• last year
In this video, Neil Tappin runs through his favourite drivers of 2023.
Transcript
00:00 Over the last few weeks, I've hit 22 different driver models
00:03 from 10 different brands.
00:05 And in this video, we are gonna take a look
00:07 at what the best drivers of 2023 might be.
00:11 We'll take a look at some of the trends
00:12 within the driver market.
00:13 We'll also look at what areas the different brands
00:16 are really excelling in.
00:17 And of course, we'll touch on which one of these drivers
00:20 might be right for your game.
00:22 Now, I split this video up into five key sections,
00:24 and I'll be picking my favorites
00:26 in each one of those sections.
00:28 Right, let's take a look at the best drivers of 2023.
00:31 (upbeat music)
00:34 Okay, so when it comes to the aesthetics,
00:38 you have a choice between drivers with matte crowns
00:42 and drivers with glossy crowns to them.
00:44 And that's how I've ordered them in the floor in front of me.
00:46 So if you want a matte crown, then Wilson, Yonex,
00:49 Ping, Strixen, PXG all fit that mold.
00:52 If you want something with a glossy crown,
00:54 and I think that those glossy crowns
00:55 tend to make the drivers look a fraction bigger,
00:57 maybe a little bit more generous down behind the ball,
01:00 then it would be something along the lines of Mizuno,
01:03 Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, or Cobra.
01:06 Now, of the glossy crowns,
01:08 the one that stands out the most,
01:09 the one that's the biggest departure for me this year,
01:11 is Callaway with its Paradigm driver.
01:13 Now, you might not be able to see it
01:14 because it's quite cloudy out here now,
01:16 but this has a really bold color scheme to it.
01:20 So it's a deep blue finish
01:22 that they've gone for on the crown.
01:23 That might be slightly divisive.
01:25 There might be some people out there
01:26 that don't like the finish to this driver.
01:28 I love it.
01:29 I thought it really stands out.
01:30 It's still got that very classic shape to it,
01:33 but the color scheme is really bold,
01:34 and I loved it for that.
01:36 Now, of the matte crown drivers,
01:38 the one that really stands out to me the most,
01:41 I think, is Ping,
01:42 and in particular, the LST version of the G430.
01:46 It has this two-tone finish to it on the crown.
01:49 It highlights what they call their carbon fly wrap,
01:54 and I think that Ping, in this version,
01:55 really embraced the techie nature of the product.
01:59 They're really saying to you,
02:00 "There's a lot of tech involved in this product,"
02:02 and I think it looks very premium.
02:04 I think it looks really impressive.
02:06 Now, if I was to pick just one based on the looks,
02:09 it's difficult.
02:10 There's a lot of fantastic-looking drivers
02:12 down in front of me,
02:12 but I'm in the mood for something a little bit different,
02:14 so I am gonna go for this Callaway Paradigm driver.
02:18 I think it looks fantastic on the shelf
02:21 and out behind the ball.
02:22 Okay, so we're on the range here at Black Bear Golf Club.
02:25 I'm gonna talk a little bit about the feel
02:27 that I was able to get from these drivers,
02:29 and I'd say that across the board, they feel great.
02:31 They feel powerful, lively through the ball,
02:33 but there are some differences between them,
02:35 and I'm gonna hit a shot with the two drivers
02:37 that I'd say sit at either end of the spectrum.
02:39 So, in terms of the driver that, to me,
02:42 feel has the lowest pitch,
02:44 to me, it's a really powerful sensation through the ball,
02:47 but it is quite a dull impact sound,
02:48 would be the TaylorMade Stealth 2,
02:51 so I'm gonna hit a shot with this.
02:51 Hopefully, you can pick up through the microphone
02:54 the sort of impact feel that you get from this driver.
02:57 Now, what I really liked about this
03:03 was that wherever you hit it in the face,
03:04 I mean, I've hit that slightly high and out of the toe,
03:06 it still feels incredibly solid through the ball.
03:10 Now, the driver that, to me,
03:11 sits at the other end of the spectrum,
03:12 so it has a slightly higher pitched impact sound and feel,
03:16 is the Yonex GS iTek driver.
03:20 This has, as I say, is a bit louder through the ball.
03:22 Again, hopefully you can pick up on that.
03:24 So, I mean, I've hit that really well, right out the middle.
03:31 It's got, to me, a much livelier,
03:34 higher pitched sound through the ball,
03:36 so it sort of depends what you want from your driver.
03:39 For me, as a faster swinger,
03:41 I love the feel of the more muted,
03:45 the duller impact sounds.
03:47 To me, they're slightly more powerful.
03:48 So, if I was gonna pick one of these based on the feel,
03:51 it would be the Taylormade Stealth 2.
03:53 Okay, so I'm gonna put up on the screen now,
03:55 my raw data from all the different testing sessions
03:57 I've done this year.
