Best driver for slight toe strike

[Z1ggy16]

Which driver is most stable on slight toe strikes?

 

Not sure why but my TSR2 seems to really lose spin on even slightly toe side hits which makes the ball dive out of the air.

[hammergolf]

My miss is toe side, and for me the og Taylormade Sim Max performs better distance and dispersion wise than any other driver I’ve hit, and I’ve hit them all. 

[AnthonyC143]

My buddy was hitting good drives with a ton of toe strikes on a Callaway rogue.  I was very impressed.

[jvincent]

A big vote for the G430 LST.

[Dr.Potat]

Ping G430 Max seems to maintain pretty solid spin numbers even on mishits, living up to their “spinsistency” claim. 
 

If you are consistently towards the toe, something with a moveable weight in the back would be helpful to get the weight behind the strike. I remember this being something on TXG that they talked about when the TSR3 came out. 

[brutusflash]

R9 Superdeep, TaylorMade even said ball speeds were the highest with the heavier weight in the toe.

Flash

[Tyler724]

Callaway Rogue ST

[ProV1Killa]

The hot spot on almost every driver made today is slightly toe side and slightly high of center.  

[DixieD]

Ping is the king of toe strikes, however I have found recent Callaways from epic speed onwards seriously catching up but with much better feel off the face. 

[Z1ggy16]

Sounds like Ping and Callaway due to moveable weight.

 

I might have to give the cool clubs club testing a look too because I know they test for this. 

 

[Z1ggy16]

2 minutes ago, Z1ggy16 said:

Sounds like Ping and Callaway due to moveable weight.

 

I might have to give the cool clubs club testing a look too because I know they test for this. 

 

And just to be specific where I'm sometimes striking it but seeing really bad results from the current driver - 🟣 purple x

[RoryDawg27]

Man I honestly though the TSR had the most consistant spin retention across the face. 

[Opie Winston]

Ping G430 Max, weight towards the toe. Flat setting has worked the best for me and I'm a toe side guy.

[ProV1Killa]

14 hours ago, Z1ggy16 said:

And just to be specific where I'm sometimes striking it but seeing really bad results from the current driver - 🟣 purple x

That makes no sense to me.  Where that X is almost dead on where the hot spot in that driver should be. That, by no means, would be considered a toe strike.  In fact that is where the majority of long hitters practice and want to hit the ball. Ball speed should jump and spin should drop a couple hundred RPMs.  Howard Jones has a ton of experience and has this down to a science, I believe his calculation puts the sweet spot for modern drivers at 1/8" toe side and 3/16" high of true COG. The only thing that I can think of is if your launch and spin numbers out of center are critically close to not being playable you might loose enough spin out of that spot for it to loose carry.  If you were fit for the driver is it possible that you were either swinging unusually well and had more speed/launch than normal or were striking lower in the face creating more RPMs than normal?

 

 

[nosedive32]

Sim 2 Max was the greatest driver I've ever hit on toe strikes.

 

I was driving it really well back in 2021 and it got to the point I was intentionally high toeing it with that driver because that's where my best drives came from.

 

My current 430 LST does pretty well on the strikes but I can't say it's better than the Sim 2 Max was.

[Frank Newport]

1 hour ago, nosedive32 said:

Sim 2 Max was the greatest driver I've ever hit on toe strikes.

 

I was driving it really well back in 2021 and it got to the point I was intentionally high toeing it with that driver because that's where my best drives came from.

 

My current 430 LST does pretty well on the strikes but I can't say it's better than the Sim 2 Max was.

That has been my experience with the standard Stealth 2 driver. It’s unbelievable out of the toe.

[absoludicrous]

That’s odd. I played today with a TSR2 and my longest drive of the day was high toe. I hit a couple that I thought were solid and my longer ones, but according to my Garmin they weren’t as long as that high toe strike.

[Z1ggy16]

8 hours ago, ProV1Killa said:

That makes no sense to me.  Where that X is almost dead on where the hot spot in that driver should be. That, by no means, would be considered a toe strike.  In fact that is where the majority of long hitters practice and want to hit the ball. Ball speed should jump and spin should drop a couple hundred RPMs.  Howard Jones has a ton of experience and has this down to a science, I believe his calculation puts the sweet spot for modern drivers at 1/8" toe side and 3/16" high of true COG. The only thing that I can think of is if your launch and spin numbers out of center are critically close to not being playable you might loose enough spin out of that spot for it to loose carry.  If you were fit for the driver is it possible that you were either swinging unusually well and had more speed/launch than normal or were striking lower in the face creating more RPMs than normal?

 

 

The purple x is probably 1/2" toe relative to middle. The dots shown are 1/4" from geometric center. 

 

When I was fit I was actually hitting it dead middle but a bit high in the face so I was getting that perfect high launch with slightly low spin setting.

[Z1ggy16]

7 hours ago, absoludicrous said:

That’s odd. I played today with a TSR2 and my longest drive of the day was high toe. I hit a couple that I thought were solid and my longer ones, but according to my Garmin they weren’t as long as that high toe strike.

What loft is yours? And what's your attack angle like?

