Earlier this week we published the results of our 2016 Most Wanted Driver Test. Those results are based on the averages across all 20 of this year’s testers.
For those who are looking for a bit more specificity, perhaps a bit more information about what might fit you best, today we’re breaking down the results a bit further and showing you which drivers performed best for our faster swing speed players, and which performed best for lower swing speed players.
How We Consider Performance
To quantify performance and determine Most Wanted Rankings we developed a new scoring system based on Mark Broadie’s Strokes Gained methodology.
This new way to look at the numbers considers not only the distance of the drive, the accuracy of the drive, and also the probable resulting lie condition. As all of us know, it’s harder to score from the rough, and harder still to score from a gnarly lie. Strokes Gained takes all this into account. The end result is a system that looks beyond distance and accuracy, while considering other factors that we believe help us to better represents real-world performance.
For more details, see our How We Test page.
For those interested in breaking out the individual components that make up total performance, we still provide you with distance (total yards and carry), accuracy (yards from center and truAccuracy), and Shot Area, which provides an excellent measurements of consistency or forgiveness.
All of that data and more can be found at the bottom of this post. New features will be added to the table as we roll out all of our results.
Be sure to check out the sortable data at the end of the list.
Here are the results.
Top 5 Drivers – (Swing Speeds over 100MPH)
Test Highlights:
- The #1 Driver for 2016 for High Swing Speeds
- Led the field in both Yards from Center (accuracy) & truAccuracy
- 8 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages (tied #1)
The Final Word:
While higher swing speed players may naturally be drawn to the M1, our test results suggest that the M2 is capable of producing even better results among this demographic.
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Test Highlights:
- #2 for Yards from Center (accuracy) and truAccuracy
- Produced the highest Ball Speeds of any driver in the Top 5
- 8 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages (tied #1)
The Final Word:
A strong performer for accuracy (and strokes gained), we’re intrigued by the ball speeds, which suggest that for those who really get it dialed in, there’s likely even more pop in this model.
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Test Highlights:
- #2 for both Carry and Total Distance
- Top 5 for Yards from Center and TruAccuracy
- 7 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages
The Final Word:
While the order may be flipped, once again both of TaylorMade’s 460cc offerings sit near the top of our list. From a driver performance standpoint TaylorMade may be as good as it has ever been…maybe better.
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Test Highlights:
- Top 10 for both Carry and Total Distance
- Strong showing across the board for Accuracy and Consistency (Shot Area)
- 7 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages
The Final Word:
No real surprise here as the KING F6+ has shown itself the be a versatile and exceptional performer for golfers of all swing speeds.
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Test Highlights:
- #3 for Carry Yards
- Top 10 in both accuracy categories, and top 5 for shot area
- 6 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages
The Final Word:
Surprisingly long for higher swing speed players, the G outperformed LS Tec for higher swing speed players. The overall result suggests faster swing speed guys might actually benefit from Turbulators.
Top 5 Drivers of 2016 (Swing Speeds below 100MPH)
Test Highlights:
- The #1 Ranked Driver for Swing Speeds Under 100 mph
- #2 for Carry Yards and #1 Total Distance
- Top 10 for both Yards from Center (Accuracy) and truAccuracy
- 7 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages
The Final Word:
Our 2016 Overall Most Wanted Driver is also the top choice among slower swing speed players. While nothing is the best for everyone, for off the rack shoppers it’s as close to a sure thing as you’re likely to find.
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Test Highlights:
- #4 for Carry yards and #2 for Total Distance among slower swing speed players
- Top 10 for both Yards from Center (Accuracy) and truAccuracy
- 8 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages (T1)
The Final Word:
Generally regarded as a choice for higher swing speed players, for the second year in a row we see a smaller, lower spinning, head emerge as a top choice for lower swing speed players; particularly those who hit down on the ball.
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Test Highlights:
- #5 for Carry Yards and Total Distance
- #5 for Yard from Center (accuracy) and truAccuracy along with Top 10 for Shot Area
- 6 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages
The Final Word:
The F6+ joins the M1 as the only driver on all 3 (overall, high swing speed, low swing speed) lists. In addition to the strong all-around showing, the F6+ also provided the highest ball speeds of any driver on this list. F6+ is the clear class of an outstanding driver crop from Cobra Golf.
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Test Highlights:
- Top 5 for Yards from Center (accuracy) and truAccuracy
- #2 for Shot Area
- 7 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages
The Final Word:
The best of the back CG clubs on this list, the JGR is a good choice for golfers who need help getting the ball in the air; particularly those with a tendency to hit the ball high on the face.
Test Highlights:
- Top 10 for both Carry Yards and Total Distance
- Solid Accuracy and Forgiveness numbers
- 8 of 10 testers posted Strokes Gained scores above their individual averages (T1)
The Final Word:
Simply put, the XR is a driver that most of our testers hit better than most. For off-the-rack buyers, XR might be the safest bet among this group. While there’s nothing that stands out as particularly exceptional, XR is a driver that performs well across the board, without suffering in any area.
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For those interested in the full results, see our 2016 Most Wanted Driver post.
The Data
The chart below contains data from this year’s test. You can hover over any column title to bring up the sort feature, allowing you to sort by whatever columns you feel are most relevant to you. A dropdown at the bottom give you the ability to show or hide whichever drivers you choose.
Please note, for simplicity’s sake, we have revised our truAccuracy (an alternative to Yards from Center) scores to display as an “out of 100” score. Clubs with the highest values are the ones that hit the ball farther down the fairway with less deviation from the center line.
Shot Area represents the area of a 90% confidence ellipse with the centered on the respective average for distance and yards offline. The value shown represents the average across all of our testers.
More features will be added in the coming days and if there’s something specific you’d like to see, please let us know.
For a limited time, all MyGolfSpy referred customers can get an additional 10% trade-in bonus on the value of their clubs when they use the code SPYTRADE. Valid 06/14/16-06/30/16.
Clay Fleming
7 years ago
I know this is an old post so chances of a response are probably slim, but I have a question and am hoping for some clarity. The post states that the 816 produced the highest ball speeds of any driver in the top 5 but the chart does not reflect this. I am aware that the chart shows averages, but should that be interpreted as on the best shots it generated the most ball speed?
Thanks,