JOHN SUMMER: I'm here today to interview PGA
teacher of the year, Todd Kolb, who
says he's finally discovered the secret to hitting drives
straighter and longer.
Hi, I'm John Summer.
Now, if you're like me, you've heard promises like that
before.
You can hit it straighter.
You can hit it longer.
The trouble is, for me, at least,
every time I get a driver that I could hit longer,
I hit it in the rough, or in the woods, or worse.
Or, if I hit something straighter off the tee,
I don't hit it very far.
Well, Todd claims he's discovered
a never-before-seen new type of club that
will enable you to do both, and we're
going to talk to him about today.
Well, welcome, Todd. TODD
KOLB: John great to be here. JOHN
SUMMER: Yeah. So,
Todd, is it true?
Do you have a club that we have never
seen before on the course, or anywhere
for that matter, that can really help us hit our driver longer
and straighter? TODD
KOLB: Yes, I do, John.
This club has not only been tested,
but the results were so outrageously
good, we just had to share with our golfers who were
frustrated with their driver's performance.
In fact, it's the first club that I've ever
seen that actually lives up to that promise.
It's the new Teton Driver.
And John, this isn't just an improvement of the driver,
adding different materials, fancier shafts.
This is really a new club.
It's the first super hybrid that has
the distance of a driver and hybrid accuracy.
It is supercharged, super long, and still very accurate.
It's a club that you can hit longer
than your current driver, and matter of fact,
you're going to also hit more fairways.
MARK DAVIES: The driver I had before here, I'm
inconsistent with it.
I play army golf left and right.
[SWING]
MARK DAVIES: Oh, yeah.
There's that draw.
I would love that all day long.
The Teton is amazing.
I think the person that designed it needs to be awarded
the Nobel Prize for Golf.
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: I think I hit that better than I
hit that all day here so far.
What the hell?
[SWING]
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: I had more distance.
More than 10 yards further and straighter than my own driver.
Here I was one yard off center.
For a 75-year-old dude who used to be a 10 handicap, who's now
a 28 handicap, big difference.
[SWING]
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: What, do you got gold
inside here or something?
[LAUGHTER]
[SWING]
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: Oh, yeah.
Wow.
SAM TRIPLETT: That went 20 yards farther
than your average driver.
[SWING]
SCOTT M: Oh, look at that.
Oh, beautiful.
That had some hang time.
This Teton Hybrid Driver, it's the real thing.
I'm hitting it 15 yards further than my driver,
so that's amazing.
BOB MOONEY: My tee shots, I usually
have my fingers and toes crossed,
and I'll just either snap hook one or slice it completely.
I hit a dead pole for the most part and hope it fades back.
With this, I was putting the Teton in the middle
of the fairway the whole time.
The Teton is like a super hybrid.
It's much straighter, it goes just as far
as my driver, if not further.
The accuracy is a huge improvement. MIKE
ANDERSON: The ball pops off the end of that clubhead.
[SWING]
MIKE ANDERSON: Yeah, nice.
Whoa.
That felt really good, really solid.
I never would have guessed in a million years
that I could hit this one further than this one.
The Teton is my new club.
JOHN SUMMER: You know, Tom, what I really hate
is that feeling that, when I'm on the tee,
my buddies are all watching me, and I tee off.
I'm using my driver because I want
to get the most distance I can, and I slice it into the woods.
TODD KOLB: John, that's exactly the kind of situation
the Teton Hybrid was made for.
It was engineered from the ground up,
with you and most amateur golfers in mind,
to make it easier to hit and play.
And as long, if not longer, than your driver.
JOHN SUMMER: Well, you know, that seems obvious, but
I've never heard of it before.
The hybrid is one of my favorite clubs to hit, Todd,
but it just doesn't seem to go far enough
to use it off the tee.
TODD KOLB: That's where the Teton comes in.
Instead of taking a driver and changing the shaft
using other materials, we took an easier-to-hit hybrid,
strengthened the loft, pumped up the size, and added some power.
JOHN SUMMER: So it will go farther, but still go straight?
I mean, it seems to make perfect sense.
TODD KOLB: John, here's why conventional big-headed drivers are so
hard to hit for most amateur golfers.
See, big manufacturers, they design
clubs for tour professionals, with fast clubhead speeds
upwards of 114 miles an hour on average.
