Wilson Staff D9 Driver – Key Takeaways

Just hit the USGA conforming list this morning Likely replacement for the two-year-old D7 Non-adjustable with carbon fiber crown and rear weight

Not that it should come as any surprise, but the new Wilson Staff D9 driver hit the USGA Conforming List this morning.

The D7’s two-year run is just about up, and this looks like Wilson’s update to what proved to be a sneaky-good driver.

We don’t know very much about the Wilson Staff D9 driver, but we’ve been able to glean a little from the USGA listing.

So, let’s take a look.

Intelligent Design

The only view we ever get from the USGA is of the sole, so bear with us.

From what we can tell, you’ll have to give Wilson credit for jazzing up the sole graphics. You’ll also note the words “Intelligent Design” near the face. Wilson Sporting Goods as a group has entered the Artificial Intelligence era. Wilson Golf first used computer-driven simulations when designing the D7 Forged irons. A.I. allows designers to run a ridiculous amount of design iterations in a relatively short period of time. For drivers, it means creating a variable thickness face design that a team of R&D specialists may not necessarily come up with.

Wilson uses A.I. equipment for baseball bats, tennis racquets, and pretty much anything you can hit a ball with. As a standalone entity, Wilson Golf couldn’t really afford this type of technology. But Wilson President Tim Clarke told us earlier this year that it’s one of the benefits of being a part of the larger Wilson Sporting Goods group.

(K)OMPOSITE

The other item in the Wilson Staff D9 driver listing is something called (K)OMPOSITE. That would indicate the D9, like the D7 before it, features a carbon fiber crown. Carbon fiber is common driver technology, but Wilson’s twist includes weaving Kevlar into the carbon fiber layers – hence the “K” in (K)OMPOSITE. The idea came from the Wilson tennis group and is designed to help dampen vibration to help with sound and feel.

You’ll also notice the Wilson Staff D9 driver has a fixed hosel, so it’s not adjustable. The approved lofts are 9-, 10.5- and 13-degrees. There’s no indication anywhere of D7’s Dynamic Launch Control: internal weighting that was unique for each loft. That may exist in D9, but you can see Wilson has added a rear weight port, which did not exist in D7.

As mentioned earlier, the D7 was considered by many to be a sneaky good driver. It performed very well in our Most Wanted testing in both 2019 and 2020. It was both Runner-Up and Best Value for Mid Swing Speeds this past year.

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Wilson Staff D9 Driver: Time Frame?

Wilson goes into the 2021 season with the new D9 and the year-old, super game-improvement Launch Pad driver. There’s also the WLabs driver that hit the USGA list earlier this year and was put in play by Gary Woodland for a brief time. Wilson tells us that driver continues to be a work in progress. The bet here is something under Wilson’s Staff Model moniker will come out sometime in the middle of next year.

We’ll let you know more about the Wilson Staff D9 driver as the info becomes available.

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