While the Acer XS Leggera might be our longest driver and the XS Draw version is designed to combat slicing the ball, the XS Thriver edition has to be the straightest. For those that play army golf (right, left, right, left...), finding the fairway (and your own) is a welcome relief. The addition of 10g of mass in the head makes a world of difference. By allowing for a 1" shorter assembly length with the right amount of heft in the golfer's hands, this promotes more repeatable contact in the center of the face. The reduced club length and higher loft give the accuracy of teeing off with a 3 wood, but the reactive face produces all the ball speed one expects from a driver.Product Review by Hireko Technical Director Jeff Summitt The # 1 Selling Drivers in Golf Shouldn't be a Driver but a Thriver We all know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But somehow when we walk onto a golf course all logic instantly disappears. Your first hole may be a par 4 or 5 and you pull the big stick out of the bag expecting it to sail down the middle of the fairway. Without much warming up, you swing for the fences with all of the might you can muster and watch the ball fly through the air for what seems like an eternity and suddenly - BINGO - you hit the fairway. Only this time it wasn't your own! If this sounds like you or your playing partners or even one of your customers then you will want to listen up. Are you itching to hit the ball longer? I am going to be brutally honest here and make this statement "Every golf manufacturer attempts to sell you hope." Think about it, you (or your customer) go to purchase a new driver. What are they looking for? That's right, those extra 5, 10 or 15 yards off of the tee or basically something to brag about to your buddies when you get to the 19th hole. By that time you finished the round selective amnesia has already set in. That one tape measured drive you had on hole #16 gets your juices flowing to come back and play again. But what was sadly forgotten were the other 13 drives that didn't go so well. Here is a fact - nearly half of all golfers will fail to break 100 for 18 holes. For those of average to above average strength, they will likely miss every single fairway (if they count only their own). Drives that fly 200 yards out and take a hard turn left or right by 40 yards does not count as a 240 driver either. Not only did that player lose potential distance, the ball might land in a hazard or on the next shot, you may have to try to hit around another obstacle. That is, of course, if the ball wasn't OB or sitting in a large patch of poison ivy. I know, I am not painting a pretty picture, but this happens all of the time at golf courses everywhere. With the advances in clubhead design, why do so many golfers still miss fairways on a regular basis?Here is another fact. Drivers today are all increasingly longer in length and lighter weight than even a few years ago. Why? So one can potentially swing the club faster and have more leverage to hit the ball further. It is true, advances in clubhead design have allowed the modern driver to be more forgiving on off-center shots, but it still comes down to the player making a good swing so the club face is pointed reasonably square toward the target upon impact. Fellas, making the club lighter and longer will only going to make it harder to accomplish that feat for the average golfer, let alone the higher handicapper. If the solution sounds like lopping off some material off of the grip end then think again, because it is not that simple. That driver might be shorter, but that recently modified driver is even lighter in both overall weight and in the heft you have in your hands. You aren't going to know where that club is during the swing or where the ball might land without a spotter. The analogy would be like trying to swing a feather. Of course the other option is pulling out the #3-wood, but what fun is that? Not to mention the smaller size is going to be less of a confidence builder when you need it most. No wonder this is such a hard game. Instead of driving begin "thriving"There is a simple solution to this for the vast majority of golfer that plays this great game. The answer is one of the best high lofted drivers in the golf industry, the Acer XS Thriver, now in it's third generation! You might be asking, "Thriver...hmm, I am unfamiliar with that term." Well if you combine the terms Three Wood + Driver you get Thriver or the best of both worlds when it comes to these two heads. Think about it, the modern deep face driver is approximately 3 times the size of a typical #3 wood creating a much higher moment of inertia making it in theory much more forgiving. Plus you have the large confidence building, thin face with the high COR right up to the legal limit for more distance. On the other hand, your #3-wood is more lofted and cuts down on some of the slice or hook spin plus shorter to enable you to have more control. - Large, confidence building volume (460cc) and face height - Thin, reactive face for high-rebound surface and maximum distance - Higher loft (but not too much) to reduce side spin - Shorter, more control length for solidness of contact - Heavier weight head maximizes MOI and increases momentum into the ball The Acer XS Thriver weighs a full 10g more than a normal driver to allow for a shorter (1"), more controllable length that now has the proper amount of weight in your hands. Plus that extra 10 grams of weight produces an even higher MOI for the ultimate in control off the tee to make this one of the best Acer golf drivers we have ever created. Unlike most 14 degree drivers on the market, the 2013 Acer Thriver doesn't produce as high of a loft as you would imagine so the ball is going outward instead of up and dropping from the sky. Leave the ball retriever for the next guyGet even and make the golf ball companies pissed off at you. An estimated 300 million golf balls are lost annually in the US alone and I want to do something about it! The cost of those normally lost balls with your old driver could go directly in your pocket, for lessons or to play more golf with the Acer XS Thriver. Guess what, when you start finally hitting more fairways (and your own); your next shot is going to be easier. The next thing you know, you are looking at your scorecard and you have a new personal best. If you are not straight now with your current driver, then what makes you think that new driver, that is supposed to give you 5 or 10 yards more, will be any longer? It is only going to be that much longer out of bounds. There is hope to longer drives. What size driver do I need? Again, it goes back to the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That hope (Acer XS Thriver) is being sold by Hireko or the thousands of independent clubmakers who use our products. Not even a single one of the major manufacturers have become hip this category of clubhead. That is probably because many of these produce those lucrative golf balls too for you to loose. There are millions upon millions of golfers who don't play professionally or even come close to it. Leave the big stick to the pros. This is why I so vehemently feel these are the reason the number selling driver in all of golf shouldn't be a driver at all, but an Acer XS Thriver driver. Learn More