The Mizuno ST-Max 230 is a high-MOI, ultra-stable driver.
Gear: Mizuno ST-Max 230 driver Price: $500 with Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green RDX, Mitsubishi Lai’ Li Blue or UST Mamiya Helium NanoCore 4F1 shaft and Lamkin ST Hybrid grip Specs: 460-cc head with a forged titanium face and chassis, carbon fiber crown and sole panels, and adjustable hosel. 9.5, 10.5 and 12-degree head options.
Who It’s For: Golfers who prioritize forgiveness and who want to hit straighter drives.
The Skinny: The new ST-Max 230 takes the weight saved by using a large carbon fiber crown and sole panel and redistributes it to the back of the head to boost the forgiveness and make the club Mizuno’s most stable driver.
The Deep Dive: Just as you can tell a lot about a man by the quality of his shoes and belts, you can tell a lot about a driver by observing where designers and engineers position weight in the head. Mizuno’s ST-G driver has more weight concentrated in the front, which helps it reduce spin and put an emphasis on ball speed. The Japanese company’s newest driver, the ST-Max, utilizes an entirely different design, materials and weighting concept, and the result, according to Mizuno, is its most stable and forgiving driver.
In the address position, the ST-Max 230 looks large, but clean with a glossy black tone covering the carbon fiber. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
In the address position, the ST-Max looks bigger and wider than the other ST drivers, even though its 460-cc size gives it the same volume as the ST-Z and ST-X drivers. It has a lower profile but is larger from heel to toe and from front to back, and when it comes to stability, bigger is better.
The key to increasing the moment of inertia (MOI) and making a club less likely to twist on off-center hits is to position more weight in the back of the head. To do that in the 460-cc ST-Max, Mizuno designed the club with a massive carbon fiber crown and increased the size of the carbon fiber sole panel. Replacing titanium with carbon fiber reduces weight, and that saved weight was put back in the head by adding a 54-gram weight to the very back of the head. Having that much mass concentrated in the rear of the club keeps it moving forward and wobbling less on mis-hits, which should result in straighter drives.
The ST-Max 230 has a forged face made from Beta Rich Ti LFS titanium. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
To increase ball speed, Mizuno opted to use the same Beta Rich Ti LFS titanium in the face that debuted in the ST-G driver. It is lighter and has a higher tensile strength, so the multi-thickness face can flex more efficiently while maintaining durability.
Mizuno also increased the size of the CorTech Chamber, which is behind the leading edge in the sole. Mizuno has used this technology in recent drivers, and it involves creating a slot in the sole and then filling it with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to keep water and debris from getting inside the head. Inside the TPU, Mizuno adds a stainless steel bar, so while the soft TPU material allows the lower portion of the face to flex more efficiently on low-struck shots, the bar helps the head maintain momentum. The TPU material also soaks up excessive vibrations and enhances sound, so drives feel and sound better.
Below are several close-up photos of the Mizuno ST-Max driver.
Check out these 7 new golf equipment products at Golf Galaxy.
Once the calendar flipped to 2024, brands across golf began to release their newest gear. Whether it was drivers, irons sets, wedges, balls or something in between, it seemed like every equipment manufacturer had new offerings.
Well, thanks to our friends at Golf Galaxy, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite recent releases including drivers, irons and golf balls.
Some of the brands on the list below include Callaway, Cobra, Ping and more.
Most of the equipment below can be found on David Dusek’s best golf equipment lists for 2024 including best drivers, best irons, best golf balls and more.
Check out the best golf sales in the month of March, including equipment, golf balls, apparel and more.
Warmer weather is right around the corner, which means golf courses and driving ranges around the country will soon be full of golfers hoping that 2024 will be their best year on the course yet.
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.
