You can't appreciate how well constructed (and thin-walled) modern woods are until you cut them open. A special thanks goes to our machinist friends down the road from our Connecticut office who ruined a diamond-bit saw and clogged an EDM (electronic discharge machine) wire before finally using a fiber wheel to split open these heads. Check's in the mail, guys. Now the discoveries:
Especially intriguing is the lining inside the PowerBilt Air Force One driver. Says director of product development Jeff Jackson: "We inject a liquid elastomer and centrifugally spin the head to coat the walls evenly. It dries less than one-millimeter thin, providing a seal so the nitrogen won't leak out." The pressure from the gas supports the thin face without mechanical bracing.
Run your finger behind the face of the Nicklaus Dual Point ML3, and you'll feel how the titanium is at its thickest in the center, then becomes thinner toward the perimeter in two concentric zones. One purpose is to optimize springlike effect on mis-hits. Also notice the two titanium chips in the rear heel. "Making the face corners thinner saves us about 10 to 14 grams," says designer Clay Long. "We can then push the center of gravity back and low using chips that equal the saved weight."
Dissection of the Callaway Big Bertha Diablo reveals what Alan Hocknell, vice president of innovation and advanced design, calls "a significant change in the construction method for all-titanium drivers." Twenty inches of low-mass plasma welds stitch three sheets of pressed titanium to create the shell that's joined to the cupface design. Says Hocknell: "Manufacturing improvements let us fit the sheets together so accurately that we no longer need big, nasty traditional welds to cover inconsistencies."
New geometry is one way to position weight. Others manipulate weight inside more conventional head shapes by using multiple materials. Notice the reinforced glue that fuses a carbon crown to the titanium body of the Yonex Cyberstar NanoV Spec and the tungsten screw (one of two) in the skirt. Titanium can be welded only to titanium, so these are methods necessary to join lighter and heavier materials.
As with human anatomy, the inside of a driver isn't pretty. But appreciate the miracle its efficiency produces, and it becomes beautiful.
