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Life span of a Driver

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Alsponge

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I played a round this past Saturday and one of my friends just recently purchased a new driver. While we were waiting for the group in front of us to hit their shots we were just hanging around talking about new and old drivers. The subject of a driver's life span came up. Can a driver used every week for a few years impact the ball the same as a new driver? A wedge would be done once the groves are smooth and can not grab the ball but is a driver the same? Say after a certain number of hits, the ball will not go as far because it is "used up." No one had an answer but it stuck in my head and I even googled it with no real answer. So I wanted to see what the people of THP think about all this.
 
I would believe there is. It all depends on quality of contact, swing speed, ball used, or even ambient temperature, pressure, and moisture conditions.

What that lifespan is, I have no idea what that is. But there has to be one.
 
I do think a driver has a lifespan, but I will have long bought another driver before that ever becomes an issue.
 
Of course, but it is a long, long time. The driver I had before the XLD was 5 years old before it cracked, but I had a Great Big Bertha that was OLD and it still had plenty of pop before I gave it to another young golfer. Speaking of drivers, how is yours working for ya?
 
I'll be entering year 8 or 9 with my current driver (Titleist 983E) this year and it hits just as well as it ever did. Granted, I didn't play 5 times a week for those 8 years like some of you, probably closer to 3-4 times a month, summers only, on average. I don't hold anything back when I swing and if hitting the ball hard wears out a driver, this one has not. Actually as I've gotten better over those years, I can hit further now with it than I did even 3-4 years ago. If there is a lifespan on a driver, this one has not seen it yet. I don't know if it has much effect on playability, but I take excellent care of it. If I were to sell it, I could rate it as 8.5/9 out of 10 easily. No dents, dings, scratches, or skymarks at all.
 
I would imagine with materials used today that a club would be replaced well before its lifespan is over. I imagine you could use a driver weekly for many years before it simply dies.
 
With my R7 driver, which was the first driver I purchased brand new. I used it for 3 solid years of about 90 rounds a year. Not including at least 1 weekly range visit. Weather permitting. Before I purchased the SF 2.0, I was starting to feel like I wasn't getting as much distance with it as I had before. Not sure if it was just me thinking "I want new" or what. The feeling of buying the new driver releaved that thought... LOL But seriously I seemed to have lost about 10-15 yards all of a sudden out of now where. I didn't notice any cracks in it or anything.
 
Coincidentally the lifespan of my driver usually falls somewhere in February of each year, at about the time manufacturers come out with the next better mousetrap.
 
I would imagine the face would suffer some metal fatigue over time, how many impacts on the face I have no clue, but I know the metal would have deminishing spring over time. Now something I really know very little about is the graphite shaft materials, I guess they may even begin breakdown before the face begins failing. If anyone knows I would like to read the answer on this OP.
 
Drivers get their spring effect by engineering the face to be thinner in some spots. Metal does fatigue and develop cracks over time. I suspect that the thinner the face the shorter lifespan of the face. My R-7 Superquad cracked after about two year which would have been about 450 rounds. The black face was shiny metallic colored from wear. I have noticed recently that my current driver, a Supertri, black face is getting shiny in the center of the face now after just over a year. It has over two hundred rounds on it. Yes it definitely wears out but if you don't get to play often, it should last quiet a while. I have had metal shafts break in irons but never a graphite shaft.
 
i think the lifespan is equivalent to how long you can convince your wife that you need a new one
 
DawgDaddy said:
I would imagine the face would suffer some metal fatigue over time, how many impacts on the face I have no clue, but I know the metal would have deminishing spring over time. Now something I really know very little about is the graphite shaft materials, I guess they may even begin breakdown before the face begins failing. If anyone knows I would like to read the answer on this OP.
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Dawg,

According to Master club maker, Tom Wishon, who fitted Payne Stewart for his last set of irons, graphite shafts do not diminish in their abilities over time. He said that even if you left your graphite shafted clubs in the trunk of your car in over 100 degree F for an extended period of time, it will not have negative impact on the properties of graphite to do it's job. I know it may not seem logical to us laymen, but that's what he said.
 
GMac recently cracked his Callaway driver that he had been using for a while. He used it until it cracked and I guess he was not seeing any loss of distance until it gave. I would imagine that he probably hits more driver shots in 6 months than most of us do in 3 years.
 
Lefty78 said:
Drivers get their spring effect by engineering the face to be thinner in some spots.
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Yes, but that face is nowhere near as wafer-thin as some would believe...think dime thickness rather than soda can.
 
I have heard driver heads are designed to take 10,000 hits. I do not know if this is true,only something I've heard from a few people
 
As many have said, a drive has a life span. Depends on use.
 
I guess I'm not really sure. I still have two old Callaway drivers, a Big Bertha Warbird and a regular Big Bertha from the 80's and both are still like new. Pretty small by todays standards at 195cc but I'm sure I could continue to play everyday with them now just like I did when they were new. Not sure if I'll be able to say that when my current driver is 15+ years old, but you never know. I play with a guy that is a scratch player that still uses an old TaylorMade driver, one of the old rust colored ones, and he plays everyday. Hate to think how many balls have been hit with that driver. Has to be thousands.
 
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