Do you dread teeing off on the course because you are anxious that your ears will hurt when your driver connects with the golf ball?
Some Drivers have become so loud nowadays that it’s become a bit of a joke.
If your golf driver is too loud, you can insert low-density foam or cotton into the driver’s head to reduce the sound of impact.
If this not an option, you can buy a set of earplugs (regular inexpensive or frequency cancelling ones) or replace the driver altogether with a new one.
Let’s take a look at why Drivers have become so loud over the past couple of decades and how they can actually damage your hearing because of their materials and design.
We’ll even take a look at how loud a driver sound actually is and then give you four ways to cure your loud driver.
An Overview of Golf Drivers (And Why They’ve Become So Loud!)
When we think of golf, we mostly think of lush greens, relaxing settings, beautiful backdrops, and camaraderie with your mates. You would never think that it could all be spoiled each time you use Driver to tee off.
Nowadays, golf drivers can cause quite a surprise and perhaps even a shock when you hear how loud they can be.
In fact, research has shown that they can actually induce temporary or even permanent cochlear damage.
I’m pretty sure this is not what anyone signed up for when they thought about playing a round of golf.
So Why Are Some Golf Drivers So Loud?
In today’s modern world, golf drivers are much thinner, sleeker, lighter (to a degree), and have come a long way since the days of wooden headed drivers.
This is the cause of them becoming louder over time, and with the pursuit of creating the ultimate driver, this seems to be getting worse.
What MAterials Are A Golf Driver Made From, And Does It Make A Driver Loud?
From the beginning of the game and for hundreds of years up until 1979, when TaylorMade started making drivers and woods out of metal, the driver-head was made from wood.
The wooden driver-head gave much more of a thud sound, and as such, when metal drivers were first adopted by the manufacturers they were inserting foam into the hollow heads for years.
Another reason for putting foam into the driver’s head was to ensure that the face of the driver would not cave in.
Adding the foam gave drivers more density and weight, which in turn made their sound similar to that of wooden clubs. Golfers don’t like change so this was needed at the time.
Nowadays, because manufacturers are trying to create lighter, stronger, and more accurate clubs and because golfers also want this, the driver-heads are made from various materials such as stainless steel, titanium, or graphite fiber-reinforced epoxy.
The sound coming from these new style drivers when it connects with a golf ball made from Surlyn can make a deafening “ping” sound.
How Are Golf Drivers Designed, And Does The Design Make Them Loud?
Due to the fact that drivers now use composite materials in their construction, this gives the designers and manufacturers the ability to shape and mould drivers stretching their walls to the limit, making them very thin.
This impacts the sound dramatically and depending on the driver’s wall thickness, and shape, the sound on impact can range from a muted thud to sounding like a rung bell.
How Loud IS A Golf Driver?
As we said, the sound of a driver can actually damage your ears.
When most people think of hearing loss, they associated it with loud noises over an extended period of time.
However, damage to the ear can also occur from a loud, short, and singular event (also known as an impulse noise). This can be associated with the sound a driver makes on impact with a golf ball or lightning striking.
The safety range for an impulse noise is 110dB, any louder than that, and you could sustain damage to your hearing. Furthermore, sound in terms of loudness doubles every 3dB, and a golf driver’s dB volume is 121dB.
That means that a driver’s impact sound is 8 times louder than the maximum limit of an impulse noise
Is There Any Way To Modify A Driver to Make it Quieter?
If you are worried about the noise your Driver makes and it seems too loud, then it probably is.
It would be best if you were concerned about it causing damage to your hearing, and you may want to consider modifying your driver to make it quieter.
There are a few options you can look at, and we will discuss them below. You should definitely consider these options if your driver is too loud.
What Options Do I Have If My Driver Is Too Loud?
There are only four options you can look at if you already have a driver that is causing deafening sounds when you use it. These are your options;
1. Buy A New Driver
If you have the money on hand, you can always look at buying a new driver with a softer sound.
This might not be the smartest or cheapest option that you can employ, but it is still an option.
Furthermore, the following options, except one, has you tampering with your driver-head.
This could throw you off your game because even the slightest increase in weight and a different center of gravity in your driver’s head could cause significant changes in your swing and hence your driving results.
2. Buy Earplugs or EarPlugs With Frequency Cancellation
One option you could look into is that of moulded earplugs.
You could either pick up a pair from the local drug store (any shop should sell a pair), these will be super cheap, and then use them whenever you play a round of golf.
If you don’t like the fact that they will block out all the sound and that you have to put them in and take them out all the time, you have another option of earplugs that only cancel out specific frequencies (the damaging ones).
3. Insert Low-Density Foam
Another option is to remove the shaft from the head and insert low -density foam.
This is the type of foam they used in old metal drivers.
This will work pretty well, except it will add some weight to your driver and probably enough that it will cause you to have to readjust your swing.
4. Insert Cotton In To Your Driver
This option might be better than low-density foam due to the fact it is lighter and cheaper, and it will be much easier to insert into your driver’s head once you have removed the shaft.
Cotton is so lightweight that one cotton ball only weighs 6/10ths of a 1 gram. Furthermore, it doesn’t take too much cotton to alter the sound of your driver.
Therefore cotton won’t affect your driver’s weight or your swing because you probably won’t feel any difference in it.
Conclusion
Even though golf is a game of prestige, heritage and is associated with calm and tranquillity, the sound of some drivers can actually be so loud that it can cause ear damage.
Due to their design and material, modern drivers can give off an impulse noise 8 times as loud as the maximum level that is allowed. If you play golf on a regular basis, then may be it’s something you should think about.
There are four ways to rectify this situation, technically three, because one option is that you buy a new driver, although you could always buy second-hand to reduce cost.
The other three include getting earplugs (you can get the typical inexpensive ones from the drug store or frequency canceling ones), inserting your driver’s head with low-density foam, or inserting cotton into your driver’s head.
Cotton would probably be your best option because it is lightweight and inexpensive. This will be easy on your wallet and won’t affect your swing.
On the other hand, you may be someone who loves the loud noise and wants the world to know about it when you nail one down the middle of the fairway.
Happy Golfing
