You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in materials science to understand the technology behind today’s drivers—and the benefits that technology offers. But it wouldn’t hurt. The way a driver looks to you, the way it feels in your hands, is still important; an appealing appearance inspires confidence. But performance is where it’s at. And for 2024, driver manufacturers have dug deeper than ever into their tech tool kits to deliver enhanced driver performance.
What do I mean by performance? In a driver, it really comes down to maximizing two things: distance and forgiveness. The twin holy grails. The more ball speed a driver can help you get, the more distance you’ll gain off the tee. The more forgiveness a club can offer, the straighter (and farther) your mishits will go. And who doesn’t want to hit longer, straighter tee shots?
If you’ve been putting off buying a new driver because their technology and performance are always improving and you’ve just been waiting for the right time to upgrade, this would be a good year to do it in my opinion. Here are 10 new drivers for 2024 that you may want to take out for test-drives.
TaylorMade Qi10 Max
TaylorMade’s new Qi10 Max takes its name from the fact that it’s TaylorMade’s first driver to break the 10K barrier for moment of inertia (MOI), with a combined total MOI of 10,000 g-cm2. Translation: It’s the most forgiving driver they’ve ever offered. Several aspects of the club’s design have helped achieve this. Its multi-material construction with carbon fiber crown and face allows for weight to be redistributed to where it can create a lower and deeper center of gravity. Its 460cc head shape enhances stability and minimizes dispersion on off-center hits. And its torque-control shaft helps further reduce the head’s tendency to rotate and gives players tighter dispersion on their tee shots. The club’s face, the third generation featuring TaylorMade’s 60x Carbon Twist Face Technology, delivers fast ball speed even on off-center hits, and the redesigned ledge helps optimize energy transfer at impact even further. The Qi10 Max and the other drivers in the new Qi10 line also have a cleaner, more traditional appearance than TaylorMade’s previous drivers, which many players will like. Chances are they’ll like its performance, too. (BUY NOW)
PING G430 MAX 10K
PING has a new 10K MOI driver on the market for 2024, too—and lo and behold, MAX is in its name, too. Like the Qi10 Max, this G430 eclipses the 10,000 g-cm2 combined threshold, making it the straightest and most forgiving big stick PING has ever put out. It accomplishes this feat via the use of a fixed back weight that optimizes its center of gravity and multi-material construction that includes an ultralight carbon composite crown. The 460cc head design maximizes the USGA-allowable heel-toe and front-back dimensions, giving it PING’s largest-ever head profile, which can be a confidence booster for some players. The T9S+ titanium face in the G430 MAX 10K is shallower and thinner for 2024, a design that PING says flexes more and helps produce faster balls speeds. The face also features a variable roll radius innovation PING calls “Spinsistency,” which is designed to optimize spin across the entire face for added distance on mishits. You can customize the trajectory of your G430 Max 10K, too, thanks to a lightweight, aerodynamic hosel sleeve that lets you choose from eight different positions. (BUY NOW)
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke MAX Fast
Callaway’s new driver for 2024 doesn’t claim to deliver 10K MOI, but it’s got “MAX” in its name anyway. (If your name is Max, you should start asking for royalties.) This club’s story is one that’s also all about delivering more distance on off-center hits—it just looks to accomplish it via slightly different means. Part of that story revolves around what Callaway calls its Ai Smart Face. If you’ve been paying any attention to the Callaway brand, you know it’s gone all-in on A.I. (artificial intelligence). With its Ai Smoke driver line, it utilized A.I. to study data from 250,000 swings and then provide input into how the company might enhance the clubs’ performance. The resulting Ai Smart Face contains areas designed to have “micro-deflections,” which are, in effect, multiple sweet spots that help counteract gear effect to reduce both shot dispersion and loss of distance on off-center hits. They’ve redistributed weight in the 460cc clubhead, as well, via the use of an internal titanium support structure, which allowed them to make the carbon chassis 15 percent lighter than last year’s Paradym. And the adjustable perimeter weighting and adjustable hosel provide up to 19 yards of shot-shape correction. (BUY NOW)
Cleveland Launcher XL2
Cleveland tapped A.I. for help with the design of its Launcher XL2 model, too. It’s the highest MOI driver Cleveland has ever offered because of improvements made in a few key areas. First, A.I. helped Cleveland design a variable-thickness face that broadened and reshaped its sweet spot, for better energy transfer from more locations on the face. Then, the Cleveland engineers reconfigured the XL2’s 460cc head design to offer better MOI by shifting weight lower and deeper in the clubhead, thanks to an extremely thin crown that’s supported by a strong, lightweight frame underneath. Cleveland calls this its “Rebound Frame,” and it’s a design that includes a second ring of flexibility just behind the face that’s additionally supported by extra stiffness in the rear of the clubhead. At impact, the clubface and this second flex zone activate simultaneously, increasing the amount of energy transferred to the ball for greater distance. Finally, they’ve put an 8-gram counterweight at the grip end of the shaft, which has the effect of making the clubhead feel lighter in your hands and can promote a more stable swing that squares up better through impact. (BUY NOW)
Cobra DARKSPEED X
