After watching the Open this weekend and hearing all of the comments about Woods' driving problems it got me thinking. Would not a persimmon driver be perfect for Tiger? It would give him the extra distance when the 2-iron is not enough, it would allow a lower trajectory than the metal fairway woods, but it could keep the distance down so as to make the wild shots not quite so off line.
With his excellent ball striking skills it would seem that he should have excellent ball control with a persimmon headed driver. The biggest negative is that it is much more difficult to fine tune the specs of wood, and thus will be more difficult to find a wooden club which he could feel very comfortable with. The second and related negative is that it is easier to replicate a metal driver than a persimmon driver, thus the risk of being unable to adequately replace a damaged wooden club.
On the plus side for Nike, think if they could hire a quality craftsman who could create a persimmon driver which Tiger would use to win a major.