I’ve never done this before.

I’ve never taken a new club straight to the course, teed up a ball, and, within two holes, decided to keep it in my bag, replacing a tried and true stick.

Now, before I go any further, I will confess that I cannot yet name this impressive driver. I still need to test it at the range, and play it more than three holes (which is all I could fit in before yet another wintry blast hit my part of the country) before I can adequately review it.

Nevertheless, here’s what this behemoth to be named later did. On the first hole, and with absolutely the first swing (I hadn’t even taken a practice swing, I was in such a hurry to squeeze in a few holes), I delivered a choppy, ungainly swipe and knocked a respectable 270-yard cut down the left rough that ended up rolling about a foot on the soggy turf before coming to rest a couple of yards in the fairway.

Not bad. No biggie, though.

Then, on the 2nd hole of Lake of the Woods Golf Course, where the tees are moved up to about 315 yards to allow new tee boxes to grow in, I delivered a much smoother swing, resulting in a slight push about 15 yards right of the green.

Now, my glasses are bad (or rather, the glasses are fine but my eyes have grown worse), and I lost track of the ball after a while. But I had the line, and walked straight on it until I got to my ball, plugged in the saturated soil…pin high.

This, I must admit, impressed me. And it was there that I completely forgot about the driver that had carried me through last season, chosen above dozens I had played and reviewed in the past couple of seasons. The driver that had delivered my ball many times about 20 yards short of this very same green.

The siren song of this new, powerful beast had bewitched me completely, utterly, irrevocably.

Maybe it will be a short-lived affair, I cannot yet say for certain. But if it is, I will need to find another driver, because upon my return to the clubhouse after the 3rd hole, I gave my old driver to the head pro to sell in the pro shop.

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