Around THP we have talked a lot about drivers in 2011; some have even said that 2011 seems to be “the year of the driver”. There really are a lot of options out there right now, seems like every one of the major OEMs have something unique to offer golfers as the pursuit of longer and straighter drives is something us golfers are endlessly chasing. You name it and there’s likely a driver out there promising to deliver, but do they all have to be so expensive? The way things are in the economy today, who wants to fork over three or four hundred dollars for a single golf club? There is in fact an option for those of us who just simply cannot justify spending that kind of hard earned cash on a driver, how about a company promising quality products at a better price?
A little about Diamond Tour Golf :
In 1995 Jason Hiland started Diamond Tour Golf in the small North Central Illinois town of Waterman. Over the past 15 years Diamond Tour has grown from a one-man shop to a business that employs over two dozen people. Now located in DeKalb (home to Northern Illinois University), Diamond Tour Golf continues to grow. However, even with quick growth, Diamond Tour Golf’s main concern is continuing to provide golfers and shop owners with the highest level of customer service.
Diamond Tour Golf promises quality products at a lower price and among several other items they offer 40 different drivers and THP received the DTG175 Black for the purpose of this review.
Product details from the company:
The DTG175 beta titanium ultra-light weight driver allows you to hit the longest drives of your life. When combined with a 45 gram shaft and lightweight grip (which we highly suggest to get the maximum potential from this driver head) this driver weighs an amazing 240 grams assembled! That is 75 grams lighter than a normal titanium driver! This lighter weight and long length (47″) driver naturally promotes a faster swing speed for added momentum upon impact. The cup face design expands the sweet spot of the driver and allows for maximum spring effect and distance. The physics formula is Energy equals Mass times the Square of the Velocity, thereby adding distance to your drives.
Looks:
The DTG175 definitely has a different look to it, nothing too radical, but just different enough to make me wonder if I really loved it or not. From address it looks just fine, although one thing that bothered me a bit at first is that when you sole the club on the ground it immediately wants to roll over to an extremely closed position due to the shape of the sole of the driver. (More on this later) The club face is huge and that for me is a good thing, overall the shape feels a bit block like if that makes sense. The colors used in the DTG175 Black are nice and they go with the silver and blue shaft just fine. I found the head cover to be a bit different. Rather than a sock type cover that you slide over the club head this one has a magnetic opening that really serves well when getting the head cover on and off. While it didn’t completely blow me away at first I really warmed up to it the more I used it.
As I mentioned earlier when you just set the club down on the ground it will want to roll to a very closed position, at first this had me slightly concerned but I’m happy to report that when testing began this was not an issue at all, even for someone who soles the club head behind the ball before hitting. The model I tested is a 9.5 degree loft yet from address when hitting you really have a look at the club face more than I remember with most other drivers. This gave me a sense of the club having much more loft than it really had. Not necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing really, just something I picked up on.
The grip used not only looks really good on the driver, but it feels great too. A Winn Lite (soft) in all black pulls the look together with amazingly great feel.
Testing:
Before I even had a chance to get the DTG175 on the driving range I put it right to the test during a casual round. After playing a few holes with my normal driver I decided it was time to put it to the test, however, things did not start off well. The first thing that I noticed when going to that driver is that it is so light and long that I immediately wanted to become a long drive champion and found myself swinging harder than I’ve ever swung a club before. This is a bad idea, believe me! The first few drives were a variety of dead pulls left or an amazingly crooked push slices. I immediately knew what I had done with the swing so I really didn’t put much stock into the bad shots early on.
Next time out was on the driving range where I warmed up like normal and made sure that I realized that I am not out trying to qualify for the long drive nationals and just put some good smooth swings on the ball and it went much better. Shots went a lot straighter than I expected them to go; this was definitely something that I liked to see. The launch angle for me was that of about a 5 wood, just blast after blast that flew higher than I’ve ever seen any driver hit in my life. I couldn’t believe that it was actually a 9.5 degree lofted head, but sure enough it was and I just simply hit this driver amazingly high. I like the sound of this club but it might not impress everyone, it has one of those softer muted sounds that sometimes can leave you wondering if you nailed it on the sweet spot or not. I’ve had drivers with this sound before so I was familiar with it and like the sound a lot.
After a couple of different driving range sessions with the DTG175 I really got used to the weight and the length so I was finally ready to compare it side by side to my own driver to get a good gauge on the distance. We’ve had a pretty rainy spring here so I do believe that I was robbed on some distances due to a lack of roll out so I’ll be sure to point that out. Playing both drivers off the tee I found the DTG175 to be slightly shorter then the current driver I have been using. The difference in distance was not that large and could be attributed to proper fitting which most companies, including this one, offer. On their website Diamond Tour Golf says I’ll get the longest tee shots of my life so my expectations were very high going into my testing and unfortunately in my case it did not occur.
Over the remainder of the rounds I’ve played since getting this driver I’ve made an attempt to compare it side by side as often as I possibly could and each time I’m finding the same thing, my driver is simply longer. I will say that I’ve got a really good comfort level with the driver I’ve been using for a while now so I can’t fault the DTG for not being as long. One more big surprise is that I found that I hit the DTG175 as straight if not even straighter than I did my own driver. Longer shaft, lighter weight, yet straighter? I believe that all comes from the higher launch I’m getting out of the DTG175. It reminds me of the differences between teeing off with a fairway wood, only definitely a little longer than that for me.
Overall this driver is not a bad club and when you consider that the cost is $99 it might be something worth checking out if you’re not exactly excited about spending half your mortgage payment on a single golf club. While the DTG175 didn’t outperform my own driver I still feel that it is a solid option and if you’re someone who tends to look for a higher launching driver this might be something to consider the next time you’re in the market for a new driver. It really is refreshing to see that in this day and age of golf clubs being packed with more technology and a higher price tag there are still companies that strive to keep the costs down. The DTG175 is available in black, red and white and in lofts of 9.5, 10.5 and 12 you can pick these drivers up directly from Diamond Tour Golf via their website www.diamondtourgolf.com.
