with his birthday on December 30, Tiger broke 50. To celebrate that milestone –
2001 Masters – a first-ever achievement dubbed the Tiger Slam. What’s easy to forget is that while Woods was rewriting golf history, the equipment world was undergoing its own revolution. Persimmon was on the endangered list, and titanium drivers, like the Titleist 975D that Woods used during his historic run, were in every bag. Plus, wound, liquid-filled golf balls were on their last legs as solid-core designs like Nike’s Tour Accuracy TW began their takeover. At the 2000 Masters, one month before Woods put the Tour Accuracy ball in play, 59 of 95 competitors were still playing wound balls. A year later, when Woods closed out the Tiger Slam at Augusta National, only four players in the field used a wound option. Things were changing fast, and Woods had the accelerator pressed to the floor. He already had more speed than almost anyone on the planet. Pairing the 975D with a modern solid-core ball gave him yet another gear. While he certainly didn’t need more firepower, it’s impos- sible not to wonder, How far would Tiger have hit it in 2001 if he’d had access to today’s technology? To find out, we devised a test using a swing robot with Golf Laboratories in San Diego to compare Tiger’s drivers and golf balls over 25 years of innovation. We started by re-creating Tiger’s legendary 975D driver exactly as he played it: 7.5 degrees of loft with a True Temper Dynamic Gold steel shaft at 43.5 inches. That setup might look prehistor- ic now, but it powered perhaps the great- est golf ever played. With help from someone who worked closely with Woods, we gathered accu- rate launch characteristics to dial in Tiger’s impact specs on the robot. At the time, Woods’ clubhead speed was estimated between 118 and 120 miles per hour. From there, we tested his 975D with both the Nike Tour Accuracy and
specs with a Graphite Design Tour AD- VF 6X shaft and a Bridgestone Tour B X ball. Testing was done on a Foresight GC Quad launch monitor, with centre, heel and toe strikes included to mimic real- world results – and to show how forgive- ness and dispersion have changed. Here’s where it got really fun. We set the robot to Tiger’s 2000 launch, speed and spin blueprint – the DNA of the Tiger Slam. That year, he averaged 298 yards in driving distance, second only to John Daly. Just holding Tiger’s 975D sent us back in time. With a head measuring 260 cu- bic centimetres, it looks tiny, almost fairway-wood size by today’s standards. While most of his peers were dabbling with graphite shafts in the early 2000s, Woods trusted the consistency of steel. The steel adds weight, stability and nostalgia but not swing speed. Test- ing the 975D driver with the Tour Accuracy ball produced launch and spin numbers that are pedestrian today: a 9.9-degree launch (lowest of the test), a surprisingly high 109-foot peak trajectory and a steep 42.4-degree descent angle. Efficient? Not by modern tour standards. Heel and toe strikes reduced carry dis- tance by 10.5 yards on average, which is solid by today’s benchmarks and shock- ingly good for a 260cc head. In fact, the 975D with the Tour Accuracy delivered the lowest distance loss on mis-hits of all three combinations. Switching to a current Titleist Pro V1 golf ball generated some of the most intriguing data. While Tour Accuracy was already a solid-core ball, Pro V1’s current aerodynamics and multilayer design unlocked a noticeable perfor- mance bump. Spin rate dropped to 2,532 rpm; ball speed and launch both nudged higher; peak height (102.6 feet) While most of his peers were dabbling with graphite shafts in the early 2000s, Woods trusted the consistency of steel.
and his second Masters win 25 years ago – we’re rewinding to the driver and golf ball he used during arguably the great- est run the game has ever seen. In 2000, Woods won nine times, including three straight major championships, followed by a win at the next year’s first major, the
the current Titleist Pro V1 to see how distance would change simply by swapping golf balls. For a truly modern benchmark, we tested a TaylorMade Qi10 LS built to Tiger’s current
DEFINING DRIVER
Woods used a Titleist 975D with a steel shaft during the Tiger Slam.
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 79
MAY 2026
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator