Top DDE's and Their Drivers

I decided to look at the 2009 leaders at driving distance efficiency (driving distance / clubhead speed) and what drivers they are using. So I first looked at the top 50 in DDE last season and here's the stats I got.

Club OEM------Count--------% of top 50

Taylor Made--------17-------------34%
Titleist----------------9-------------18%
Ping-------------------6-------------12%
Cleveland------------5-------------10%
Nike------------------5--------------10%
Cobra----------------4---------------8%
Bridgestone----------2---------------4%
Adams----------------1---------------2%
Callaway-------------1---------------2%

There was one golfer I wasn't sure what driver he used in 2009. That was David Mathis who used to endorse Nickent, but that company went out of business.

Here's how the top 20 fared:

Titleist-----------5------------25%
Taylor Made----4-------------20%
Ping-------------4-------------20%
Nike-------------3-------------15%
Cleveland-------2-------------10%
Cobra------------2------------10%

And here's how the top 10 fared:

Titleist------------5------------42%
Ping---------------2------------17%
Nike---------------2------------17%
Cleveland---------2------------17%
Cobra-------------1------------8%

There was a 3 way tie at 10th in the DDE rankings, so that's why there are 12 players listed in the top 10.

The 3 big paying companies for endorsements are Callaway, Taylor Made, and Nike.

Titleist won't sign the one player to the huge contract, but will pay as many players as it can a fair amount of money to play their equipment, particularly their golf ball.

So while Taylor Made owned the top 50, it's because...well.....they actually OWNED the top 50 players for the most part. But they didn't have a player in the top 10 and Titleist ruled the top 10.

And I'm not 'anti-Taylor Made' either. In fact, it seemed like when I lived in Atlanta, everybody owned a Taylor Made Burner or R9 driver and they really liked them. In fact, I thought the Burner was a good driver, period. But a very good driver for the higher handicap player. I wasn't too nutty about the R9.

Probably the biggest question here is the lack of Callaway in the top 50. That was by Ernie Els who finished tied for 35th in DDE in 2009.

Either way, much like blade style irons, the PGA Tour golfer usually goes where the money is. Believe me, if Darron Stiles could get a fat contract with Powerbilt and would lose some of his great DDE, he'd almost definitely be dumping his Titleist driver.

For me, I will probably go with the Wishon Golf 919THI driver when I finally decide to go and change my equipment. But, us amateurs have the luxury of playing the very best equipment for us without having to worry about losing endorsement dollars. I wish more golfers realized that.






3JACK