Dud Driver Head?

[whumber]

Just curious if anyone has ever encountered a "bad" driver head before. I've been gaming a Cobra F9 driver for the last couple of years and am overall quite happy with it but have felt like there's an extremely sharp dropoff in ball speed if I hit just a bit high towards the toe past the sweet spot (which seems to be a bit high and towards the toe from the center of the face). Hit a few clubs on a GCHawk and the Mavrik Subzero seemed to give me slightly better numbers with a tighter dispersion than what I was getting with the F9, but at the time I didn't feel like the difference was worth the cost of a new Mavrik. Fast forward to last week and there was a good deal on Callaway Pre-Owned so I bought one to play with. I took it to the range yesterday to compare against my F9 and the results were pretty terrible; dispersion, launch angle, and especially spin were all fine (spin looked great) but ball speed was just awful. With the F9 I was seeing balls speed in the 165-170mph range but the Mavrik was mostly in the 150-155mph range with two balls getting up to 158mph. When I had tested it on the GCHawk ballspeed seemed to be the same to very slightly higher than the F9 but with less variation due to off-center hits. So I'm really trying to figure out if there's a possibility this head is simply a dud (and why it was originally returned) or if that's basically impossible and I'm just screwing it up somehow. Any thoughts?

 

EDIT: Just wanted to add that I don't think it's a problem with the launch monitor either. I know the Mavrik should have a more muted feel than the Cobra from previous testing but honestly this one almost feels like hitting a pillow even on center strikes, I just can't get any "pop" out of it.

Edited August 22, 2021 by whumber

[BallerNate]

I owned a Mavrik for a while this season and it just didn’t work for me. Found it very unforgiving if I didn’t connect directly on the sweet spot, and due to the smaller head design I found the sweet spot smaller than any other Driver I’ve had.

 

Didn’t have any launch monitor data to back up my observations, and lots of people love the Mavrik…but for whatever reason it wasn’t a good fit for me personally.

[jbrunk]

3 hours ago, whumber said:

…and there was a good deal on Callaway Pre-Owned….

Yup. Been there. Often.
 

My “dud” story: I had a red Fly-Z+ driver head (the second one I’d owned) that didn’t seem to have that pop of the other Cobra “+” drivers of that era.  I put it on consignment at a local golf shop, a week or so later got a call that the head had a crack.  The shop sent it back to Cobra, who replaced it with a NIP orange F6+ head.  I dropped it in a Diamana D+ 62 and still hit it well when I put it play.

 

[RogerinNewZealand]

Can you return to CPO?Your Cobra being not too good on Toe hits,that may have effected Ricky also! Hence Ping ads etc...new wider sweetspot..more forgiveness...there is a reason some of us quietly buy 3 of the same eg mp33 irons,3 raptures in 5 years..2 of exactly same Scotty.both 20 yrs old the recent purchase just a little better...two 917 drivers...hope this gives you reason to sell,ho Daily on WRX😃 Be Strong....

[bvanlieu]

There is always some quality control with any manufacturing, however the only time a driver has been meh for me when there was a crack. Sometimes they are hard to see for sure. I agree if strikes are near sweetspots your drivers should not be more then a few mph difference, the F9 is no slouch. 

 

Cally has a good rep for customer service and an quick return policy before going to the warranty policy. 

 

My curiosity to find out, I would want to get on the same LM with your Subzero and another head, use some foot spray, and get a set of numbers. Try to map out a basic pattern of strike to ball speed and is there really a *big* difference or not? 

 

I don't have experience with the Mavrik SZ but I game the regular one and have measured good ballspeed on misses with my Mevo+. 

 

 

[whumber]

2 hours ago, bvanlieu said:

There is always some quality control with any manufacturing, however the only time a driver has been meh for me when there was a crack. Sometimes they are hard to see for sure. I agree if strikes are near sweetspots your drivers should not be more then a few mph difference, the F9 is no slouch. 

 

Cally has a good rep for customer service and an quick return policy before going to the warranty policy. 

 

My curiosity to find out, I would want to get on the same LM with your Subzero and another head, use some foot spray, and get a set of numbers. Try to map out a basic pattern of strike to ball speed and is there really a *big* difference or not? 

 

I don't have experience with the Mavrik SZ but I game the regular one and have measured good ballspeed on misses with my Mevo+. 

 

 

I didn't use footspray this time but there was enough moisture that I could see the strike locations and enough of the Mavrik strikes where close enough to dead center for me to rule out it simply being an issue of where I was striking on the face. I'm definitely going to return the driver and try to exchange it for another though. I do agree it would be interesting to see the COR distribution around the face, I know I've seen at least one clubfitter on here post plots of COR distribution around driver faces so they must have some tools to generate that.

