Britt, curious to get your thoughts on all the 10K drivers coming out this week. I know it’s just a combination of the horizontal and vertical MOI but wouldn’t manufacturers have already been optimizing the vertical COG for launch & spin anyway? Feels like another round of marketing BS. Even Ping, who I have considered the most understated when it came to marketing hyperbole, is getting into the 10K game.
Good question. I have not had a chance to actually measure the MOI on the TM or the Ping or the Callaway. I kind of need to get a reference and to see if the way we measure MOI is producing the 10K results they are saying. Ping states “combined MOI threshold” which tells me they are measuring in multiple ways to get the 10K number. Understand, the USGA limit for drivers, driver heads measured around it’s cg in the playing position (which is the way we measure the heads basic and most important MOI) is 5900 g-cm². They (the USGA) measure in multiple other axis besides this position, but the horizontal is the only one they put a limit on, as I understand the rule. The horizontal is also by far the most important in explaining playability differences from one club to another. Ralph states this in his book. So, my thinking is these companies may just be measuring in multiple axis and adding something together to get to a 10K number. They may just be adding the X, Y and Z axis together to get 10K. In the one position that we focus on, we have measured one driver over 5000k and it was non-conforming. It was our intentionally non-conforming “Defiant” driver we did years ago. I will use my resources and see if I can get someone to divulge exactly how they are getting to the 10K number. So, with that being said, it’s definitely a marketing thing and I think when they post that 10K number it might should have an * beside it, explaining how they got to that number. One last point: we believe, or at least think there is a possibility that there is point at which max forgiveness or resistance to twisting is optimized, and at any point after that (or any MOI number that is higher than that point), the benefits cease to be measurable to any significant degree. This is definitely true in the putter category. Ralph did all kinds of testing on this years ago and there is a limit to MOI’s benefits on putters. So, at least to me it is reasonable to assume that would be the case on drivers.
So, as I get more information on how they get the 10K number, if I can, I will let you know.
Britt Lindsey
Ian Fraser from Club Champion, formerly of TXG, said that the 10k is a combination of the X and Y MOI. If you watch their YouTube video on the Ping G430 10k he goes into detail on it. He also wasn’t overly impressed with it but did say that someone with a lower clubhead speed might see the benefit.