The best golf drivers you can buy

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The Insider Pick:

• If you usually leave your driver in the bag, rather than risk a badly shanked tee shot that leaves you behind a tree or in the lake, why not try a different driver that offers the latest design features?

• The Ping G400 Max uses a smart design that will keep your off-center ball strikes closer to the target without robbing you of distance, which is sure to make the game of golf a lot more fun to play. 

The driver provides the most distance of any golf club in the bag or, perhaps more accurately, potential distance. Between shanked drives that dribble along the ground or careen wildly off the fairway, some golfers choose to use their drivers sparingly, despite the potential of this club.

If you cannot control your driver, hitting the ball off the tee can be a source of frustration. No one wants to hear the jeers of your opponents when you pull out a hybrid club or a long iron to use off the tee, sacrificing distance for accuracy.

Fortunately, golf club manufacturers have placed a lot of emphasis on adding new technologies to the driver, attempting to help all levels of golfers achieve more success off the tee. The driver is designed to give you the most distance of any club in your bag, as it has the longest shaft and the smallest angle of loft on the club face.

Today’s drivers don’t look much like the small sized, wooden head drivers from many decades ago that were commonly called 1-woods. In fact, the minimal loft of the driver’s club face and the long length of the club shaft are about the only similarities between older drivers and today’s drivers.

Of late, driver makers have worked to minimize the effect of mis-hits. A right-handed golfer who strikes the ball with a slightly open club face is likely to slice the shot, sending it far to the right of target, for example. Off-center mis-hits rob you of distance as well.

We've rounded up the best drivers with the latest technology in a variety of price ranges to help you find the one that's right for your golfing style.

Here are the best golf drivers you can buy:

• Best overall: Ping G400 Max
• Best for fixing a slice: Callaway Rogue Draw
  
• Best adjustable: Wilson C300
  
• Best for swing forgiveness: Cobra King F8
  
• Best affordable: TaylorMade AeroBurner Driver

Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.

The best driver overall

Ping

Why you'll love it: The Ping G400 Max Driver has a large sweet spot that will keep your off-center strikes more on line.

When you’re looking for the latest technology in a golf driver, you’re usually looking for a Ping driver. Ping has been at the forefront of recent upgrades to drivers, leading the change from a forward center of gravity to a rear center of gravity.

Ping’s new designs have been popular enough that many other driver companies have followed its engineering changes. Ping’s latest driver, the G400 Max, makes use of the rear center of gravity design with just enough engineering tweaks to make this driver a tremendous performer. The sharp-looking Ping G400 will deliver amazing performance for many different levels of golfers.

Today’s Golfer says the G400 Max gives you just a bit more forgiveness in your ball strikes than the G400, which is important for players of any experience level. The Golf WRX review likes the slightly smaller head size of the G400 Max versus other drivers and versus previous Ping drivers, as the smaller size allows for slightly faster clubhead speed.

At the top of the Ping G400 Max’s club face are small raised areas that help to reduce air friction and give you a little more club speed. Even an improvement as small as this can deliver enough of a bump in club speed to give you several more yards on your drive.

Golf a Lot says the G400 Max continues the tradition of high-quality drivers from Ping, giving you just enough improvement over its predecessors to make the G400 the new king of the hill.

The G400 isn’t cheap. So if you’re happy with your current driver, you may want to stick with it. But if you’re unhappy with your current driver — and honestly, who isn’t a lot of the time? — the Ping G400 Max is an amazing piece of golf technology.

Pros: Delivers the length you want from the driver with a more forgiving face for mishits, includes all of the latest technological updates, comes from a well-respected driver manufacturer

Cons: Drivers are expensive and this is no exception, not hugely different from last Ping driver model

Buy the Ping G400 Max Driver on Worldwide Golf Shops for $399.99

The best driver for fixing a slice

Callaway

Why you'll love it: The Callaway Rogue Draw driver is very effective at reducing the penalty from a slice.

If you’ve never sliced a golf shot … well, you’ve probably never played golf. Few things are as frustrating in the game. Sure, you hate leaving that 4-footer for birdie short, but at least you made two or three great shots to put yourself in that position.

