Do New Clubs Really Make a Difference?

I recently switched my old driver out to the new Mizuno ST-230 Max and while I will talk about this new driver, it also made me wonder how much do new clubs even matter? My previous club is 5 years old now, which is a Cobra SpeedZone Extreme. I actually hit it decently well but I wanted a bit more distance and being that my miss is hitting it low on the club face, something that can still get the ball up in the air in those low misses. I did a bunch of research, watched YouTube videos, and saw that there was so much new terminology being used, but wondered, does this actually matter? I guess the big thing for 2024 was the 10k driver, which means 10,000 of some unit to measure moment of intertia. I also saw that the new Ping driver had this technology, costed over $600, and actually released a club back in 2017 that also had this technology called the G400.

It’s not always easy for me to find new clubs because not only do I live pretty far from the nearest golf store, but I am just horrible at hitting balls in indoor simulators. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t get over the mental block of being confined in a small area. So anyway after lots of research, I settled on the Mizuno driver. I got a super good deal on it too and was able to get it for well under $200. If it didn’t work out, I can sell it easily and probably not lose too much money.

I’m also in the market for new irons and I got a gift card over the holidays for Club Champion, so I booked an iron fitting. What the club fitter there told me was super interesting. He said the club heads don’t really matter, aside from the lofts. There are different categories of irons for different skills, but within each category there isn’t a whole lot of difference. The thing they care about most are the shafts, lie, and loft. The first thing you do in your fitting is to hit your existing clubs, and then the fitter has you try a different club. I currently play 7 year old Srixon Z565’s so I warmed up with those, took measurements and since the new Srixon ZXi irons came out, I requested trying those out.

Honestly, what I can tell you is he was exactly right. When I tried the standard shafts that come with the new models that are 7 years and 4 generations newer than mine, there really was no difference in distance or dispersion. When he swapped out different shafts is when I really saw a difference, mainly in ball flight. I will write up a more detailed review about my Club Champion experience, but it actually made me realize that the whole thing with new equipment and technology is marketing hype and really just a money grab. There is only so much the manufactureres can improve with irons because at the end of the day, it’s mostly just a chunk of metal. And with drivers, there’s a legal limit that they have to conform to when it comes to “springiness” of the face.

Now for the Mizuno driver, with all that being said, is there an improvement over my current 5 year old driver? Overall, yes, there is. I bought it with the stock shaft that is supposed to be similar to the shaft I have in my old driver, but there is a difference there. But I will tell you, I’m definitely getting a bit more distance on average, and when I hit one on the screws, it’s a good 5 to 10 yards further than my previous club. It’s not exactly scientific but I am noticing a difference.

My conclusion is that you will see differences from driver to driver and it all depends on your tendencies, the shafts, and what just works well for your individual swing. At the end of the day, if you like getting new drivers and if it gives you some confidence boost, and you have the funds, then do it. But don’t expect it to fix any of your swing flaws. You won’t go from missing all your fairways to hitting it dead straight and gaining significant distance.