A trusted friend was gravely injured on the links at the Green Mountain National Golf Course earlier this week. My trusty driver, "Great Big Bertha", has succumbed to stress fractures on her graphite shaft where the shaft mates with the club head.

Great Big Bertha does not owe me anything. It has been a trusted club in my golf bag for at least 10 years. In terms of golf club years, particularly a driver, that is probably an eternity. Based upon an average year of 50 rounds of golf, I would guess that conservatively, I have used Bertha over 5000 times since she was added to my golf bag.

Stress Fractures on the graphite shaft of Great Big Bertha. (Click picture to see in detail)

I remember when I acquired Bertha. At the time, the club head on Bertha was considered huge. Over the last 10 years, golf club technology has changed with drivers. Today's drivers feature club heads approaching twice the size of Bertha. I have looked at people swinging the big drivers on the course and thinking that they were a little ungainly. But I guess over the next couple of weeks as I demo clubs, I will be able to find out for myself.

I have not had a chance to start demoing new drivers yet. Over the next couple of week, I will take some for a test drive. It will be an interesting process to see if my golf game improves with Bertha's demise.