How often should you change your driver? Here’s what Cobra think

How often should you change your driver? It’s a common question among golfers and it’s one with a tricky answer.

When it comes to the beginning of each year, the latest drivers are released from the brands with the latest and greatest technology on offer. 

But a big question is: How often should you change your driver? 

It is a great question, and it does come down to a variety of contributing factors. Taking things into consideration like how often you play, when the last time you upgraded your driver was, if you got an accurate custom fitting and what you’re looking to get from your driver all come into play.

In some cases, you can get some drivers which start misbehaving, with shots veering offline more often than not, which can be caused by a performance issue. Your ball might not be going as far and the sound might be different, which would suggest it’s time to change driver. 

Cobra have always been a brand with impressive innovation and club design.

We caught up with Jose Miraflor, Cobra’s vice president of marketing, to ask him: How often should you change your driver? 

“It’s a great question,” said Miraflor. “For guys like Kyle Berkshire, you’re looking at about 500 hits because of the speeds he gets up to. But for your everyday golfer, I always tell golfers to take out their credit card and put it on the driver. If there is still a good amount of bulge and roll, you’re fine.”

What Miraflor means here, is to place the edge of a credit card along the centre of the driver face. When you do this, you should see daylight at the toe and the heel of the club face. If the card runs flat all the way along the face, then it might be time for an upgrade.

“When you notice it is starting to get a little flat, it’s probably time to change your driver. That means you notice the ball is flying a little shorter and maybe it’s even getting a little squirrelly off the tee. If we took an object that’s just straight like a credit card and put it up against this Darkspeed head, you can see there’s still curvature. When this gets flat after time, then you know it’s time to change.” 

Is an average golfer likely to wear their driver face out?

According to Miraflor, it’s pretty unlikely you’re going to hit your driver enough times to really wear it out.

“I’d say for most golfers’, your driver faces won’t wear out. We design them robustly enough and we test them for 3,000 hits at 150mph because we have to test durability. We have Kyle Berkshire test and we have robots at 130mph. I think new driver technology will get you to replace your driver before you flatten the face.” 

What can we learn from this?

If you haven’t changed your driver in a number of years, make sure to check the face, to see that it hasn’t flattened. With Jose’s tip with a credit card, checking it vertically and horizontally, you’ll know if it’s time to replace it. 

So how often should you change your driver? When you can see a change in the performance, or if the face is flattened, which is more likely with an older driver, unless, of course, you’re Kyle Berkshire. 

You can watch our review of the Cobra Darkspeed range in the player below, or on the bunkered YouTube channel!

Make sure you’re subscribed to the bunkered YouTube channel for more gear reviews and head-to-heads!

The Cobra Darkspeed range

• Cobra Darkspeed drivers review

• Cobra Darkspeed fairway woods review

• Cobra Darkspeed hybrids review

• Cobra Darkspeed irons review

James Tait is bunkered’s Gear Editor. Want to know how the latest Callaway driver, Vokey wedge or Scotty Cameron putter performs? He’s the guy to ask. Better yet, just watch his videos on the bunkered YouTube channel. One of the biggest hitters in the UK, James also competes on the World Long Drive circuit and is a descendent of former Amateur champion Freddie Tait.

Gear Editor