How to Pick the Best Golf Driver For Your Game

How good does it feel to catch the golf driver right out the middle and watch as the ball sails high down the fairway?

We all want that sensation of channeling our inner Rory McIlroy and enjoying that satisfying feeling of consistently walking past our playing partners to find our golf ball sitting 10-20 yards further down the fairway.

There is no getting away from it. Hitting bombs makes golf more enjoyable!

The golf driver is a key component to hitting the golf ball further. Driver technology has advanced to such a degree that their development and the materials used to construct them are similar to those of Formula 1 cars.

The cycle of driver releases from the manufacturers also means something new cropping up every six to eight months. Through their marketing efforts, these manufacturers will educate us on why their latest is the best they have ever made and how it will help us hit those all-important longer drives.

If you are looking to invest in a new golf driver, it’s important to understand that you are not only committing to improving your game but also making a significant financial commitment. Golf drivers are not cheap, so you must ensure that what you buy is right for your game.

Using the class of 2024, our golf driver buying guide will help you make the right decisions about your next driver. Our driver selection tips will cover the following key elements of the modern driver:

• The Modern Golf Driver Family
• Driver Technology
• Understanding Your Own Driving Game
• Why Custom Fitting Will Help You Gain Yards and Accuracy

The Modern Golf Driver Family

Today, drivers generally fall into three brackets:

• High Moment of Inertia (MOI) Drivers
• Middle Ground Drivers
• Low Spin Bomb Drivers

High Moment of Inertia (MOI) Drivers

When we talk about high MOI drivers, we are referring to a family of drivers designed specifically to reduce head twisting at impact, which affects the straightness of the shot.

Without boring you with the physics, all you need to know about MOI is that it measures how an object resists change while in motion. In golf speak, how much can the clubhead remain square without twisting.

On the scale of measuring MOI, the higher the number, the better. For manufacturers, 2024 has been a breakout year in this field. The highest figure recorded for MOI in a golf club is 10,000, and manufacturers have now produced driver heads that reach this magical figure.

TaylorMade’s Qi10 series best reflects the new design philosophy. Their “Quest for Interia has seen their latest driver, the Qi 10 Max, hit the magical 10,000.

Other drivers, such as the Cobra Darkspeed Max and Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast, score high MOI without breaching the 10,000 figure.

High MOI drivers tend to all feature head designs that are stretched back as far as legally possible from the face, giving them the biggest footprint behind the ball.

Extensive use of materials like carbon fibre across the crown and chassis of the driver saves weight, which engineers can reposition internally to further help the head’s ability to resist twisting at impact.

If you were looking for suitable high handicap drivers, the high MOI models would fit nicely into this bracket. However, golfers of any level who struggle with accuracy or struggle to hit the sweet spot consistently could benefit from looking at a high MOI driver.

Middle Ground Drivers

Middle-ground drivers fit a wide range of golfers, from tournament professionals to high-handicap players.

These drivers offer high levels of forgiveness without breaching the 10,000 figure but potentially offer more performance in terms of higher ball speeds without becoming low-spin bomber drivers. However, they don’t entirely fall into the low-spin bomber category, making them potentially attractive to better players.

The Titleist TSR2 was a perfect example. Tour players such as Ludvig Aberg and Jordan Speith gamed the TSR2; however, fitting an 18-handicapper into a TSR2 wasn’t uncommon. We would expect something similar from the TSR2 replacement, the Titleist GT2.

We see something similar with TaylorMade. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, who previously played low-spin models, switched to the standard Qi10 head this year. For both players, the switch to the standard model will have resulted from seeing improved performance from launch monitor testing and what they witness on the golf course.

As we see with Titleist, many amateur golfers will be fitted with the standard Qi10 head, albeit with different shaft and loft configurations than Scheffler or McIlroy.

Low Spin Bomb Drivers

The low-spin bomb drivers gravitate more towards the better player who generates high clubhead speed, where excessive spin can rob them of distance. To lower the spin, weight is positioned closer to the face of the driver, which can also have the effect of adding more ball speed off the face.

Driver heads can also be marginally smaller. The new Titleist GT4 comes in at 430cc, or the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (450cc). The smaller head can also help golfers who can shape the ball off the tee to give them optimal positioning down the fairway.

Driver Technology

We’ve touched on how manufacturers are employing carbon fibre. Carbon fibre is lighter and stronger than titanium, which, as we’ve seen, can help manufacturers redistribute the saved weight more effectively. However, an added advantage of carbon fibre being lighter is that it can help increase club head speeds, meaning more distance.

