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.
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 dropped new models in early 2024, with each driver being ideally suited to golfers who are looking for different specific traits. For instance, Callaway released 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.
More drivers have come to the market since the first wave dropped in earlier this season, including the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max and the Mizuno ST-Max 230.
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.
Below are many of the most popular drivers that you are likely to see in pro shops and golf specialty stores right now.
The TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper is designed to deliver driver-like distance with fairway wood control.
Gear: TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper Price:$449.99 with UST Mamiya ProForce 65 shaft and Golf Pride TaylorMade Victory Copper grip Specs: Titanium face and chassis with carbon fiber crown, adjustable sole weights and adjustable hosel. 11.5 and 13.5-degree models
Who It’s For: Fast-swinging golfers who want an alternative to their driver off the tee but who want more forgiveness and distance than most 3-woods provide.
The Skinny: Smaller than a driver, yet much larger than a typical 3-wood, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper combines exotic materials and driver-like technologies to create a powerful alternative off the tee for elite players.
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The Deep Dive: Aside from the possible exception of a driving iron, no club in golf is more macho than a mini driver. Carrying one says to the world that there are times on the course when your driver goes too far, and, you are skilled enough to get the ball airborne with a fairway wood that has driver-like loft.
TaylorMade has quietly made mini drivers available for a few seasons. The Original One Mini debuted in 2019, and in 2021, the 300 Mini driver was released. Last year, TaylorMade offered the BRNR Mini, and a few pros, including Tommy Fleetwood, have put it in play frequently. Now, on the eve of the 2024 Masters, TaylorMade is dropping the BRNR Mini Driver Copper, a club that is virtually identical to the 2023 BRNR Mini but cosmetically pays homage to the late ’90s Burner woods.
The BRNR Mini Driver Copper’s head size is 304cc, which is 34 percent smaller than most drivers on the market today, like the 460cc TaylorMade Qi10 Max. However, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper dwarfs 3-woods like the Qi10 Max (200cc) and Qi10 Tour (170cc). The BRNR Mini Driver Copper also comes standard at 43.75 inches in length, which is a half-inch longer than those 3-woods but 2 inches shorter than a stock Qi10 LS driver and 1.75 inches shorter than a standard Qi10 Max driver.
With specifications like that, and being available only in 11.5 and 13.5-degree lofts, some golfers will call the BRNR Mini Driver Copper a 2-wood instead of a mini driver. Regardless of what you call it, the club is designed to excel off the tee as alternative to a driver.
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The BRNR Mini Driver Copper has a titanium face and body along with a carbon fiber crown. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The BRNR Mini Driver Copper has a titanium face and body, along with a carbon fiber crown, to create a significant amount of discretionary weight, which engineers re-purposed in the form of two sole weights. With the 13-gram weight in the front and 1.5-gram weight in the back, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper produces more ball speed, less spin and a lower launch angle. However, with the 13-gram weight in the back port and the lighter weight in the front, golfers should see an increase in both spin and launch angle, along with more stability.
The BRNR Mini Driver Copper also has Twist Face, a shot-straightening technology that debuted in 2018’s M3 and M4 drivers, and it has a Speed Pocket slot in the sole to allow the lower portion of the hitting area to flex more efficiently on low-struck shots.
If players decide to play the BRNR Mini Copper off the deck, its K-shaped sole is designed to allow the bottom of the club to skim across and over the turf more effectively. But be warned: With a deep face and large size, this club was designed to be used primarily off the tee. Fast-swinging, skilled players will be able to create enough lift to get shots up in the air, but slower-swinging players might struggle to generate enough spin to maximize carry distance.
To fine-tune the spin and trajectory, the BRNR Mini Copper comes with an adjustable hosel that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by up to 2 degrees.
Even with all those modern features and technologies, the copper accents and the font used to spell the word TaylorMade on the sole will immediately be recognizable to golfers who remember using Burner drivers and fairway woods in the 1990s. And, if you recall that turning the head cover of last season’s BRNR Mini driver inside-out revealed a fuzzy rainbow design that some players opted to use, you will be pleased to know that turning the BRNR Mini Copper’s headcover inside out reveals a fuzzy blue-patterned option you can go with.
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TaylorMade Qi10, Qi10 Max, Qi10 LS drivers deliver more forgiveness, distance and accuracy.
