Driver lifespan.

Maybe this has been discussed before but do Drivers have a finite life?..Are golfers doing themselves a disservice by sticking to the tried and true at the expense of their game....Maybe the new Ti or composite drivers aren't a problem but the older types must have metal fatigue after being hit at up to100mph+ time after time over the years thereby changing the dynamics of the head and losing distance and control. When people say they aren't getting the distance they used to and blame it on getting older could be time to update.Looking back at what I just wrote I remembered talking to two guys lately whose Ti drivers had split on the face in the first year ,normal guys not built like Arnie S ,so maybe it's not just the older models that are a problem. Anybody have an idea on this?

A finite life?   A driver may last 50 years before it fails.  Whether or not or if/when it fails is impossible to predict.....

My take on drivers:

I like to update my driver every 3-4 years for no other reason than to stay current with modern driver technology.  I rarely buy new clubs.  I'm not a "club collector" ....to be sure.  I find what works and stick with it for years.....

When it comes to metal woods/hybrids, I like to stay more current...............and this comment is coming from a guy who's only used 2 different sets of irons and 2 putters over the past 15+years!

Depends on the driver and the person swinging it.  On Sunday they made everyone stop practice on the range so a guy could run out and retrieve his new R11S driver head that broke off after he mis-swung and slammed the mat with it repeatedly.  About 15 minutes later we were asked to stop again so he could run out and pick up his new RBZ 3w head that he did the same thing to.   In that case driver lifespan was about 10 minutes.

Buckeye is wrong. Drivers definitely do lose elasticity due to metal fatique on the club face. I dont know what the lifespan is, im sure 4 years is fine, but metal fatique is a very real thing in high impact plates like those used on a driver.

As for irons/wedges/putters, they are thick and heavily built. They will last until they are so beaten up you hate looking at them.

I agree with the second part ....keeping up with technology.....but the first part might be like the museum that had George Washingtons original hatchet that had two new heads and three new handles.lol.

I used the same Callaway Big Bertha driver for nearly 8 years and never had any problems with it.  The only damage to the club was the shaft was actually weakening and I was fearing it would snap on me.  That is the only reason I purchased a newer model driver.  The first couple years of owning the club I was in high school and played several times a week and visited the range very frequently and never noticed any damage to the clubhead itself.  When it comes to results the only difference between my two drivers is shapability (if that's a word).  I can shape my shots better with the newer one, the distance is roughly the same.

Its all about club speed.

I have had one shaft last more that 2 months. And 1 clubface last more that a year.   Granted during those same times i broke multiple shafts and a few faces.  But those in particular seem to be solid.   The TM Burner 2.0 is the longest running head ive had.  Ive broken 5-6 shafts on the club, but the head remains rock solid.  Great club head.

If you swing 100-115 you should have the driver until you break it over you knee.

If you swing 125-135+ you will break them monthly if not weekly.

I've broken 3x more shafts that faces, so I would say you could use the same head for forever (why would you want to?)  I'd replace the shaft anyhow because i hate stock shafts myself.

Unless youre a pro who practices every day, chances are you will never stress a driver to the point of metal fatigue.  However, it is a good idea to update drivers every 5 years or so simply because by that time driver technology has advanced enough where its worth upgrading.

I have broken two drivers, one new and one used about 5 years, The new one was a TM 580XD that broke in the heel. The other was a Ping G5 that cracked in the face. The new drivers I tried, before getting a Ping G20, all hit the ball with a lot less spin than the older driver, The result was a straighter shot that launched higher, flattend out, and ran more after landing, I can't really say that drivers have a finite life, but the the improvement in the technology over several generations of drivers, would factor into how long a driver stays in my bag.

My brother took a driver from the pro-shop to "test-drive"  for nine holes.... they put some tape on the face,  and he cracked the face.   He has a ridiculously (had perhaps)  high swing speed,  I wish I could claim it was me!

I hit my Hawk-eye VFT that I got a year or so after it came out used,  until about 2 weeks ago.   110-115 swing-speed,  and I would be surprised if there was any metal fatigue that affected it's playability,  but I could be wrong.   I haven't played my "usual"  courses since getting a new driver,  so I'm curious to see how much technology has changed in 15 years!

Apparently, the weld can fail where the face is welded to the rest of the body, usually around the outside of the scoring on the face.  Here is a pic of my tour burner tp.  The plasma weld is failing (help with diagnosis from Tom Wishon), so I have taken it out of service.  Taylormade cares not what happened to it, but that's neither here nor there.....  But yes, they can fail.

I would think number of hits rather than number of years would impact the life span of a club.  I've had a Taylormade Metalwood driver since the mid 80's and it still hits just fine.  Although I don't use it anymore.  Surprisingly that old club is only about 20 yards shorter than my Nike VR-S. but the club head and sweet spot is about half the size of the Nike.

I have an old Mizuno T-zoid driver that shows no real damage but after the years I have put it through just began to feel dead.  I lost around 15 to 20 yards with it and then got an olf Callaway VFT given to me by my father in law and hit it well for a while.  It wasn't until just recently that I got my Callaway diablo octane driver and surpass the VFT by about 15 yards.  I would say the quality of the club has something to do with the lifespan but they do in fact have a lifespan.  I too like to get something new every 3 to 4 years due to metal fatigue and newer technology.