The Best Drivers on the Golf Course

So, if you've never played golf before, and you think you might be interested but you know nothing about it, here's some information about drivers and what they do.

The driver is the biggest club in your bag. It has a huge club-head, which nowadays is usually about 460 cubic centimeters (460cc). If I could characterize this club with one word, it would be personality. It's usually the coolest looking club, because it's big and golf companies can put designs on it. It's also the club that people discuss the most on the course.

None of that really matters, though, because it's all about how the driver affects your golf game. All drivers are made differently, and some work better with specific swings than others do. By that I mean, if you have a slower swing speed, for example, a driver with a more flexible shaft and a titanium face would be better. It all depends on the swing and there are a lot of variables.

The driver is typically the first club used on par 5's and long par 4's because these clubs give you the most distance off the tee. And when the goal is to get the ball in the hole with the fewest number of strokes, the closer to the hole you can get on the first shot, the better.

So, the driver is the big daddy, towering over the other clubs in your bag like it owns them. And it should. You probably paid just as much for the driver as you did for the rest of the clubs combined.

Moment of Inertia, or MOI, is a property of physics that tells you how easy or hard it would be to spin an object around a specific axis (think spinning a basketball on your finger). The harder it is to make an object spin on an axis, the higher the moment of inertia.

Pertaining to golf, all you really need to know is that clubs with high MOI do not twist as much on off-center hits. If you don't hit the ball in the center of the club face, the club head wants to rotate around its center of gravity, or CG. So, if you hit the ball off the toe or heel of the club and your driver has high MOI, it will be more forgiving and give you better results.

Since golf companies like Nike, Callaway, and TaylorMade have lots of drivers with 460cc club heads, they have plenty of room to move the center of gravity lower and more rearward on the club head, which results in higher MOI.

Not only is it a beautiful club, but it's one of the most adaptable clubs on the market, with options and features that allow you to cater the club to your game.

How can a driver give you options, you say? Well, I'll tell you.

TaylorMade is all about their movable-weight systems. The system on this club gives you a huge range. It allows you to adjust the weighting enough to move the ball up to 35 yards left or right.

The R7 Limited also features a Matrix shaft that TaylorMade designed with Matrix to increase the MOI of the club. The high MOI shaft along with the movable-weight system makes this club one of the most forgiving drivers on the market. Plus, it's a beautiful club with a sleek silver/chrome-ish look.

TaylorMade drivers have a reputation for being some of the best and most adaptable drivers out there. This is true for a lot of reasons, but there is one thing that separates TaylorMade from the rest of the competition: Movable Weight Technology.

We've gotten a lot of questions about the technology and the weights themselves, so we thought it might be best if we talked about them a little bit.

There are a variety of weights available for you to purchase. They come in weights of 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, and 14 grams. However, drivers with the movable weight system, like the R7 Limited driver, come with some weights already installed into ports on the head of the driver.

As you can see in the picture above, the weight has a fitting cut into it so that you have to use a specialized wrench that you get from TaylorMade. The wrench is used to remove the weight from its port, and to screw the weights back in.

Here's the important part. You hear all about these weights all the time, but you don't always hear about how they can help you correct your swing.

If you have a swing that usually results in a slice, that means that your club face is too open at impact and you need more rotation of the club head so that it's more closed when you hit the ball. The movable weight system can facilitate that rotation by adding more weight to the heel and subtracting weight from the toe. On the other hand, if you have too much of a draw for your liking (on the streets, we call that a hook), you should remove weight from the heel and add some to the toe.

Think of it like this, whatever part of the club head that you want to stay back the most through your swing is the part that needs the most weight. If you hit a slice you need the heel to stay back, and if you hook the ball you need the toe to stay back more.

The best idea would be to go out to the driving range with your weights and your TaylorMade wrench, hit some balls, and see which setup works the best for you. Remember to swing the same way every time and adjust the weights to that swing. Don't allow the change in the position of the weights to affect you mentally to the point where it changes your swing. The weights will HELP you with your ball flight. It is not meant to fix a bad swing.

The Nike SQ Sumo 5000 is a great driver because of its forgiveness. It allows golfers, especially amateurs, to drive the ball more consistently, even with poor contact. This club generates good results on off-center hits because it has a high moment of inertia, or MOI, thanks to Nike's PowerBow weighting system.

The PowerBow weighting system is Nike's fancy term for the way that they manage the weight around the perimeter of the club head, allowing them to place the center of gravity in an optimal position -- low, and towards the back of the club-head.

So, what do all these fancy terms like high MOI and PowerBow do for you? In simple terms, Nike made this club so that you can hit a golf ball longer off the tee and more accurately, even if you don't hit it in the sweet spot.

The club face is made of NexTi titanium, which gives the ball a little extra kick as it comes off the face. It's also conforms to the rules and regulations of the USGA, so if you plan on turning pro, you're good to go with this club.