Tag: Srixon drivers

Best golf drivers in 2024: New drivers from Callaway, Cobra, Ping and more

Check out Golfweek’s list of the best drivers available to purchase in 2024.

Everyone wants to hit the ball farther, so distance is always going to be important when it comes to new drivers, but if there is a buzzword or concept that is going to dominate the scene in 2024, it’s moment of inertia or MOI.

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In golf equipment – and specifically, drivers – the higher a club’s MOI, the more it will resist twisting on off-center hits, so shots hit toward the toe or the heel will fly straighter and farther.

The USGA and R&A cap the heel-to-toe MOI in drivers at 5,900 g/cm2, but several major golf equipment makers are offering their highest MOI drivers ever in 2024, including Ping and TaylorMade, which are both now featuring a driver than as a combined MOI (heel-to-toe plus sole-to-crown) over 10,000 g/cm2, which should make the Ping G430 Max 10K and the TaylorMade Qi10 Max the most stable and forgiving drivers those brands have ever made.

These gains in driver stability are now possible because more companies are using weight-saving materials like carbon fiber in drivers, which allows engineers to redistribute mass into performance-enhancing locations. Several driver makers are also offering multiple models in 2024, with each driver being ideally suited to golfers who are looking for different specific traits. For instance, Callaway is offering four different Paradym Ai Smoke drivers including the high-MOI Max, the low-spin LS, the Max D for slicers and the Max Fast for slower-swinging players. Ping offers four G430 drivers and Titleist has TSR drivers available too, while Cobra, Mizuno, Srixon and TaylorMade each have three different options.

The key to finding the driver that best suits your game and your budget is to work with a custom fitter and hit several different clubs using a launch monitor so you can accurately compare things like ball speed, spin rate, launch angle and carry distance. Good fitters can help you find the ideal shaft, tweak the lie angle and the loft of your driver and explain why one model might be a better option for you than another.

Pro tip: During a driver fitting, be sure to wear your golf shoes and test clubs using the golf ball that you use when you play so you can get information that will translate more accurately to the course.

Below are many of the most popular drivers that you are likely to see in pro shops and golf specialty stores this season, along with a brief description of each club and a link to Golfweek’s fuller review. Use this as a jumping-off point to educate yourself about the new drives for 2024 before you go for a fitting.

Most popular drivers in 2024:

New for 2023: Srixon ZX5 Mk II, ZX5 LS Mk II, ZX7 Mk II drivers

Srixon ZX5 Mk II, ZX5 LS Mk II and ZX7 Mk II drivers each have a uniquely designed chassis that boosts speed and distance.

Gear: Srixon ZX5 Mk II, ZX5 LS Mk II, ZX7 Mk II drivers
Price: $499.99 with Project X HZRDUS Black GEN4 shaft or HZRDUS Smoke Red RDX shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grip.
Specs: 460-cubic-centimeter head, carbon fiber crown, titanium chassis and face, moveable weights and adjustable hosel.
Available: Jan. 20

Who They’re For: Golfers looking for more ball speed and a more forgiving hitting area.

The Skinny: Srixon ZX5 Mk II, ZX5 LS Mk II and ZX7 Mk II drivers each have a uniquely designed chassis that allows a more significant portion of the hitting area to flex at impact for increased ball speed and distance. The ZX5 Mk II has extra stability, the ZX5 LS Mk II is a low-spin option and the ZX7 Mk II has greater shot-shaping potential. 

The Deep Dive: When you hit a drive, the club’s face flexes before snapping back into place. The greater this trampoline-like effect, the more ball speed is generated and the farther your shot should fly. However, the effect diminishes when you hit the ball outside the center, so your mis-hits won’t go as far as well-struck shots and tend to curve farther offline.

For several years, Srixon has delivered the maximum trampoline-like effect allowable by USGA and R&A rules. And thanks to uniquely designed clubheads, the new ZX5 Mk II, ZX5 LS Mk II and ZX7 Mk II drivers can now do a better job of providing ball speed on off-center hits, too.

Srixon ZX7 Mk II
Each Srixon ZX7 Mk II driver has Rebound Frame. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The key is a design feature called Rebound Frame. Like other drivers, the seam and area surrounding the face is rigid, but behind that is a ring of more-flexible titanium. Srixon said when a shot is hit, the face flexes as it would for other drivers, plus the Rebound Frame chassis creates a second flexible zone that allows the whole hitting area to shift back and snap forward. The result is increased ball speed over a more significant portion of the face. Golfers not only achieve solid results on center-struck shots, their mis-hit shots will not lose as much ball speed.

Srixon ZX7 Mk II
The Srixon ZX7 Mk II driver has a clean look at address and a matte-black crown. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The ZX5 Mk II, ZX5 LS Mk II and ZX7 Mk II drivers were designed with Rebound Frame and an adjustable hosel that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the club’s loft by 1 degree and open or close the face angle by as many as 2 degrees. They also have a series of beams under the carbon fiber crown that crisscross, forming a star shape that stiffens the body of the club.

While the ZX5 Mk II, ZX5 LS Mk II and ZX7 Mk II drivers are all 460 cubic centimeters in volume and share those already-mentioned technologies, they were designed for very different players with adjustable sole weights located in various areas on the bottom of the club to produce different ball flights.

Srixon ZX5 Mk II
The Srixon ZX5 Mk II has a weight in the back to increase stability. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The ZX5 Mk II was designed to be the most forgiving and may appeal to the largest number of players. It has a triangular 8-gram weight in the back of the head that pulls the center of gravity down and back, which boosts stability and encourages a higher-flying shot.

