Golf Driver Buying Guide
Everything you need to know to choose the right driver for your game, from forgiveness and spin to loft, shafts and fitting.
How to Choose the Right Golf Driver
Your driver can be one of the most rewarding and handicap reducing clubs in the bag, when you find the right one. But it can also be one of the most infuriating and costly clubs in the bag when you don’t. So it pays to get it right!
There are now more options than ever, with manufacturers offering different head shapes, lofts, shafts and adjustability settings all designed to offer different combinations of distance, forgiveness, launch and spin.
With so many great driver options available, how on earth do you choose the right one!?
At Replay Golf, we see, test and fit a huge range of new and pre owned drivers, from the latest releases to models that are several generations old. In this guide, we'll explain the things we think actually matter when choosing your next driver, and some of the things you probably don't need to worry about quite so much.
Driver head profile
We can think of modern driver heads as offering a mixture of 4 different elements: Forgiveness, Launch, Spin and Shot Shape.
Quite often, these elements work against each other. For example; forgiving drivers often have more mass positioned further back in the club head, which increases forgiveness but can also increase launch and spin. This is great for a golfer that lacks consistency but might not be so great for a player who has a lot of club head speed.
There's plenty of crossover between these elements but understanding these four categories is a useful starting point. We break it down below…
Most Forgiving Drivers
If consistency is your priority, a more forgiving driver is often a good place to start.
These drivers are generally designed to retain more ball speed and stability when you don't find the centre of the face. Modern drivers are exceptionally good at this, with new materials being utilised to allow weight to be moved further back away from the club face increasing forgiveness.
That can be useful for beginners and higher handicap golfers, but forgiving drivers aren't just for higher handicaps. Plenty of very good golfers choose more forgiving driver heads because they value consistency.
A forgiving driver could be worth considering if...
- You’re looking for maximum forgiveness
- You’re looking for more consistent dispersion from off centre strikes
- You’re looking for more confidence behind the ball (they often feature a larger head profile when looking down from above)
- You hit the ball off-centre frequently and are looking to retain speed from a wider area of the face.
A forgiving driver could be worth avoiding if…
- You hit the ball too high already.
- You like to shape the ball off the tee.
- You like being able to control the trajectory of your drives.
We have a huge range of forgiving drivers...
SHOP OUR MOST FORGIVING DRIVERS HERE
Forgiving Drivers with Less Spin (Core)
Often referred to as a ‘Core’ driver, this is likely to be the sweet spot for a huge number of golfers. These drivers often have a slightly sleeker profile and combine good levels of forgiveness with relatively neutral launch and spin characteristics. They're particularly useful if you don't need a driver designed specifically to reduce spin or influence a particular shot shape.
A core driver could be worth considering if…
- You want forgiveness but less spin.
- You’re more consistent at hitting the centre of the club face.
- You prefer a slightly slimmer head profile from front to back.
A core driver could be worth avoiding if…
- Your club speed is very high and you struggle to keep the ball flight down.
- You frequently strike the ball from the heel or toe of the club face.
- You like being able to control the trajectory of your drives.
Low Spin Drivers
Low spin drivers can be extremely effective for the right golfer, but lower spin isn't automatically better. If you're generating too much spin, reducing it can produce a more penetrating ball flight and potentially increase distance. But if you take to much away, you can lose carry distance and make the driver less forgiving when your strike isn't on point.
That's why we wouldn't recommend choosing a low spin driver simply because it's the model you see being used on Tour.
A low spin driver could be worth considering if…
- You consistently hit the ball too high with your current non low spin set-up.
- You hit the middle of the face consistently with a relatively high club head speed..
- You’d like more control over trajectory and shot shape.
A low spin driver could be worth avoiding if…
- You have trouble with strike consistency.
- You already have a low or mid trajectory with a non low spin model.
- You have a lower club speed but are seeking longer carry distance.
