Square drivers attracted a lot of attention at last week's PGA Merchandise Show. But are they attracting the same kind of interest on the PGA Tour?
K.J. Choi won last October's Tampa Bay Championship using a Nike SQ Sumo2 driver, but player reaction to the new drivers, such as the SQ Sumo2 and Callaway Golf's FT-i, has not been overwhelming -- yet.
"I've hit the Sumo and I've hit the Sumo2, as well, and I have not put them in the bag, either one of them," said Tiger Woods at last week's Buick Invitational. "I've found that I just could not get enough spin on the golf ball. I was hitting it farther, yeah, but I just could not hit a ball with enough spin on it.
"It was frustrating in the sense that I was hitting it farther but because I was just obviously carrying it and running, and I don't like roll. I want my ball to kind of land a little soft. I hit it far enough, and as the fairways on Tour have gotten narrower and they're pinching fairways in. I don't want that ball running anywhere."
Fine.
Square drivers may benefit the average amateur golfer more than they help the guys on Tour, who want to work the ball and have more specific needs about carry and roll. Or possibly, as Phil Mickelson surmised two weeks ago at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the pros just need some time to get used to what the club can do.
"I think that the FT-i, the square-headed driver, is not just an evolutionary driver. I think it's more of a revolutionary driver," Mickelson said. "Because it's such a drastic change, because the moment of inertia is so high, because the ball goes so straight it doesn't want to curve, I think it's actually going to take a little bit more time on the PGA Tour."
Callaway Golf CEO George Fellows, in a talk at a media luncheon last Wednesday, explained that his company does expect Phil Mickelson to put the FT-i in play.
Mickelson may be experimenting with the driver, but prefers to use the FT-5 -- a more traditional driver -- in tournament play. That doesn't mean that under certain circumstances, he won't pull the square driver out of his bag.
"I've been working on a longer version for the FT-i, because it's so straight, I'm able to increase the length of the short and to some thinking to hit the ball longer and keep it in play so I'm using most likely that driver for Augusta," he said.
However, Mickelson did say that in the situations where he's most likely to use the FT-i, it will be where he doesn't want to or doesn't need to work the ball.
"If I just wanted to hit it straight, I'll go to the FT-i, which is why I'm leaning toward that driver for Augusta when I tried to hit it a lot longer," he said. "I'm not really trying to maneuver it or curve it; I'm just trying to hit high bombs."
For those players who want more control over their ball flight, however, square drivers don't look to be a good fit.
