7 Best Drivers For Average Golfers (…and 3 to avoid)

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Very few of us need the same clubs as the pros on TV are using. In fact, you’d get some terrible results if you grabbed one of their drivers.

Average golfers like us need a little help with our game. With that in mind, my pick for the best driver for average golfers is the Callaway Paradym.

If you want more details and to see the full breakdown…keep reading.

There are three Callaway Paradym models, the one highlighted here, the Paradym X, and the Paradym Triple Diamond.

The reason we highlighted this version is that it’s for all golfers. Whether you’re a beginner, mid-handicapper, or someone on the fringe of breaking 80, this club plays and helps you improve.

Launching the ball comes naturally and your shot shape will stay close to straight due to its low-spin engineering. It won’t be easy to shape the ball with purpose but can be done. In other words, go over the trees instead of trying to wrap around them on a dogleg.

Older golfers will remember that shots off the toe lead to a hook and contact on the heel means a slice. With the Paradym, those effects are reduced and there’s less of a distance punishment.

What really separates this from the competition though, is the carbon chassis. This innovation reduces total weight and shoots the ball off your club like a pinball.

Bring the club to the range or out on the first tee. Hit a few with this, and then hit a few with your old driver. The improvement will be obvious.

I like looking down over a drive and seeing simple. For the most part, I’m worried about 17 other things, which as we all know if hardly a recipe for success. So the way I look at it, a sleek and classic Titleist look inspires some confidence. Or at least as much confidence as moving all your tees from one pocket to the other would (shoutout to Roy McAvoy and Tin Cup.)

As far as tangible benefits, there is stability across the entire clubface. You’ll benefit from hitting the ball at center, but you won’t suffer when you’re just a bit off the mark. It’s a win-win.

As to why that happens, it’s part of a multi-plateau variable face thickness build. This design creates stability and protects you from suffering off the tee, even when your typically average round is turning into never-played-this-bad-in-your-life territory.

It’s one of the best drivers for average golfers because it’s protective. You can adjust it to fit how you’re playing at the moment. Gone are the days of adapting to your club. The Titleist TSR2 adapts to you.

Here’s the thing, I like to see what I’m paying for. When it comes to golf, it’s usually seeing results (your ball sitting in short grass.) But in some cases, seeing the tech that drives your clubs’ price tag up is pretty nice too. The Ping G425 hits on both criteria. You see results, you see advanced tech when you line up over the ball.

Looking over the crown of the club, you’ll see the internal dragonfly structure. This is Ping’s method of lowering the overall weight while redistributing some to the back of the head. The seemingly simple design helps increase swing speed and the redistributed weight helps launch the ball. Distance and ball flight improvements—what else can you ask for? Self-correcting drives?

Alright, maybe not self-correcting, but Ping does a great job here optimizing forgiveness through adjustability. Between the hosel and movable weights, making minor adjustments to the club helps make up for small deficiencies in your game.

Let’s throw in another x-factor—price. The Ping G425 is our budget pick among the best drivers for average golfers because even though it’s an older model (which lowers the price) performance is still a cut above the rest.

There are two things you need to do when battling slow swing speeds. Switch to a senior flex shaft and put a driver in your bag designed for the average golfer who needs to add a little speed to their swing. A premier option? The Titleist TSi 1.

Each feature of this club shaves away a few grams from other high-performance clubs, making it immediately evident for anyone making the switch. You’ll add swing speed without trying.

Even better, there is a big emphasis on corrective measures for toe and heel hits. Take your hardest swing. Poor contact isn’t as punitive as it might be with a club designed for the low-handicap faction of golfers. The sweet spot won’t be as rewarding, but getting in trouble isn’t an issue.

The simplicity of this club cannot be overstated. The TSi 1 has a simple crown design and clean look altogether. When you’re focused on increasing or retaining speed levels, that’s all you should be focusing on. Too many things are never a good thing, and Titleist eliminates a lot of that with their classic design here.

Being a low handicapper with average skills means one thing. You’re really good at avoiding big mistakes—the doubles, the triples, etc.

All of this starts by reducing your margin of error off the tee and putting yourself in places to succeed. It starts by getting rid of the OB drives, tee shots into grass a foot high, and clearing water you weren’t so sure about.

The clubface tells the story with the G430. It’s not one piece, it’s not one thickness, it’s not flat. The optimized T9S+ forged face is built with purpose, where certain parts of the face are thicker than others to generate maximum ball speed. Going even further, the face has a variable roll radius that reduces spin and the ill-effects of poor contact.