Replay Tip: We hear lots of discussion about achieving perfect spin numbers but the real aim is to find a combination of forgiveness, launch and spin conditions that work for your particular delivery on an average day, not your best! Keeping some spin and forgiveness redundancy is usually a good thing.
Draw Biased Drivers
Most modern drivers are adjustable and have a draw biased setting on their loft sleeve. This closes the face marginally at set-up and can be useful in reducing a minor slice.
However, if you regularly lose the ball to the right as a right handed golfer, or to the left as a left handed golfer, and often find yourself on someone else’s fairway altogether then a change in the loft sleeve setting might not be enough. In this situation a draw biased driver may be the answer.
Designed to help the golfer square the club face more easily through impact, draw biased drivers have become hugely popular with the slicing community. Manufacturers create draw bias using head shape, weighting, centre of gravity positioning and through adjustable weights. The goal is to increase drag on the heel side of the club to allow the toe to overtake earlier in the downswing thus closing the face and starting the ball further to the left than it would ordinarily start.
It can’t magically fix every slice, but it can take the edge off and get you finding more fairways. Draw biased drivers typically share the same tech with the models in the most forgiving driver category, so they have the added advantage of being super forgiving on off centre hits as well.
A draw biased driver could be worth considering if…
- You consistently slice the ball on to other fairways and want to make the game more enjoyable
- You’re not trying to make swing changes to fix your slice.
- You need a good amount of forgiveness on off-centre strikes.
A draw biased driver could be worth avoiding if…
- You’re having regular lessons to fix your slice.
- You already hit the ball relatively straight or even to the left. (for a right handed player).
- You like to shape the ball both ways..
Shop Drivers by Type:
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MOST FORGIVING |
FORGIVING / LOWER SPIN |
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Maximum stability and forgiveness. |
A balance of forgiveness, launch & spin. |
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LOW SPIN |
DRAW BIASED |
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Lower launch and spin at higher club speeds. |
Helps golfers manage a right miss. |
What Driver Loft Should I Use?
A common rule of thumb is that higher speed players should use less loft while moderate and lower club speed players should use more. But there’s a little more to it than that, with a golfer's angle of attack, dynamic loft and strike location all playing a part in the launch and spin of a drive and ultimately how far the ball carries and rolls out. By reducing spin, a lower lofted driver can also be a good guard against an excessive hook or slice which can be exaggerated by a high spin number.
Common driver lofts include 9°, 10.5° and 12°, but can go as low as 5 for long drive models. We would suggest thinking of 10.5 as the starting point and then look at going up or down from there depending on the ball flight you’re looking for.
Choose 9° or below if…
- You typically hit the ball too high from a centred strike.
- You’re playing in firm conditions and would like more roll out when the ball lands.
- You suffer from an excessive hook or slice but have plenty of club speed.
Choose 10.5° if...
- Your club speed is .
- You’re playing in firm conditions and would like more roll out when the ball lands.
- You suffer from an excessive hook or slice but have plenty of club speed.
Choose 12.0° or above if…
- Your club speed is relatively low and you’re looking for more carry.
- You’re looking for a higher launching, higher spinning ball flight.
What is Driver Spin?
Just about every airborne shot has spin. The amount is determined by a number of factors but it includes the speed of the club head at impact, the loft of the club head at impact, the strike location and the angle of attack, which is the descending or ascending angle the club head strikes the ball on.
Too much spin can cause the ball to climb excessively (especially into the wind) and reduce potential distance. It can also exaggerate hooks and slices.
Too little spin and the ball can struggle to stay in the air, reducing carry distance. It may also become less stable, particularly on poorer strikes.
This is one of the reasons seeing your ball flight and numbers on launch monitor technology such as TrackMan can be so useful when comparing drivers.
With hundreds of new and pre-owned drivers tested in in our TrackMan simulators, we get a unique perspective on how different driver technologies and set-ups affect spin for different golfers.
When should you choose a mini driver?
