With new drivers from the top brands releasing every year, there is always new technology being revealed to the consumer. As a passionate enthusiast, I wanted to dig deeper to find the longer lasting trends and determine: "What is the future of driver head design?"
No two drivers are the same, but all drivers have the same goal: Increase the Distance as much as possible, while keeping as consistent and tight Dispersion. These improvements are almost always attributed to Adjustable Weighting, and Aerodynamic efficiency.
Using the latest in metal 3D printing, weight savings and center of gravity placement can be optimized by developing custom lattice geometries. The topology of these will maintain compression strength while freeing weight to be placed in strategic areas.
Adjustable weighting will continue to be of utmost importance to ensure that every player can create a consistent ball flight that is right for their style of play. Premium materials such as compression molded carbon fiber crown and sole, and a 3D printed Titanium frame would allow for a 12g Tungsten weight to be placed at the back for ideal forgiveness and launch conditions.
Even at the cost of marginal gains, in order to ensure the fastest club head speeds, texture patterns will appear on the crown of the clubheads. These patterns can have a slightly raised bump in order retain airflow over the crown of the club face on the down swing.
UNDER THE HOOD WEIGHT CONFIGURATIONS
INITIAL INSPIRATION - VERTICAL STABILIZERS
The vertical stabilizers / fins in jets and sharks help to keep them stable and prevent yaw - or twisting in the vertical axis.
It wasn't until looking through the USGA's rules and regulations for club head design that I learned that there would be a potential infractions and playability restrictions with extended stabilizers protruding from the body. In order to not derail a vertical wing, the form became wider and less of a thin fin.
To create an aero-accurate model, I plotted 2 Low Drag NACA airfoils scaled to the size of the driver head. Using the exported coordinates, I was able to import them into a math driven curve in order to create the reference sketches.
After printing the sole (bottom piece shown above) I found that the undercut was too thin. I liked the shape but decided on removing the undercut for an easier mold.
Surface curvature of Master 3D file before splitting into the appropriate bodies
