The complete guide to buying a golf driver

A driver (also known as the ‘number one wood’) is the club in your set with the biggest head and the longest shaft. It tends to be the most expensive club in your bag, and it’s the hardest one to hit with accuracy. Keen amateurs can hope to use their driver to reach distances of up to 250 yards, while professionals can routinely achieve drives of over 300 yards.

And distance really is where it’s at when it comes to drivers. Golfers agonise over which driver to use perhaps more than any other club in their set, because if they can’t get that initial distance off the tee then the rest of their game will suffer. Of course, accuracy matters too but lack of distance can bring huge disadvantages so it’s no wonder that golfers obsess over it so much.

Thanks to advances in modern technology and market demand, drivers have come a long way in the past decade or so. Gains in precision manufacturing mean drivers can be designed with more accuracy and finesse than ever before. Manufacturers have spent vast amounts of money and time developing and researching drivers. While this is great news for the evolution of the game, it inevitably leads to more choice than ever before, which can be a confusing place to be when you’re looking for a new or preloved driver.

Whereas back in the day, a driver would have been made from persimmon wood with a fixed head, and only available in a few different dimensions, now there’s not much that can’t be adjusted to suit your personal preference. And since everyone’s swing is totally different, that’s great news for today’s golfer.