On Monday the 24th of March, LA Golf is releasing a driver to market that it believes will change the face (literally) of drivers forever. Co-designed by two-time U.S. Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau and LA Golf Chief Design Officer Jeff Meyer, the driver - named simply the ‘LA Golf Driver” - introduces a patented fitting system designed to match both the club face curvature and shaft to your individual swing speed, significantly reducing side spin and making your misses go straighter. Sounds interesting, right?
This design seems to be the culmination of Bryson’s deep dive into the effects of face curvature in promoting gear effect which led him to put into play a specially designed set of 3D printed, curved-faced Avoda irons for the first time at last year's Masters. Having used them ever since, and even chalking up another US Open win with them, Bryson has now turned his attention to the driver.
Those of you in the know will be aware that faces of the best golf drivers have been curved for many years now to assist with mitigating heel and toe strikes, however, Bryson and LA Golf have taken things a step further and believe that different swing speeds require different amounts of curvature to optimize the results. LA Golf is referring to this as Face ID Technology.
“Bryson’s big idea to make the curve of the face proportionate to swing speed is cutting side spin off the toe and heel almost in half, essentially turning your slice into a fade and hook into a draw,” said Reed Dickens, Founder and CEO of LA Golf, “and the exciting part is that is works for all swing speeds.”
DeChambeau has been spotted at various points over the past year or so testing out different iterations and prototypes of this driver, notably at 'The Showdown' and also on his very successful YouTube channel, but now it seems that the kinks have been ironed out and it is ready to hit the shelves.
The LA Golf driver is truly the first of its kind to pair the curvature of the face (bulge and roll) and shaft to match your swing speed. A feature that will be a welcome addition to many will be that the LA Golf driver comes fitted as standard with its premium A Series shafts, which in most cases will negate the annoyance of a hefty upcharge for an expensive aftermarket shaft - although, those wanting to play the Bryson series shaft will need to cough up an additional $150.
The LA Golf website features a useful online fitting quiz to guide you into the correct shaft and face curvature combination. It is very quick and easy to complete, covering topics such as flight preference, swing speed, tempo, and much more. Once I receive my driver from the results of this quiz, you’ll be the first to know how effective I think it is!
There are five head models available; the 13-12 (below 90 mph), the 12-11 (90 -109 mph), the 10-10 (110 - 124 mph), the 9-9 (125 -134mph), and the 8-7 (135mph+).
Prices start from $649 in all head models with the A Series shafts and The LA Golf driver is available for pre-order now, with shipping starting from Monday 24th March. Keep your eyes peeled on the Golf Monthly website for the full review in the coming weeks…