Their swings were honed over thousands of hours of practice,
along with the fact they got world-class hand-eye
coordination.
Tour professionals, they can control long shafts, big heads,
and different swings that normal drivers really need.
That is, swinging up on the ball, which
is a completely different swing than any other club
in your bag.
JOHN SUMMER: You know, I have trouble enough with just one swing, Todd.
TODD KOLB: You're right. So,
one swing is tough enough to keep together.
Why in the heck would you try to figure out
a completely different swing, a second swing?
That's why the Teton Hybrid Driver is so great.
You use the same swing with a Teton
as you do with the rest of the clubs in your bag.
JOHN SUMMER: So, even if you can figure out
how to swing up on the ball with those big conventional drivers,
you can ruin your swing for the rest of your clubs.
TODD KOLB: Exactly.
And chances are, if you don't have
a swing of tour professional speed,
you're not going to hit those drivers well.
Quite frankly, it's not your fault.
But now, finally, something has been done to help about it.
It's the Teton Driver.
JOHN SUMMER: Wow, that is one big, great-looking hybrid.
So, Todd, it seems that for most golfers,
the shorter shaft on the Teton will not only
let you hit your drive straighter, but actually
makes it easier to hit your drives farther.
TODD KOLB: That's what we're seeing,
John, over and over again.
The Teton Hybrid Driver is intelligently
engineered right from the jump.
It's the most effective for the regular golfers.
DAVE WILLIAMS: The miss with my driver
is that I'll just sky it, the ball.
I just hit it and just [WHOOSHING SOUND]
up in the air, and embarrassing, especially on the first tee.
With the Teton, I was really shocked
that a small head club can go as far as my driver.
GOLFER: Oh. DAVE
WILLIAMS: There's the shot.
GOLFER: Look at that. DAVE
WILLIAMS: That's a beauty. GOLFER: Soft
draw.
DAVE WILLIAMS: I'll take that one all day.
Something like this, it makes sense
that I could go and use a driver like this, which
is smaller than my other driver by 50%,
and feel more confident, get my speed and distance,
and in the middle of a fairway, it's
what I want there to run me with a driver,
and the Teton does that for me.
GREG BARNUM: Being consistent and hitting it straight
is very important, especially on these desert courses.
Today, with the Teton, I was pretty much shooting it
down the fairway every time. GOLFER: Oh,
wow.
GREG BARNUM: With the Teton, I feel I have more control
and get the same distance as I was getting with my $850-type
driver.
MARK DAVIES: The Teton was a lot more consistent.
I felt confident when I was swinging it.
[CHEERING]
MARK DAVIES: I would keep it in the fairway a lot more, which
would help me score a lot better.
It's a magic club.
PATRICK BRASSILL: My biggest struggle with my drivers
is actually distance.
I've just lost so much distance.
With the Teton, I'm actually getting equal or more driver
distance, and I'm getting much better consistency
online with my own hybrids, and kind of tops both of them.
I might be selling my driver.
JOHN SUMMER: OK, Todd, show me how it works. TODD
KOLB: Super easy, John, because the beauty of the Teton
is you can swing it like you do all your other clubs.
So, I'm going to hit one down here,
and I'm going to show you just exactly how easy it is. So,
the first thing is the setup.
Now, you can set up with this exactly
like you do your 6 iron, or any other club in your bag, right.
So, I'm going to take-- the first thing I like
to do is put my feet together.
I'm going to position the Teton right behind the ball there.
Now, if I was hitting a conventional driver,
I'd have a lot of things.
I would have to separate this foot a little bit,
separate that foot a lot.
I'd probably tell you to close a little bit, raise your arm.
JOHN SUMMER: I'm already confused.
TODD KOLB: You know where we're going with that, right?
But with the Teton, it's pretty simple.
Set it right behind there, OK?
I'm going to take each foot, separate them
just a little bit, all right, but equal distance both ways. So
now, I got the ball positioned very similar
as I would my 6 iron.
And the beauty of this is, I can make the same swing
that I'm making with every club in my bag.
And it's really literally that simple. I
go ahead and get set up, make a nice little rhythmic swing. [HITS
BALL]
TODD KOLB: Nice and easy, right down the middle.
And that literally is how simple it
is to use the Teton off the tee box.
