Support Provided By: Srixon Golf
The Adjustable Driver Sleeve
Adjustable driver technology was said to take the fitting cart and combine it all into a single sleeve. Not too long ago, in order to try out different driver lofts and lies player’s would have to have heads bent to different specs. This is extremely hard to do at any sort of scale and this sort of treatment was reserved for tour players. Everyday golfers were left only being able to change the loft of their driver head, by switching to a different head, without being able to change any other attributes of the head. Today’s game sees adjustable sleeves on just about every type of club, and almost every brand has an adjustable driver option. Today with some help from our friends at Srixon and their ZX MKii Drivers, we’ll dive into the adjustable sleeve and break down the adjustments.
Most adjustable driver sleeves are going to have adjustments for both loft and lie angle. What isn’t something that’s stated on the sleeve itself however is what those adjustments do to the face angle of that driver head, which is the angle at which the driver sits in relation to the perpendicular line at address to the target line. A driver head that sits with a closed face angle is going to want to draw more and a face angle that is open to the start line is going to want to fade. By adjusting the sleeve of your driver head, you’re able to dial in all of these adjustments to get the absolute most performance out of it.
The most neutral setting is always going to be the standard setting. This is where the loft and lie angles of the head are at the manufacturer's stated specification, and where the face angle of the head is at its most neutral state in comparison to the intended start line. It’s important to understand the starting specs of the head before you start making adjustments to it. Some manufacturers will choose to start their heads with more upright lie angles, and some will choose to start them with flatter lie angles. This is also something you may notice changes depending on the type of head that you are hitting. Srixon’s new ZX MKii lineup of drivers all start at 58.5 degrees which is considered more upright in today’s market, and is why you’ll notice that their sleeves have adjustments to get flatter, which we will touch on shortly.
The second adjustment that you’ll see on most sleeves is for lie angle. Some companies will have upright adjustments and other companies will have flat adjustments. In the case of the Srixon sleeve, as we mentioned earlier, there is a set of adjustments with flatter lie angles which are labeled appropriately with an FL marking. These settings will push the toe of the driver down, and help to encourage starting the ball further to the push side. Any adjustments made on the other half of the adapter are going to push the driver further upright with the +1 loft setting being the most upright. How this lie angle adjustment combines with the face angle adjustment in loft, can really aid a golfer’s ability to hit the head better. You’ll notice that the most upright setting is also the most closed face angle. That’s in the +1 loft setting. This would be great for a right-handed player who’s battling a big right miss that continues to travel right. By adjusting the head more upright, you’re helping to bring the startline back to the left, and by closing the face down you’re encouraging more face rotation through impact which will help to reduce the large fade shape as well. The same can be said for a right-handed player battling a pull draw. By setting the adapter into the -1 setting they are getting the flattest lie angle and the most open clubface. This can aid in pushing the startline to the right and encouraging less face closure which helps to manage the draw shape.
Messing with the adapter on your driver is always something we’d encourage you to do supervised by a professional fitter. We only touched on the 4 major settings of the adapter head, but with 12 total settings, there’s lots of opportunity to make finite adjustments to the head and really dial in that particular driver head for your exact needs. These adjustments are also going to change depending on the length and swingweight you end up playing as well as what shaft you are gaming. Once you have found your ideal setting we recommend that you don’t change the setting. Messing around with the adjustments is great when you’re buying a new driver and trying to figure out the best settings for your game, but it shouldn’t be looked at as an adjustable band-aid. Once you’re dialed in, treat that driver as if it is a bonded driver. Trust that the setting has been dialed in properly for your game and use it consistently.
Thanks to our friends at Srixon for providing us with the driver heads that you saw used in today’s topic. To purchase your own ZX MKii Series driver, or to learn more about all Srixon Golf products, head over to their website at us.dunlopsports.com/srixon