2024 New Drivers - What Is Your Favorite?

[GolfSpy_BEN]

Just now, TJ Hall said:

Or one lucky individual gets to test all the new driver releases at one time…

Boy, wouldn’t that be something…

all jokes aside, an opportunity like that might break the forum.

[CFreddie]

10 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

Boy, wouldn’t that be something…

all jokes aside, an opportunity like that might break the forum.

This was actually my guess - lets put this whole "10K / AI / whatever other buzz word is big in 2024" to the test.   

[Indy_Oz]

48 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

We will know for sure in about 6 hours…

Any other guesses?

 

PXG Black Ops?

Maybe a direct to consumer brand like Haywood? Takomo? Sub70?

[William P]

Why is nobody mentioning the Dark Side er I mean the DARKSPEED.... After all it did poll the best in our survey results... 

[Wheelieb]

Honestly, I’m just excited to see. I’ll be in bed when it goes live of what it is, but I’ll be looking for it when I get up. But for @GolfSpy_APH to even mention it here makes me proud that this little ol’ debate and mindless post I made is worthy enough for that. Just can’t wait to see what it may be. 

[GolfSpy_BEN]

 A lot of pretty good guesses, and at least 1 of them is correct. 
 

Tune in tomorrow morning for the big announcement!

[CFreddie]

8 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BEN said:

 A lot of pretty good guesses, and at least 1 of them is correct. 
 

Tune in tomorrow morning for the big announcement!

Can’t wait to see what yall have in store @GolfSpy_BEN!!!

[HikingMike]

8 hours ago, Wheelieb said:

Based on your location, I'm going to assume you know where Chesterfield is. I know they have a Golf galaxy there that's pretty decent sized and have a lot of used clubs there. When I was home in Missouri in November they had a pretty good amount of used drivers from the last 2 years. Whether or not that is still the case I don't know. 

I swear there are so many people on the forum with some connection to St. Louis, hah. It's nuts. There were many of us in the Titleist ball test.

I did my Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke fitting at Golf Galaxy in Fairview Heights. It's a lot closer for me than Chesterfield! There is a similar TaylorMade event there this weekend too which I might get to. I've been there a handful of times, but never really noticed used clubs, so I'll look for that next time. I'm willing to buy used online. Tentative plan is to hit a bunch of models, and if I find I fit well in something, I'll look for a used version. Maybe I'll find a top 3, something like that, who knows. The other shop I mentioned also has some used clubs. And there are some good online stores for that. 

[HikingMike]

2 hours ago, Indy_Oz said:

PXG Black Ops?

Maybe a direct to consumer brand like Haywood? Takomo? Sub70?

I like the DTC idea. It would fit well with their marketing plan. Would it break the forum? Depends on scale maybe  

10K Battle Royale? Oh someone already guessed right.

Well perhaps it matches whatever @GolfSpy_APH was teasing, a certain new driver everyone will soon want. MyGolfSpy driver test winner and same driver in a big testing opportunity on the same day? 

[GolfSpy SAM]

Guys: I thought I'd sneak on here before @GolfSpy_APH wakes up and give you a little early-access tease...

It's A Dam Driver. 

 

You're welcome

[Wheelieb]

3 hours ago, GolfSpy SAM said:

Guys: I thought I'd sneak on here before @GolfSpy_APH wakes up and give you a little early-access tease...

It's A Dam Driver. 

 

You're welcome

A dam driver, does that mean my ball is going to be more prone to find water on the course?

[CFreddie]

Well yall have outdone yourselves here - can’t wait to follow the Qi test!!!

[Wheelieb]

10 hours ago, HikingMike said:

I swear there are so many people on the forum with some connection to St. Louis, hah. It's nuts. There were many of us in the Titleist ball test.

I did my Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke fitting at Golf Galaxy in Fairview Heights. It's a lot closer for me than Chesterfield! There is a similar TaylorMade event there this weekend too which I might get to. I've been there a handful of times, but never really noticed used clubs, so I'll look for that next time. I'm willing to buy used online. Tentative plan is to hit a bunch of models, and if I find I fit well in something, I'll look for a used version. Maybe I'll find a top 3, something like that, who knows. The other shop I mentioned also has some used clubs. And there are some good online stores for that. 

And I apologize, the Golf Galaxy isn't in Chesterfield that I went to it is in Des Peres which is not close to Illinois either but it is closer than Chesterfield. And I grew up in the St. Charles/Wentzville Missouri area. we used to go to Grafton I believe, to go to Ragging Rivers waterpark. They have some good golf courses not terribly far from St. Louis on the Missouri side as well.

[HikingMike]

1 hour ago, Wheelieb said:

And I apologize, the Golf Galaxy isn't in Chesterfield that I went to it is in Des Peres which is not close to Illinois either but it is closer than Chesterfield. And I grew up in the St. Charles/Wentzville Missouri area. we used to go to Grafton I believe, to go to Ragging Rivers waterpark. They have some good golf courses not terribly far from St. Louis on the Missouri side as well.

Raging Rivers, it's cool when it's hot, haha. Yes there is a bunch of good golf around here. I like old town St. Charles, neat place. I'd go there sometimes when I lived in Maryland Heights a few years.

6 hours ago, CFreddie said:

Well yall have outdone yourselves here - can’t wait to follow the Qi test!!!

Wow! 

