Macs,
The 983e is much more akin to a persimmon driver … deep faced and more compact looking than the modern stuff. I think it’s a 385cc head and it has a more dense feel (and sound) compared to the new stuff. I think the wind-resistance of the frying pans is a real thing (for most any swing type) and designers of late seem to be backing off the 460cc head size for their “players” clubs… probably not enough to make much difference though.
Steb,
Interesting to see that there’s 3 times the lie angle adjustment in the f’ing UPRIGHT direction!! I should have expected that! 
I wonder how much panic there is in the R&D department of these club companies knowing they have to keep coming up with all these “semi-annual breakthroughs” in club designs. I never realized scientific discoveries happened on such a rigid time-table. 
robbo
Yeah the poor engineers are going, “What can we do for 2011? I know, how about paint it white?”
I think I mentioned on the “launch monitor thread” that the store clerk was concerned I was going to hit the metal post behind me inside the hitting pen because I was swinging so flat by their standards. He asked me if I could swing a bit more upright!
I was thinking that it was also about marketing. Now everyone will be able to see how many of the guys out there are actually using Taylor Made drivers even when they’re not on staff. Most of the guys will have a driver clause regardless of who they’re contracted to, and ordinarily they’d go under the radar apart from the weekly count. They’ll have to start having a can of black spray paint on the first tee along with the sharpies and the tees 
Except that Cobra have one as well. Isn’t that snappy dresser Poulter bagging a white Cobra driver??
Funny! I don’t know man, you’re probably right. I should really know better than to be commenting in the tech section
Cheers…
Dont get me wrong I’m no expert on the latest comings and goings in the world of frying pans but I remember Poulter posting a load of picture son Twitter of his latest white machine!!
Excerpts from Gary Player’s Masters interview, courtesy of Geoff Shackelford:
Geoff notes that the audience was laughing, but Gary was not. Just another step towards the tipping point I guess…
I hear so much about the ball… and it is a factor… but the bigger factor is allowing a shaft to be 46 inches… with a total static weight of 10 ounces… and a head the size of a tennis racket so you have no motivation for a precision strike. The guys swing out of their shoes at it because then can.
Put a 43 inch steel shaft… 14 ounces… small persimmon head in their hands, and I don’t care what ball you are using… no one is going to hit it 400 yards.
Is golf next?
Autonomous Golfers?
I’m in. The S-Class Mercedes has had infrared braking sensors for a couple years & there’s tons of stuff that parallel parks itself. Sooner or later the entire national highway system will be replaced with high speed rail, we should be doing it right now. The GPS & infrared is already commonplace to replace driving & human error, the only piece of the puzzle left is lithium ion for the batteries so manufacturers can get rid of the weight and the crumple zones. This is a done deal, I personally won’t miss it all, especially the dirty air, traffic & wasted time. The combustion engine is a dinosaur that needs to go away as well as bad drivers, over 33,000 people were killed last year in cars. Every one a needless death. Imagine what Hogan would have done if not for that car crash…
Next? Smartphones are already flooding the courses. Allowing oversize drivers was nothing compared to allowing computers anywhere near the course.
The way it’s going I reckon I’ll be ripe for the Senior Tour. My golf sucks but hell I can engineer products.
Hey Steb,
Engineering doesn’t have a whole lot to do with it, but … can you MARKET? That’s where the real rubber meets the road these days!!! 
I’m guessing there are more MBA’s than there are engineers at Taylormade. 
robbo
The big change early on was moving from Hickory to steel shafts. The hickories were pretty loose compared to the stiffness they could get the steel shafts, so that was a major change in both gear and ball flight. There was quite an uproar at the time about it from what I understand. The game was growing, and apparently there was speculation about the supply and demand issues that hickory presented at the time.
I’ve hit hickories before, and the only real difference for me is that I have to use a longer slower swing due to the looseness of the shafts. More timing and feel. The steel shafts, and some of the early ones like the green Pyratones are as stiff as anything out now. They allowed for the more aggressive hitting move that developed during Hogan’s era. I don’t think steel necessarily drove the ball much farther, and many of the great golf courses were designed in that transition era… 1920’s to 1930’s. There was some experimenting with steel shafts back in the late 1800’s.
The age of steel and persimmon settled in from around 1935 certainly through 1990, with metal woods appearing in the late 1970’s but not in any way becoming big game changers. The heads were the same size if not slightly smaller like the Taylor Made Tour Burners. Lower profile, and lower center of gravity so guys could play them off the fairway on long 5 pars.
More of a preference as there were still plenty of persimmon players into the early 1990’s. Not that long ago really.
The only other major change was the improvements in agronomy and the speed of the greens started to get really quick in the 1970’s. If you watch Master’s films from even the early 70’s, you don’t see the balls rolling off the sides of the greens and false fronts like we have become accustomed to seeing at Augusta. The slopes in the greens were often very severe in the early days, but they were not designed to be cut down as low as they do now. Big slopes just offered big breaking putts, but not meant to have guys 4 putting and all that kind of stuff we see now. My personal opinion is that golf greens are too fast in general, they slow down play, and add an element to the game that was not intended. I don’t think greens were ever meant to roll as true as they do now either. It’s created a huge paradigm shift from ball striking skills to putting skills. While great putters will always make more putts, than an average putter, that gap has widened considerably, in my view to the games detriment. I’m always considering the slow play aspect also. I’m quite sure we are seeing a lot more time on the greens being spent with the surfaces so pristine.
While all these changes have affected the game, nothing comes close to the unprecedented extreme changes the game has undergone in the last 15 years or so. All the classic courses from their original tee boxes and many of the finest players have become obsolete.
It’s certainly something to think about.
I’m not talking about making money from selling product, I’m talking about entering the Senior Tour myself with my own proprietary remote controlled Iron Byron. I’m not giving away my secrets! I want majors, not millions Golf would become a battle of the geeks, robot wars. People may think, ‘how ridiculous’, but I’m sure Bobby Jones would have thought the same about GPSs, Aimpoint charts and even yardage books.