Drivers
Driver launches, reviews and honest advice on what actually adds distance — and what's just marketing.
A record 49 mini drivers played the Dunhill Links. In the tour bags we track it is 11 of 80, and 8 of them carry no 3-wood
Brooks Koepka retired his 2017 3-wood for a mini driver in Scotland and the winner carried a Ping prototype. Across the 80 tour bags we maintain the share is half the Dunhill's 29 per cent, and the club it replaces is clear.
By Tom Whitaker
17 of the 24 LPGA drivers we track are lofted 9.25 degrees or less, matching the PGA Tour at 19 mph less speed
The women's tour swings at roughly the speed of an average male club golfer, and its median driver loft is the same 9 degrees as the men's. The reason is how the club meets the ball, and it is the part amateurs rarely copy.
By Jordan Hale
239 microseconds: the CT test that makes a driver legal, and what it means when you buy one used
A steel ball on a pendulum, a number measured in millionths of a second, and a rule that quietly decides which drivers exist. Here is what it measures, why a face can stop passing it, and what that changes on the second-hand market.
By Jordan Hale
Most golfers pick the wrong PING G440: stop buying the low-spin head
Three heads, three completely different owners. The tell is your spin rate and your start line, not your handicap — and the head most golfers buy aspirationally is the one that suits them least.
By Dan Mercer
Women's golf gear grew up in 2026 — here's what's actually worth it
This year brought a real expansion of women's lineups, but the gear that genuinely helps a smoother swing has less to do with the label than the spec.
By Ross Hamilton
One round, three budgets: a full golf setup for less, for more, and no limits
Three coherent setups at three very different spending levels, and the honest case for stopping at the first one.
By Tom Whitaker
Five gear trends that defined golf in 2026 (and which deserve your money)
Mini drivers, zero-torque putters, sub-grand launch monitors — the shifts that actually reached your bag this year, ranked by whether they're worth it.
By Jordan Hale
A slower swing isn't a problem — it's a spec sheet most golfers get wrong
If your driver speed is under 90 mph, almost everything golf marketing sells you is built for someone else. Four cheap, counterintuitive changes hand back the yards you thought you'd lost for good.
By Ross Hamilton
What shaft flex do you actually need? Most golfers play too stiff
If your driver swing is under about 95 mph, you almost certainly want regular, not stiff — and playing stiff is quietly costing you distance and height.
By Jordan Hale
A fitting won't add 20 yards — and that's exactly why it's worth it
The marketing sells fittings as free distance. The honest case is better: it's the one golf spend that reliably pays for itself by stopping you buying the wrong club. Here's who gains, and who's wasting their money.
By Jordan Hale
What is a mini driver — and do you actually need one?
Suddenly they're everywhere on tour. Here's what a mini driver really is, who it genuinely helps, and why most amateurs are better served by a club they already understand.
By Ross Hamilton
What actually adds driver distance (and what doesn't)
Spin, speed, strike and fit — the four things that move the needle, and the marketing claims that don't. In plain English.
By Tom Whitaker
Adjustable drivers: what all those settings actually do
Loft sleeves, movable weights, lie adjustments — most golfers never touch them, and the few who fiddle often make things worse. The plain guide.
By Jordan Hale
