Friday, February 19, 2016

Does aerodynamic drag reducing Driver designs really "add distance to your game?"

From a designer and an engineer who know more then most of us:

"When Adams was the first to bring out this BS claim about aerodynamic improvement with their Speedline model some years back, I shouted BS on this when I could.  There was the marketing for this model showing the head sitting in a wind tunnel with the smoke blowing over the surfaces to drive home the point to the consumer about how this has to really matter. 

When a golfer swings a driver, the head is rotating continually on the downswing so the face surface never is presented to the "aerodynamic drag" until the very last few thousandths of a second. The surface of the head that is normal to the airflow during 98% of the downswing is curved anyway - it is the heel surface which has less drag by far than the insignificant face drag is. 

Upon watching this commercial showing the Boeing people, I could not help but think if the Boeing engineers had a big laugh about the money Callaway undoubtedly paid Boeing in the face of what a good engineer is going to know is insignificant. And who do you think has the engineers that know more about air flow and drag to know that this is insignificant on a driver head?

Sure, drag is significant, for a bullet flying at 3,000 fps. For a clubhead at 120 mph (which is Bubba Watson type clubhead speed, not most golfers) which equates to a velocity of 176 fps, the change in drag one can effect by contouring a 460cc clubhead is so small it is meaningless".