Drivers for golfers who shoot in the 90s

Gear: PXG Black Ops, Black Ops Tour-1 drivers
Price: $599.99 (Black Ops), $649.99 (Black Ops Tour-1)
Specs: Carbon fiber crown and sole panel with titanium alloy face, moveable weights and adjustable hosel.
Available: NOW

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Who They’re For: Golfers who seek more distance and forgiveness (Black Ops), along with players who want a low-spin driver that allows players to shape shots (Black Ops Tour-1)

The Skinny: PXG is using a new titanium alloy that allows designers to make the variable-thickness faces hotter, while the combination of moveable weights boosts forgiveness and lets players tweak the launch angle and spin rate.

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The Deep Dive: PXG has consistently named its clubs after military designations and equipment, and its newest driver family, the Black Ops, is no exception.

There are two Black Ops drivers: the standard and the Tour-1. Both are 460 cubic centimeters in volume, but the standard version looks larger from front to back in the address position. The Tour-1 has a taller face, a higher crown and a keel in the back of the sole. While they are made for different types of golfers, the two drivers share several core technologies and features.

Both Black Ops drivers feature variable-thickness faces made with a proprietary titanium alloy that PXG calls AMF. That stands for advanced material face, but the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company is not divulging precisely what is in the material. It does say, however, that AMF is extremely strong but flexes, so it bends without breaking. That allowed engineers to make the Black Ops faces thinner and lighter while maintaining durability.

PXG Black Ops — PXG is using a proprietary alloy it calls AMF to create the faces of the Black Ops drivers. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

In testing, PXG built a previous-model GEN6 driver with an AMF face, and the club produced an increase of 0.5 degrees in launch angle with 200 rpm less spin without changing any other parts of the club.

Both Black Ops drivers also feature faces that have been polished by robots instead of people, and that allows PXG to manufacture faces that have non-uniform bulge (curvature from heel to toe) and roll (curvature from top to bottom) very precisely. PXG said that adjusting the curvature reduces spin on low-struck shots that would typically spin more, and the Black Ops drivers can add spin on high-hit shots that ordinarily lack spin, resulting in more spin consistency from shot to shot.

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As with previous PXG drivers, the Black Ops and Black Ops Tour-1 also have large carbon fiber crowns and sole plates that remove weight from areas that don’t benefit performance and allow designers to shift it to places that enhance stability, forgiveness and ball speed.

Much of the saved weight has gone into three adjustable screws that are in the sole of each driver.

The standard Black Ops comes with a 12.5-gram weight in the back-center port and 2.5-gram weights in the heel and toe ports. In that configuration, the club’s stability and moment of inertia are maximized and it should produce more spin and create a higher launch as well. Positioning the heavier weight in the heel will create a draw bias, while adding it to the toe will encourage a fade.

The Black Ops Tour-1 also has three ports and the same three weights, but the heel and toe ports are located in the forward-center area of the sole instead of the perimeter. The Tour-1 will produce a lower flight and less spin in every configuration, and golfers can still create a draw or a fade bias.

The standard Black Ops will be available in 8, 9, 10.5 and 12 degrees of loft, and it looks larger in the address position. It produces a higher ball flight with more spin than the Black Ops Tour-1, and with its three weights in the extreme perimeter of the head, golfers can shift the center of gravity more in the standard head, too.

The Black Ops Tour-1 – available in 8, 9 and 10.5 degrees – has a classic teardrop shape and deep face intended to make it more appealing to fast-swinging, accomplished golfers who want a low-spin driver. The Tour-1 has a center of gravity closer to the face than the standard Black Ops, which helps it produce less spin and a lower launch angle.

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Here are several images of the PXG Black Ops drivers:

Gear: Cleveland Launcher XL 2, Launcher XL 2 Draw drivers
Price: $449.99 with Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue or Aldila Ascent PL shaft and Lamkin Crossline 360 grip
Specs: Titanium face and body with adjustable hosel. Lofts: 9, 105. and 12 degrees
Available: Jan. 19, but available NOW via pre-sale

Who It’s For: Recreational golfers who want to maximize forgiveness and forgiveness.

The Skinny: The Cleveland Launcher XL 2 drivers were made with faces and a weight system designed to counteract many recreational golfers’ most common problems and to help them hit more fairways.

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The Deep Dive: Cleveland’s newest generation of Launcher drivers will not be spotted on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour or the LPGA. Srixon, Cleveland’s sister brand under the Dunlop Sports umbrella, offers plenty of driver options for elite players, so Cleveland designers are free to focus on woods that will specifically help recreational golfers and weekend players. As a result, different aspects of performance are emphasized when they sit at the virtual drawing boards, and in the Launcher XL 2 family, that means extra forgiveness.

Cleveland has invested in computing power and it helped designers engineer the hitting area of the Launcher XL 2 drivers. The system developed new variable thickness titanium faces that deliver better ball speed protection on mis-hit drives, which should be especially helpful in a driver designed for weekend players and recreational golfers, not tour pros.

Cleveland Launcher XL 2 driver — The MainFrame XL faces are designed with the help of supercomputers. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The MainFrame XL faces are complemented by the addition of second-generation Rebound Frame, a technology that debuted in 2020 in Srixon’s ZX driver family. Cleveland designers made a more-flexible area behind the stiff area behind the leading edge, where the face meets the chassis. Behind the flexible area, the body of the club gets stiff again. This system acts like a spring at impact, allowing the entire face to flex back before rebounding forward. The resulting trampoline effect helps the Launcher XL 2 drivers generate more ball speed over an even larger area.

In addition to using computer simulations to design the hitting areas, Cleveland harnessed computing power to test thousands of different internal weight pads. After identifying the most common mis-hit locations for recreational golfers, Cleveland instructed the system to study how changes in weight distribution could improve performance. This exercise allowed designers to fine-tune the spin and launch characteristics and suit how weekend players, not tour pros, tend to hit their drives.

Cleveland added a network of internal ribs to improve the acoustics of the head and make the sound of impact more pleasing.

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The Launcher XL 2 drivers come standard with an 8-gram weight inside the top portion of the shaft. It acts as a counterbalance and should make the clubs feel easier to swing, especially on the takeaway.

The Launcher XL 2 drivers look big and reassuring in the address position. Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Koepka will not play these drivers, so Cleveland engineers could make the clubs larger from front to back and appear easier to hit.

There are two versions of the Launcher XL 2, a standard model and a Draw version. While the standard XL 2 has a slight draw bias, the Draw model has a face that appears more-closed in the address position, which should help to provide more slice-fitting assistance. The Draw version also produces more spin and a higher ball flight, with a more considerable draw bias.

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Below are several close-up images of the Launcher XL 2 and Launcher XL 2 Draw drivers.