Drivers

The best new drivers in golf today, despite the fact that we live in a world obsessed with multitasking, are increasingly specific. While the Golf Digest Hot List features 10 distinct entries, it’s important to realize that what earned our awards were the breadth of those entries. In all, there are 28 different models that make up the driver category in this year’s Hot List. In reality, with their adjustable hosels and changeable sole weights, that number, quite literally, is infinite. In practical terms what that means is that while Callaway’s Paradym family and TaylorMade’s Stealth 2 family earned positions on the Hot List, each entry includes three drivers and it’s very likely the case that two Paradym models and two Stealth 2 models won’t be the right driver for you. The top companies are studying golfers not as one universal set of performance objectives, but rather as individualized characteristics, preferences and even typical impact locations. Those specific attributes enhance a certain tendency or aim to mitigate a certain flaw. Get in the wrong driver and you might find yourself with a club that mitigates a skill or enhances a flaw. For example, if you’re a player that needs to fight a slice, a sleek lower-spinning driver targeting tour players might actually make your slice worse. While we strongly encourage you to make your final driver decision in the company of an expert fitter, at the very least do a lot of self-analysis to figure out what kind of attributes matter most to you. Our descriptions of the various models—under the heading “Which one’s for me?”—will get you started, as will our “Build Your Bag” quiz. But rest assured, the right model driver for your game is on this list. Just make your search specific because that’s how the best new drivers are being designed today: Specifically for you.