Gear: TaylorMade Qi10, Qi10 Max, Qi10 LS drivers Price: $599 each for Qi10 and Qi 10 Max with Fujikura Speeder NX TCS shaft, Fujikura Ventus Blue TR shaft or Mitsubishi Tensei AV Limited Blue shaft and Golf Pride Z-Grip grip. $629 for the Qi10 LS with the same shaft options. Specs: 60-layer carbon fiber face, carbon fiber crown and sole with Speed Pocket slot, adjustable hosel and moveable weight (Qi10 LS). Available: Feb. 2, but available for pre-sale NOW
Who They’re For: Golfers who want to maximize forgiveness without sacrificing distance (Qi10, Qi10 Max), or players who need a low-spin driver that also delivers shot-shaping and adjustability (Qi10 LS).
The Skinny: By making the carbon fiber crown in the Qi10 drivers larger and shifting weight to optimal positions, TaylorMade added company-best forgiveness to its newest driver family while helping golfers gain ball speed and accuracy.
The Deep Dive: For decades, golf equipment makers have tried to balance a paradox about drivers. The traits that often produce more ball speed and distance can diminish stability, but increasing a club’s moment of inertia and making it more resistant to twisting on off-center hits can come at the price of ball speed. In other words, getting more of one typically means giving up some of the other.
In the Qi10 driver family, specifically the Qi10 Max driver, TaylorMade set out to change that, bringing more forgiveness and a higher moment of inertia to drivers while also delivering more ball speed.
Designers did three things: Used more lightweight materials, reshaped the head and put weight in places where it does the most benefit.
They started by increasing the amount of carbon fiber on the top of the club. It had covered 79 of the top in the company’s recent Stealth 2 model, but in the Qi10 Max the carbon fiber is up to 97 percent thanks to a design called Infinity Crown that nearly eliminates the ledge the carbon fiber rests on.
The carbon fiber Infinity Crown weighs less than previous TaylorMade crowns. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The crown now weighs only 15 grams and attaches to a 16-gram carbon composite ring in the back of the head. That part also holds a nine-layer, 21-gram carbon fiber sole plate along with a 71-gram titanium front piece that encircles the face and attaches to the hosel.
Those ultra-light materials allowed TaylorMade to make the Qi10 Max driver bigger than the Stealth 2 Max from front to back. It’s noticeable when you sole the driver behind the ball. The longer head creates more areas where mass can be positioned – specifically, a 32-gram weight in the back of the sole and internal mass pads behind the face.
In terms of stability, the result is the Qi10 Max is the first TaylorMade driver to have a combined moment of inertia of 10,000 g-cm2. That’s what the Qi10 name stands for: Quest for Inertia 10,000.
There are three different Qi10 drivers, and each shares several technologies.
The TaylorMade Qi10 Max’s face is designed using 60 layers of carbon fiber. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The face of the three Qi10 drivers is designed using 60 layers of carbon fiber, which is then covered by polyurethane. While the hitting area does not have “Twist Face” printed on it, the company’s technology has been designed into the hitting area, so the high-toe and low-heel areas peel back more to help golfers hit straighter shots. The faces also were designed with an off-center Inverted Cone on the inner-facing side, so they are slightly thicker in the high-middle area and thinner around the perimeter to maximize speed. All three Qi10 drivers also have a Speed Pocket designed into the sole.
In the Qi10 drivers, however, the face is now attached to a redesigned ledge and perimeter area, which TaylorMade said allows the off-center portions of the face to flex more, broadening the sweet spot and protecting ball speed on mis-hits. The redesigned face area is also more durable than the hitting area in the company’s previous Stealth and Stealth 2 drivers.
There is a TaylorMade chevron behind the topline. However, most golfers will benefit from using the white line added to the top of the hitting area as they address the ball. It’s a feature that initially debuted in the Stealth 2 fairway woods and that TaylorMade staffers loved.
All three Qi10 drivers have a 460-cubic-centimeter volume and have an adjustable hosel that lets players and fitters increase or decrease the loft and adjust the lie angle.
The Qi10 Max is available in 9-, 10.5- and 12-degree versions and is the most stable and the largest looking in the address position. It is also the easiest to square up on the downswing, so if you are a player who rarely hits the center of the face and struggles with an inconsistent, two-way miss, this likely will be the most-appealing option.
