When you shoot your highest scores, is there one part of your game that is consistently the cause?
Certainly in my case, if I’m driving the ball poorly, my score reflects it, and it’s a miserable experience. There is nothing more embarrassing or discouraging than having everyone in your group looking for your ball on every hole, trying to figure out if the trees have thin enough branches to play through, trying to figure out how to get the ball back in play, or having to play a short iron because your lie is so bad. On some courses, if you’re driving the ball poorly, you go home filthy, because you had to play out of the dirt, and your second shot kicks up a cloud of dust that gets in your mouth. If I’m putting or chipping poorly, it may be frustrating, and my score isn’t what it could have been, but it’s usually not an embarrassing number. There’s no quicker way to earn penalty shots than losing balls, hitting them out of bounds or into hazards.
Now that I’ve relived all of my golf nightmares
Is it possible that new golf club technologies could help with this part of the game? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” For example the Ping G10 has received rave reviews from golfers of all skill levels. Several PGA touring pros have switched to it, including, Jeff Maggert, Mark Calcavecchia, Angel Cabrera, Chris DiMarco, and the number 1 ranked women’s player Lorena Ochoa. Of course Ping uses the obligatory techno-gibberish to describe the technology they used to design it, so I’ll try to explain why it works.
It uses the USGA maximum allowable volume for a club head at 460 cc (cubic centimeters), which gives it a bigger sweet spot. This means that it will allow you more room for error, and make the ball more likely to go where you aimed it. For such a large club head, it has a high moment of inertia. This means that as the club head strikes the ball, it is less likely to twist, making it a more forgiving design. It is also designed for a high trajectory, and this is good for many players. The trajectory can also be lowered by getting it with a lower loft. It comes in as low a loft as 7.5°. Most people should use between 10° and 12° of loft.
So there really are scientific reasons why a properly designed club with new technology is better, and can help you keep the tee shot in play.
There are a couple of more choices to make. 
One is whether you want a left handed club or a right-handed club. Hint: You shouldn’t have to e-mail any golf club engineers on this decision. The other decision is what flex of shaft you need. This is determined by how hard you swing the club, and how far you hit your driver. Players with slower swing speed need more flexible shaft. Players with higher swing speed need a stiffer shaft. Getting the wrong flex would cause a slower swing speed player to fade the ball, and a higher swing speed player to hook the ball.
We all have to decide how much a new driver is worth to us
But I think a driver that suits your game is worth it--not so much for a lower score, but in order to spend less time in the weeds looking for golf balls. Depending on which golf balls you like to use, it may not be too long before you’ve saved enough on lost golf balls to pay for a new driver, anyway.