[afflinkbutton text=”Shop PXG Black Ops drivers” link=”https://www.jdoqocy.com/click-100287807-15629782?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pxg.com%2Fen-us%2Fgolf-clubs%2Fdrivers%2Fblack-ops-0311-driver%2FDR-PXG23.html”]
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 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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A larger carbon fiber crown reduces weight on the top of the head. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
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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[afflinkbutton text=”Shop PXG Black Ops Tour 1 driver” link=”https://www.kqzyfj.com/click-100287807-15629782?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pxg.com%2Fen-us%2Fgolf-clubs%2Fdrivers%2Fblack-ops-0311-tour-1-driver%2FDR-PXG24.html”]
Here are several images of the PXG Black Ops drivers:
Studying thousands of shots from real golfers helped Callaway design the Paradym Ai Smoke drivers
Gear: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max, Paradym Ai Smoke Max D, Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond, Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast drivers Price:$599.99 with Project X Cypher 2.0 shaft, Project X Denali Black shaft or Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grip Specs: Forged titanium face and chassis with carbon fiber crown, carbon fiber sole and adjustable hosels for most of the models Available: Feb. 2, but available via pre-order NOW
Who They’re For: Golfers who want more ball speed and forgiveness on mis-hit drives.
The Skinny: After studying hundreds of thousands of shots, Callaway designers used artificial intelligence to create different faces for each of the four Paradym Ai Smoke drivers so they are optimized to enhance distance and protect ball speed.
The Deep Dive: Callaway purchased its first supercomputer in 2009, back when A.I. stood for Allen Iverson and no one had ever heard of ChatGPT. By 2016, engineers were using it to study impact dynamics, develop prototype iron faces and more. In 2019 the Epic Flash driver was released with a hitting area designed using artificial intelligence. More woods and irons followed, but there was a shortcoming with the data used by the computers in developing those clubs: It was collected with the help of swing robots, and robots don’t play golf.
So Callaway captured swing data on more than 250,000 real players’ swings and collected over a million data points to create a dataset the supercomputers could use to develop the Paradym Ai Smoke Max, Ai Smoke Max D, Ai Smoke Triple Diamond and Ai Smoke Max Fast drivers.
By instructing the supercomputers to study how real golfers of various abilities swing and hit the ball, then directing the system to create faces that maximize performance for fast-swinging players, golfers who tend to slice the ball, slower-swinging players and golfers who need extra forgiveness, Callaway developed different faces that are optimized for various players in the four Paradym Ai Smoke drivers.
[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/DKdZP5″]
Each has a unique series of thick and thin areas in different places, creating what Callaway refers to as microdeflections, and they act like tiny sweet spots. The result is enhanced face performance for specific players.
Callaway said that thanks to the microdeflections and customized faces, the standard Paradym Ai Smoke Max is 12 yards longer on mishits in the toe, 11 yards longer in the heel and 9 yards longer on shots hit high in the middle of the face over last season’s Paradym.
Like last season’s Paradym drivers, the Paradym Ai Smoke drivers feature a forged fiber crown that wraps around the toe and heel areas and forms the sole, removing significant weight from the middle of the head. Most of the models also come with adjustable hosels that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by as many as 1.5 degrees and make the lie angle flatter or more upright.
The Paradym Ai Smoke Max likely will fit the broadest number of players and is the only Smoke driver with a sliding weight in the back of the head. The 14-gram weight allows golfers and fitters to shift the center of gravity to create a draw or fade bias. The Smoke Max also has a weight behind the leading edge in the sole, allowing fitters to increase or decrease the club’s swing weight. It is available in 9-degree, 10.5-degree and 12-degree versions.
The Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond has a forward weight and a back weight in the sole and comes in 8-degree, 9-degree and 10.5-degree heads. With the heavier weight forward, it has the most forward center of gravity in the A.I. Smoke family, resulting in shots with the lowest spin and launch angle. This likely will be the most popular Paradym A.I. Smoke driver on the PGA Tour.
Finally, the Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast, which replaces the Paradym Star driver, only comes in 10.5-degree and 12-degree versions. It has been made for slower-swinging golfers who need to maximize carry distance and spin to increase overall distance. It comes standard with lighter components, such as a 40-gram Mitsubishi Tensei Silver shaft and Winn Dri-Tac Lite grip. To save weight from the upper portion of the head, Callaway opted to design the Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast driver with a bonded hosel instead of an adjustable hosel.
[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/rQNqZj”]
[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max D driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/zNm5L0″]
[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/R5dNvX”]
[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/NkyvOq”]
Check out the following images of the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers.
