New Driver

[micha]

bought a used epic driver 3 years ago treated me well i am 72 bought with senior shaft a friend of bought a brand new  ping 440 claims he hits straighter and added 10 to 15 yards on his drive i know drivers are the most frequent club bought is a new driver that much better

[Typhoon92]

My suggestion to you is to take your driver with you and go to a golf store where you can hit the new Ping 440 AND your own driver side by side.  They you can decide.  Very simple test you can do for free.

You have no idea ( and your friend probably doesn’t either) how old his old driver was, what loft it was compared to the new one, what shaft and flex he had in his old driver vs. the new one.

 

[ChetlovesMer]

On 7/24/2025 at 6:30 PM, micha said:

bought a used epic driver 3 years ago treated me well i am 72 bought with senior shaft a friend of bought a brand new  ping 440 claims he hits straighter and added 10 to 15 yards on his drive i know drivers are the most frequent club bought is a new driver that much better

Eh... what's he going to say? "Hey, I bought a new driver. It's 10 yards shorter and I hit twice as many OB now." Does he have any data to back up his claim? Or is he just going by what he saw at his fitting? 

I've been using either Shotscope or Arccos since 2018 and if there's one thing I've learned is that it's the archer not the arrow. When I'm hitting the driver well, it goes far and straight. When I'm a mess, it's a mess. 

If you were properly fit for a driver in the last (dare I say 10 years) 5 years for sure. I'd be surprised if you can get more than a couple of yards out of it by getting a new one. The COR rule has been 0.83 since 1998, with widespread and standardized enforcement since 2003. Obviously, the engineers can still optimize spin and launch and shaft flex and/or kick point. So there are things that can be done. But I believe the days of 10 or 15 yard gains are over... unless your current driver is unfit for you. (as @Typhoon92 mentions above.) If you were fit for your epic. You will likely see very little on course performance difference. 

Having said that, I get a new driver every 2 or 3 years... Why? Because I like shiny things. So, if you want a new driver, get a new driver.