - 165-170

5 - 175-185

4h - 195

3h(20 degrees) - 205

3w - 235 - 245

driver - 250-260

 

Anyone else game a 12 degree?

From the yards you hit all other clubs including the driver I would say yes. I hit similar distances as you do and just purchased a Ping G425 Max. It has an adjustable head/shaft +/- 1.5 degrees. So the 10.5 can be adjusted to 9 or 12! Also sounds like you need the first level of stiff shaft as well. 
 

If you find the fairway 90% of the time don’t change  anything abruptly and try to ease into a new LoftEd driver. 
 

IMO straight at 250-260 is way better than 275 and in the trees.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Kdaniel72

[platgof]

You need to try a newer driver at a lower loft. What is your primary ball flight? I can't say enough good things about the old G Max 400, it just works. The right shaft will be a big part of it. 

[jl923]

Kdaniel, what degree loft do you have your driver adjusted to? How far do you hit the driver? Have you experimented with 9 and 12. What were the results ? 

[JungleJimbo]

7 hours ago, jl923 said:

So I have an r1 that I have at 12 degrees Bc I struggled in the past to hit it well. My ball flight is high with little roll. Do you feel like I would gain any distance with a new driver or less loft? My distances are as follows - 

pw (48 degrees) - 125, 4 degree increments

9 - 135

8 - 145

7 - 155

6 - 165-170

5 - 175-185

4h - 195

3h(20 degrees) - 205

3w - 235 - 245

driver - 250-260

 

Anyone else game a 12 degree?

@jl923: isn’t your R1= adjustable loft ie 8* to 12* (ie 10* with a +/- 2* Loft sleeve)

 

so you could experiment with a lower than 12* loft

 

https://www.golfwrx.com/57945/2013-taylormade-r1-driver/
 

having said that... I have typically preferred the R1’s at the 12* setting ie trading-off a more consistent fairway-finder / less-worse bad shots vs a theoretical loss of distance!

[Kdaniel72]

21 minutes ago, jl923 said:

Kdaniel, what degree loft do you have your driver adjusted to? How far do you hit the driver? Have you experimented with 9 and 12. What were the results ? 

I am currently using a 10 year old Taylor-Made Burner relax shaft with a 10.5 degree loft. My club head speed on driver is getting around 95 with a goal of being 100 + by the end of this summer.  My G425-Max is on order and I plan on placing it a 10.5 with a stiff shaft. The shaft just above relax not the tour shaft.  
 

Your probably a little longer than I am with the driver. I’m about 235 poor shot and 250 a good shot.  If my smash factor is 1.50 I can go 260-65.  I have seen 300 but it was a downhill run, with the wind at my back and the morning temperature of 60 had changed to about 80 and dried out the downhill fairway. I play a lot of golf in the Texas hill country.

[Kdaniel72]

8 hours ago, jl923 said:

So I have an r1 that I have at 12 degrees Bc I struggled in the past to hit it well. My ball flight is high with little roll. Do you feel like I would gain any distance with a new driver or less loft? My distances are as follows - 

pw (48 degrees) - 125, 4 degree increments

9 - 135

8 - 145

7 - 155

6 - 165-170

5 - 175-185

4h - 195

3h(20 degrees) - 205

3w - 235 - 245

driver - 250-260

 

Anyone else game a 12 degree?

Have you tried teeing it down a little lower?

[jl923]

Good idea. Will try that this week

[Cwebb]

10 hours ago, jl923 said:

Ok. That’s what I thought. I don’t know how high but considerably higher than my playing partners. They constantly comment on the height. I also get no roll all carry while they do. Also I’ve hit some drives that felt low spin and roll an additional 20-30 yards. But those are few and far in between.

 

This is really basic.  You usually get no run out with your driver and you would like some.  So try a lower loft, until it starts to run out on a dry fairway

[Santiago Golf]

14 hours ago, jl923 said:

I do see a pitch mark on my drives sometimes. I use a regular flex shaft too. I’ve tried stiff but I can’t feel my swing loading the shaft. So what I’m hearing is that since I use a regular flex, lower loft can help reduce spin. The stiffer the shaft, the more loft will help? I did not know that. Thanks 

 

 

I use to swing above 115 and use something between 8 to 9.5* driver with a 85tx driver shaft

 

Now swinging in around 108-112 and using a 10.5* to 11.5* w/ 65 stiff and I carry around 275 

 

From your other number 155 7iron ... 260 carry seems liking your maximizing your carry 

 

I don't know what you mean my loading the shaft ... I'm not a gamer but I thought PS5 got rid of load screens???

 

They make 40 to 50 gram x flex shafts now a days ... give that a go, and add some lead tape on the bottom of your driver to up the swingweight

 

 

[cdfs]

I'm playing a 12* Driver... with a ultra soft bamboo shaft... I had these no-roll drives as well and of course everybody knew, it's the shaft, it's the loft, blabla... forget this! Work on your swing first! With this driver I'm currently around 250 carry and get plenty of roll after changing some things in my swing (I'm in the Monte NTC learning-mode). Occasionally I can hit some drives on the range with 10.5, 9 and even 7.5* drivers with all kind of shafts.. the only difference for me is, they do not get straight 😉 What helped me as well was finding the optimal impact point to get to optimal spin numbers. Read the following thread, it helped me with understanding this.

 

If, after you gave that a try and couldn't change anything, try out other gear... but keep your 12*, just in case ...