On Wednesday morning, the USGA and R&A announced a game-wide golf ball rollback. Meaning this change won’t only affect golf’s best players, but every amateur in the world.
“The longest players, which means those generating ball speeds of 183 mph or higher, are going to lose 13 to 15 yards [with their driver],” Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s chief governance officer, said. “The average PGA Tour player and elite male, like a college player, would lose closer to 9 or 11 yards. LPGA players, given their clubhead speed, were looking at 5 to 7 yards. And recreational golfers, we’re talking about 5 yards or less.”
Recreational golfers will not have to worry about this change until 2030.
Among all the changes mentioned about the ball in the USGA and R&A’s release, this section concerning the driver is worth keeping an eye on.
Continue to monitor drivers and explore possible additional options related to distance. Specifically, we will research the forgiveness of drivers and how they perform with off-center hits.
This is an ongoing review and we will seek input from and continue to work with the industry, including manufacturers, to identify driver design features that can be regulated as a means to reward center impact position hits versus mis-hits.
Thanks to technological advances over the past decade, drivers have become increasingly more forgiving. For example, TaylorMade introduced “Twist Face Technology” in 2018, a design feature meant to help accuracy with off-centered strikes.
This change wouldn’t just help the game’s distance problem but would reward players who are able to hit the center of the face on a more consistent basis.
If you’re interested in reading the USGA and R&A’s full statement, find it below:
Here’s what we know about the latest drivers from Cobra, Ping, PXG and TaylorMade.
The holiday season is almost upon us, and while that means getting ready for Thanksgiving, starting your holiday shopping, and preparing for the bombardment of Black Friday and Cyber Monday ads to hit your email box, it also means golf equipment companies are quietly making next season’s gear available to pros.
On Monday, the United States Golf Association added new drivers to its List of Conforming Driver Heads. That means the USGA has tested the heads to ensure they meet equipment standards and comply with the Rules of Golf. Once added to the list, a driver head can be used by anyone in a competitive round or official event like this week’s PGA Tour event, the RSM Classic, or the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
We don’t have official information on the drivers that were added to the conforming driver list this week, but from the images and notes published by the USGA, there are a few things we can learn.
With Thanksgiving just over a week away, many of golf’s elite players are looking forward to a break from competition and a chance to try some new gear that will be hitting store shelves next year.
PXG released the GEN6 family of drivers eight months ago, but it appears we got a sneak peek at the drivers PXG staffers like Zach Johnson, Joel Dahmen, and Celine Boutier may put into play in 2024. On Monday, the USGA added three new PXG drivers to its List of Conforming Driver Heads, making all of them legal for play in official rounds and in tournaments like this week’s PGA Tour event, the RSM Classic, along with LPGA and DP World Tour events.
PXG has not announced any details about the yet-to-be-released PXG 0311 Black Ops, PXG 0311 Black Ops Tour-1 and PXG 0311 Black Ops Tour-3 drivers, but based on the company’s history, along with notes and images released by the USGA, there are a few things we can infer about them already.
Lofts: According to the USGA’s notes, the PXG 0311 Black Ops driver will be available in 8-, 9-, 10.5- and 12-degree versions. That means the USGA has tested all four of those heads and found they conform to the Rules of Golf. The PXG 0311 Black Ops Tour-1 will be available in 8-, 9- and 10.5-degree models and the 0311 Black Ops Tour-3 will come in 8- and 9-degree heads.
PXG 0311 Black Ops driver. (USGA)
Shaping: In the past, PXG’s drivers have been smooth on the sole and aerodynamically shaped, but the sole geometry of all three 0311 Black Ops drivers is very different. All three clubs have raised heel and toe areas that flank a center keel section that gradually goes from wide in the center of the sole to narrow at the back of the head. The standard 0311 Black Ops also appears to be larger, from front to back, than the Tour-1 and Tour-3.
