GIII 2013 460HR Hi COR Driver Review

Roll the clock back 7+ years ago and Japan was still the premier source for non conforming hi COR drivers with pretty much every single brand in Japan having at least one non conforming head in their lineup. Some Japanese brands had heads with COR as high as 0.90, well over the legal limit of 0.83 COR. As 2006 came to a close most major mainstream Japanese brands decided that going forward, all their drivers would conform to USGA and R&A rules meaning hi COR heads became suddenly scarce and hard to find. Fast forward to the present and 2012 saw a resurgence of non conforming Hi Cor drivers. With many brands maxed out at 460cc and the 0.83 COR limit, brands decided that recreational golfers who wanted more distance were willing to pay for hi COR drivers and didn’t care if they were conforming or not since many recreational golfers don’t play in tournaments or competitions.

While a driver’s performance and distance can be attributed to many things, including, materials, design and the ultimately the ability to hit the sweet spot consistently (a big sweet spot helps too), a higher COR can be a quick way to more distance. COR stands for the Coefficient of Restitution and measures the elasticity of the collision between the ball and face at impact. The higher the number or higher the COR the more elastic the collision is. With all things being equal there has always been the debate as to how much impact COR actually has on distance. Some say for a 100mph swing, every 0.01 in COR can result in an additional 4+ yards. As swing speeds increase, that gain also increases. I want to stress again though that the COR of a driver is only one aspect of creating distance and even though there were many great Hi COR drivers back in the mid 2000’s, in my opinion, most conforming drivers today would probably out distance those non conforming drivers of old thanks to better materials, designs and bigger sweet spots and in many cases longer length shafts but we will get into that later.

ONOFF was in fact one of those brands in the mid 2000’s to have some seriously hot Hi Cor heads. But since 2007 there were none in the ONOFF lineup. All ONOFF heads are still USGA conforming but Globeride, the parent company of ONOFF decided that they would release a hi COR driver under their GIII brand which is Globeride’s premium line competing against the likes of Honma, and Maruman. Introducing the all new GIII 460HR Driver. The 460HR features what ONOFF calls a Hyper Titanium Face. The 460HR features a 0.87 COR head matched with an ultra forgiving design.

The hot face and inner weighting create a driver that is aimed at the player looking for a big sweet spot and who fights the slice. Internal tungsten weighting brings the CG deep and low and also creates a larger gravity angle which helps the head square faster and promotes a draw biased trajectory. The ribbed Hyper Titanium face along with the weighting create a higher and stronger trajectory with lower spin for max carry plus run. GIII touts the 460HR to create more ball speeds and lower spin than any other driver in their lineup thanks to the hi COR of the head.

While the face is not ultra shallow a side view of the head above shows that the head is in fact shallow back which helps pull the CG deep and back for increased MOI and ease of use. This creates a bigger sweet spot which works hand in hand with the additional COR for more distance. As I said before, it doesn’t matter how high the COR is if the head is not forgiving and the sweet spot is tiny. This is not the case in the 460HR which is aimed at the average recreational golfer and slower swinger wanting a nice straight to draw ball with max distance.

The GIII line is all made in Japan and the finish and quality of the 460HR is superb and quite premium. The crown features a beautiful pearl gradient gold which looks very high grade. While the face is spec’ed at 1.5* closed, I didn’t find that it had a hook face as much as say a Ryoma D-1 which sits really closed. The 460HR looks less closed than many drivers that spec out at 0.5* to 1.0* closed. The head shape is also not overly massive at address and is actually quite pleasing. Its large enough to provide confidence but not large to the point where it distracts. I really liked the way it framed the ball.

Now on to impressions and performance. First I wanted to get into the shaft, since we all know that as good as a head is, the shaft is a hugely important factor in how any driver will perform. GIII, which belongs to Globeride formerly known as Daiwa, comes from a company with a long history in producing and working with top grade carbon. Daiwa as many people know is one of the world’s most famous fishing rod and reel manufacturers. They are also the producers of high modulus carbon brand Roddio which is another brand under the Globeride umbrella. All ONOFF and GIII shafts are made in house in Japan and compared to most OEM stock shafts are considered to be much higher quality. Because they manufacture their own shafts, they can design them and produce them to optimally fit with the intended driver head. The SVF Lite is a high grade carbon shaft made specifically for the 460HR.

In recent years we have seen an increase in driver length which is designed to aid in increased distance. I am a believer though that the longer the driver, the harder it is to consistently hit the sweet spot or to square the face which can in fact result in less distance. While many premium drivers today see lengths of 46 46.5 even 47.00″ in length, the 460HR is a reasonable and very manageable 45.5″. Another negative I find with ultra long drivers is they simply get way too light. With lighter head weights, and lighter shafts equaling lighter swing weights, drivers actually lose their ability to create the head speed and impact needed to create more distance. GIII realized that the proper balance of length, weight and swing weight for the target player would produce the most consistency and distance. 45.5″ and 291g for the SR flex at D0 is very balanced (especially when you compare it to say 46.5″ 264g and C4 for an unnamed competitor). I’m by no means a fast swinger but I like to feel the driver in my hands to control tempo and I like to feel the head during the swing to know when it releases. The 460HR does this and with the SVF Lite shaft does it quite well. I preferred the feel of 460HR over my Ryoma Special Tuning and distance was about equal even though the Ryoma had a Crazy shaft in it. I actually preferred the looks of the GIII as well. The SVF Lite shaft is higher torque, which many may perceive as “whippy” but its designed that way to provide more feel and kick as well as to help the player square the face to the ball.

As with many of the Hi COR drivers available today, the GIII 460HR is aimed at players who swing under 93mph. It only comes in one loft 10.5* and two flexes, regular flex aimed at 77-88mph and stiff/regular flex for those a tad more aggressive and swinging between 85mph and 93mph. I really would not recommend the 460HR for any aggressive swinger or faster swinger as the shaft would be too soft to handle but for the slower swinger, fighting a slice and wanting more distance, the 460HR is of the best options out there.

The MSRP of the 460HR is 1400.00 which compared to many other premium hi COR drivers is quite reasonable especially being completely made in Japan. We have not set our price yet for the driver as it begins shipping in January but expect it to be reasonably under the MSRP. Look for it later this week in the Pro shop!