[Jmglass]

I voted for Callaway smoke ai, but I think PXG flies a little under the radar. I've bought some of their clubs on sale and love them. I'm not one to buy clubs brand new usually, but if Cobra could come back to a lower price point I think their drivers would (relatively) fly off the shelves. I was thinking they were like $300 new at one point. 

[TJ Hall]

My local store had all of the new models in stock today when I stopped by…let me tell you, all of these clubs look amazing!  Did not have a chance to hit any as the bays had a line of people waiting.  They have a TM fitting day coming up, which I quickly signed up for a spot…going to look for an opportunity to hit some of the other releases as well.

[CrazyGolfNut]

Hoping to get to the local golf shop in the next 30 days or so.  Top of my list is the  Cobra Darkspeed and Ping G430 Max.  

[Indy_Oz]

Today I had the last of the three new launch fittings- Taylormade QI10 drivers and fairway woods.

In the past two weeks I have also had free fittings for the Cobra Darkspeed and Callaway AI Smoke.

Caveat for all of this is that I haven't had a proper test with the Ping drivers-either the existing G430 Max/LST or the new Max 10K.

Aim: Looking for future driver replacement (maybe not this year) and new 7 wood (this year).

Drivers: Top two for me are Cobra Darkspeed LS and Callaway AI Smoke Triple Diamond. I would want to test both again side by side before picking a winner, but I suspect the Cobra might take it. I loved the look at address of the QI10s, but the others just worked a bit better for me.

7-woods: Taylormade QI10 for me of the new clubs (I tried 5W & 7W in Darkspeed and AI Smoked models too). Looks at address, ease of use and ball flight. Just bloody nice to swing.  I like my Titleist TSR2 3-wood, so will try a TSR2 7-wood before making any decision this spring. Either way, I think my Rogue ST Max 7-wood is heading towards retirement.

 

I had hoped to find a forgiving/ max driver that gave me the better accuracy without losing too much distance. The trouble I found with the higher MOI/ more forgiving versions (Darkspeed X and Max, AI Smoke and Max, QI10Max) were that I struggled to get spin and launch where we wanted - despite trying a few shaft combinations - and the LS versions for Cobra and Callaway were just better for spin and almost very good on dispersion. For Taylormade, the QI (stock, not LS or Max) was the best fit for me.

It also seems like my Ventus TR Blue 6X is a good fit for me right now and worked best with the Taylormade driver heads. I tried a Speeder NX, HZRDUS black 6.5, Ventus TR Black 6X and 7X, Ventus Blue 7X, Tensei AV X-Link White 65 and Motore F1 shafts with the Taylormades. I liked the Motore F1, but it wasn't any better than the Ventus blue 6X.  It was good that they had a selection of shafts this time. Callaway fitting was lacking on that front (and lacked in other ways).

The fitter today was the same guy that did the Cobra fitting a couple of weeks ago and he's someone I would consider going back to. Best big box store fitter I've dealt with. At the end of today, his advice was to stick with my current driver setup (a Callaway). No pushiness for a sale at all. Threw me a couple of boxes of TP5s too (meant to get one free for the TM fitting, but as I'd done two fittings with him he gave me another- possibly as the TP5 and 5X are my gamers). Top bloke.

Note: For some reason, my swing wasn't quite as 'on it' as when I did the Cobra fitting. Today I was 2-4degrees out to in, compared to very neutral (neutral +/- 0.5deg) at both the Cobra and Callaway fittings. Frustrating, but one of those days.  Maybe I just didn't do the QI10s justice today...

[ctg44]

Another note, I try again to find an Epic Flash replacement next Friday with the Ai Smoke fitting and the following week with the Qi10 fitting at Golf Galaxy. I figured that I don't really want them bugging me much anyway during the fitting, so for an initial tryout of the new clubs, the free hour on the Trackman when it's 19 degrees outside makes not having a fitter 100% dedicated to me is not a big deal.

Well, after officiating 2 hockey games and doing a Titleist wedge fitting Friday and walking 18 holes Saturday morning, I had a great driver fitting (outdoors, so no broken driver heads!) with the local Callaway rep. I hit most of the lower lofted head combos and most of the heavy / low-launch and low-spin shafts he had. All told, between my round, the wedge fitting, and the driver fitting, I had probably hit 600 shots in the preceeding 18 hours, and my normal tired left snap hook miss never showed up with the final combo:

- AiSmoke Max - 9.0 set to 8.0 / Neutral

- Ventus TR Black 7X

That's an $800ish combo with tax, so it's not in the budget right now...

However, this is the first driver that's been even close giving me hope there's a shot at eventually replacing the Epic Flash at some point in the future.

[bbanksp1]

I've brought several of them home, played them, messed around extensively on our Trackman. so ive spent alot of time with the following drivers:

 

Ping G430 Max 10k- straightest club I've ever hit, maybe sacrificed a little speed. Dailed it down 1 degree to 9.5 and ball speed and spin numbers a little better. Still experimenting 

TM QI10- great speed, sets up a litte open at neutral setting to my eye- ended up not being able to overcome the right miss

TM QI10 Max- good speed, straight. 

 

after alot of testing I put the TSR 3 back in the bag. Speed is as good/ better than any of the above for me. adjustability so good with the head weight and titleist sleeve. Hard to beat.

 

one middle aged golfers experience.