Rory McIlroy’s TaylorMade driver is set at 7.75˚, Scottie Scheffler 8.25˚ while Bryson DeChambeau is down at 6˚ with his Krank Formula Fire LD chief.
TaylorMade’s new Qi4D Max comes in three lofts, 9, 10 and 12˚ with a 4° loft sleeve to optimise your ball flight. Leading PGA Professional Ged Walters explains why there might be as much as 8˚ of loft between our driver and that of Bryson’s.
‘The lower the loft you have, the more speed required to keep the ball airborne. So when you look at your players like Rory, they’re swinging the clubhead in excess of 120mph.
So generally they will have a lower loft. McIlroy’s angle of attack is positive, maybe around 4˚ up, so if he had a 10.5˚ driver swinging it at 125mph, then that ball is just going to balloon and spin.
So for him to control his launch angle and get it close to optimum, and to optimise the spin so that he can optimise his trajectory and his distance, he then needs to lower the dynamic loft. And he can do that because of his speed by having less loft on the club to start with.
What is dynamic loft?
This is the actual angle of the clubface at the precise moment of impact with the ball, measured relative to the horizon. Unlike static loft (the fixed angle printed on the club), dynamic loft changes based on swing mechanics like shaft lean and angle of attack, determining the launch angle, spin rate and total trajectory.
You could have somebody then who has the same speed, and there are players on tour who will actually hit 1-2˚ down on it. So they don’t have 8˚ of loft, they’ll have 10-10.5˚.
Their loft then changes their launch to optimise their spin and their trajectory because their angle of attack is more downward. Because again, the more speed you’ve got, you can hit down on the driver if you’ve got loads of speed. You can’t hit down on the driver if you haven’t got speed and that’s why for most amateur club golfers, they want to optimise it by getting their angle of attack 2-3˚ positive.
Also, club golfers generally don’t have the speed to keep the ball airborne as long as they had a lower loft on the club, so they need to add more loft. And that’s how they then would be able to control the launch, flight and then the spin.
What club golfers need to look at, if they get fitted (which everybody should), is that spin loft is important.
The spin loft is the relationship between the dynamic loft and the angle of attack. So if your dynamic loft is 16˚ and you’re delivering the club at 1˚ up, you’re going to have the ball spinning too much and popping up in the air too high, so you’ve got to control that.
So you can still have your dynamic loft in the same place but you’ve got to then create a different angle of attack to bring them down.
As a very general rule, 10.5˚ of loft is most golfers’ starting point. Then you can tweak it here and there. A lot of golfers will have a 9˚ driver simply because of vanity. To get the most distance, speed is the key element and if your speed isn’t to a certain level, then you need a certain loft to sort of counterbalance and help you.
I fit people blind. So I’ll give them the head that they want, but I’ll set the shaft with more loft. They will love it and I’ll then show them the hosel and the actual loft. Then they understand that they need that set-up to get the most out of the club.
About Ged Walters
Ged is a Golf Monthly Top 50 coach and one of the leading teachers in the North West. For more tips follow Ged on Instagram – gedwaltersgolf