The Sunday Driver: Wishon 919THI

It’s the Sunday driver, where we find you a driver that you have probably never have heard of before, and this week we’ve got the most adjustable, non-adjustable driver ever!

There’s a very specific niche of gear geek that likes to make their own clubs. We’re not talking about just changing some grips. We’re talking cutting shafts, turning ferrules, gluing heads. Tom Wishon is their god. The author of nine books about club making (two of them are on the curriculum for PGA Pro training), Wishon began his golf equipment career in 1972, and has designed over 300 original clubbed models. In 2003 he started his own equipment company as he believed a perfectly fit set of clubs was always going to perform better than a big brand just off the shelf.

This is the 919THI Driver, their top selling driver model. Like a lot of the smaller manufacturers, they don’t just release a new model every year for the sake of it. It’s not just about a marketing story but whether they can make a driver that is a significant improvement over the previous model. So what do you need to know about the Wishon 919THI?

It features a titanium cup face, with variable face thickness. This is something that has found it’s way in to a lot of driver designs now. By moving the welding from on the face, to around the side of the face, the clubhead is more forgiving, and retains more ball speed when you don’t hit it out of the centre. The variable face thickness helps do this to, with it thicker in the middle to stay within R&A and USGA limits maximum COR, but thinner towards the edges to increase ball speed on miss hits.

It’s available in lofts from nine degrees all the way to 15.5 degrees. And as every head can be hand picked to spec, they can find you a driver from as low as eight degrees and as high as 16 degrees. If you’ve got a slow swing speed and are really struggling for distance the high loft drivers can really help you set some carry distance back.

Uniquely the Wishon’s also feature a softer titanium bendable hosel. This driver can be adjusted four degrees either way for both lie angle and face angle. So if you’re 5’2” and hit a hook, they can bend that face open to help stop the hook, and bend the lie angle down so you’re fitted correctly. Adjustable drivers are great but there is a level of compromise about them: face angle, lie angle and loft are all adjusted together. With this driver they can be adjusted independently.

You won’t find any tour players using this driver. It won’t be the in thing like the latest TaylorMade, Ping, or Callaway. What it will do once it’s properly fitted however is help you play your best golf every time, a driver you can rely on to help you with your faults, and your faults alone. 

To get fitted go to www.diamondgolf.co.uk/contact/

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