Leading Edge

Imagine a driver with nine sweet spots instead of just one! That’s the concept behind Cobra Golf’s “Hotter 9 Points” technology, available in their 2009 line of S9-1 drivers. The face geometry of the S9-1 has been adjusted to create a more consistent ball flight across the entire face, improving the efficiency of your off-center hits. Discretionary weighting is used to alter the CG location in each club, depending on the individual’s ball-flight characteristics, as is face curvature to improve accuracy and promote faster ball speeds.
 
“We’re able to spread the COR more around the perimeter of the clubhead, so even your mis-hits produce a good ball flight,” said Ben Schomin, Custom Fitting/Trial Promotion Manager for Cobra Golf.
 
The S9-1 is available in six Speed Tuned shaft models: F, M, M Offset, Senior’s, Women’s and Offset Women’s. The S9-1 F is designed for players with faster ball speeds (125-155 mph) while the S9-1 M is for slower swingers (110 to 140 mph ball speeds) who need help launching the ball higher and turning it over from right to left; therefore, the M has more discretionary weight in the heel and the face is slightly more closed to promote a draw-bias. The CG location and face curvature gets progressively more draw-biased as you move from the F model (-0.5 degrees closed) to the M Offset (-1.5 closed).
 
The S9-1 Pro S and Pro D drivers are designed for highly-skilled players with ball speeds in excess of 155 mph who are looking for a mid-to-high launch and lower spin. Cobra Brand Ambassador Geoff Ogilvy captured the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship with the S9-1 Pro D model (10.5 degrees). Jason Gore also hits the S9-1 Pro D, while Camilo Villegas plays the S9-1 Pro S.
 
The S9-1 F, M and M Offset drivers have a street price of $299 while the S9-1 Pro models are $399.

ORLANDO, Fla. – During his press conference on Wednesday, Tiger Woods discussed how the new ball was making it more difficult to shape shots from right to left or left to right. "Shotmaking is more about trajectory now, moving the ball up and down to control your distances, rather than shaping the ball into the wind like you used to," said Woods.
 
The Leading Edge asked Golf Channel chief technical advisor Frank Thomas to expand on what Woods had to say, and to explain why the ball is traveling a lot straighter today.
 
"The modern golf ball has been designed to spin less than the old wound ball. This decreases the aerodynamic drag and thus increases the distance it can travel," said Thomas. "A ball which spins less will also have less lift, thus it must be launched higher than the old wound ball to optimize distance. This decrease in spin will not only affect the vertical lift force, but also the side spin component which causes a hook or a slice. In Tiger’s case, his controlled draws and fades will be a little more difficult to produce with a low spinning ball. This does not mean that the ball will not slice or hook, to which we can all attest. Even Tiger is not immune to the occasional wayward shot.
 
The bottom line is that the advantage the modern ball provides in decreased spin has the added advantage of being a little straighter and, as Tiger suggests, a little more difficult to work."
 
Thomas doesn't believe the modern golf ball needs to be changed, as some, including Jack Nicklaus, have advocated. If anything needs tweaking on the professional level, it's the courses themselves.
 
"It is as good as it can be and certainly not more advantageous to the power players than to the average golfer," said Thomas. "As far as reigning in the golf ball is concerned, I believe the best solution is to shorten golf courses and with strategic course setups for major events, penalizing the long wayward drives."
 
Thomas’ "Let’s be Frank” column appears every week on GolfChannel.com. To submit a question to Frank, please e-mail letsbefrank@franklygolf.com.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Jack Nicklaus has been a long-time proponent of changing the golf ball because it travels too far. According to the man who is chasing his major championships record, the ball is also flying much straighter today, taking away some of the advantage that the best shotmakers have.
 
"I grew up maneuvering the ball, but it doesn't move as much now," Tiger Woods said during his Wednesday afternoon press conference at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. "Hank [Haney] and I were talking about this not too long ago. The game has changed with the new golf balls because the ball doesn't move from right to left or left to right as much as it used to."
 
Woods says that he spends more time today on controlling trajectory than he does shaping his shots.
 
"Shotmaking is more about trajectory now, moving the ball up and down to control your distances, rather than shaping the ball into the wind like you used to," said Woods. "It's changed a little bit and, obviously, you have to change with the times."

ORLANDO, Fla. – I put a lot of miles on my car in March, and heard a lot of things during the PGA Tour’s Florida swing – chiefly about April. It seems a lot of guys are thinking about their putters with The Masters in mind. Phil Mickelson mentioned it at the WGC-CA Championship, as did Boo Weekley at Transitions. It’s about getting soft.
 