Srixon ZX7 Mk II
The Srixon ZX7 Mk II has weights in the heel and toe that can be adjusted. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The ZX7 Mk II comes standard with 4-gram and 8-gram weights that go into ports in the toe and heel. When the 8-gram weight is in the heel port, the club has a draw bias, while putting it in the toe port encourages a fade. Srixon said the left and right adjustability is as much as 20 yards.

Srixon ZX5 LS Mk II
The Srixon ZX5 LS Mk II has a forward-positioned weight to lower spin. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Finally, for golfers who tend to create excessive spin, Srixon offers the ZX5 LS Mk II. It has the same general shape as the ZX5 Mk II, but instead of having a weight in the back, it is positioned in front behind the leading edge. This pushes the center of gravity down and forward to reduce spin. It produces shots that fly lower than the ZX5 Mk II but slightly higher than the ZX7 Mk II, but with less spin.

Srixon’s yet-to-be-released ZX5 MKII, ZX7 MKII drivers hit USGA Conforming list

Several new drivers from Srixon were added to the Conforming Driver Head list.

With the PGA Tour’s new 2022-23 season set to start on Thursday, several manufacturers are starting to seed yet-to-be-released equipment. That can mean sending clubs to players’ houses so they can start practicing with it at home and bringing it to PGA Tour events for the first time so golfers can ask questions and go through a fitting process under the watchful eyes of company reps and expert shaft technicians.

However, before any of that new gear can be used in official competitions in the United States, it has to be submitted to the United States Golf Association (USGA) and tested to ensure it conforms to equipment standards and rules. If a club does, it is added to the appropriate area on Conforming Club and Ball list. If a piece of equipment fails to conform, the USGA discretely lets the company know about the problem so it can be resolved and re-submitted.

This week, several new drivers from Srixon were added to the Conforming Driver Head list, and they appear to be follow-ups to the company’s ZX5 and ZX7 drivers. While Srixon has not released any official details about the clubs, as you can see in the photos below, there appear to be standard versions of the ZX5 MK II and ZX7 MK II, along with LS versions (which is likely a low-spin option) and some other versions that are designated with numbers and could be tour-only models.

The ZX5 MK II appears to have a large weight in the back that might pull the center of gravity (CG) location down and back, which would boost the moment of inertia (MOI) and increase stability. It would also encourage a higher launch angle and more spin, which for moderate and slower-swinging players would boost carry distance and overall distance. We can also see the words “Rebound Frame” on the toe, which likely refers to the sweet spot -enlarging and ball-speed technology that Srixon designed into last season’s ZX5.

The ZX7 MK II appears to have weights in the heel and toe, and if they are moveable, that could allow players and fitters to create a draw or fade bias. The head appears to be slightly shorter from the face to the back than the ZX5 MK II, so this club might be aimed at better players, as well as golfers who want to tweak their shot shape off the tee.

As more details about the ZX5 MK II and ZX7 MK II are released, Golfweek will report them.

Srixon ZX5, ZX7 drivers

The Srixon ZX5 and ZX7 drivers feature a carbon fiber crown, adjustable hosel and new distance-enhancing technologies.

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Gear: Srixon ZX5, ZX7 drivers
Price: $499.99 for ZX5, $529.99 for ZX7, with Project X HZRDUS EvenFlow Riptide shaft or HZRDUS Smoke Black graphite shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grip
Specs: Titanium face and chassis with carbon-fiber crown, adjustable weights and adjustable hosel
Available: Jan. 15

Golfers try a lot of things to increase distance off the tee. They try to make their shoulders, hips and legs stronger, do exercises to enhance flexibility and take lessons to improve technique. All of those are important, but as the designers at Srixon point out, efficiently transferring energy created during the swing to the ball is critical. To help golfers do it better, the designers developed a technology for the ZX5 and ZX7 drivers.

The new feature is called Rebound Frame. It is a multi-part system that involves the hitting area, the topline, the forward portion of the crown and internal structures.

Srixon ZX5 driver face
Srixon ZX5 driver face (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Srixon said its Ti51AF titanium alloy allows the clubface to flex easily at impact, as with many drivers. However, a more rigid zone was designed around the perimeter and in the topline, where the hitting area meets the top. Immediately behind that in the crown is another flexible area. Finally, Srixon added stiff rib structures inside the head. These alternating areas of flexibility and stiffness allow a more significant portion of the hitting area to flex at impact and more of the energy a golfer produces to be directed into the ball instead of lost in the deformation of the head.

The ZX5 and the ZX7, which are both 460 cubic centimeters in volume, feature Rebound Frame and have an extremely light carbon-fiber crown. They also come standard with an adjustable hosel mechanism that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the club’s stated loft. The lie angle and face angle can be changed, too.

Srixon ZX5 driver
Srixon ZX5 driver. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Using carbon fiber in the crown helps lower the center of gravity and create discretionary weight. In the ZX5, which is larger from face to back, much of that weight is concentrated in the head’s back in the form of an 8-gram weight. It helps create a higher moment of inertia, so the ZX5 should be more stable on off-center hits and produce a higher launch.

Srixon ZX7 driver
Srixon ZX7 driver. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

In the ZX7, which has a more traditional pear shape, there are ports to house an 8-gram and a 4-gram weight in the heel and toe areas. Putting the heavier weight in the toe should encourage a fade; affixing the heavy weight in the heel should help golfers reduce the severity of a slice or hit a draw.

Working with a custom fitter, golfers can have other weights installed in either the ZX5 or ZX7 based on the swing weight they prefer.