The Composite Conundrum

At the start of 2005, nearly every major driver manufacturer – with a couple notable exceptions – had a new driver made of titanium and carbon composite either in their lineup or on the way. What a difference a year makes. When the calendar flips to 2006 and golf’s heavy hitters congregate at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, only a few drivers utilizing composite materials will likely be on display. Is composite on its way out (for a second time)? Or are the companies that are sticking with composites on the right track?

Driver heads have evolved from wood to steel to titanium over the past 25 years. A fourth material – carbon composite – has tried to crash the party twice. The first time was in the early 1990s, when Japanese companies like Yonex tried to make clubheads out of the lightweight material in an effort to make drivers bigger than the steel would allow. Like ceramics and other exotic non-metal materials, carbon was pushed aside by the manufacturing breakthrough of Callaway’s Big Bertha steel drivers in 1992, made possible by new manufacturing processes.

Titanium took over from steel in the mid-to-late 1990s. After clubs like Callaway’s Great Big Bertha and Biggest Big Bertha and Ping’s TiSI surged ahead of the field in performance, the rest of the industry did an effective job playing catch-up. By 2002, there was near-parity among titanium drivers in the marketplace. And with USGA/R&A performance and design limitations boxing club designers into an increasingly narrow space, the search for another wonder material was on.

Enter carbon composite for the second time. It first reappeared in the form of Callaway’s all-composite C4 driver, named for the compression-cured carbon composite material used in the 360cc head. There was nothing else like it on the market, and such an advanced design from the top driver manufacturer in the world was bound to be a big hit.

Or not. Despite being an extremely forgiving driver (I used one for a year, and know two other people who are still using theirs today), C4 wasn’t explosive in the marketplace. The blame was placed on the sound the club made. Or, rather, the lack of sound. While old wood and steel drivers had made a muted sound at impact, golfers had become accustomed to the loud metallic sound of titanium drivers. The C4 was a throwback to the “click” of a persimmon driver. Unfortunately, golfers weren’t nostalgic for the old days, and the C4 was a disappointment.

Callaway reloaded and tried again with the ERC Fusion driver, which added a titanium cup face on the composite body of the C4. The sound was more lively with the titanium face, but the club still didn’t take off at retail. Being 380cc as drivers were starting to break the 400cc mark didn’t help, but the sound was still something that seemed to put buyers off.

Drivers made partially of composite – mostly “blacktop” designs that featured a light composite crown section married to clubhead that was titanium on the face and sole – had become very popular in Japan. This prompted companies like Cleveland, Cobra, Adams and, yes, Yonex, to come out with blacktop drivers of their own in late 2004 and early 2005. Joining them in mid-year was Callaway’s Fusion FT-3 driver, a redesigned version of the ERC Fusion that hit the 460cc standard.

All of those 2005-vintage composite drivers had better sound at impact than previous, but none boast the big, metallic sound of all-titanium drivers. Despite this, some have done very well in the market. Cleveland’s and Cobra’s entries did nicely, and Callaway’s – bolstered by major championship wins by Michael Campbell, Phil Mickelson and Annika Sorenstam with the FT-3 – has been the hottest driver of the second half of the season.

So is composite a trend that is finally catching on? The crystal ball gets a bit murky at the mention of that question. While Callaway is charging ahead with FT-3 and the steel-composite fairway woods that match it, Cleveland and Cobra have dropped composite drivers from their product lines altogether for 2006. And three of the biggest fish in the driver game – Ping, TaylorMade and Titleist – have never released composite drivers at all.

Adams and Yonex and their tiny market shares aside, that means Callaway is likely to be going it alone in the composite driver market. The company has a new blacktop driver in Japan called the X-18, which is likely to come to the U.S. early next year in an all-titanium version to ride shotgun to FT-3 in the company’s product line.

What next for composite? How long FT-3 stays on the market is anyone’s guess, as is what comes next. But the fact remains that composite has the same baggage now as it did when C4 hit the market. Despite how a composite driver performs, people notice the sound. Over the last few months, as I’ve been using the FT-3, I’ve heard plenty of comments. “That thing sounds like a toy.” “Does it always sound like that?” And, the always clever, “Did you just break that thing?” It doesn’t matter to me, because I hit the driver longer and straighter than the driver I was using before. But peer pressure would probably keep some people from using a driver that sounds “different.”

One of my recent playing partners did ask me, “Does that thing always sound like that?” after I hit the ball. As the ball bounded down the fairway, I said yes. The other golfer smiled and said, “I could get used to that.” I’m surprised more people don’t have that attitude.