Distance, forgiveness, ball speed, and looks are obvious factors towards what makes a driver a successful one. But what role does sound play in all of this?
On the surface it may seem like a minor detail. But some voices within the industry are adamant the acoustics of a driver can have a significant impact on its performance.
Srixon’s product manager Joe Miller believes it’s an important part of modern designs, as he revealed just how much manufacturers can fine-tune the noise a club produces.
Speaking on the Your Golf Podcast, he discussed what makes a driver design a successful one.
“I think you always have to think of ball speed, getting it absolutely to the USGA and R&A velocity limits,” he explained.
“The mere nature of the name ‘driver’ is you want to get it out there as far as you can. But there are also other things considered; the acoustics of the club, how it looks. It’s not just about one thing.
“It’s not just necessarily about the materials to deliver the ball speed. It’s how it looks from a chassis point of view, how the crown looks, what the face angle is, what the contrast is between face and crown. [There are] So many things to consider.
“I think it’s probably the club where there’s the most emotion in the whole set. It can either make or destroy the round.”
Although, Miller accepted that sound doesn’t tend to be at the forefront of most golfer’s thinking when they’re assessing which driver to buy, he was bullish of its importance.
He added: “I think distance is always the first thing with a driver, then it’s the looks, and then it’s the sound. They go in that order, but that’s the way it’s considered, isn’t it?
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“You look for where the first shot ends up, then how it looks before you start, and then how it sounds. It’s probably not the primary consideration, but it definitely comes into it if the other two boxes are ticked, along with the price and things like that.”
Golf driver sound: How Srixon fine-tunes the sound of its drivers
Miller pointed out that the brand wanted to make a short, crisp and controlled sound a feature of their new drivers. Achieving this involves quite a lot of mechanical and technical tinkering, as well as plenty of attention to the matter.
“Yes, there was a lot of consideration (in the Srixon ZXi RKT line-up), and that can be done internally, effectively from rib structures and where they’re positioned, how deep they are,” he said.
“If you think about violins, effectively that sound box, those rib structures inside a violin have a huge effect.
“We can control the length of the sound, the frequency. There’s a lot of things that are considered, and we want it to be that not only is the shot desirable, but also the sound of it is. So quite a lot of consideration there.”
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Golf driver sound: Is sound a big thing for you when buying a new driver? What other factors do you look for when picking a new driver? How important is a driver in your bag and set up compared to other clubs? Let us know in the comments or by getting in touch with us on X!
