Two broken drivers in a year and a half . . . What am I doing wrong?

[mkrosal]

So I'm a novice player but I'm not terrible. I actually picked up the game about a year and a half ago. I started off with a MacGregor driver that I actually hit pretty well. One day at the range I was about to hit with my driver and I was taking off the head cover when i heard a small crunch-like noise . . . i pulled the head cover off and the driver head came with it. I chalked it up to a cheap driver and went to purchase a Ping G10. Well i hit that for about 6 months and just this weekend I was on the tee waiting to tee-off with some friends. The same exact thing that happened at the range happened again! So obviously the problem is me . . . has anyone experienced this before? By the way . . . i don't ever make contact with the ground with my driver so it's not that i beat it up.

[Sai-Jin]

WHere did you buy your drivers? Not online I hope? Because there's plenty of 1/3 priced ones but they are replicas.

And their tendencies is for the head to drop like that.

I see plenty of college students at the range here whose heads just flew instead of their balls.

[Kieran123]

Where do you store your clubs?

[boots1302]

seems goofy, but could you be incorrectly loading your bag into your car? maybe hitting driver on the frame of the trunk, or somehow allowing all of the weight of your bag to be resting on the head of your driver and shaft?

another thought could be if you fly with your clubs often, and dont use a hard travel bag. bag slid into the bottom of the plane, and since the driver is longest club in bag, takes the hit against the opposing wall?

just some possible explanations for your issue.

[mkrosal]

All very good points. I actually purchased the first one used on Craigslist so i wasn't shocked about that one but the Ping I purchased used from Golfmart. The storage part is something that I definitely need to examine. Now that I think about it, before i went this last time i had my clubs in my backseat for a solid week and a half. It's not super hot here but i imagine it can get pretty hot in my car. Man now i feel a little stupid . . . do you think the heat has this large of an effect?

[topspin4hand]

The heat shouldn't do *that* ... I'll defer to other guys though. Do you ever store your clubs in the trunk of your car? Where do you store them in your house?

[moparman426]

Repeated contact with the hosel can eventually crack the epoxy that holds the two together and can also put hairline cracks in the shaft itself.  The trunk of your car would need to get to around  150 degrees to soften the epoxy, your grips would melt first.

[Kieran123]

To be honest it just sounds like bad luck.

Epoxy doesn't finish hardening for at least 10 years, I am more concerned with them being beaten up where they're stored rather than the temperatures they are stored in.

[Tomboys]

Originally Posted by mkrosal

All very good points. I actually purchased the first one used on Craigslist so i wasn't shocked about that one but the Ping I purchased used from Golfmart. The storage part is something that I definitely need to examine. Now that I think about it, before i went this last time i had my clubs in my backseat for a solid week and a half. It's not super hot here but i imagine it can get pretty hot in my car. Man now i feel a little stupid . . . do you think the heat has this large of an effect?

Could be just a defective shaft or assembly.  If you purchased the club from Golfmart, take it back to see if Ping will repair it under warranty.  Something similar happened to my bud's Titleist 907 driver and Titleist was going repair it.  He didn't want to wait, so he just bought a new driver.  Apparently, if the shaft cracks near the hosel, most mfrs will repair it under warranty.  However, if the crack is closer to the center of the shaft, then they deem the damage due to abuse and will not repair it under warranty.