A driver is the type of golf club built for the most powerful, longest-distance shot. In the 1990s, 1997 included, the driver was a symbol of a golfer’s raw distance and was used above all for the opening shot off the tee.
The basic types of golf clubs
Golf clubs fall into several categories: drivers, woods, irons, wedges (for the short game), and putters (for rolling the ball into the hole). Each club is designed for a different distance and trajectory.
In 1997 a standard set consisted of roughly 12 to 14 clubs. In practice, a golfer chose whichever club suited the situation on the course – depending on the distance to the hole, the terrain, the weather, and the player’s own experience.
The driver: the biggest gun in the bag
The driver is the longest club in the set, with the least amount of loft. It’s used for the opening shot (the tee shot), whose goal is maximum distance. In pro terminology, the driver is also called the 1-wood. Although wood had largely disappeared from club-head construction by 1997, the traditional name stuck.
Driver construction (1997)
- The clubhead – by 1997 it was often made of titanium, stainless steel, or composite materials. Classic wooden heads (including ones made of persimmon) were still around, especially in the hands of old-school players.
- Head volume – around 250 to 300 cubic centimeters. Smaller than today’s 460 cm³ (the maximum allowed under current rules), but already fairly large by the standards of the day.
- Loft (the angle of the club face) – from 7 to 11 degrees. The lower the loft, the farther the ball can fly, but the harder the shot is to control.
- Shaft length – around 43 to 45 inches (109–114 cm). Longer shafts add distance but reduce accuracy.
- Shaft material – steel or graphite. Graphite began dominating in the mid-1990s, thanks to its light weight and vibration-dampening properties.
A relatively light driver with a graphite shaft and a titanium-and-steel head became the standard by the late ’90s, especially among well-off amateur players – businessmen and politicians who’d discovered golf as «the gentleman’s game» and a vehicle for informal networking.
History and popularization in Russia
In Russia, golf in 1997 remained an exotic sport, associated mainly with the new business elite, diplomats, and foreigners. The first full-scale golf club – the Moscow Golf Club – opened in 1987, but it only began attracting attention in the ’90s. «Swinging a driver» by the mid-1990s had become a marker of status, prestige, and an almost ironic embrace of the Western lifestyle.
For the era’s protagonists – former officers, officials, businessmen – golf became part of a new, «softer» kind of networking. In place of hunting trips and fishing in the far north came manicured lawns, golf carts, and conversations about schemes, offshores, and shipments over a glass of whiskey in the clubhouse.
Terminology: why «driver»?
The word driver comes from the English verb to drive – to strike or propel forcefully. In golf it’s a direct reference to the shot’s purpose: sending the ball as far as possible. In the slang of Russian-speaking players in the ’90s, the word was borrowed wholesale as «driver,» left undeclined and barely translated, remaining a jargon marker of a particular social stratum.
The driver in play: technique and style
To use a driver well, a player needs precise coordination, a confident stance, and a clean swing. A mishit with this club most often results in a «slice» – the ball veering left or right of the target, sometimes by dozens of meters.
In 1997, at golf clubs, it wasn’t uncommon to see novice businessmen or officials, out on the course for the first time, trying to «chop» at the ball as if swinging a baseball bat. A genuine golfer knew that a good drive comes from an elegant arc, well-timed speed, and the moment of contact.
Other club types (briefly)
- Woods – for long shots, though not as powerful as the driver. Usually used for the second or third shot from the fairway.
- Irons – the main workhorse clubs, numbered 3 through 9, with varying degrees of loft. The higher the number, the higher the trajectory and the shorter the flight.
- Wedges – for the short game and high-trajectory shots: the pitching wedge, sand wedge, lob wedge.
- The putter – the only club used to strike the ball on the green around the hole. The «quietest» club of them all.
Club manufacturers (1997)
In 1997 the market leaders in club manufacturing were Callaway, Titleist, Ping, TaylorMade, and Mizuno. Clubs from these brands could be found in the bags of diplomats, oil executives, expats, and «New Russians» playing golf outside Moscow, in Spain, or in Turkey.
Especially popular was the Callaway Big Bertha – a driver with a large head volume and a high degree of forgiveness. It was heavily marketed as a club that «does the work for you» – helping even a beginner reach impressive distances.
The driver as an image in the novel
In this passage, the hero – a man defined by force, decisiveness, and simplicity – swings the driver, a symbol of Western elitism and strategy, but wields it clumsily, «sending balls sailing wide of every hole.» The image is more than just a game – it’s a metaphor for the unresolved dialogue between «wild» Russia and the refined Western way of doing business.
The driver in his hands is like a hunting rifle he isn’t firing at ducks, but swinging at abstract targets instead. It’s no surprise the idea comes up of building a golf club in Khryakino – not for the sport, but as cover for «secret conversations.» That line carries the full irony of an era in which the outward forms of a new life hadn’t yet been mastered, but were already being tried on like an expensive suit, in the marketplace of ’90s consciousness.
Conclusion
The driver, then, is more than just a club. In the context of 1997 Russia, it’s a symbol of a transitional era: from force to strategy, from hunting to sport, from bluntness to the art of moving through the course of life, where every stroke should be calculated, not just powerful.