[phizzy30]

8 hours ago, absoludicrous said:

That’s odd. I played today with a TSR2 and my longest drive of the day was high toe. I hit a couple that I thought were solid and my longer ones, but according to my Garmin they weren’t as long as that high toe strike.

High toe is is actually supposed to be the true sweet spot of the modern driver.  1mm high and about 2mm away from the middle of the face.   

[absoludicrous]

3 hours ago, Z1ggy16 said:

What loft is yours? And what's your attack angle like?

9°. I don’t currently have a launch monitor, but during my fitting my range was +2 to +4. Not very fast swing speed. ~100-105 mph. 
 

I liked that in my fitting my low and heel strikes weren’t that bad compared to my center and toe strikes, which gave me the best distance. I mainly bought it for the forgiveness for my swing rather than the center and slight toe performance since the other brands were all just as good. 

[Jackal]

That 🟣 purple X is where most drivers do best at impact.

My Son and I both try for that area.

I hit a Rogue ST, and he has a Ping G430 & a Paradym.

Try to get someone to work with you on a launch monitor.

👍👍

[Z1ggy16]

2 hours ago, Jackal said:

That 🟣 purple X is where most drivers do best at impact.

My Son and I both try for that area.

I hit a Rogue ST, and he has a Ping G430 & a Paradym.

Try to get someone to work with you on a launch monitor.

👍👍

My only thought is that with my aoa being normally around 0-1 and delofting naturally, that when I toe it a bit, it closes the face even more - maybe I only have 5-6* of actual loft at impact. since I'm not swinging 130mph, the lower spin won't keep the ball in the air enough. 

[Jackal]

4 hours ago, Z1ggy16 said:

My only thought is that with my aoa being normally around 0-1 and delofting naturally, that when I toe it a bit, it closes the face even more - maybe I only have 5-6* of actual loft at impact. since I'm not swinging 130mph, the lower spin won't keep the ball in the air enough. 

Sometimes I move my ball position without realizing it .

There are times that my ball will just fall out of the air.

Get someone that knows to look at it.

It could be just a little tweak, and you don't want to change too much on your own.

It might help to upload some swing videos.

There are a lot of people on here, and Monte that get you close to the problem.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Jackal

[hagimihale]

Anything with a moveable weight should be on the list.  Put the weight out towards the toe, so the extra mass is behind your strike location.

[PNW]

On 10/14/2023 at 7:49 PM, nosedive32 said:

Sim 2 Max was the greatest driver I've ever hit on toe strikes.

 

I was driving it really well back in 2021 and it got to the point I was intentionally high toeing it with that driver because that's where my best drives came from.

 

My current 430 LST does pretty well on the strikes but I can't say it's better than the Sim 2 Max was.

 

I played the Sim2 Max 9* for a couple years and wound up doing the exact same thing. Spun way too much middle and low but it was perfect spin on that high toe spot, I just always hit it there. I also replace the two weights and moved 10g forward.

 

I'm not a professional fitter but I would think that if someone is always hitting high toe then a Max model driver is probably best, especially if it has moveable weight. Spin will drop in that location but will stay in a relatively better window with a Max model. Otherwise spin drop too much with a LS model in that strike location, sub 2k. I tried and really wanted to like the Aerojet LS but spin was too low when I missed there and the ball would knuckle. I'm playing a TSR3 now for that reason, it just generally spins a little more. 

[vamosjackets]

On 10/14/2023 at 7:50 AM, Z1ggy16 said:

Sounds like Ping and Callaway due to moveable weight.

 

I might have to give the cool clubs club testing a look too because I know they test for this. 

 

My fitter at True Spec said their robot data had the Paradym as the king of forgiveness with very little drop off in ball speed on off-center contact.  I also found this to be true in my own fitting as that driver was super impressive in consistency of distance.  It didn't quite have the super-distance in the tank that my ultimate choice had (Stealth 2+), but it was no slouch in the distance department by any means. 

 

For an older model, I found the PXG Gen 4 to be impressively stable and consistent (not great on overall distance though).  My old gamer TS2 was also pretty good on toe misses.

 

A lot is also going to depend on the stability/torque of the shaft.  

Edited October 16, 2023 by vamosjackets

[Cwebb]

You may just need to go up in actual loft to get your spin where it needs to be on the "hot-spot", which is almost always slightly toe side

[Z1ggy16]

24 minutes ago, Cwebb said:

You may just need to go up in actual loft to get your spin where it needs to be on the "hot-spot", which is almost always slightly toe side

I think so. My fitter set me up for ideal bomber balls, I remember seeing the data and the average spin was 1900. Great when it's in the middle but not great when it's slightly high and slightly toe. My guess is spin is like 1200-1400 which is why I see the ball fall out of the air. 

[Pepperturbo]

Many good golfers stand on the tee and identify down range where they want the ball to go in case they miss it, but never heard of an OEM's designing drivers purposely for bad ball striking.  That's a new one for me.   Maybe it's just the way I am reading it. LOL

 

If I mishit the ball with TSR2, I then adjust my setup and or mechanics and hit the ball correct the next time.  For best spin results with TSR2, means a fraction above the center and a smidgen forward towards toe = ball go far. 🙂

 

Never had my ProV1x ball fall out of the air.

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by Pepperturbo