To fully comprehend the interactive graphic below, let's start with a driver that hammers home the point we're trying to make: Ping's G440 LST. Of the models we tested in this glorified "driver royal rumble," G440 LST didn't post the field's longest center-strike carry. That title actually belongs to an older Ping model: G425 LST (231.2 yards).
However, if you were to move impact away from the geometric center (high, low, heel and toe), G440 LST becomes the only driver in a 74-head field that ranks first or second in every miss region we measured.
This is the kind of insight that doesn't surface when you fixate on a center strike, and it's why we spent time creating the multi-colored behemoth.
For this particular test, we brought together driver models going back to 2017 through the current 2026 crop to determine which drivers actually save yardage on the shots you don't strike pure, and how much nine years of design has changed the answer.
It's also a way to determine if your current gamer is geared for your particular miss.
Testing protocol
Golf Laboratories ran the 74-head field through robotic testing in San Diego. Club speed was set to 95 mph, roughly the recreational average, with a zero-degree attack angle, square path and neutral face at impact. Every driver was tested at 10.5 degrees, with the exception of the Titleist heads, which were tested at the standard 10 degrees.
For each head, the robot struck six shots from each of nine face zones (54 per head): center, high-center, low-center, mid-heel, high-heel, low-heel, mid-toe, high-toe and low-toe. Ball data was captured on a Foresight GCQuad launch monitor, and every swing used the same Titleist Pro V1x golf ball.
How to interpret the visual
Each dot is one of the 74 drivers we tested. The horizontal axis measures how much better each driver carries on toe misses versus heel misses, while the vertical axis does the same for high versus low impact. The gray lines mark the field median, which is another way to say the "typical driver" reference point. A dot in the upper-right rewards a high-toe miss; a dot in the lower-left is built for the low-heel. Positive numbers mean the driver saves more yardage on that side of the face; negative numbers mean the opposite.
Let's take a look at G440 LST, which sits close to the median crossing point. It might look like a boring result, but it's actually a compelling story. Its position is unusually balanced, meaning it doesn't punish any one type of miss more than a typical driver does, in either dimension. That balance is why it ranked first or second in every miss region during our testing.
Now look at TaylorMade Qi10 LS in the far upper-right corner. This is a driver that's noticeably above the median on both axes, meaning it rewards toe misses and high impact much more than a typical driver does. It's a great option if your miss tends to be high-toe, but it punishes low impact.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Cobra's Dark Speed Adapt Max-D. The negative X means it actually carries better on heel misses than on toe misses, which fits its identity as a draw-biased head, since most draw models are engineered to reward heel contact.
Drivers like G430 Max, which sits midway up the field median line, are geared for golfers who impact high on the face. In this case, all three locations the swing robot impacted high on the face resulted in carry distances that were nearly identical to a center strike, making it a good option for golfers with inconsistent high-face contact.
Why this matters
Unless you're the second coming of Moe Norman, it's fair to say nobody hits the sweet spot with robot-like precision. This is where it pays to know your miss tendency.
Persistent low-heel misser? Look bottom-left. Someone who lives in the high-toe? Upper-right. Undecided, or your miss changes shot to shot? The heads clustered near the median tend to be the safest bets, because they don't need one particular miss to work.
Click any dot to pull up that driver's full nine-zone heat map, or use the comparison dropdown to set two heads against each other. You can also filter by brand and release year to narrow the field.