A mini driver sits between a traditional driver and a fairway wood, combining a smaller head with a shorter shaft and generally more loft than a standard driver.
It can be worth considering if you struggle with the length of your driver, you prefer a more compact head, or want another option from the tee when maximum distance isn't the priority.
We’ve also found mini drivers to be good at reducing a slice for some golfers. The reduced shaft length (usually around 2 inches) makes it easier to create a more neutral club path resulting in straighter shots.
Some low handicap golfers even use it alongside their driver as an option from the fairway but the depth of the club face rules this out for most golfers as a viable off the fairway club.
Replay tip: If your confidence is low or you’ve exhausted all other options to reduce a slice from the tee, the mini driver could be a great choice. Trying it alongside your current driver and 3 wood in our TrackMan Swing Bays is probably the best way of determining whether a mini driver is for you. Look at carry distance, strike consistency and dispersion, then decide whether it fills a useful role in your bag.
Driver Shafts Explained
The shaft can make a significant difference to how a driver feels and performs. And quite often just getting the flex right can make a huge difference to a golfer. But shaft selection goes considerably further than simply choosing Regular, Stiff or Extra Stiff. Here we break down the crucial components when choosing a shaft.
Shaft Flex
While there is no universal standard used by every shaft manufacturer, flex is usually the first thing we'll look at when helping a golfer choose a shaft as it gives us a club speed ball park in which to operate. As a general rule, the lower the club head speed the softer the shaft flex needs to be and vice versa.
Shaft Profile
Next up is shaft profile, which is concerned with how much and where the shaft flexes & twists, and how that then impacts club delivery for different golfers. Most shaft manufacturers have multiple ‘bend profiles’ for every flex in their shaft range. Usually denoted by a colour, the different profiles create specific launch and spin characteristics for the same club delivery. For, example in the Fujikura range, the red finish is higher launching and higher spinning than the blue version, which is in turn higher launching and higher spinning than the black version.
Replay tip: If your ball flight is too low and you’re losing distance in the wet winter months when the ground is soft, you might be better off with a higher launching, higher spinning shaft to help you optimise carry.
Shaft Weight
Driver shafts are available across a wide range of weights. A lighter shaft can potentially help some golfers generate speed and may feel easier to swing. Other golfers prefer the stability, feel and control of a heavier shaft.
Shaft Length
A longer driver isn't automatically the answer to gaining distance just as a shorter driver doesn’t guarantee control. While additional shaft length has the potential to generate more club head speed, it can also make finding the centre of the face more difficult. For some golfers, a slightly shorter driver can actually produce better overall distance because strike becomes more consistent.
What About Lightweight Driver Shafts?
For golfers looking for an easier club to swing, a lighter overall set up can be worth considering. Some of the more recent shaft releases have options as low as 35 grams which is extremely light and ideal for lower club speeds. Lightweight shafts are commonly paired with driver heads designed to launch the ball higher, which make generating carry distance easier.
Replay tip: Golfer’s who find launching the driver difficult, even with a higher lofted head, should seriously consider a lighter, more flexible shaft. It might make a huge difference to your game.
SHOP DRIVERS WITH LIGHTWEIGHT & FLEXIBLE SHAFTS
Standard vs Exotic (Upgraded) Driver Shafts
Here at Replay Golf you might see the same driver at a range of different prices. While head condition and factors such as whether a club is tour issue, can impact the price, the single biggest price modifier is the shaft. And crucially whether it’s classed as an upgrade or not.
Most clubs will come with shafts supplied as standard by the manufacturer but others will have carried an additional upgrade cost at release or may have been custom fitted retrospectively.
What are Exotic Shafts?
Exotic golf shafts are typically manufactured using premium materials, advanced carbon fibre technology and more complex construction techniques than standard OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) shafts. These can deliver greater stability, improved consistency and more precise control over how the shaft bends and twists. The result can be more consistent ball striking, tighter dispersion and better control of launch and spin.