VOICEOVER: Josh Boggs, a former superstar Nike engineer
and Golf Digest Hotlist winner, set out
to make a hybrid design that would go as far as a driver.
The goal?
Driver distance with hybrid accuracy.
Mission?
Make an oversized hybrid head that goes as far as the driver.
Result?
Mission accomplished.
The Teton is the world's first hybrid driver.
Why?
The Teton's oversized hybrid head
is designed for ultimate accuracy.
We took the straightest-flying and easiest-to-hit head
in golf, the hybrid.
Then we enlarged it and strengthened the loft
to allow you to hit the Teton with driver
distance and hybrid accuracy.
It's like a hybrid on steroids that
goes 40 to 50 yards longer.
The deeper face is built for distance.
By engineering a traditional driver depth face
right into the Teton, its face is
taller than a traditional hybrid,
but it's also super hot to give you driver-like distance
with your hybrid swing.
The Teton design team used 17-4 stainless steel
in the springboard face.
The face is much thinner than a traditional driver,
making it super hot.
Your tee shots just explode off the face.
The black channel in the bottom of the face of the Teton
gives you greater compression into the ball.
It's really a slingshot channel that lets the face rebound
into the ball, creating more spring in the lower
half of the Teton's face for driver distance.
Due to the hybrid shape, you won't have to tee it high
and swing up on the ball to get the optimum high launch
and driver distance.
Imagine having driver distance in an easy-to-hit, oversized
hybrid head.
That's the Teton.
For more control and consistency,
we designed the Teton with a shorter shaft.
This let you use your normal swing
without having to swing up on it like conventional drivers.
It's much easier to hit your tee shot
in the dead center of the face, giving you more control
and at a distance.
Our proprietary shaft and hybrid tip
is built specifically for the Teton.
It's a mid-kick, high-launch shaft
that's been fine tuned to give you
built-in incredible hybrid accuracy while still
being very long.
This gives you the consistent distance
you have always craved.
The high launch horseshoe weight bar,
combined with the 15 degrees of loft,
gives you super high launch and carry
without changing your normal swing.
Now, you don't need a different swing with your driver.
Just set up and use your normal hybrid swing,
and watch the look on your buddy's face as your drives
sale long and split the middle of the fairway.
Like a hybrid, the Teton has a flat leading edge on the face.
You can tee it down and still get a high launch.
With this look, the Teton is much easier
and inspires more confidence at address,
compared to a conventional driver with a curved bottom,
which is harder to hit and forces you to swing up
to get the ball in the air.
We added an alignment aid on top with the Teton bluebird.
It's like having a built-in alignment stick
with you on every tee box.
And the longer face line prevents
twisting through impact, giving you better contact
and straighter shots.
The Teton Hybrid Driver was created
to provide regular golfers with driver distance, increased
accuracy, all while using her normal swing.
Use just one swing for every club in your bag,
from the tee to the fairway.
Bottom line, the Teton helps eliminate
those wild drives that are blowing up your rounds.
You'll have a lot more control and consistency every time
you step on the tee.
Finally, there's a driver you can rely on.
All these new technology and design features
are exactly why the Teton HXD Hybrid Driver gives you
the high launch and easy hitting ability of a hybrid
with explosive driver distance.
Designed and engineered by the Teton Golf Company,
world-class engineers, with over 15 years of experience
and 10 plus Golf Digest Hotlist awards,
designing clubs that are outside of the box
and specifically built for weekend warriors.
JOHN SUMMER: To find out how the Teton Hybrid Driver performs
for regular golfers against their big-headed, big-name,
big-dollar drivers, we commissioned a test.
We asked a professional golfer, Sam Triplett,
to monitor the testing to see how the Teton perform
against their current drivers, and here's what happened.
SAM TRIPLETT: That one, 190.
That was a little shorter, 185.
MIKE ANDERSON: That's pretty typical.
I love the looks of it, and I like the feel of it. TODD
KOLB: All right let's test it out a little bit here and see what we got.
[SWING]
MIKE ANDERSON: Nice.
Oh, that felt really good.
Really solid.
I think you hit a home run with this one.
[SWING]
SAM TRIPLETT: And that actually went farther
than any of his balls with the driver.
MIKE ANDERSON: Why hasn't somebody
thought of this before? [LAUGHTER]
[SWING]
[LAUGHTER AND CHEERS] MIKE
ANDERSON: Oh, boy.
