Equipment

How far does Rory McIlroy hit a persimmon driver? We got the shocking answer in Scotland

Published

10 months ago

Jul 12, 2023

Scotland is a place of nostalgia for golfers – even for those who have never been there. As the home of golf, and the mecca of the sport itself, Scotland offers all golfers a place to pay homage to those who blazed the golfing trails before them, learn about the game’s history, and to experience golf courses that were built hundreds of years ago.

Every year, PGA TOUR players make the trek overseas to the United Kingdom to play in the Genesis Scottish Open, and then the Open Championship the following week (this year, the Open is at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England).

In recent years, we’ve seen PGA TOUR players post some of their local adventures to social media. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, for example, visited the famed North Berwick Golf Club (West Links) this year for an evening round.

Just two friends having fun ?#GenesisScottishOpen | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/KtwO9lERJ5

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 11, 2023

In the same nostalgic vein, Rory McIlroy experienced a different piece of history before the start of the Genesis Scottish Open: a persimmon driver.

Persimmon drivers, which are made from wood (and have screws on the face to attach face inserts), were the most popular drivers of choice for golfers from the 19th century until around the 1980’s, when they were overtaken by steel (and eventually titanium and carbon composites). Famous golfers such as Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer used persimmon drivers during their careers.

Obviously, persimmon drivers are no where to be found in the bags of PGA Tour players anymore, since they produce slower ball speeds, less forgiveness, more spin, and decreased durability when compared to modern designs and materials. They’re fun to revisit, though, especially when in Scotland.

Using his new-age TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver, McIlroy currently leads the PGA Tour in Driving Distance for the 2022-23 season, averaging 327.6 yards per drive. He also ranks 6th in ball speed at 184.6 mph per drive, on average.

But what happens when you hand McIlroy a persimmon driver?

Past vs. Present ?@McIlroyRory tried out a persimmon driver during his practice round @ScottishOpen. pic.twitter.com/WdFb0uKPNs

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 12, 2023

According to the launch monitor results, McIlroy’s drive with the persimmon driver was clocked at 168.6 mph ball speed, with 255.7 yards of carry, and 4410 rpm of spin. It should be noted, he was using his modern TaylorMade TP5x golf ball.

McIlroy’s numbers with the persimmon driver certainly pale in comparison to his modern driver, which highlights how much technology has improved in the last 40 years. It also goes to show that golf doesn’t HAVE to be played with the newest and most expensive equipment for it to be enjoyable. Sometimes, mixing it up with older (and much less expensive!) clubs can provide a really fun challenge and memorable experience.

Not to make this about me or anything, but I recently got my own taste of what it’s like to play golf using an old wooden driver. In a recent match against my Two Guys Talking Golf podcast co-host Brian Knudson, I used just 3 clubs – one of them was a wooden Ben Hogan driver from last century. Technically speaking, it wasn’t a “persimmon” driver, but rather a “laminate.” Essentially, a laminated driver is built with sheets of wood, whereas a persimmon driver is made from a block of wood; persimmon drivers are currently more expensive and collectable, for the most part, while laminate drivers are arguably more durable. They’re similar in function, however, and equally technologically-stunted.

In my experience, I found the Ben Hogan laminate to produce drastically more spin and less ball speed compared to my 2023 driver, and it severely affected both direction and distance. While I typically average around 295 yards and 170 mph of ball speed with my gamer driver, I struggled to fly the ball more than 240 yards using the old wood driver.

By clicking on the video embedded below, you can check out the full 9-hole match between myself (0-handicap) and Knudson (9-handicap) to see my experience with the wood driver in action:

For more persimmon driver content, check out the links below:

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Andrew Tursky

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

14 Comments

Pingback: How Long Is Rory Mcilroys Driver? Exploring His Impressive Golf Game
Larry

Jul 27, 2023 at 3:57 pm

This is the answer to PGA and other Tours worries about distance, simple anything other than an Iron, (hybrids, fairway, drivers} must be made of wood. Simple distance taken care of and we move on all courses over 6,800 hundred yards would be fair play. And best of all reaching a par 5 would be a driver and a fairway wood not a driver and a 8 iron anymore and forget driving a 330 yard par 4 anymore.

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N

Jul 13, 2023 at 2:13 pm

Not shocking at all. It’s exactly how it should be. Why would you say it’s shocking? I don’t get it

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Pingback: How far does Rory McIlroy hit a persimmon driver? We got the shocking answer in Scotland - SOCAL Golfer
Brian

Jul 13, 2023 at 10:08 am

Did Kamala Harris write this article:

“persimmon drivers are made of wood.” “Woods were used by golfers”

Lol. Terrible.

Reply Report comment
- Rich D
  
  Jul 14, 2023 at 11:14 pm
  
  You mean the woman who graduated from Hastings with her law degree? The one who was California State Attorney General, US Senator, and it currently the Vice President of the United States? The one who has never lost a general election? That Kamala Harris?
  
  No.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Jbone
    
    Jul 15, 2023 at 1:41 pm
    
    The woman is a disgrace…
    
    Reply Report comment
Jurren

Jul 13, 2023 at 9:48 am

Does anyone know how accurate these trackman numbers are with persimmon woods? Do they actually measure launch angle, spin and ballspeed a yard or two off the clubface, or do they calculate (predict) these based on the measured swingspeed and one or two other factors? Ball stays on the face of a persimmon driver a fraction longer than on a titanium or carbon driver for instance.

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- P
  
  Jul 13, 2023 at 2:10 pm
  
  Ballspeed is ballspeed. It doesn’t matter whether you hit the ball with a spatula, it just sees the ball flying and extrapolates that from the algorithm programmed into it
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Jurren
    
    Jul 13, 2023 at 2:44 pm
    
    ok thanks. Wasn’t sure if trackman just measured clubheadspeed and calculated ballspeed based on that or if it also measured ballspeed.
    
    Reply Report comment
M

Jul 13, 2023 at 12:36 am

Yeah? But what length was it? 43.5?
Rors TM driver is 45.75.
If you can add that extra 2 inches to a persimmon driver without making it too heavy to swing, he’ll be right there at 290 carry and then you’ll know tech really hasn’t done much

Reply Report comment
- Brian
  
  Jul 13, 2023 at 10:06 am
  
  The one thing I hate about these “persimmon” challenges is that whoever just grabs some random persimmon wood and gives it to somebody to hit. What’s the loft of it? What’s the shaft?
  
  Maybe if we put a 44” graphite shaft and fit the loft of the persimmon and matched it up to a ball with the correct spin, I bet we would see a huge difference.
  
  Knowing what we know now, do you think Rory would be happy with such low launch and high spin on that driver. This could easily be tweaked with a different ball and loft.
  
  Reply Report comment
Mike

Jul 12, 2023 at 10:01 pm

Makes me feel better about how I could hit the ball in my youth and wish I had today’s technology “back in the day” when all we played was blades and persimmon or strata block woods. If you found a good driver back then, you would replace the insert because a good cut of persimmon was hard to find.

Reply Report comment
LivvyDivvy

Jul 12, 2023 at 9:49 pm

Jack Nicklaus “roll back the ball, roll back the ball, roll back the ball”…

Oops

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Equipment

Limited-edition gear spotted at the PGA Championship

Published

16 hours ago

May 15, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

The second major of the season is here, and with it, custom gear aplenty! Taking inspiration from both Louisville, Kentucky, and host course Valhalla, the OEMs have been having some fun with the designs.

Check out PGA Championship staff bags, some custom kicks, and a very cool putter grip from SuperStroke.

2024 PGA Championship staff bags

Callaway

PGA Championship Staff Bag Giveaway ? See below how you can win the bag and headcovers being used this week by #TeamCallaway at the second major of the year:

-Follow @callawaygolf
-Tag 2 friends in the comments pic.twitter.com/8HbGdPHiFK

— Callaway Golf (@CallawayGolf) May 13, 2024

Cobra

TaylorMade

From the stables to the fairway. ?

This year’s PGA Championship staff bag and accessories pay homage to the Derby City with callouts to the run for the roses, the fastest lap in track history and more.

Dive into all the details of this beauty: https://t.co/afhEVKHWLj pic.twitter.com/8eoP6tDZq1

— TaylorMade Golf (@TaylorMadeGolf) May 13, 2024

Scotty Cameron’s putter cover features the Scotty Dog in Viking helmet

Bettinardi’s KFC-inspired putter covers

Ping’s bourbon-inspired putter cover

Rory McIlroy’s Kentucky Bourbon Trail-inspired Nike Air Zoom Victory Tour 3 shoes

FootJoy x Todd Snyder Mint Julep Premier Series

(Photo courtesy of FootJoy)

Brooks Koepka’s Kentucky Bourbon Trail-inspired Nike Air Zoom Infinity Tour shoes

(Photo courtesy of Nike)

SuperStroke’s PGA Championship grip

Check out all of our photos from Valhalla here.

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Whats in the Bag

John Daly WITB 2024 (May)

Published

18 hours ago

May 15, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

John Daly WITB accurate as of the PGA Championship. More photos from the event here.

Driver: Ping G430 LST (9 degrees)
Shaft: Newton Motion 6-Dot

3-wood: Ping G430 LST (15 degrees)
Shaft: Newton Motion 4-Dot

Hybrids: Ping G430 (17, 22, 26 degrees)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold

Check out more in-hand photos of John Daly’s clubs here.

Irons: Sub70 659-CB (6-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S300

Wedges: Sub70 TAIII (50, 54, 60)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S300

Check out more in-hand photos of John Daly’s clubs here.

Putter: Odyssey Ai-One Milled One T CH
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 2.0

Grips: SuperStroke custom

More photos of John Daly’s WITB in the forums.

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A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

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Equipment

Toulon Golf collaborates with Valhalla Golf Club for latest Small Batch putter

Published

19 hours ago

May 15, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Toulon Golf has today officially announced its latest Small Batch putter — the Valhalla.

Discussing the putter, Preston Toulon of Toulon Golf said: “This putter is a collaboration with the club at Valhalla and incorporates three of the many things that make the state of Kentucky great – horseracing, bourbon and championship golf. The head of the putter and headcover have several allusions to a jockey’s silk and there are thoroughbreds on the sole.”

Inspired by Toulon’s classic tri-sole Santa Monica design, the company sought to modernize the profile and design leveraging its 904 stainless steel and 6061 aircraft aluminium across the sole. Toulon describes the Valhalla’s profile as “slightly oversized blade whose proportions are meticulously balanced to maintain the look and feel of the Santa Monica, while increasing the putter’s inertia to create one of the most forgiving putters we have ever designed.”

Throughout numerous prototypes, Toulon paid particular attention to the L-neck, with its full shaft of offset, adding a bit of length for better blending with the slightly wider and longer blade.

On the rear of the putter are homages to horse racing in the form of jockey silk diamonds and Churchill Downs-inspired font.

The sole of the putter features a large cavity covered by a 6061 aircraft aluminum sole plate. According to Toulon, this allowed for the addition length to the putter and improved inertia as well as moving more mass to the perimeter for greater forgiveness.

In another nod to Valhalla, Toulon uses a milled watermarked limestone pattern, a reference to stone featured widely on the property.

As with all the Toulon Small Batch putters, the team paid particular attention to the topline thickness and radius to achieve a desired look. “Soft yet crisp was the design intent,” according to the company.