The face speeds things up to get distance and drops spin to low levels to keep you in the fairway. As a low handicapper, you have a lot of swing speed, but sometimes that needs to be reined in—and that’s exactly what this face does. It rewards your good shots and controls your bad ones. Compare it to whatever club you want, the G425 is at the top of the forgiveness chart. 

If you’re new to golf, buying the most expensive and newest clubs is not the best decision. Instead, test the market and find something with a lower price tag with high-performance levels.

And if you’re new to the game, you probably don’t realize that just because the club is a few years old, the technology used isn’t all too different than the ones released now.

Drivers aren’t like a video game console or anything of the sort. They won’t be outdated until years after their release. The top model from a few years ago is still a top model.

Since the Callaway Epic Max was the premier club of Callaway, it is still better than any other brands more affordable models released today.

When the club was released, it was prasied for its ability to help the average golfer launch the ball high, reduce errant spin, and adjust ball flight using a sliding weight. All of this still holds true, and grabbing an unused or lightly used version will play like a new one hitting the shelves for the first time in 2023.

Want to know the best part of golf (outside of the noise a ball makes when it hits the bottom of the cup?) Golfers replace clubs in their bag way too frequently. This creates opportunity.

With a popular club like the TaylorMade SIM2 Max, within a year or two of their release, the used club market becomes saturated with near-perfect versions of the club used for a minimal number of rounds.

Want to save money and get one of the best clubs on the market? Explore the used club section. It’s filled with gems.

So, you’re an average golfer? You’re probably looking to add a few yards to your drives, (who isn’t?) The SIM2 Max utilizes an advanced weighting system that improves launch while increasing forgiveness. In other words, you increase carry distance while allowing yourself room to mishit the ball at impact.

Nobody will ever encourage you to make contact off-center, but it’s nice to know your club is looking out for you. I mean, across most new TaylorMade models, you’ll find the Twist Face technology that makes it possible. That’s the thing though, it’s in all new models, but this one comes with a reduced-price tag. Good deal, no?

Drivers For Amateur Golfers To Avoid

Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond

This club is made for pros and elite amateurs. Unless you’re a plus handicap, you aren’t going to hit the sweet spot consistently enough to take advantage of the benefits this club has to offer.

That being said, when (or if) you hit the sweet spot on this club, the ball flies farther than any other club we tried.

But if you miss the sweet spot, you’ll see a huge dropoff in distance. 99.9% of you out there will probably see lower scores if you start gaming this driver.

Titleist TSR3

I didn’t put the TSR3 here because it is a bad driver. In fact, the TSR line is among our highest-rated drivers this year. But it’s not one that I would recommend for slicers (despite the fact that I have seen it recommended for slicers on other sites).

To begin with, it’s designed with a smaller sweet spot for golfers that can make consistent impact on the center of the face. If you’re struggling with a slice, that probably doesn’t describe you.

While the dropoff isn’t as extreme as the Paradym Triple Diamond above, the negative effect of off-center hits is going to cause more of a distance loss with the TSR3 than some of the other options on this list.

Powerbilt TPS Supertech

I am only listing this club here because I have seen it recommended to slicers on other sites.

The biggest appeal of this club is the low cost. But unfortunately, this is a case of getting what you pay for.

If you’re here looking for a club that can improve your game, this isn’t it. You’ll be much better off keeping your current driver and saving up for a used copy of one of the clubs listed above. You can find some great deals on the used market and you’ll get far better results than with a budget club like this.

What The Average Golfer Should Look For In A Driver

Forgiveness

Forgiveness, in simple terms, means how well the club performs when you don’t hit the sweet spot. The most forgiving clubs will have a larger area of the club face that gives you maximum or close to maximum ball speed.

Most average golfers don’t hit the sweet spot of the driver’s face. So minimizing the negative effects of these mishits is the best way to improve the average golfer’s score.

If you can increase your average drive on mishits by 10-15 yards, you’ll be closer to the greens by a club or two and that means more greens in regulation and lower scores.

Adjustable Hosel

Another major factor in getting more distance and hitting more fairways is optimizing your ball flight.

You can do this by improving your swing, but being able to make adjustments to your club is the fastest way to optimize your ball flight.

This means that an adjustable club can unlock a lot more potential in your swing. So the best driver for the average golfer should be adjustable to let them optimize the club for their swing and also re-optimize it if there are any swing changes.