2021 Community Driver Chronicles

Eddie

I don’t trust any of the things I read anywhere else, so let’s create our own base of info about the 2021 drivers that are coming out.

Feel free to compare or provide any insight, as informal as it may be, and also let’s see what each of us starts with and ends up with by the end of the year.

The obvious contenders are the Epic line, SIM2, g425, Tsi, Srixon, etc....

I got to see the 425 LST head and ugh, it sets up really well. I still think my fall back this year will be the Tsi3 in 10 degree.

Going to be able to test the SIM2 pretty thoroughly soon as well.

ckay

Looking forward to the reviews. I’m not a chronic upgrader of the driver. The only reason I have a SIM is because TM replaced an M6 for me and I requested a SIM over the Max.

Putterho

I’ve been a G400max Ho the last couple years. I did not jive with the G410 so I went and stockpiled backups in the 9* and 10.5* heads. There has just been too much hype from the G425 users that I am going to give the LST and the Max a go this week. Stay Tuned .....

ckay

Awesome pic

dphatt

Ping G425Max and LST head

I have hit both heads extensively now and I will say I have ordered one of these. The LST is noticeably smaller than the Max and it is very low spin. I almost have trouble spinning the 10.5 enough to stay in the air. The LST also is a little more muted than the Max. I am going to go with the Max because I can get the swing weight down to something more reasonable with the lighter weight. The LST comes with either a 14g or 17g weight while the Max comes with the 23g weight. The Max head with the 14g weight head came in at 193.5 which works well with the 45.5 cut length that I will be playing it at.

Epic Speed Epic Max

The shape of the Epic Speed reminds me more of the Subzero and it has a good amount of bulge and roll. The spin was relatively low but it definitely had more left bias for me which I do not prefer. The Max head looks like the Ping G425Max. Just big and forgiving but the spin was not as low as I would like it to be. I think the LS head would be the one I would be looking at but they did not have the demo in stock for me to try.

Srixon ZX5 and 7

From a looks perspective these look really good but they super low spin. All I could get were knuckleballs. Srixon should put these at $450 to under cut the competition. At $529 there are way too many options for people to even consider a Srixon driver.

SIM2

#staytuned

Eddie

dphatt I think the LS head would be the one I would be looking at but they did not have the demo in stock for me to try.

Is the LS head now more like the triple diamond instead of the SZ head?

dphatt

Eddie I am waiting to see how the LS looks. There will be a Epic Speed Triple Diamond that will come to retail. It will have the usual subzero front and back weight.

KDBeach

I’m looking forward to trying out the Epic Speed. I like the traditional look & the potential of some added forgiveness. We’ll see if it can knock the TS3 out of the bag.

Golfingfanatic

There are actually three different triple diamond heads on tour apparently. Callaway has gone a bit mad imo with all these heads.

dphatt

Golfingfanatic just like the good ole TaylorMade days

ckay

dphatt those days were fun. Nothing like duck hooking a $1,500 Superquad 282 Ozik combo in front of your pals after you explained to them what made it so special.

Putterho

I feel like there has always been a hot driver or two every year for the past decade. This is the year that I feel like there could be 5 legitimate big dogs. I sort of wish I had that club champion/tourspec adapter on my shaft so I could try a lot of different heads but we all know that I'll just buy 4 shafts and different adapters. Problem is finding more of my beloved 5 year old Accra Tour Z shafts. Eddie's paintsplash Accra will have a the Ping G410/425 adapter on it momentarily in hopes that its the gamer. It has always been my interchangeable go to when the tempo got quick since it worked better for whatever reason.

dphatt

Putterho the interchangeable adapters suck because they add so much weight it makes the driver swing weight at D8-9. Absolutely useless.

titleistforged

Anyone willing to try the RAD? I know Cobra isn't super sexy, but just a thought. Or even the new 0211 PXG.

kyledrum2002

titleistforged i would. Surprisingly, still playing the F9. I wanted something new last year, but nothing beat it out.

dphatt

I will be spending a significant time with the SIM2 and Max drivers today. What would you like to see me test? How many swings per each club? I will be using the same shaft for each head.

Jaybananapantsarthur

dphatt without much of existing content showing distance gains, I would be more interested in dispersion numbers.

brushie

dphatt dispersion and perceived forgiveness vs original Sim models.

epyon

I am interseted in trying the SIM2, mostly for the deeper face. The shallow face of the SIM saps my confidence a bit. I would really miss having the weight track though, and a lot of fitters are saying the loss of the track is a disadvantage for fittings.

dphatt

Testing

dphatt

I was able to hit some of the new TM and Callaway clubs today. Here are some of my notes from each club I hit.

Warm up:

I started with my own irons and then went into hitting some of my woods. Before I started I grabbed the new Apex Pro to try. At address it looks great. It’s not small but not big either. I was excited to hit these as I wanted them to perform. My first shot and I looked my friend and asked him if this was how it was to sound? I hit a few more. This thing doesn’t sound like how it looks. It was loud and clicky and super disappointing. The numbers were ok but I quickly let this club go and went on to the woods.

I started with my gamer which is an Epic Flash TD with the Accra TZ6. I have yet to find anything to beat this club. I hit enough decent shots to get a baseline. I told my friend to just hand me SIM2 drivers without letting me know what they were.

The shaft I used was the Diamana S+ Gen2. My initial shots with the TM driver were good. The sound and feel were fantastic. I didn’t want to know what I hit so I just had him hand me clubs. The numbers listed below are the averages of each club. To be honest I didn’t see that big of a difference between the SIM2 and Max. The numbers looked identical. The dispersion was about the same as my gamer but I would occasionally get the high spinner 3k+ RPM shot from no where. I never have this with my Callaway. This is the problem I had with the original SIM too which made me hate it. The great shots would be great but I would get the high spin floater that went no where on occasional shots. Maybe this is the twist face because I seem to get that on all of the TM drivers that have twistface.

I then moved to the Callaway drivers. The Epic Speed has a very round shape including the face. I hit this club left quite often and didn’t really care for it. The Epic Max was the star of the show and I was able to hit this dead straight no matter what swing I put on it. It reminds me of a bigger TD. The feel of the Callaway drivers were also very good. It was a soft sound that had punch to it.

In summary I still didn’t see anything in the new drivers that would make me want to change. Does that mean I won’t buy something? Of course not as I already ordered some of the newer clubs. 🤦‍♂️

I did have some time left so I hit the new SIM2 three wood with my Ventus Blue shaft. The new three wood is 10cc smaller and you can definitely see the difference. Maybe it’s the color. The feel is a lot better than the original SIM but the numbers were on par or maybe a touch worse than my gamer. The smaller size definitely did not make me feel comfortable. The one club I did like was the SIM2 hybrid. I grabbed this to hit at the end for shits and giggles. The first swing and I was like “Wow! This feels and sounds really good.” It’s a muted sound and the ballspeed numbers were really good. The more I hit it the more I was thinking that this might be the first time a new hybrid might beat out my OG Apex. I kept coming back to hitting it. I may have to order one.

That’s all I have for now so if you guys have any questions please fire away.

dbenick3

dphatt you hit the all black version right? That thing looked good when I saw it.

bruinmw

dphatt I also still have my OG apex hybrid. Love that club. Picked up a SIM max hybrid last year, and had it in the bag for most of last year, but haven't really been convinced that I hit it better than the OG apex. Will have to check out the Sim2 hybrid now. The sim2 hybrid has the adjustable hosel?