Breakdown lane

New driver is a poor fit for this swing

Sports Illustrated senior writer John Garrity was a 42-year-old 8-handicapper when he suddenly lost his swing. Since December 1989 he has been looking for it -- a modern-day Odysseus adrift on the troubled waters of swing theory. As Garrity travels the world reporting on golf, he visits as many driving ranges as he can, avoiding the dreaded "mats only" ranges that prevent him from teeing it up.

Sunday, April 13

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It rained most of the week, so I never got a chance to go to the practice range at Augusta National to watch the pros hit balls into the giant net bordering Washington Road. For a range rat, that's the ultimate experience. Not the watching, but actually getting to hit balls off Masters-quality turf and to watch those balls drop like shotgunned quail upon hitting Masters-quality chicken wire.

Peter Lonard, the Australian pro, was looking forward to that experience last Monday. Unfortunately, the rain fell so hard and for so long that the practice rounds were cancelled for the first time in 20 years. What's worse, the range was closed. So Lonard, who really wanted to get in some practice, drove across town to a commercial driving range called Wedges & Woods. There he bought a bucket of balls and started working on his game under a tin awning. "Can you imagine?" he told an Australian writer the next day. "Here I am in the Mecca of golf, and I'm hitting balls off a mat!"

Here's the best part. Lonard was smacking balls off his square of carpet, when the fellow on the adjoining mat turned around, nodded in approval and said, "You put a nice move on the ball."

My own efforts to get in some practice were less successful. Normally I manage to hit balls in the evenings on the range at Westlake Country Club, where Sports Illustrated maintains a membership to entertain clients. Westlake's range has also been closed for most of the week, but yesterday it dried out and I managed to get away from my writing for an hour of late-afternoon experimentation.

I particularly wanted to check out my new Callaway metal woods, which have yet to see action in a regulation round of golf. As I mentioned in a recent column, I have fallen hard for my Great Big Bertha II 7-wood, and I also love my new 5-wood and 3-wood. The driver, however -- a puffed-up behemoth with a head about the size of a cantaloupe -- has been launching the ball unnaturally high. That's because when I was being fitted at Callaway's test facility in Carlsbad, Calif., I was having trouble launching the ball high enough (for reasons that I won't go into here involving spine angle and dietary fiber). This was clearly an anomaly. My normal ball flight with a driver is high enough to clear a two-story townhouse and its chimney, thank goodness. Anyway, my bizarre performance at the test center persuaded the Callaway technician that I needed a 12-degree driver.

It wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I got a chance to see just how far I was hitting the driver. First I hit a few balls with my 3-wood. The flight of each ball was pleasing, a nice draw with a penetrating trajectory, and most of the balls landed next to a solitary pine tree a few hundred yards out on the range. When I switched to the 12-degree bludgeon, however, the ball tended to balloon and drift downrange as if it didn't have anything better to do on a sunny afternoon. And although it was hard to see at a distance, my shots with the driver seemed to be landing near that same tree.

The only way I could be sure was to take the clubs out on the course. With the sun sinking toward the horizon, I teed off on the first hole and played my way out to No. 3, which is an attractive par-4 with a wide, flat landing area -- assuming you clear the fairway bunker on the right side. I hit two tee shots with my 12-degree GBB. Both shots, which felt solid, flew high and reasonably straight. Both cleared the bunker easily. I then hit one shot with my 3-wood. This ball, hit very solidly, flew lower than my two previous drives, drew nicely over the corner of the bunker, and landed in the center of the fairway, several yards past the other balls.

Conclusion: My driver is a piece of crap.

No, no, it's a fine club. But it makes no sense to carry two metal-woods that hit the ball the same distance. As soon as I get home to Kansas City, I'm going to ship the 12-degree driver back to Callaway and exchange it for a 10-degree GBB. In the meantime, I'll use my 3-wood from the tee, except on the most demanding driving holes, where the safe play is still the putter.

Lonard, by the way, shot rounds of 78-82 and missed the cut. That probably means he won't sign a big endorsement deal with Wedges & Woods.

Watch this space for another installment of Mats Only. To send John Garrity advice, share your experiences, or suggest a driving range, click here.

 

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