The PGA tour players warmed up with their driver and hit 5 recorded shots with impact paper on their driver face. They then were handed a club they never hit before and without a practice swing hit 5 shots with the test driver; a 9.5 degree, older Bridgestone J33R with PM702s graphite design stiff shaft and the four longitudinal grooved golf grip, called Grooved Grip.
A major champion and Ryder cup player and captain.
His patterns were similar and slightly more central with the test driver.
He shot 2 over and tied for 55th. He was T3 in driving accuracy and 76 in driving distance. (77 players made the cut)
| DRIVING ACCURACY | 50 | 71 | 86 | 93 | 75.0 | 3 |
| DRIVING DISTANCE | 239.0 | 258.0 | 244.5 | 262.5 | 251.0 | 76 |
One win in 2005 and 2 top tens in 2010.
He finished 3 over par at Riviera and tied for 62nd place. He was T23 in accuracy and T68 in distance. (77 players made the cut)
| DRIVING ACCURACY | 71 | 64 | 57 | 57 | 62.5 | T23 |
| DRIVING DISTANCE | 282.5 | 271.5 | 240.0 | 267.0 | 265.3 | T68 |
2 time winner on PGA tour.
He tied for 25th place at -3. He was T40 in driving accuracy and 62 in driving distance. (77 players made the cut)
| DRIVING ACCURACY | 57 | 57 | 43 | 71 | 57.1 | T40 |
| DRIVING DISTANCE | 273.5 | 261.0 | 260.0 | 276.0 | 267.6 | 62 |
4 Time winner on PGA tour and 3 times on Nationwide. Former Ryder Cup player.
He was 146 and missed the cut of -3. He had 78.6% driving accuracy and averaged 291.0 yards.
| DRIVING ACCURACY | 79 | 79 | 78.6 | N/A |
| DRIVING DISTANCE | 286.5 | 295.5 | 291.0 | N/A |
This is an International player, high in the world ranking who is only player to date who hits the center of his driver face upon testing.
Notice that he hit all 5 shots on top of one another with his driver. One hit was low and near the heel with the Test Driver. This does show the test driver that is not fit or ever swung before does not perform as well as the player’s own driver. This is in contrast to most other testing on PGA players.
IMPORTANCE OF CENTER HITS
It was then of interest to see how well he did in the tournament. He shot 5 under and finished 12th place at Riviera in 2011. His statistics showed he was tied for 5th in driving accuracy and 4th in driving distance. (see below copied from PGA Internet page)
| STATS | Rnd1 | Rnd2 | Rnd3 | Rnd4 | TOT | RANK* |
| EAGLES | — | — | — | — | 0 | N/A |
| BIRDIES | 2 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 15 | T18 |
| PARS | 14 | 8 | 14 | 13 | 49 | T12 |
| BOGEYS | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | T71 |
| DOUBLE BOGEYS | — | — | — | — | 0 | N/A |
| OTHER | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | T1 |
| DRIVING ACCURACY | 64 | 79 | 57 | 86 | 71.4 | T5 |
| DRIVING DISTANCE | 295.0 | 278.5 | 307.5 | 302.5 | 295.9 | 4 |
| PUTTS PER ROUND | 28 | 24 | 32 | 28 | 28.0 | T17 |
| PUTTS PER GIR | 1.800 | 1.364 | 2.000 | 1.833 | 1.766 | 22 |
| GREENS IN REG | 56 | 61 | 78 | 67 | 65.3 | T16 |
| SAND SAVES | 60 | 0 | 100 | — | 57.1 | T31 |
| * Ranks are computed at the end of each round. | ||||||
TESTING WITH AND WITHOUT A GOLF GLOVE
All prior testing was performed with a golf glove. This International player, multiple Major winner was tested in February 2011 at Riviera. After the routine testing he was asked to hit 5 more shots without a glove on his left hand.
This result will need further testing for confirmation, although the player struggled with the Test Driver’s feel, he did hit more central with it compared to his driver. It was of interest that the next 5 hits without the glove and the test driver were improved in consistency and centering over both prior tests.
The player was surprised at his driver’s impact spot and requested more paper tapes to work on that aspect.
TOURNAMENT RESULTS
He shot 2 over for the tournament and finished 55th place. He was T62 in accuracy and 40 in distance. We will recheck him later in the year.
| OTHER | — | — | — | — | 0 | N/A |
| DRIVING ACCURACY | 50 | 43 | 43 | 57 | 48.2 | T62 |
| DRIVING DISTANCE | 266.0 | 282.5 | 277.5 | 281.5 | 276.9 | 40 |
Addendums for other subjects’ results: