I BOUGHT THE LONGEST DRIVER I'VE EVER OWNED OFF EBAY FOR $20!.

Good afternoon everyone, I'm Gary Martin and today's video has been inspired by a friend actually who said to me, Gaz, what is the best golf club you've ever owned? And it it was quite simple, it was an easy question to answer because it's a driver that I had in my bag for over six years and it's a driver I used when I was a teenager. I used to play at Tinsley Park and I remember, you know, some at times, you know, driving them short par 4s, you know, hitting your longest drive as a junior and I was thinking, does the modern day driver actually go as far, you know, because this is a driver that's not been banned and, you know, obviously some of the drivers in this era were banned and it used to go a long way and I picked it up off eBay for £20, believe it or not, it's exactly the same shaft, exactly the same head as I used to have and I'm going to test it and I know a lot of people's done these tests before but I'm convinced, you know, I remember some at par 4s used to drive with this and I don't think now I could get there with the new modern day driver, I don't know if that's me that's ageing and getting slower or whether the drivers have actually come on as much as we think so I'll not keep you waiting any longer, it's the Callaway Great Big Bertha 2. Get in the comments guys if you used to use one of these, at the time when this came out this was a monster of a driver and I carried it in the bag for six years and, yeah, I'm looking forward to this today, I'm going to be testing it against my game which is a Ping G425 to see what the results are, to see if it's as long but mainly to see if it's as straight because I remember hitting a lot of straight drives with this one and, you know, guys if you're on a budget, you know, you might be new to golf or, you know, you might even like the more traditional smaller head, this could be a driver for you, we're going to find out, we're going to hit some balls in the net today and we're also going to start making three drives with my G425 driver and I'm using my favourite ball, the Pro V1, so I'm not going to try and blast these, I'm just going to try and put three good swings on them, try and find that fairway, that felt good, I have had a little bit of a warm-up already as well and it might sound crazy but having tried that Big Bertha 2 and hit a few balls, it brought back a few swing thoughts and it sounds crazy doesn't it but I think I might have been swinging it too much on the outside coming down because with Great Big Bertha 2, I remember I used to get on inside, you know, I used to really hit it well so I'm getting that feeling a little bit with this driver now, just feel a little bit more inside on the way down, one's a bit pully, is it holding on, we'll see when we compare the data, two, eight, nine, final one, it'll be interesting to see what sort of difference we're getting the results, now that is absolutely right down the line, if anything it's been best 20 pound I've spent just for that little swing thought, right we're going to switch it over on computer, we're going to hit three with a Big Bertha 2 and then we're going to get out on the course, if you've not seen a Great Big Bertha 2, I'll stick some close-ups in, you know, the face is really deep, you know, it's got looks like a really big deep hitting area but it's a very small compact head, it's nowhere near as big, I'll put some close-ups in side by side but at the time when I used to play this driver, you know, it felt massive so shaper clubs have really developed haven't they, let's see what this one feels and flies like, let me make sure I'm in that zone, just make you focus a little bit more because I'm not used to seeing sort of a driver this small, oh that felt lovely off face, I'm not going to get a better hit than that today with this club, distance wise 275, I mean without hitting it harder, without blasting it, I'm not going to strike that any better and I don't want to start blasting it, I don't want to try and force it up to the distance, you know, the ping is going because it wouldn't be a fair test and I think that'll reflect, you'll see that when we look at club speed, I mean obviously I'm not a machine but I'm feeling as though I'm putting a similar swing on all these to make it as true a test as possible and it did fall short didn't it, I don't think I were hitting that any better or I can't hit it any better, I'll try and put the same swing on it again, obviously it's out the middle I could tell, it is a sensational feeling when you get out the middle, that one felt a little bit towy, just a little bit towy, you can see it's just turning over a little bit there, I don't think I've had as much feel with my G425 on a toe shot as I did with this, you know, I could really feel a little bit of twist at the bottom and I guess that's where like the modern day drivers come on, it's not particularly longer out the middle of the club, it's longer on the miss it and that's why the shape