The Cobra brand is into speed, and it calls its DARKSPEED X the fastest driver it’s ever made, citing the use of space-grade materials and aerospace engineers as two reasons why. And yeah, A.I. was at it again here. The DARKSEPEED X’s story starts with a more aerodynamic 460cc head design that has a streamlined face-to-topline radius, a higher crown peak, and reduced clubface surface area—all to reduce drag. That A.I.-designed clubface, which Cobra calls its H.O.T. face, has been tuned to deliver more efficient speed and spin across the clubface. And the Cobra PWR-BRIDGE has been shifted lower and more forward in the 2024 DARKSPEED X to bolster energy transfer even more and give you even faster ball speeds. The back weight in last year’s Cobra has been joined for 2024 by a second forward weight, which gives you more control over spin. At address, it’s a traditional-looking club with a slightly taller face that you may find to be a confidence-booster. (BUY NOW)
Mizuno ST-X 230
Mizuno clubs have long been heralded for their classic good looks. They’re the Cary Grant and Grace Kelly of golf clubs. But hidden beneath their usually unassuming exteriors there’s always some serious tech happening. And that’s certainly the case with the ST-X 230 driver. At the heart of it is Mizuno’s CORTECH Chamber, which adds a second energy source to that of the clubface itself—similar in theory to Cleveland’s Rebound Frame and Cobra’s PWR-BRIDGE. The chamber encases a dense stainless-steel weight in an elastomeric TPU material, and it sits just behind the clubface to help reduce spin rates. The 460cc ST-X 230 was designed to have a tiny bit of draw bias (slicers, take note) so this chamber is located a tad closer to the hosel in the ST-X 230 model than in Mizuno’s other new ST line of drivers. Like those others, though, it features the same forged, variable-thickness, SAT 2041 beta titanium face that. The ST-X has a bit of a taller profile, too, which makes it feel very workable, and the hosel offers four degrees of loft adjustability and a variety of lie and face angles to fit your swing. (BUY NOW)
Srixon ZX5 Mk II
Srixon’s 460cc ZX5 Mk II, the “Max Forgiveness” model in its 2024 line, has a lot of the same features you’ll find in many of 2024’s other new drivers—but with a Srixon spin on them. Like others, it has a variable-thickness face with an intricate thickness pattern that expands its COR and delivers better distance on off-center hits. It also has an adjustable sole weight in the rear, plus an adjustable hosel that let you customize your setup. The thin, titanium crown, which Srixon calls its Star Frame Crown, is supported by a series of ridges and latticework for lightweight strength. The frame itself shares its tech with sister company Cleveland and the two companies call it the same thing: the Rebound Frame. Here again, an additional flex zone in the form of a ring of thin titanium is located behind the face to help produce more ball speed. (BUY NOW)
Titleist TSR3
Titleist clubs have earned the reputation of being “players’ clubs,“ in part because of their classic, ungimmicky appearance, and in part because so many good players choose Titleist. But you’d be wrong to assume that you need to be a single-digit handicapper to benefit from playing Titleist equipment. In their 2024 TSR line, the TSR1 is an ultra-lightweight club designed expressly for players with moderate swing speeds. This TSR3, though, was designed for the better player—someone with the skill to work the ball and whose mishits don’t stray too far from the center of the clubface. The feel and playability that stronger players expect from Titleist is present in spades in the TSR3, along with the unfussy appearance at address that many better players favor. Among its other notable features are enhanced aerodynamics for reduced drag, a conical variable-thickness face that focuses COR into one central sweet spot, and Titleist’s SureFit system, which lets you adjust its moveable weight and hosel for placing that sweet spot where it best suits your swing. If you have a solid, repeatable swing, you should absolutely try this club out. (BUY NOW)
Tour Edge Exotics C723
Tour Edge’s Exotics C273 is another driver that’s been designed for today’s more skilled players. With a smaller, deep-faced clubhead that’s 445 cc’s rather than the more prevalent 460, its appearance encourages precision, and it produces a lower-spin ball flight. The variable-thickness face promotes optimal ball speed from more areas of the clubface, thanks in part to a diamond pattern made up of 61 different diamond shapes that feature varying thicknesses. The thinner diamonds placed near the heel and toe give you more power from off-center hits than you might expect—dramatically more power, according to Tour Edge. The sliding sole weight at the rear of the club and additional weight at the front let you dial in your preferred spin and shot shape characteristics. And the club’s MOI and resulting forgiveness is enhanced by its use of lightweight carbon in four quadrants, which moves weight to the perimeter and creates a “Ridgeback” (15 percent thinner this year) that acts as a brace and creates more power across the entire clubface. (BUY NOW)
Honma BERES 09
The Honma name may be new to some golfers, but the brand has been renowned for its craftsmanship in Japan for 50 years. The BERES line is Honma’s flagship luxury brand—a collection of clubs that perform as beautifully as they look. The theme for the BERES 09 line (debuting in March) is “Innovated BERES,” showcasing how Honma has integrated into its elegant designs the latest technology—including upgraded features from its BERES 08 offerings. The multi-material composite construction of their 460cc clubheads features a unique HM titanium face and carbon fiber at the toe to give it a draw bias. And the face is now a variable-thickness design with an intricate pattern to promote better distance on mishits. If you want to put a little bling in your swing without sacrificing performance, the BERES 09 could be just the ticket.
Have you tried hitting any of these new drivers? Tell us about your performance in the comment section.