A softer putterface helps slow the ball down just after impact, and that can make a big difference on super-fast greens like those we expect to see at Augusta National. Mickelson, in particular, sets great store by this approach – he tried it out Tuesday of Doral week on a trip to the National; more than likely, he's returned to Georgia since then and may be doing so as we speak (he opted out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational). And it seems to be working – Phil’s putter, and 8802-inspired, heel-shafted wand made specially for him by Odyssey, was sterling at Doral, as was his entire short game.
 
As for His Booness, he’s not usually as tech-minded as Phil, but he knows his stuff. His Never Compromise model fits with his feel expectations when used with the Srixon golf ball he now has in the bag.
 
“I don’t worry too much about how it does it,” Boo said to me on the 18th hole during pro-am day at Transitions. “I just like it.”
 
Bring on the greens of Augusta.

As if Sergio Garcia doesn’t have enough pressure on him already to get that major monkey off his back, the current “Mr. Best Player to Have Never Won a Major” now has to win one for the buyer. Golfsmith is running a Masters promotion on its website with TaylorMade staff player Garcia in which it will refund the full purchase price of an r7 Limited, R9 or Burner ’09 driver should Garcia win The Masters.
 
Here’s the catch: You must purchase one of the three TaylorMade drivers mentioned above (the r7 Limited and Burner ’09 are listed at $299 on Golfsmith.com; the R9 at $399) by April 11, send in your refund promotion form, and then hope that Garcia wins a green jacket.
 
If Sergio’s recent performance at Augusta National is any indication, Golfsmith shouldn’t have too much to worry about. Garcia has missed the cut in three of his last four starts there, the lone exception a 46th-place finish in 2006. He does, however, have two top-10 finishes to his credit – an eighth-place finish in ’02 and a tie for fourth in ’04.
 
The interesting thing about this promotion is that it ends at midnight CST time on the 11th, which means you have three rounds to determine whether you think Garcia is a good buy. If Sergio holds a big 54-hole lead, you can then break out your credit card if you’d like and purchase one of the three drivers either online, by phone or at your local Golfsmith retailer. You just might want to check to see where Mr. Woods is lurking first.

Golfweek is reporting that when Greg Norman makes his much-anticipated return to Augusta National in a few weeks, he’ll be toting a TaylorMade staff bag and playing their irons and woods. The Shark, who last appeared in The Masters in 2002, finishing in a tie for 36th, currently has an ownership stake in MacGregor but is reportedly close to signing with TaylorMade Golf. Norman played the new TaylorMade R9 driver at the Johnnie Walker Classic earlier this year in Australia, and played the TP Red LDP ball during last summer’s British Open, where Norman held a two-stroke leading heading into the final round before slipping into a tie for third with a 77.
 
Norman, who turned 54 in February, will be in the Dominican Republic this week playing in the Champion Tour’s Cap Cana Championship. He’s also scheduled to play in the Shell Houston Open April 2-5 before heading to Augusta.
 
Norman acquired a controlling interest in MacGregor in 2007, but the company’s future remains unclear after it pulled out of January’s PGA Merchandise Show. It has yet to introduce any new product this season, and many of its top executives have left.

One relatively new term in golf equipment today - thanks to Trackman and other launch monitor systems - is “landing angle.” This is the angle that the ball falls down to the ground. The steeper the angle, the less roll you generate and the better your distance control; conversely, the flatter the angle of descent, the more roll and distance you create. With your irons, you want the ball coming in at a relatively steep angle, so it lands and stops. That’s how you hit more greens. With a driver, you want to maximize distance so the goal is to get the ball to descend on a shallower angle and hit the ground running.
 
A good landing angle for your irons is around 42 degrees, says Kevin Walker, President of FuZion Golf, a custom fitting company based in Jupiter, Fla. It’s very important to keep that angle fairly consistent throughout your set of irons. “Every iron should have the same apex [highest point of trajectory], and therefore the same landing angle,” said Walker. “If you hit your 5-iron through pitching wedge at roughly 45 degrees, but your 3- and 4-irons come down at 35 degrees, then you need to replace your longer irons with hybrids to give you roughly the same landing angle.”
 
The landing angle for your driver should be less than 40 degrees, said Walker. A lower spin rate will help bring the landing angle down, maximizing roll and distance off the tee.

DORAL, Fla. – Ernie Els has found himself back on PGA Tour leaderboards of late and at least part of that is due to the South African’s ability to find fairways.
 
Since switching to a new driver shaft at the Northern Trust Open (UST Mamiya’s ATTAS, a prototype expected to be available to the public in 2010), he’s hit 64 percent of his fairways, a drastic improvement over his 2008 (56 percent) and 2007 (56 percent) averages. Els has also been able to maintain his length off the tee since switching shafts in his Callaway FT-9 Tour driver.