From persimmons to metalwood to adjustable ones, the driver has come a long way since its inception. Find out how the current driver came to be as we look back at the club’s evolution over the years.

Transcript
[Narrator] There have been many changes
throughout the history of the driver
but five milestones stand out
that had changed golf forever.
Long noses were usually made of beechwood,
and with the go-to club for kings and the aristocracy,
they were long and oddly shaped like a hockey stick
making golfers look like Happy Gilmore.
Just as the industrial age spawned change,
golf embraced improvement.
In the last s,
golfers predominantly switched to persimmon.
Persimmon was so successful, it became the standard wood
for almost a century because of its durability
and great bounce for better distance.
[Narrator] See, fellows, the scientific principle
of a spring is to absorb energy and then to release it.
That's all there is to it.
[Narrator] Over a century passed
before we saw the metalwood driver
make its way into competitive golf in the form
of the TaylorMade's original cast stainless steel driver
but it wasn't until Lee Trevino's victory
at the PGA Championship
that a metalwood was used to win
one of golf's major championships.
Everything in American culture was getting bigger
in the early ‘s, and that includes Callaway's Big Bertha.
Named after a World War I howitzer,
the Big Bertha launched the popularity
with its giant stainless steel head,
which was % bigger than the current drivers at the time.
The new millennium came,
and it was all about personalization and technology
that would change our world.
The DVR, the iPod, and the adjustable driver.
Led by TaylorMade's r quad,
adjustable drivers have improved over the years
maturing from s to hundreds
to thousands of combinations in one head.
Throughout the history of the driver,
we have seen innovation that is a reflection of fine culture
always making life and hopefully golf a little easier.

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Evolution of the Golf Driver | Golf History | Golf Digest