Driver: Low or high trajectory goes farther?

[songwriter]

I am trying to figure out the best loft for my driver. I bought the lowest loft they make but still it goes plenty high.

It just seems to me that low trajectory, well-hit drives go farther. Assuming that the fairway is not wet. But, isn't the optimum launch angle for sending any object the farthest (say, a bullet)... 45 degrees? I'm sure a golf drive has more physics involved than that, but, suffice to say, it seems to me that of the thousands of drives I have seen over many years of play... the well-hit lower trajectory drive goes farther.

Then again, I note that when I watched John Daly play my home course, he hit the ball very high, indeed.

[KingCobra]

It depends on the conditions. My home course has very dry fairways and my drives run about 60 yards but if you play a wetter course, you need some carry. Find a driver in which you can hit a moderate ball flight.

[DaveLeeNC]

  songwriter said:

I am trying to figure out the best loft for my driver. I bought the lowest loft they make but still it goes plenty high.

The optimum launch angle for a golf ball in a vacuum would be 45 degrees. Things are a bit different in air.

And the conditions of your fairway really make a difference. But for really big drives what you need is a relatively high launch angle with low spin. You might well be correct in your observation that (for the drives you observe) the longest ones are the lowest (within reason) ones. But that may well be because you haven't seen any high drives with low spin. Or maybe it is rock hard fairways where a low burner is the right ballflight. dave

[mikelaw]

For me, low loft club but higher launching shafts work best.

[pchaney301]

I hit my drives so high...I can't figure out what the deal is. I know I am losing a ton of distance, but I can't figure out the cause of why I hit it so high.

9.5 degree loft 09 Burner

[Caddyshack]

  mikelaw said:

For me, low loft club but higher launching shafts work best.

Im the complete opposite, high loft (11.5) and low launch shaft, just goes to show everyone is different so you need to get fit..

[DaveLeeNC]

  pchaney301 said:

I hit my drives so high...I can't figure out what the deal is. I know I am losing a ton of distance, but I can't figure out the cause of why I hit it so high.

9.5* loft sounds like a relatively low loft driver. But the loft that matters is your dynamic loft at impact. This is a combination of the static loft of your club, the shaft angle at impact, and whatever loft is added (rarely subtracted) by the bend in the shaft at impact.

dave

[HookEmHorns]

How much the ball rolls has a lot to do with it as well. If the fairway is wet the ball won't roll as much, so I would think that a high lofted driver would work better. As for the drier fairways, the a lower lofted driver should work better, because the ball will roll a lot better on a drier fairway.
I think a lot of it has to do with the conditions that you're playing. One factor such as the loft of the club. DaveLeeNC got it right as well, the loft of the face at impact is what really counts.
The shaft has a lot to do with it too. From what I've seen on here that a regular shaft allows some lag time and your hands can get ahead of the club, adding a little slap to the ball. A stiff shaft keeps the club head closer to in line with your hands, requiring a faster swing to get the same slap effect. This could be wrong, but that's what I've come to gather and what I think about the subject. I idea could be flawed, but I think that it could have a little basis in reality. (Little crazy and scatterbrained this morning. haha).
I'm not an expert and some of this info may be a little off, but that's just my .02, take it for what it's worth.

HookEmHorns

[MonkeyClaw]

There's also the matter of 'clubface roll'. All of the mass market drivers have a roll to the face of the driver which have a higher loft near the top of the driver than at the bottom of the face. They also have the majority of the weight near the botton of the head.

If you tee it up high and hit near the top of the face, you'll get a higher trajectory and lower spin. Hit it near the bottom, you'll see a lot more spin and lose some distance. You may notice that these drives go a lot straighter though.

Generally, lower swing speeds need a higher launch angle either through the face or the shaft. If you're not very consistent, a higher spin head will keep you more accurate because you'll have more backspin and less side-spin (as a ratio). More consistent hitters can sacrifice backspin and get more distance but it gets easier to get hooks or slices.

[Dub]

I find it ridiculous that me...an 18hcp, is gonna give any meaningful advice to an established 6hcp.


I will say that there are times when I wished I had about two degrees less loft on my driver. I'm getting great carry...but sometimes I would like a more penetrating flight with some roll-out. It's crazy to hear myself saying this after the low wormburners I was playing only a year ago.

[ApocG10]

Also, what kind of ball are you playing? It depends how what your ball was designed to do.

[Marinemike]

Before I went shopping for a new driver I looked at this site . Quite enlightening. I'm kind of a physics wonk so it spoke to me a little bit more than most magazine articles would. It also makes me question how so many guys report a) their swing speeds are so high and b) their driver lofts are so low.

EDIT: sorry, link added!

[Charles Lemley]

Try teeing a little closer to the ground,and or try stepping a lil back on the ball . Ideally you make contact as your club travels down to the ball for lower trajectory,if your starting up in your swing at impact higher trajectory. This helped me alot hope it helps you.

[glock35ipsc]

This thread is over 3 years old, and the OP hasn't posted on this forum in at least 3 years either.  I'm sure he doesn't care anymore.

BTW Charles, welcome to the forum.