BOOM! Knuth Golf’s High Heat 257+ Improves Your Drives

High Heat 257-PLUS

Knuth utilizes “3-Trampoline Technology” to help amateurs get most out of off-center hits.

by Jon Rizzi

In the three years since I started using Knuth Golf’s High Heat driver, which I glowingly reviewed in 2015, my tee shots have found the fairway more often than not.

They’ve also found my playing partners joking whether we were at a golf course or a Little League field, as the distinctive ring of the ball coming off the High Heat’s clubface suggested an aluminum bat making contact with a baseball.

They had a point about the sound, but they could never call the results bush-league—especially when their name-brand drivers were often producing shots into the bushes.

Now Knuth Golf is again making noise with its High Heat 257+.

Knuth Golf's 257+ driver head
Knuth Golf’s 257+ driver head.

The 257+ looks different than its predecessor. Gone is the electrifying cobalt head in favor of a black one with blue trim. The patented beta titanium mirror face and ringing sound remain, as does Knuth’s patented Optimal CG Game Changer (which places the Center of Gravity exceptionally low and deep) and Fire Zone Face technology that straightens and lengthens shots coming off such not-so-sweet-spots as the heel or toe, or near the crown or sole for more fairways and longer distance when used by amateurs who do not have Tour players’ swing speed.

What’s different about the 257+ is the “3-Trampoline Technology” in the face. Yes, “trampoline,” which some may think is a  code for “nonconforming”—remember the fuss over the Callaway ERC?—but CEO Dean Knuth (pronounced Kuh-nooth) spent 16 years as a senior director of the USGA and 16 before that as a senior Naval officer charged with developing classified technological defense solutions. You think he’d put his name on something that was illegal in competition? Not a chance.

The 257+ takes advantage of the USGA and R&A’s 2016 decision to update the “Spring Effect and Dynamic Properties” Rule permitting a conforming clubface to have a higher Characteristic Time (CT)—that is, the amount of time a golf ball can stay on the face. The greater the CT (measured in one-millionths of a second [µs]), the greater the ball’s energy for more ball speed and distance.

According to the ruling bodies, while the CT of the “impact area” (aka the “sweet spot”) remained at 257 µs (239 µs with a tolerance of 18 µs), the heel and the toe could be as high as 275 µs (257 µs with a 18 µs tolerance).

CT comparison between Knuth's 257+ and the clubs of other manufacturers.
A comparison of the CTs on the High Heat 257+ (in red) to those of other manufacturers (in green).

A clubface’s heel and toe can therefore have a greater CT than the center, meaning a potential increase in distance on off-center hits. But the major brands haven’t exploited this. Their drivers score an average CT of 242 µs in the toe, and 216 µs in the heel. In comparison, the 257+ averages 266 µs on both ends of the face, thanks to its novel trampoline-like technology created in the heel and the toe areas instead of just  having one trampoline for the entire face.

How much do millionths of a second matter? Testing the High Heat 257+ before and during a round at The Bridges Golf & Country Club in Montrose, I found the clubface still peals when I make contact, but intentional and unintentional mis-hits were indeed coming off the club hotter and traveling straighter and longer than they did with the club’s prodigious predecessor.

Knuth Golf's High Heat 257+ fairway wood and hybrid.
Knuth Golf’s High Heat 257+ fairway metal and hybrid.

I haven’t yet hit Knuth Golf 257+ fairway metals or hybrids, but I’m anxious to so so. They both boast the same 266 µs average on the toe and heel. This makes the CT of the 257+ fairway metal 39 percent higher on the heel and 28 percent higher the toe than anything produced by the major manufacturers. The same comparison done on the hybrid shows an even more dramatic differential of 68 percent on the heel and 45 percent on the toe.

Dean Knuth, co-founder and CEO of Knuth Golf and creator of the High Heat 257+.
Dean Knuth, co-founder and CEO of Knuth Golf and creator of the High Heat 257+.

Besides yardage off the tee and dollars spent on marketing, what separates Knuth Golf’s product from its competitors is President and CEO Dean Knuth’s commitment to applying the advanced technological expertise to the development of a driver that would significantly improve the play of the amateur golfer, and then employ titanium faces in his fairway woods and hybrids—instead of the steel faces that all major brands offer in their metal woods—for more distance on off-center hits.

The lives of those amateur golfers had already benefited from Knuth, who invented the Course and Slope Rating Systems during his tenure as a senior director of the USGA. His systems made handicap indexes more equitable, earning him the nickname “Pope of Slope.”

He’s now the “Dean of Drivers,” maybe even the “King of Clubs.”

SPECIAL DEAL FOR COLORADO AVIDGOLFER READERS:

The driver costs $499.99; the fairway metal, $329.99; the hybrid $257.99. Colorado AvidGolfer readers receive 15% off all orders. When ordering, simply select “Colorado AvidGolfer” in the dropdown screen. Knuth Golf’s 30-day full money back Guarantee applies to this special offer.

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