What does a three-time long-drive champion do after his days of bombing golf balls more than 400 yards are over? That the question Sean “The Beast” Fister asked himself in 2008 after the long-drive and exhibition circuit virtually dried because of the economy.
Fister Golf's Model 1 driver
“I thought about getting out of golf completely, but I also thought it would be a shame to throw away all of the years of success I’ve had in golf,” said Fister, who was recently named president of the Long Drivers of America Hall of Fame. “I had kind of exceeded my expectations by winning three world championships and being in three halls of fame. What else could I do?”
What Fister did was jump into the club design side of the golf business – drivers of course – first with the Punisher 450 and with the new Model 1 that has been on the market for about six weeks.
Like “The Beast,” himself, the Model 1 exceeds expectations. The 10.5-degree (R flex) Model 1 is as long as any driver I’ve hit this year. It’s also as straight as they come. Unless I put a really wild swing on it, the ball stayed straight down the target line.
The key to the Model 1 is its fire forged SP700 titanium face that Fister said allows it to be shaped from a billet into a variable thickness tongue-and-groove cup face that provides better strength and a more consistent CT in and around the impact zone. The result is the hottest face allowed within USGA rules.
“I found a way to forge the face using a 5,000-ton press,” said Fister, who operates the Fister Golf Academy in Charleston, S.C. “It costs more but the faces are pressed instead of milled out from the back. The ball speed off the toe and heel is very consistent because it’s been pressed.”
The Model 1’s Accordion Compression Chamber, Fister said, directs the stress away from the face and lowers the spin on ball flight.
“A lot of drivers will carry the ball a pretty good distance, but the balls just flutter back to the ground,” Fister said. “With the Model 1, when the ball hits, you get a lot of roll. The face is where it’s at.”
Works for me.