Beautiful draw.
SAM TRIPLETT: That one went 15 yards farther than any ball
you hit with the driver.
MIKE ANDERSON: The Teton, compared to my driver,
I'm hitting this much further.
I'm hitting it straighter.
It's easier to hit.
I don't see any reason why I wouldn't want to always use
this instead of a driver.
I love this golf club.
[SWING]
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: Ah!
[SWING]
SAM TRIPLETT: So, Richard, a 28 handicapper,
switches to the Teton driver, immediately picks up 5 yards.
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: I think I hit that better than I
hit that all day here so far.
What the hell?
This is a 15 degree.
What do you got, gold inside here, or something?
Wow, I love it.
[SWING]
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: Look at the draw.
Yeah, well, that's it.
I hit the Teton 10 yards farther than my own driver.
And my driver is huge as compared to this thing.
Man, I haven't missed one yet.
That's better than I do with my driver.
By now, I'd hit a couple of big fades, or whatever.
SAM TRIPLETT: With Richard's personal driver,
he was 17 yards offline on average,
and then as soon as he switched the Teton,
he averaged one yard offline on average, which is unbelievable.
RICHARD SCHLEICHER: This is 15 degree loft,
and yet I'm hitting it further and straighter
than my own driver.
It felt awful damn good, man. With
this thing, I was doing exactly the reverse.
I was getting a little bit of draw, just a little bit,
but perfect.
I hit this at least a dozen times,
and unquestionably, here I was one yard off a center.
I mean, for a 75-year-old dude who
used to be a 10 handicap, who's now with 28
handicap, big difference.
I can't seem to do anything particularly bad,
unlike my own club, my driver.
Because it's longer, it's more accurate, it's straighter,
I have a consistent draw, just a little draw on it,
which is perfect for me.
I had more distance.
More distance.
10 yards further.
Yeah.
Oh, there's no question that I want the club,
and I want a full set of these clubs once they produce them. SAM
TRIPLETT: With the 12 golfers we saw today,
I would say there are two main things that stuck out to me.
First off being they hit the Teton as far, if not farther,
than their personal drivers.
And secondly, every single one of them
had a better dispersion with the Teton.
They're hitting it closer to the center of the fairway by 5, 10,
15 yards.
And that, coupled with the added distance, is hard to beat.
After the first two guys, it was pretty obvious
that it was going to help pretty much everyone,
and the numbers didn't lie.
They definitely attested to the fact
that it can definitely help guys hit it farther and straighter.
JOHN SUMMER: Well, the launch monitor proves it.
Our golfers hit the Teton straighter, way straighter
than their conventional driver.
TODD KOLB: And they're not giving up any distance. In fact,
our test golfers hit the Teton longer
than their current drivers.
JOHN SUMMER: Well, I've seen it with my own eyes. The Teton
will help you hit more fairways.
It's as long or longer off the tee
than the big-headed conventional drivers,
and it's also just easier to hit, Todd.
So, golfers just seem to be able to hit the Teton hybrid driver
from the first swing.
I mean, how's that possible.
TODD KOLB: It's because the Teton has a shorter
shaft and an easier to handle clubhead, that's very hot,
by the way.
And you use the same swing that you
use with every other club in your bag.
With the Teton, there's no learning curve.
You'll hit more fairways, longer drives,
and you'll do it with your regular swing.
JOHN SUMMER: OK, you've heard it from one
of the top instructors in golf.
Sure surprised me.
You've seen the proof from the launch monitor
and from golfers just like you.
So, if you want to hit more fairways,
if you want to hit your drives farther and in play,
the Teton Hybrid Driver may just be your ticket.
TODD KOLB: Your swing is nothing like a tour pro,
and conventional drivers in the market
are just not built for you.
They're too long, they're too big,
and they require too much speed.
If you struggle hitting your driver
and play, if you absolutely dread carrying troubled shots
with your big conventional driver,
or you just want to finally have a club that you can hit off
the tee, that you can count on to hit long, high and deep,
right down the middle of the fairway,
well then, the Teton is just the club for you.
Why sacrifice distance hitting a fairway wood or hybrid
when you can hit an entirely new category of club?
A lethal scoring weapon that will set up your second shots
almost automatically, and have you shaving
strokes off your game as soon as you put it into your bag. [LINK TO
TETON]