The standard Qi10 (9-, 10.5- and 12-degree options) looks slightly smaller at address than the Max version, and it produces less spin and a lower ball flight than the Qi10 Max. However, it has a higher moment of inertia than the Stealth 2 it replaces and should produce slightly less spin.
The heel area of the TaylorMade Qi10 LS driver’s sliding weight track is covered for better aerodynamics. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The Qi10 LS (8-, 9- and 10.5-degree options) is the lowest-spinning club in the family and the only one with an 18-gram sliding weight that can give the club a draw or a fade bias. The heel portion of the weight track is covered by the sole for better aerodynamics. The Qi10 LS spins less than the Stealth Plus+ or Stealth 2 Plus+.
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.
Two years ago TaylorMade released its first carbon fiber-faced driver, the original Stealth. Last season came the arrival of Stealth 2. This morning the club that appears to be the third carbonwood, the Qi10 LS, was added to the USGA’s List of Conforming Driver Heads, making it legal for use in tournaments such as this week’s PGA Tour event, the RSM Classic.
TaylorMade has not released any details about the club, but there are several things we can learn about it from the image on the USGA’s website.
Lofts: According to the USGA, the Qi10 LS comes in 8-, 9- and 10.5-degree versions. That means it has been tested in all three of those lofts, and each conforms to the Rules of Golf.
Carbon face: The USGA’s notes say the face is made from carbon fiber, which is not a surprise. TaylorMade told Golfweek two years ago it had no future plans to use titanium in driver faces. It is not clear whether the crown is made from carbon fiber, but TaylorMade has featured drivers with carbon fiber for several years, so it would be surprising if the Qi10 LS did not feature a carbon fiber crown.
TaylorMade Qi10 LS driver (USGA)
Sliding weight: In the photo, a sliding weight can clearly be seen in the front of the sole behind a Speed Pocket slot. The word “Fade” can be seen on the toe side of the weight, and “Draw” is on the heel side. Unscrewing the bolt in the center of weight would appear to allow players and fitters to slide the weight and shift the center of gravity to create a draw or fade bias.
Back weight: The USGA notes mention a weight port in the back of the sole. As more and more brands use carbon fiber in the crown and in the center of the sole, several drivers have featured weights in the front and back of the head.
More Qi10 drivers coming: The USGA notes mention that “Qi10 LS” is printed on the sole, and we can see it in the image, but “Qi10” is printed on the heel. In recent years LS has come to mean low spin, so it would not be surprising if a standard Qi10 and a Qi10 HD model were also made available at retail.
Release date: We don’t have an official retail release date for the Qi10 LS, but now pros can use it in PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LPGA events. Historically, TaylorMade has released its new drivers to the public in early January.
If your dad is an avid golfer, it’s hard to shop for a man that has everything a serious player needs or wants. But not to fear, Golfweek has made it easy to find something dad will love to add to his golf bag and use every time he heads out to the course.
From equipment to accessories, apparel and more, this list is all encompassing. While you may find an item or two that dad will love, check out our other lists for polos, shorts, shoes and more to help give dad the best Father’s Day ever!
Larger than any TaylorMade fairway wood but more compact than a driver, the BRNR Mini packs distance-enhancing technologies.
Gear: TaylorMade BRNR Mini driver Price:$449 with UST Mamiya ProForce 65 and SuperStroke S-Tech grip Specs: Titanium body and face with carbon fiber crown, moveable sole weights and adjustable hosel. 43.75 inches in length. Lofts of 11.5 or 13.5 degrees
Who It’s For: Accomplished golfers who want tighter dispersion on mis-hits and golfers who find they hit fairway woods more solidly than their driver.
The Skinny: Larger than any TaylorMade fairway wood but more compact than a driver, this club packs distance-enhancing technologies into a more-compact head for increased accuracy off the tee with minimal distance loss.
The Deep Dive: The allure of mini drivers has been the promise of driver-like distance with fairway wood-level accuracy. It sounds appealing, especially to fast-swinging players, because hitting tight fairways without sacrificing distance can help accomplished players attack challenging par 4s and stay in position on tough holes. Mini drivers have also been touted as a good option for players who tend to hit down with their driver and who, as a result, often strike their 3-wood more solidly than the driver.
TaylorMade developed the Original One Mini driver in 2019 for those players, and in 2021 the Carlsbad, California-based company followed up with the 300 Mini driver. Now the company is bringing out the BRNR Mini driver, a club that pays homage to the Ti Bubble 2 driver from the mid-1990s with its dark finish and copper accents.
