==================================================== Newsletter - Issue 40 Date 11/09/07 ==================================================== ==================================================== TCT Quick Tips - Think Positively ==================================================== Good putters believe that they are good putters. Think it, talk it, believe it. ==================================================== Golf Tip : Driver Losing it's Pop ==================================================== If anyone has a golf question that they would like answered, please email your question to: teachingpro@bataviacc.com and I'll do my best to answer it in an upcoming newsletter. Many of my friends and students have asked me if they could expect their new driver to lose some of it's Pop over the course of a year. Pop is the resilience or ability of the face of the driver to spring back during impact. That actually used to be the case with the earlier versions of titanium drivers, so I decided to do some current research on the subject and here's what I came up with. If we are talking about one of the standard 460cc large headed drivers which are designed to the limit of COR (trampoline effect), and your swing speed is in the normal to high range (85mph to 105 mph), then you should not be concerned about it losing its Pop. If it is from a reputable manufacturer, then it should last for at least five years under reasonably heavy use. This means playing 30 to 40 rounds of golf a year and going to the driving range about once a week. The face will not lose its Pop, and your shaft will not lose flexibility in any gradual manner. When a graphite shaft fails, it is a catastrophic failure that ends up with the grip still in your hands but the head somewhere in the bushes or down the fairway. The fatigue properties of shafts are very good. Even steel shafts made of high strength steel will not lose their oomph. Here's a test to see if a driver face has started to collapse. Place the straight edge of a credit or business card against the face. The face should have a noticeable bulge and roll (i.e., be convex). If the face is flat and a little concave, then you do have a potential problem. Nowadays this is very much the exception., It is amazing how well a driver works for the first several weeks (or even months, depending on how much you paid for it). I find a new club improves my game right up until the point when my mind, which has lulled into the belief that all is right in the world of golf, reawakens and starts to interfere with my swing. This is a real phenomenon known as the Placebo Effect, experienced by even the very best players. I do not believe it is the club or shaft that has lost its pop, but rather the depletion of the magic powers most new drivers have designed into them.