The sliced drive almost always means you’re in huge trouble off the tee, and you’re in for a long, frustrating hole. Callaway's Rogue Draw driver is good at minimizing the negative effects of a slice.

A slice occurs when the face of the driver doesn’t strike the ball squarely. Instead, the heel of the club face is ahead of the toe, leaving the club “open” and causing the ball to leave the driver’s face with a side spin. For a right-handed golfer, this spin causes the ball to travel violently from left to right as it goes down the fairway, almost certainly leaving you in the rough, trees, or water hazard.

GolfTec says that Callaway increased the moment of inertia (MOI) across a wider section of the driver’s face, giving it a more forgiving ball strike. If you strike the ball off-center with the Rogue Draw, you won’t be penalized as severely as you would be with a less forgiving club face.

The Rogue Draw contains a greater amount of weight in the heel of the club versus the toe, which should slow down the heel and help you square the ball better, according to Golf Magazine.

Today’s Golfer says that although you won’t be able to see the slice-battling technology in the Rogue Draw, the results are clear. Its tests show that you’ll receive seven yards of draw bias versus last year’s Callaway Epic driver, which could mean the difference between being in the rough and being on the edge of the fairway.

The Callaway Rogue Draw driver does exactly what it promises, according to a buyer named Mr. M, making it easier to stay in the fairway off the tee.

Pros: Uses extra weight in the heel to encourage a ball strike that’s more square, larger sweet spot on the club face to reduce penalty from mis-hits, looks just like a non-draw-biased driver

Cons: Extremely expensive, won’t fix severe slice problems as well as changing your swing

Buy the Callaway Men’s Rogue Draw Driver on Amazon for $499.95

Buy the Callaway Women’s Rogue Draw Driver on Amazon for $499.99

The best adjustable driver

Wilson

Why you'll love it: For golfers who struggle to repeat their swing from round to round, having an adjustable driver like the Wilson Staff C300 can help them dial in the proper club head path based on the way they’re playing that day.

Having an adjustable driver may seem odd to golf purists, but golf clubs that allow you to make slight adjustments to the various parts of the club while you’re on the course are becoming more popular. One of the most interesting adjustable drivers is the Wilson Staff C300 driver.

To start, you can adjust the loft and face angle of the C300 driver by using a twistable cylinder at the hosel of the club (just above the club head). You can change the loft in six different positions between minus-1 and plus-2 degrees with this cylinder.

Additionally, the C300 gives you adjustable weights in the club head. By changing the position of these weights, you can give this Wilson driver a draw bias, a fade bias, or a neutral bias for the ball flight. A draw bias causes the ball to spin slightly to the left, a fade bias spins the ball to the right, and the neutral bias reduces side spin.

You won’t be able to fix significant swing problems by adjusting the position of the weights in the club head, but you will receive slightly different ball paths with changes in the location of these weights.

As Golf Magazine mentions, another interesting design feature is what the manufacturer calls Power Holes, which are filled with urethane and provide a greater flex for the club face at impact, which increases the size of the sweet spot.

The C300 driver has a great looking shape and a rich red color on the top of the club. The C300’s matte finish reduces sun glare, too.

Golfers who have a high swing speed rate will receive the greatest benefit from the Staff C300 driver, according to Golfalot. However, high handicap players with slow swing speeds probably won’t receive much distance benefit from this driver, making it tough to justify its high price point.

Because of the low spin rate this club delivers off the face, golfers will receive extra forgiveness for off-center ball strikes, according to The Hackers Paradise.

With a heavier swing weight than some other Wilson drivers, one buyer named DJ179 says controlling the Staff C300 is an easier process.

Pros: Highly adjustable driver for changing the club face’s loft and weight positioning, red matte finish on the top of the driver reduces glare, slow spin rate delivers forgiveness for off-center ball strikes

Cons: High price point, high handicap players who have slow swing speeds won’t generate extra distance

Buy the Wilson Staff C300 Driver on Amazon for $399.99

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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SEE ALSO: The best golf irons you can buy