03:59 If you want to take a look at that data,
04:01 please feel free to hit the pause button,
04:03 but you should definitely take all of this
04:05 with a pinch of salt.
04:06 So, I'm a three handicap golfer,
04:08 and it's fair to say the strike locations
04:11 can vary a bit within my game.
04:12 Plus, there were some slight differences
04:14 in terms of how each of the drivers were set up.
04:16 Sometimes it was loft,
04:18 and sometimes it was shafts that were slightly different.
04:19 So, you have to factor all of that in
04:21 if you're looking at the data.
04:22 Now, my feeling would be that if I was picking one driver
04:26 from the batch that I've got in front of me,
04:27 I probably wouldn't make my decision based around distance.
04:31 Each range had something that was pretty good for me
04:33 on this front.
04:34 However, I will shout out Cobra,
04:37 as I had the fastest head speed with the Aerojet,
04:39 and Tightlist, as I had the fastest ball speed
04:42 with the TSR3 model.
04:44 But, I'm pretty confident that with a good fitting,
04:46 you'll find something that will perform really well
04:49 in terms of distance.
04:50 So, that leaves me with consistency,
04:53 and in particular,
04:54 how in control of the driver I felt.
04:58 And for me, there were three drivers
05:00 that just sort of stood out slightly
05:02 from the crowd on this front,
05:03 and they were the Tightlist TSR2,
05:07 the Callaway Paradigm, the standard version of that,
05:09 and the Ping G430 Max.
05:12 So, hitting balls on the launch monitor,
05:13 I did feel like I was in really good control
05:16 of all three of these drivers.
05:17 Again, I'm not gonna narrow it down any more than that,
05:20 because there are variations at play here.
05:22 I do think that if you go for a full
05:23 and thorough custom fitting,
05:25 then a good fitter will certainly help you find a driver
05:27 that you're in pretty good control of.
05:30 Nobody will be too surprised to hear
05:32 that prices have gone up slightly
05:34 in the driver market in 2023,
05:36 but I'd say that on the whole,
05:37 the increases haven't been quite as drastic
05:40 as we might have expected.
05:42 Now, at the top end, you have Callaway's Paradigm drivers,
05:46 which have a recommended retail price in the UK of £599.
05:50 Ping's G430 LST driver isn't too far behind either at 575.
05:55 There are two models that I've hit
05:58 that have really stood out for me when it comes to value.
06:00 Firstly, Yonex really impressed me
06:03 by how well both of their drivers performed.
06:06 They were easy to hit and they were long.
06:08 Now, whilst I thought the iTech was the better one for me,
06:12 I thought the Elite 4 was also a very good driver.
06:15 When you consider the RRP, which is just 279,
06:18 it's the one with the blue crown
06:20 and it has one of the Yonex shafts in it,
06:22 which are incredibly stable.
06:23 If you've never tried a Yonex driver before,
06:25 you may well be very impressed
06:27 by how stable they feel through the ball.
06:29 However, the driver that I really need to talk about
06:31 in this part of the video is the new PXG 0211.
06:35 This was updated last year
06:37 and I think PXG, what they did really well
06:39 was they refined the looks and the feel.
06:41 It's very clean and simple to look at down behind the ball
06:44 and it has a really powerful feel through the ball.
06:47 And you can buy this for just 199 pounds.
06:50 Now, there are some upcharge options,
06:53 but there are plenty of very good shaft options
06:55 that will keep the price down at 199 pounds.
06:58 As we're in the midst of a cost of living crisis,
07:00 it's worth saying that the PXG 0211
07:03 offers outstanding value for money.
07:05 Okay, so onto the final verdict.
07:07 And I have done this video for the last few years.
07:09 And it's fair to say that picking an overall winner
07:11 does not get any easier.
07:13 It's really difficult because there's a whole host
07:15 of very good drivers on the market this year.
07:18 And I would say that if you've got your heart set
07:19 on one particular brand, then there's no doubt about it
07:22 that if you go through a really good custom fitting,
07:24 you will find something that really works well for you.
07:27 But if I had to pick just one driver from this batch,
07:31 I would go for the PING G430 LST version.
07:36 And the reason I'd go for this one
07:37 is that it's got slightly more compact shape
07:40 down behind the ball, a little bit more workable,
07:41 which I think would help me hit a few more fairways
07:44 out on the golf course.
07:45 And when I tested it on the launch monitor,
07:47 I didn't lose much control versus the PING G430 MAX.
07:51 I think it looks fantastic.
07:52 I think it sounds great too.
07:54 So if I was gonna pick just one driver from this batch,
07:57 then I think, I think I'd go for the PING G430 LST.
08:01 (upbeat music)
08:07 (upbeat music)
08:10 (upbeat music)