of the drivers change quite considerably because they're now sort of working on trying to get them toe and heel shots straighter and longer, the last one, see if we can get this out the middle, felt nice, felt middly, don't know if I've just closed the face a little bit on that one, so we're going to get out on the course, we're going to find a short par 4, we're going to hit some balls, we're going to have a look at that data to see how both drivers compare but most importantly see how they perform out on the course, you know, in real condition, it's pretty windy up Huddersfield today but we're going to see if the old trusty Big Bertha 2 can compete and whether we've got a little bit of a hidden gem for 20 pounds, so we're going to start baiting three yellow balls with a ping driver and three white balls with a Callaway driver, just going to go and have a look, look I'm going to talk over that data to see whether this could be a little hidden gem and whether anybody out there might be interested in purchasing one, so like I said it could be an expensive test if we don't get these online, it's not a hole that I tend to hit driver very much, by this stage I'm usually quite happy to to make a par, I'd take that around, it's definitely over the hill, a little bit sort of low but it's over the hill, not that one, unfortunately I don't think we're going to be seeing that one again and that's why I don't tend to hit driver much on this hole, come on let's get another one over that hill, that's the best one, oh ----, so it's going to be a fair test, it might be two out of two, one a little bit better. So let's have a look at our ball flight data, starting with ball speed, the G425 is averaging around about 155 miles per hour and the Callaway Big Bertha is averaging around about 150, so that five miles per hour loss in ball speed when we look at distance here is equating to around about 12 yards, we've got the G425 total distance round about 286 and then the Callaway Big Bertha round about 274. Now let's have a look at them four drives that I hit down 18, you know what does this look like in real life, because you'll see if you look at the they are quite close together, these were the four shots that I struck really well and you know in real terms there's not a lot of difference is there, you know, but the miss it's when it came to the miss it's the Callaway one would be unfindable, it was it was over the wall, it was out of bounds, however the Ping one if I'd have searched right in the rough I reckon I'd have maybe that's where you know the technology has come on it's improving their miss it's and making them bad shots better. So I've come in where it's dry to conclude and I'm going to start by saying you know if we've learned anything today it's probably that we don't give the manufacturers the credit when it's due because I feel like technology has moved on under you know we don't always give them that credit and you know when I had it down in the net the Big Bertha 2 it didn't give me any confidence, you know it's a very small compact head and then out on the course obviously I hit that heel shot and you could you know I felt the twist and the cut were incredible compared to the Ping, so there's just not that stability you know in the head it's not as balanced for miss it's shots and I think you know if I were to try and conclude on how that might help you you know if you're a newer golfer somebody maybe getting back into golf you know you're on a bit of a budget maybe it's not a good idea to try and cut costs on the driver because I think that's where technology really has moved on in the last few years and you know you it would hinder you guys more because you know you'll probably hit the heel and toe more than I do so you know maybe it wouldn't affect a lower handicapper as much getting back into the game but certainly a newer golf and a higher handicapper you know it's going to affect you guys more so you know I would say try and save costs on maybe wedges and putters where technology you know it has moved on but has it moved on at the you know the pace drivers I would I would argue it hasn't you know so I'm going to conclude on saying guys driver is probably not a club to try and cut costs on and my favorite club of all time is no longer my favorite club of all time and you know in back of my mind it really were and I've had to do that test to prove to myself that you know technology has moved on you know and it's just moved on under his nose where you know like I said sometimes we just don't give manufacturers a credit and we're guilty of thinking well you know it's probably not worth changing this driver because it's only the same as last year and it's quite clear to see you know in in four years every four years I would say you can see a difference in performance of woods and and there we are so if you're using a driver guys that's over four years old maybe it's time to start testing some new ones I hope you've enjoyed that one and we'll see in a few days time bye