Driven competitors vie for an edge at Ryder Cup

This week is different. Usually, players’ golf bags have the name of their club manufacturer in big, bold lettering.

In the Ryder Cup, for one week only, the names of the players and emblems of Europe and USA provide artistic merit to the exterior covers of the bags. Inside the bag, however, the players retain their tried and trusted weaponry and no fewer than eight different brands of drivers actually feature among the 24 players.

Callaway, Titleist and TaylorMade drivers are the most dominant, used by five players each;

Ping drivers will be gripped and ripped by three players; two players will use Srixon and Cobra drivers; one player will use a Bridgestone driver . . . and one – and we all know who that is – will bomb it down the fairway with a Nike driver.

Modern game

Rory McIlroy alone will use a Nike driver. Which, given that his driving has contributed hugely to his two Major wins this season at Hoylake and Valhalla, is something of an eye-opener. With average drives this season of 310 yards, McIlroy’s reputation with the driver is unparalleled in the modern game.

The driver in McIlroy’s bag will be a Nike VR_S Covert 2.0 Tour which uses what the manufacturers call “Fly-Brace technology,” which stiffens the rear portion of the head to help transfer more energy to the face at impact. McIlroy plays a driver with a loft of 8.5 degrees.

The three most popular brands in golfers' bags here are Callaway (Thomas Bjorn, Henrik Stenson, Jim Furyk, Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson), Titleist (Victor Dubuisson, Zach Johnson, Jimmy Walker and Webb Simpson) and TaylorMade (Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose, Jamie Donaldson and Stephen Gallacher).

Interestingly, the quintet of players using Callaway use three different models: Bjorn uses a Callaway Big Bertha V Series; Stenson uses a Callaway X2 Hot; Mickelson and Reed use a Callaway Big Bertha Alpha, and Furyk uses the new version Callaway Big Bertha.

Each driver has its own individual characteristic: for instance, Stenson’s X2 Hot debuts the company’s Hyper Speed Face technology, which apparently creates a a large sweet spot, while the Alpha used by Mickelson and Reed allows players to independently adjust four characteristics: loft, lie, shot bias and, for the first time, centre of gravity height.

In the matter of the Titleist drivers, there are three different versions in use: Dubuisson, Johnson and Walker all favour the 913D2, which features a 460cc pear-shaped head “designed for maximum forgiveness and a slight draw bias”.

Simpson prefers the 913D3 which has a smaller 445cc head, while Spieth uses the 910D2 which has a 460cc head which produces a slightly higher launch and spin than the 910D3 and features a dual-angle hosel which allows players select their own loft and lie.

The quintet of Europeans using the TaylorMade all use the SLDR which gets its name from the sliding weight on the sole, which golfers can move along a rail to create the specific draw or fade bias. Rather intriguingly though, players use different lofts: for example, Kaymer has his loft set at 8.5 degrees, Donaldson’s is at 9.5 degrees and Rose’s loft is 10.5 degrees!

Swing speed

The trio of Ping proponents use two different models: Mahan prefers the G25 whilst Watson and Westwood use the G30 as their driver of choice.

Mahan’s driver features a 460cc titanium head with the classic black finish whilst the G30 has distinctive angled ridges on the crown aimed at improving the way air flows around the head for enhanced swing speed and distance.

The two poster boys for Srixon – Graeme McDowell and Keegan Bradley – differ on their choice of driver: G-Mac favours the Z545 and Bradley prefers the Z745. McDowell started using the driver at the Pebble Beach pro-am earlier this season and, of course, used it to good effect over the summer in cementing an automatic place on the Ryder Cup team.

Bradley switched to the Z745 over the summer months and estimates he has added 8-10 yards onto his driving distance since changing over.

In appealing to a young market, Cobra have Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter on their books. But the players use different drivers: Fowler has the BiOCell Pro driver which features a 460cc titanium head and has a draw bias, while Poulter uses the ZL Encore which features the company's E9 Face Technology that provides a 30 per cent larger sweet spot across the club face.

Matt Kuchar is alone in having a Bridgestone driver in his bag.

The American is not noted for his driving distance – his tour average is 283 yards, almost 30 yards behind McIlroy – but is consistently among the straightest drivers. The J40 430 driver has a 430cc classic pear-shaped head that gives a low- to mid-height launch with low spin.