HIGH LAUNCH

A split second after the collision of a 460 cc driver with a multilayer ball, the high launch angle imparted by today's technology is evident. The ball's soft core helps it jump off the face, while the ball's hard mantle helps reduce spin. Today's designers try to build balls that spin less than a wound ball off the driver but the same as a wound ball off a wedge.

LOW LAUNCH

By hitting a low-loft driver off a low tee height, players kept their ball flight low. The resulting trajectory was not a simple parabola, because the excess spin caused by the ball's soft cover caused the ball to rise and drop quickly toward the end of the flight--again, good for accuracy, bad for distance.