Moveable weights: In the USGA photos, the PXG 0311 Black Ops has three adjustable weights, with two in the extreme heel and toe area and a third designed into the sole portion of the keel in the back. The PXG 0311 GEN6 XF that was released in early 2023 also had three moveable weights set up in this configuration to boost its stability and increase the moment of inertia (MOI). The 0311 Black Ops Tour-1 has a weight in the forward-heel and forward-toe areas of the sole that could shift the center of gravity forward to lower spin and create a lower launch angle. Finally, the 0311 Black Ops Tour-3 appears to have the same weighting as the 0311 Black Ops Tour-1, with two forward weights in the sole.
PXG 0311 Black Ops Tour-1 driver. (USGA)
Carbon fiber: The USGA images do not show the top of the 0311 Black Ops drivers, but PXG has used carbon fiber in the crowns of its drivers for several generations. It would be very surprising if the three 0311 Black Ops drivers were not designed with carbon fiber on the top of each head.
PXG 0311 Black Ops Tour-3 driver. (USGA)
Release date: Historically, PXG has released drivers in February or March, after most manufacturers have dropped their drivers. The GEN6 drivers dropped on March 21. So, based on history, that makes this addition to the conforming list feel early for PXG. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company has never had a booth or been a vendor at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida, so having new equipment to show off at that event in mid-January has never been a consideration. However, this might be the start of an earlier release cycle for PXG. Don’t be surprised if the 0311 Black Ops drivers are released to the public in January.
Last season, Rickie Fowler used a Cobra AeroJet LS driver and nearly won the U.S. Open, then broke through and won the Rocket Mortgage Classic, which helped him earn a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. On Monday, we may have been given our first look at Fowler’s next driver because the Cobra Darkspeed Max, Darkspeed X and Darkspeed LS were added to the USGA’s List of Conforming Driver Heads.
Adding a driver to the conforming list makes it legal for play in official tournaments like this week’s PGA Tour event, the RSM Classic, as well as DP World Tour and LPGA events.
While Cobra has not released any official announcement about the Darkspeed drivers, using history as a guide, along with the USGA photos and descriptions, there are few things we can learn about them.
Lofts: In the past, Cobra has released a standard version of its driver, along with a low-spin model and a high-stability or slice-fighting version. We can see in the USGA notes that the Darkspeed LS comes in an 8-, 9- and 10.5-degree version, while the Darkspeed Max and Darkspeed X will be available as a 9-, 10.5- and 12-degree club. Based on that, we can assume that the LS is a low-spin club for faster-swinging golfers while the Max and the X are likely going to be for recreational golfers.
Cobra Darkspeed X driver (USGA)
Carbon fiber: Cobra has used carbon fiber on the sole of drivers in the past, and in images of the Darkspeed drivers we can see what appears to be carbon fiber on the sole as well. The USGA images do not show the top of the club, but Cobra has used carbon fiber in the crown of its drivers for years, so we can assume the Darkspeed drivers will have that too.
Cobra Darkspeed LS driver. (USGA)
Moveable weights: For several seasons, Cobra drivers have featured moveable weights to allow players and fitters to create a draw or fade bias, and in some cases increase or decrease the spin and launch angle. The Darkspeed Max has a weight port in the heel and the back areas that can hold a 12-gram and a 3-gram weight. The Darkspeed X has weight ports in the back and center of the sole while also holding a 12-gram and a 3-gram weight. The Darkspeed LS, however, has three weight ports, two in the front and one in the back, and appears to come with a pair of 3-gram weights and a 12-gram weight.
PWR Shell: The words “PWR Shell” appear on the sole of all three Darkspeed drivers. PWR Shell is a face technology Cobra has used in the past. Instead of being flat, the PWR Shell face in last season’s AeroJet drivers wrapped under the leading edge, forming an L shape, which Cobra claimed helps to enlarge the sweet spot and improve performance on low-struck shots.
Cobra Darkspeed Max driver. (USGA)
PWR Bridge: In images, we can see “PWR Bridge” on the sole of all three drivers. This is another technology found in last season’s AeroJet drivers. The PWR Bridge is an internal piece of metal that extends from the heel to toe that drives the center of gravity (CG) downward.
Release date: Traditionally, Cobra releases its new product lines in early January, either in the days leading up to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida, or at the show itself. We don’t have word on when the Darkspeed drivers will come out, but that time period would make sense.
