SPECIAL TEST: "MATCH PLAY" DRIVERS - June 2007

Match play, whether in a local club event, between the stars of the PGA Tour or even in the Ryder Cup offers the possibility that the best player, say Tiger Woods, could be knocked out by the lowest seeded player. It has happened many times and it’s one of the things that grabs our attention. Match play has a drama all its own and certainly different than the usual stroke play tournaments. Obviously a lot has to do with the luck of the draw, i.e. who player is matched against, plus how well an individual is playing in that particular round.

In the case of our "Match Play" between the current crop of drivers we began with 32 clubs, made a random drawing to determine the seeding for the first round and had amateur golfers compare each pairing head to head. Several criteria were used including what kind of a preconceived impression they had of each club (i.e., their own experience, friends’ opinions, company advertising, etc.), the club’s looks and of course what the tester felt about the results after hitting balls. Points were allotted and if the point totals were within 5% in a match up we advanced both drivers to the next round since this is within what we calculate to be the statistical margin of error of this type of preference testing.

When reviewing the results it is important to realize in many instances one or more of the testers actually rated the losing driver better than the winner. Therefore for example none of the 32 starters, even those that “lost” in the first round, were completely shut out and had at least some positive favorable ratings.

We conclude as we have in the past, in general there are no ‘bad’ drivers. It is simply a case of more points being scored by one over another in a direct comparison.

Lastly one final thought I have given you before… if you like one club better than another you most likely will make a better swing with it and therefore probably get a better result.

Until next time, hit’em long and straight.

I remain,
Charlie Mandel
The Bogey Man
Founder of Rankmark, Inc.

DRIVERS "MATCH PLAY" TEST MAY 2007 with match play point results

"Match Play" ROUND 1 Results

Speed LD 19 Points VS CS-3 8 Points

Tsunami 400 8 Points VS r7 SuperQuad 18 Points

Spider 5 Points VS Cyberstar NanoSpeed 17 Points

Rapture 19 Points VS C830.2 6 Points

Titanium 14 Points VS 460 9 Points

Dual Point 18 Points VS Sasquatch Sumo 5 Points

HiBore XL 16 Points VS Bazooka GeoMax 7 Points

FT-5 17 Points VS Torch 5 Points

CFD 13 Points VS Gemini 10 Points

Insight BUL 11 Points VS Dd6 11 Points

MX 500 10 Points VS 3DX 11 Points

907 D1 16 Points VS X-1 4 Points

Mactec NVG2 6 Points VS Big Bertha 460 18 Points

G5 17 Points VS Exotics 6 Points

Bobby Jones by Jesse Ortiz 17 Points VS 460 6 Points

460 DMS-G 6 Points VS XP 470 13 Points

"Match Play" ROUND 2 Results

Speed LD 20 Points VS Cyberstar NanoSpeed 7 Points

r7 SuperQuad 16 Points VS Rapture 7 Points

Titanium 8 Points VS Dual Point 19 Points

HiBore XL 15 Points VS CFD 6 Points

FT-5 21 Points VS XP 470 2 Points

Insight BUL 16 Points VS 3DX 9 Points

907 D1 13 Points VS Big Bertha 460 14 Points

G5 16 Points VS Dd6 5 Points

Bobby Jones by Jesse Ortiz 17 Points VS MX 500 7 Points

"Match Play" ROUND 3 Results

Speed LD 15 Points VS G5 10 Points

r7 SuperQuad 14 Points VS Dual Point 12 Points

HiBore XL 5 Points VS FT-5 19 Points

Big Bertha 460 12 Points VS Bobby Jones by Jesse Ortiz 13 Points

907 D1 11 Points VS Insight BUL 13 Points

"Match Play" ROUND 4 Results

Speed LD 11 Points VS FT-5 10 Points

r7 SuperQuad 13 Points VS Big Bertha 460 9 Points

Dual Point 16 Points VS 907 D1 6 Points

Bobby Jones by Jesse Ortiz 10 Points VS Insight BUL 10 Points

Among the drivers making it to the fourth round the six receiving the most points have been awarded Rankmark's “Best of the Best” seal for 2007.

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Hybrids - February 1, 2007

Hybrids - April 3, 2006

A Three Part Driver Test - September 23, 2005

"Match Play" Irons - June 7, 2005

"Match Play" Drivers - May 24, 2005

Steel vs. Graphite Shaft - April 1, 2005