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TaylorMade created a lighter face and improved the forgiveness in its flagship drivers for 2023.
Gear: TaylorMade Stealth 2, Stealth 2 Plus+, Stealth 2 HD drivers Price:$599 (Stealth 2, Stealth 2 HD) with Fujikura Ventus Red shaft or Mitsubishi Diamana S+ shaft and Golf Pride Z-Grip Plus 2 grips. $629 (Stealth 2 Plus+) with Mitsubishi Kai’li Red shaft or Project X HZRDUS Black GEN4 shaft. Specs: 60-layer carbon fiber face with carbon fiber crown, carbon fiber sole, moveable weight (Stealth 2 Plus+), adjustable hosel and slot in the sole. Lofts: 9, 10.5, 12 degrees for Stealth 2; 8, 9, 10.5 degrees for Stealth 2 Plus+; 9, 10.5, 12 degrees for Stealth 2 HD Available: Feb. 17, but available for pre-order now
Who They’re For: Golfers who want more forgiveness without sacrificing ball speed or distance.
The Skinny: By making the carbon fiber face even lighter and adding a carbon fiber sole, TaylorMade made the sweet spot in the three Stealth 2 drivers larger while significantly increasing the moment of inertia for enhanced stability.
The Deep Dive: The TaylorMade Stealth driver was one of the easiest clubs in golf to spot last season because its 60-layer carbon fiber face was red. For 2023, the Carlsbad, California-based company tweaked the carbon fiber face and added other technologies and features in the Stealth 2.
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Several yet-to-be-released TaylorMade Stealth 2 drivers were added to the list on Tuesday.
The first Monday after New Year’s Day is always busy in the golf equipment world because the United States Golf Association and the R&A typically add several new clubs to their Conforming Driver lists. With the PGA Tour set to hold its first event in Hawaii starting on Thursday, manufacturers want staff players to start using the clubs that will go on sale in the days and weeks ahead.
Several yet-to-be-released TaylorMade Stealth 2 drivers were added to the list on Tuesday, so while Rory McIlroy may not be in the field at the Sentry Tournament of Champions this week, look for other TaylorMade staffers like Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa to be using new Stealth 2 drivers.
TaylorMade has not officially released information on the Stealth 2 drivers yet, but using the photos below, we can deduce a few things about them.
All the Stealth 2 drivers have adjustable hosels, a Speed Pocket slot behind the leading edge and the word ‘Carbonwood’ on the sole. Last season’s Stealth drivers were called carbonwoods by the brand because they had carbon fiber faces. The USGA describes these clubs as having, ’60X Carbon, Twist Face’ written on their faces.
Each of the Stealth 2 drivers appears to have a weight in the back of the head.
The Stealth Plus+ versions have a sliding 15-gram weight behind the Speed Pocket with the words ‘Draw’ and ‘Fade’ on the heel and toe sides, respectively, but one version of the Stealth Plus+ appears to have a smaller head than the other.
The Stealth 2 and Stealth 2 HD driver each have a weight screw in the heel area of the sole, near the hosel, but the HD version’s weight is further toward the perimeter, which could create a larger draw bias.
Adam Scott put his driver in time-out last Thursday at Bay Hill and played the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational without a driver. The club was back for the second round and remained in Scott’s bag throughout the weekend, but clearly it was on a short leash. Thursday morning at TPC Sawgrass, the 2013 Masters champion had a new driver in his bag, a TaylorMade Strealth Plus+ fitted with the same Graphite Design Tour AD DI-7 X shaft.
Scott also started Thursday’s round with a new TaylorMade Stealth Plus+ 3-wood and used it off the tee for his first shot of the day at the Players Championship.
As can be seen in the chart below, the Australian led the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee in 2006 with an average of 0.955, which means he gained nearly a full shot over the average competitor solely on the quality of his driving. He ranked third in that category in 2011, second in 2013 and was in the top 20 from 2014-2016. However, in the past two seasons, Scott performed worse than the average Tour player and finished the year ranked outside the top 100 in strokes gained off the tee. His average is up this season, but clearly he has been frustrated with his driving.
Scott won the 2004 Players championship at age 23 and has won more than $58 million in career prize money on the Tour.
