What makes a driver more forgiving?

Hitting the ball hard is really fun, but you want to know what’s more fun? Hitting the ball straight. What’s even more fun than that? Hitting the ball straight even when you don’t deserve to. By playing a more forgiving driver, player’s are able to go after the ball a bit more aggressively without fear of being punished for missing the sweet spot of the head. But what actually makes one driver more forgiving than another? Today with some help from our friends at Srixon and their new ZX MKii series of drivers we’ll dive in and break it down.

MOMENT OF INERTIA (MOI)

Making a more forgiving driver head is all about increasing the Moment of Inertia (MOI). The Moment of Inertia is a measurement of the club head’s ability to resist twisting at impact with the golf ball. The more the head twists at impact the more that head is subject to starting offline and promoting an increased axis of rotation on the golf ball, resulting in more directional spin and a bigger hook or slice. The higher the MOI is measured on a head the more the head resists twisting and the more stable that head is going to be at impact and will produce a straighter ball flight tendency.

Let’s take a look at the differences between the ZX7 MKii and the ZX5 MKii drivers. You’ll notice that the ZX5 MKii is an overall larger package. More mass is going to have a greater resistance to twisting so right away the ZX5 MKii has gained a forgiveness advantage. You’ll also notice that the weight setups between both heads are different. The ZX7 MKii is built for workability and a player’s preferred smaller profile so it utilizes two different weights placed closer to the face of the driver as compared to the single weight in the ZX5 MKii placed towards the rear to stretch the weight away from the face of the driver head and to the perimeter edges.

As we mentioned earlier, the ZX7 MKii is also a visually smaller package than the ZX5 MKii. They are the same 460cc volume inside, but the ZX7 MKii is taller top to bottom and shorter from front to back. This helps the ZX7 MKii keep weight closer to the face to help lower spin and launch and promote more workability at the sacrifice of some forgiveness compared to the ZX5 MKii. Because the ZX5 MKii is longer front to back, it’s able to take more weight away from the face of the head. By doing so, MOI gets an increase as do launch and spin characteristics which can be a trade-off or an advantage depending on the player. Be aware that by opting for a more forgiving driver model with a higher MOI you’re going to inherently be playing a driver that produces a little bit more launch and spin.

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