Golf: The Best Driver

Maybe the title should be "the best driver for me", but anyways - here's my opinion:

Overview of my game:
Fast swing speed (100+ mph)
High handicapper (tend to slice)

Like most beginners, when I started playing golf, I left the driver at home. I started out teeing with the a 5-iron, which got me a reliable 180 meters off the tee. I soon progressed to a few "driving" irons, which got me up to 200, followed by the 3 Wood.
Here follows my progression in drivers:

1) Ben Hogan CS-3 with draw spec - $140

It has a 420CC head, which is was a nice progression from the 3 Wood. Hitting the large over-sized Drivers was still a problem. It has a great high-quality Aldila shaft, and the draw brought the ball nicely back in play when opening the shoulders (which usually produced a slice or fade) Great club if you're on a tight budget.

Website
Reviews

After hitting a while with the Hogan, I started to do a little more research into the driving game, and found this site.
The top Driver according in 2006 was the Tour Edge Exotics, so naturally when the local pro shop had a special, I bought one.




2) Tour Edge Exotics - $499

9 Degree with stiff shaft. Wow. Added another 30 meters to my drives, though it's a little harder to get a draw action.

Website
Reviews
TheSandTrap Review






3) Nickent 4DX - $250

Haven't hit with this club yet (not available where I'm from), but it looks very promising. Same titanium make-up as the TE, but it has a draw spec model (ala CS-3)
Top of the rankings golftestusa 2007. It also looks like this club is a lot easier on the pocket than the other top-of-the-line clubs.

Website
Reviews

Daily Links - 21/8/2007

Software Development:

Null Coalescing Operator
I prefer "normal" code though - this is not the most readable code. Use sparingly IMHO

Continuous Integration: (CI)
CI with Draco.NET

CruiseControl vs Draco

CruiseControl with Team Foundation Server (TFS)

CI White Paper

TFS Source Control

Golf:
Beginners Golf Swing Articles
(no "please pay us before we tell you our not-so-secret secret to a correct golf swing")

...and finally - something you'll identify with :)

Correcting a golf slice

I've only recently started playing golf, and am still learning the very hard lessons on how to play.
I recently purchased a Ben Hogan CS 3 Driver (IMO the best value for money driver on the market - if you can find one).
When I first started playing, I couldn't hit a Driver at all, resorting to the trusty 5-iron, which would go a reliable 180 meters off the tee. I eventually progressed to my Spalding 3-Wood, and then the Spalding Driver.
Convinced I could now hit the "big dog", I purchased the Ben Hogan with a draw tendency.
Wow - 230 - 250 meters with a slight draw - excellent!
...but I soon ran into problems, which are described here:

Problem #1: Massive hook, with very little distance gained.
Solution: Turned out that my back-swing was way too short, and inside the "swing-plane", resulting in my hands turning over the ball ala tennis top spin. I adjusted my back-swing to pull further back until I could see the club in the peripheral vision of my left eye (which usually meant that the club was horizontal to the ground)
Yeah! Perfect Drives for the next 5 weeks.

Problem #2: Massive slice, traveling about 40 meters right, and 250 distance (which usually meant I was in irrecoverable hazards, or the neighboring fairway.)
Solution: Turns out there's a very fine line in my swing between slice, produced by and outside-in swing, which was further enhanced by my stance being a little too upright and a perfect drive with slight draw. I found that if I stood a little further away from the ball (leaning forward with straight posture), and tried to swing around the body (as apposed to the normal iron swing), then the old Drive was back. But as I mentioned, it's quite a fine line, so I found that some balls were still producing the banana flight pattern.
At least now I know that if I want to slice around a dogleg right, all I need do is stand more upright, and produced a more vertical swing plane (this strategy contributed to a birdie yesterday :) - which for a high handicapper is quite an achievement!)

Edit: When all else fails, you can hack the slice by closing the club face

Edit: I've also found that the following has helped:
- teeing the ball just inside the leading foot, and so the bottom of the ball is sitting just below the top of the club.
- Make a straight line with the leading arm and club shaft at address.
- Bend your spine 30 degrees away from the ball, so as to get underneath the ball at impact
- Swing 80% of power, accelerating from the top of the swing (ie: start slow). If you try and hit the cr@p out of it, it'll more than likely go wayward.
- Make a deliberate slow back swing (good for maintain balance)
- Concentrate eye contact on the ball at impact.
- Make sure your elbows are pointing away from each other at address(leading elbow toward the target)
- At the start of the backswing, keep the club low and away from the body.