[ChipNRun]

23 hours ago, whumber said:

With the F9 I was seeing balls speed in the 165-170mph range but the Mavrik was mostly in the 150-155mph range with two balls getting up to 158mph.

 

How comparable were the shafts in the two drivers?

 

Also, 150 MPH ball speed translates to roughly 100 MPH clubhead speed for drive. Just what are you expecting?

 

And, high toe hits will cost you distance - unless you are playing for a toe hook.

[whumber]

Just now, ChipNRun said:

 

How comparable were the shafts in the two drivers?

 

Also, 150 MPH ball speed translates to roughly 100 MPH clubhead speed for drive. Just what are you expecting?

 

And, high toe hits will cost you distance - unless you are playing for a toe hook.

Both are using counterbalanced shafts of similar stiffness, although I do prefer the shaft on the F9 overall. Assuming I can get a good Mavrik head I'll probably end up reshafting it.

 

100 mph clubhead speed is way too low. Launch monitor was reporting between 110-115mph clubhead speed for the Mavrik (and the F9) which is consistent with what I've seen from GCHawk sessions and what I'm used to seeing on my own launch monitors for the F9.

 

I should clarify, when I say high and towards the toe I don't mean an actual toe strike. Just that on the F9 I've noticed that the true sweetspot is not in the center of the club, but rather seems to be a bit high and towards the toe from the center of the face. The actual issue I have is there seems to be a severe dropoff just past the "true" sweet spot; I'd much prefer a driver that had the sweet spot in the exact center of the face and a more gradual dropoff in COR as you move away from that point in any direction.

[ChipNRun]

15 minutes ago, whumber said:

Just that on the F9 I've noticed that the true sweetspot is not in the center of the club, but rather seems to be a bit high and towards the toe from the center of the face.

 

I understand your situation now. On my prior driver - Calla XR16 Tour - toe hits seemed to product a sharp draw (not quite hook) that cost distance. With smoother swings, I hit close to center and had the desired baby draw. With me, I was missing sweet spot with toe hits.

 

Don't feel bad! If we were partners on a scramble team, we'd be using your drives most of the time.👍

[Valtiel]

On 8/21/2021 at 6:49 PM, BallerNate said:

I owned a Mavrik for a while this season and it just didn’t work for me. Found it very unforgiving if I didn’t connect directly on the sweet spot, and due to the smaller head design I found the sweet spot smaller than any other Driver I’ve had.

 

Didn’t have any launch monitor data to back up my observations, and lots of people love the Mavrik…but for whatever reason it wasn’t a good fit for me personally.

This lines up with the MOI measurements i've seen for the Mavrik line. The Mavrik MAX was pretty comparable to other more forgiving drivers, but the Mavrik standard was well below average in that department and the Sub Zero was almost inching towards SLDR territory with the weight forward and still very unforgiving by modern standards with the weight back. 

[BallerNate]

1 hour ago, Valtiel said:

This lines up with the MOI measurements i've seen for the Mavrik line. The Mavrik MAX was pretty comparable to other more forgiving drivers, but the Mavrik standard was well below average in that department and the Sub Zero was almost inching towards SLDR territory with the weight forward and still very unforgiving by modern standards with the weight back. 

Makes sense. Wish I had known that before I bought it, but was worth a shot.

[whumber]

In case anyone was interested I bought a second driver to compare and it's much better. Played a quick 9 with it tonight and had my best drives ever on 3 holes. One thing I had noticed that even with the "bad" driver the lower ball speed was at least partially compensated for with lower spin rates compared to the F9 so I wasn't actually losing as much distance as expected. I haven't put the new copy against the launch monitor yet but it certainly feels like I'm getting both ball speed and low spin.

[bnperrone]

Yeah, just send that one back and wash your hands of it. At least that's an option, and you aren't putting it out on BST to other members if it's bad. Callaway CPO seems to have high standards, but there's always potential for manufacturing tolerances, customer modifications, etc. and I doubt they're putting every head on a scale for hot melt or anything else that might've happened. It's why they'll take it back no problem, since it's the exception and not the norm.

[whumber]

Just now, bnperrone said:

Yeah, just send that one back and wash your hands of it. At least that's an option, and you aren't putting it out on BST to other members if it's bad. Callaway CPO seems to have high standards, but there's always potential for manufacturing tolerances, customer modifications, etc. and I doubt they're putting every head on a scale for hot melt or anything else that might've happened. It's why they'll take it back no problem, since it's the exception and not the norm.

Yep, Callaway has been really helpful throughout the whole process. Really impressed by their customer service.