Carbon fibre can affect a driver’s noise and feel, which some golfers struggle to get used to. Titleist has cleverly gotten around this problem by employing Proprietary Matrix Polymer (PMP) material in their new Titleist GT Series, which not only exhibits the same benefits as carbon fibre but has the same acoustics and feel as a titanium driver.

Club head speed is also increased by the extensive research manufacturers conduct in wind tunnels, optimising head shapes to make them as aerodynamically efficient as possible.

Driver faces are also subject to substantial research and development. The general trend for the current crop of drivers is to create technologies that help maintain consistent ball speed across the face.

TaylorMade has gone one step further by adopting carbon as the choice material for its driver faces. The Qi10 series ushers in the third generation of carbon faces, having started with 2022’s Stealth driver. TaylorMade’s reasoning is that carbon fibre has an advantage over titanium in creating faster ball speeds off the face.

Understanding Your Own Driving Game

Now that we have a better idea of the different driver profiles available on the market, the next question is which would suit your game best.

You can start by conducting a basic analysis of your driving game and understanding your strengths and weaknesses.

There are plenty of apps available that can help you track basic statistics on your driving. If you’re not tech-minded, pen and paper will do.

For every hole you hit the golf driver, you can record the following:

• How many times you hit the fairway with your tee shot
• If you miss the fairway, do you miss more to the left or the right?
• When you miss the fairway, do you miss by a small or large amount (you could set this up as something like a five-yard miss left or right of the fairway could represent a small miss as an example)

You can also pay attention to details such as:

• Where are your misses on the clubface - do you hit more shots from the toe or heel?
• What is the difference in trajectory (if any) between a centred strike and a heel or a toe strike?
• Do you hit the ball too high or too low with the driver?

These stats are particularly useful when you decide that you should get custom-fitted for your next driver.

Why Custom Fitting Will Help You Gain Yards and Accuracy

Can you think of another situation in which you could spend more than £500 ($635) on a product and not know if what you were buying would ultimately be right for you?

Nobody wants to throw money away, but with the depth of drivers in the market today, golfers face a real risk of spending a lot of money on an “off-the-shelf” driver, finding that it doesn’t improve the game.

If you are looking to invest in a new golf driver, you need to invest in custom-fitting if you want a driver that adds more distance and is more accurate.

Working with a fitter will not only give you the chance to provide feedback on the overall health of your driving game but also review the data produced from hitting your existing driver on the launch monitor.

Once the areas that need improvement have been identified, the fitter can start to narrow down the ideal combination of head and shaft for your game.

For example, if you miss a lot of fairways, a higher MOI head might help straighten out your drives. Higher MOI drivers can also be good for players who struggle to find the centre of the clubface. Less forgiving drivers would punish shots hit from the heel or toe, leading to the ball carving away from your intended target.

Nearly all modern drivers have some type of adjustable hosel, which can alter loft or lie. If you have a particular miss to the right or left, the fitter can make an adjustment in the hosel that will help straighten the ball flight out.

Further, a driver like PXG’s Black Ops driver has moveable weight technology, which allows the fitter to set the weight correctly, helping to square the clubface up more effectively.

From the launch monitor data, if we see a player with too much spin, we can look at the low spin head options to reduce some of the spin, helping create optimal carry distances.

Optimising the driver head is part of the equation. Fitting the correct golf shaft will also improve any golfer’s driving game. Shafts can be selected to help generate more or less spin and come in different weights and flexes to match any golfer’s clubhead speed.

The custom-fitting process combines data from the launch monitor but also captures your feedback to the fitter about what you like or don’t like. This all leads to a recommendation and an explanation as to why a particular driver setup is best suited for your requirements, giving you the confidence to place your order.

There are fantastic drivers on the market, but not every driver is suited to every golfer. Understanding the different driver designs and your driving strengths and weaknesses can go a long way toward helping you get the right driver for your game.

Being able to drive the golf ball consistently well breeds confidence in your golf game and will help you shoot better scores. That confidence comes from knowing you have a driver in your hands built to your specific requirements, no matter what level of golfer you are.

If you are in the market for a new driver, get custom-fitted to ensure you spend your money wisely. Custom fitting will pinpoint the exact head you need and the correct shaft, which can add distance and improve accuracy.

You can book a tailored driver fitting session with one of our experienced custom fitters via the Nine by Nine Golf website.

Our website also has all the latest offerings from companies such as Callaway, Cobra, Mizuno, PXG, TaylorMade, and Titleist, to name a few. All driver heads come with extensive customisation options for shafts and grips that you can easily select and order. Your order will be built in-house and shipped directly to you.

We’d be happy to assist if you have any other questions about which of the latest drivers might be best suited for your game or how custom-fitted drivers can help you play better golf.