The 2011 golf season is getting into full swing and Geotech has their new line up of components for budget minded players who want bang for the buck. The first club we’ll look at is their new GT 45N SWS driver. This new GT driver is aimed at the mid to higher handicap player wanting a an easy to launch strong and penetrating trajectory distance driver that is forgiving and feels good at impact. There are two models available, the conforming GT 45N SWS which I have here today and the non conforming GT 45N SWS Alpha Spec model which I will test later this month.
CAD designed for optimal performance…
The conforming GT 45N comes in 3 lofts a 9.5* model with square face, a 10.5* model with 0.5* closed face and a 11.5* with 1.0* closed face. As you can probably guess by the model name, the head is 450cc in size and while it does feature a reasonably shallow face at 53mm high, the head design is still rather high back. With a very low CG placement of 33.6mm but not so deep 38.4mm, a stronger low spin trajectory is produced. Geotech aimed to create a head that had high aerodynamics but a rigid and stable structure for maximum energy transfer. They used CAD design to create an optimal head design with a CG placement to create a forgiving head with a large sweet spot.
Forgiving face…
The face of the driver is a variable thickness face and features a design more suited for the average golfer. Its longer rather than deeper which favors miss hits towards the toe and heel, the typical misses for higher handicap players. The lie angle is pretty much along the lines of most retail drivers these days ranging from 60* for the 9.5* to 61* for the 11.5*. Better players seem to like flatter lie angles to help reduce shots left. Geotech used their decades of experience in precision casting to manufacture this driver along with its finely plasma welded face. They utilized a method called investment casting to create consistent thickness through out the head.
Adjustable weights…
The GT 45N 10.5* is spec’ed at 0.5* closed but to me at address it looked quite square if not a touch open. Considering its shallow face its not a huge head at address which is a good thing. It’s large enough to provide confidence but not overly large like some drivers today which are almost hard to look at. The GT 45N SWS has a standard head weight of 194g which is best suited for a build 45.5″ or longer however like all GT models the weights are interchangeable which can increase overall head weight for a higher swing weight or shorter length club and also alter the bias of the head and trajectory. The standard head comes with 4g toe and heel weights for a total of 8g in back weighting. Additional weights up to 7g each and lighter weights can also be purchased for different combinations.
Muted sound… strong trajectory
I took the driver out to the range along with my Ryoma D-1 to hit side by side since the D-1 is my gamer. Its not really a fair comparison at all considering the Ryoma head costs nearly 4 times the Getoech head but nevertheless its nice to have something to measure up to. Feel is considerably different between the two. The Geotech is more solid and firm feeling. None of that high pitched tink sound that you hear from many titanium drivers today but a much more solid THWOCK at impact. The D-1 is a monster when it comes to carry and the while the GT 45N could not quite match the carry of the Ryoma (most likely also due to the lower end Geotech shaft installed – and its just not a Ryoma), the trajectory was a favorable strong looking mid ball flight. The GT was pretty forgiving, especially on shots off center towards the toe area. The driver consistently produced stable and straight shots and a lot of its performance is certainly attributed to the head design and type of trajectory it produces. When we play golf on windy days, we frequently hear players say a driver or certain club is “kaze ni makenai” meaning “won’t lose to the wind”. The GT 45N can certainly be that kind of driver based on my short time it.
Your choice of shaft…
Of course the key benefit of the Geotech is that it is a component head with a pretty good price (especially when you think of Japanese market prices). It has a retail of around 300.00 a head based on the current exchange and but we’ll have it for below that in the pro shop. This also allows buyers to put in any shaft they please and find the shaft that suits them best which gives the GT 45N SWS the edge over retail off the shelf drivers. A great shaft can make an average head pretty good and a great shaft can make a great head legendary. Those players who want forgiveness but want to bring trajectory down a bit, and like playing around with weight combinations, the Geotech GT 45N SWS is definitely an option.
We’ll have the driver up in the TSG Pro shop later this week!
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