Replay tip: When you're buying a pre-owned driver fitted with a premium or aftermarket shaft, it can sometimes represent a huge saving and excellent value compared with buying the same combination new.
SHOP DRIVERS WITH SHAFT UPGRADES
Should You Buy a New or Pre Owned Driver?
There are good reasons for considering both.
One of the advantages of shopping at Replay Golf is that you don't necessarily have to decide between new and pre owned before you start looking.
Why Buy a Band New Current Model Driver?
Buying new gives you access to the latest technology, specifications and custom fitting options. It can be particularly useful if you need a very specific combination of head, loft, shaft, length and grip.
We would usually recommend a Custom Fit if you’re buying the latest model brand new unless you’re already very aware of the specs you need and what you’re looking for.
Why Buy a Pre Owned Driver?
Pre owned drivers can offer exceptional value.
Moving back a few generations can significantly reduce the price while still giving you access to excellent equipment. It can also open up combinations that would have been expensive when new, particularly if you’re considering a premium aftermarket shaft. We've even looked at this in our own video content, exploring why professional golfers sometimes continue using older driver models despite having access to virtually any equipment they want.
Replay tip: Typically, technology changes year-to-year are’t huge. You can still find a great driver that’s just a few models old that will give you excellent performance.
How Much Should You Spend on a Driver?
You don't necessarily need to spend £500+ to get a very good driver.
One of the biggest advantages of the pre owned market is that there are options available across a wide range of budgets. For example; you can pick up a TaylorMade RBZ Driver for less than £100, which represents an excellent option for a newer golfer looking a for a forgiving driver.
Replay tip: Filter our huge range of drivers by price within the main menu, to help narrow down the options that are going to work best for your budget.
Here’s a breakdown of what you’re likely to find in each price category…
Under £100
A great place to look for older models and affordable upgrades from beginner or much older equipment.
£100 to £150
This price range can contain some excellent previous generation drivers and is well worth exploring if you're shopping on a budget.
£150 to £250
You'll typically start finding newer generations of technology alongside higher specification versions of slightly older models.
£250 to £350
This range can include relatively recent releases, premium specifications and some excellent alternatives to buying the latest model brand new.
£350+
This includes many of the latest drivers alongside premium pre-owned options, Tour Issue equipment and drivers fitted with upgraded shafts.
Should I Get Fitted for a Driver?
If you're unsure what you need, testing different options can tell you considerably more than reading specifications online.
At Replay Golf, we offer three different ways to test or be fitted for a driver depending on how much help you want and whether you're looking for new or pre owned equipment.
Custom Fit
Looking for a new driver? Our full Custom Fit service is designed for golfers considering new equipment.
You'll work with one of our fitters using TrackMan to compare different heads, lofts, shafts and specifications before deciding on your preferred set up.
This is the most comprehensive option if you want a new driver fitted to your specifications.
Express Fit
Looking for a pre-owned driver? That's exactly what our Express Fit service is designed for.
We'll help narrow down suitable options from our pre-owned stock and use our fitting bay and TrackMan data to help compare them.
It's deliberately less in depth than a full Custom Fit, making it a useful option for golfers who want some guidance while shopping pre-owned.
Trial Session
Want to test some clubs yourself? Our Trial Sessions allow you to take suitable clubs from the shop into one of our TrackMan bays and test them yourself.
There's no fitting involved. It's simply an opportunity to compare clubs and see how they perform before making your decision.
See What We've Been Fitting
Driver specifications aren't just about what's popular. They're about finding combinations that work for different golfers. In our video looking at some of the most successful driver set ups we've fitted, we explore the heads, shafts and specifications that have produced some particularly interesting results in our fitting bays.
WATCH MORE FROM REPLAY GOLF →
Trade In Your Current Driver
Changing driver doesn't necessarily mean paying the full cost of your next club.
At Replay Golf, you can trade in your existing golf equipment and put its value towards your next purchase.
This can be particularly useful when upgrading into a newer, higher value model.
