Budget Vs Expensive Driver Test

Golf Monthly

In this budget versus expensive driver test, Neil Tappin puts two drivers at opposite ends of the price spectrum through their paces.

Transcript

00:00 Now the driver that I have in my hands here might just be the best value for money product I've

00:05 tested so far this year. Now I was fitted for this a couple of months ago and the model that I've got

00:10 in my hands here comes in well under 300 pounds here in the UK, $300 in the US, and since I've

00:17 received it I've hit it on a launch monitor up against a more premium priced driver and I've

00:21 hit it extensively on the golf course and on the driving range and I have been really quite

00:27 impressed by this. Now there's quite a bit to talk about so we're here at the London Club, let's get started.

00:32 Right so I'm sure there's a few people out there who might have already guessed what driver it is

00:47 that I'm holding but before I tell you exactly what it is I'm going to talk a bit about the looks

00:52 and the feel and as you set the driver down behind the ball it has what I would describe as quite a

00:56 generous footprint so it just looks fairly big without being too big so it feels quite easy to

01:03 hit it feels like there's a lot of club down behind the ball and I think that's a good thing it feels

01:08 to me like this is going to be easy to hit and in terms of the styling and the aesthetics it's very

01:14 simple so there's a kind of almost like a triangular area that highlights some carbon on the crown

01:20 and it also helps to frame the ball nicely down behind the ball there's a very simple alignment

01:25 aid but it's all very subtle there's nothing about this driver that kind of is leaping out of me as

01:30 being a kind of marmite thing that people are either going to love or going to hate I think

01:34 it's the sort of thing that a lot of people will like in terms of the looks I'd be interested to

01:38 hear what you think do you think this looks like a premium driver do you think this looks like a

01:41 driver that could cost you around about the 500 mark or do you think it's something that's maybe

01:46 a little bit below that I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and actually quite a nice comparison

01:50 in terms of the aesthetics is with the Callaway Rogue ST I'd say the Callaway Rogue ST certainly

01:57 looks a little longer from front to back probably a little bit bigger overall and possibly a little

02:02 bit more refined overall but having said that I think the club that I've got in my hands here

02:09 it looks really good down behind the ball now in terms of the feel actually I'm going to hit

02:15 one first and then I'll talk to you about what the feel is like so listen out for how it sounds

02:22 through impact so to me the sound and the feel I would describe as lively so it's not as as sort

02:33 of dull and as muted as you'll find elsewhere on the driver market certainly that Callaway driver

02:38 is a little bit more muted than this one here but actually I think it's the feel suits the look so

02:45 it feels generous down behind the ball and then when you hit it it's got that quite loud high

02:50 pitched impact sound that makes it feel easy to hit okay so that's my assessment on the looks

02:56 and the feel I think it's time I told you exactly what this driver is it is the PXG 0211 and as I

03:05 was fitted for this it has a Diamana 60S X-Flex shaft in it as I said comes in under 300 pounds

03:14 and there are a few more points I need to make about the performance okay so as I mentioned at

03:19 the start I've hit this driver on a launch monitor up against the TaylorMade Stealth Plus that I was

03:25 also fitted for a few months ago and I will talk you through that data in a little bit but before

03:30 I do that I'm going to tell you how this performed for me out on the golf course I've hit it a couple

03:34 of times but one of the rounds I had Arcos running and I played nine holes with it what's quite

03:40 interesting about that is that I was averaging I think I was averaging 268 off the tee with this

03:45 driver which isn't necessarily particularly long for me but it did include one hole where I had to

03:49 shake the ball quite heavily from left to right around the corner of a dog leg I did hit one drive

03:54 during that round that went over 290 yards which is really good distance for me and I think it shows

03:58 that this driver does offer good distance for me but what's more interesting I thought when I hit

04:04 this was just how easy it was to hit how easy it was to launch interestingly the head that I've got

04:11 um that I was fitted for is 10.5 degrees now that's a little bit higher lofted than I tend to

04:16 be fitted for but it did seem to translate into a really sort of easy to launch easy to hit driver

04:23 that just felt very forgiving and very friendly and playable while I was out on the golf course

04:26 it sort of suits the look and the feel that I've already talked about now I've got five golf balls

04:32 in front of me as you can see I'm on the 15th hole here at the London club I'm going to hit

04:36 all five of these golf balls and we'll walk up and find out how far they've gone and where they are

05:01 okay so five shots hit some good strikes some bad strikes be interesting to see where they've

05:06 finished okay so some quite interesting findings that as I mentioned on the tee

05:12 um some different strikes so I hit one that was right out the bottom I hit one that was out of

05:16 the toe and then the others I hit pretty well and the difference between my longest and my shortest

05:20 shot was only around about 18 yards so my longest shot is up here hopefully you can see that on the

05:27 fairway out there that leaves around about 50 yards into the green there's one in the left hand

05:30 semi and then if I swing around here you'll see my cameraman Muzza give us a wave um one two and

05:37 then one in the right hand semi as well so not a huge difference in terms of distance I'd say the

05:43 average distance that I hit those is about 270 so that would correlate with what I found while I was

05:48 testing it out on the golf course um it's pretty good distance I would say in these conditions you

05:53 know if I was hitting it in the middle of summer it was bone dry I'd expect him to know these shots

05:57 to be another 15 or so yards up the fairway so all in all I'm really quite impressed because as I

06:03 said I hit those shots in a variety of locations around the face and as you can see they've all

06:09 done fairly well okay so I have tested these two drivers up against each other on a Trackman launch

06:15 monitor at King's Golf Studio using Titleist Pro V1X golf balls and here is the data it's quite

06:21 interesting so firstly to speak about the TaylorMade Stealth Plus really pleased with the performance

06:27 of this I was really well fitted for it and you and I can see it in the numbers it performs really

06:31 well for me in particular when you put these two drivers against each other I think the big

06:35 difference for me looking at the data is the ball speed and not only the ball speed but also the

06:42 head speed so that the Stealth Plus was moving a little bit faster through the air which I think

06:46 speaks to the work that TaylorMade had done on the inertia generator on the back of the head

06:51 and it delivered more ball speed and because the spin was under control because of the really good

06:55 fitting and because the head that I was fitted into that delivered me fantastic distance and

07:00 sort of consistency of distance as well was very good but the PHE wasn't too far behind yes I was

07:06 giving up a little bit of distance but as I said out on the golf course that distance didn't really

07:11 seem to sort of cost me too much it felt like I was in good control of this driver and it is

07:15 important to note that this isn't their premium tour play driver that's the 0811 so I think for

07:22 the money the difference in price between these two drivers the TaylorMade Stealth Plus coming in

07:27 just under 500 pounds the 0211 from PHG coming in at just under 300 pounds there's not a massive golf

07:35 in terms of performance for me yes if I was picking purely on performance I would go with

07:39 the TaylorMade Stealth Plus but the PHG 0211 I think when you look at the data and at the

07:44 performance I was able to get on the golf course I think it says there's a reasonable amount of

07:48 performance to be gained from this driver. Okay so there you have it that's my review of the PHG

07:58 0211 has anyone watching this video used this driver have you bought this driver if so please

08:04 do leave some comments we'd be really interested to hear what your experiences of it have been

08:08 because for me this is an excellent value for money product one of the best that I've seen

08:15 in 2022 but that's it for now from the London Club thank you very much for watching we will see you

08:20 next time.

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