Hot List 2025: What does our 'MOI Rating' mean?

The “MOI Rating” characterizes drivers based on the measured Moment of Inertia of a driver (stability on off-center hits) in the heel-toe direction. The limit is 5,900 grams-centimeters squared, plus a 100-point tolerance.

Measurements were conducted by Tom Mase, a long-time member of the Golf Digest Technical Panel and professor of mechanical engineering at Cal Poly.

All drivers on this year's Hot List are very stable on off-center hits. Today, drivers that are pushing closer to the limit will lose less in relation to their on-center ball speed on extreme mis-hits than drivers lower on the scale. Again, that is mostly true on extreme mis-hits.

How much off-center hit stability you want in your driver is a fairly simple equation: The less you miss the center of the face, the less important extreme stability is to you. The more important lowering spin is to optimizing your tee shots, the more you will benefit from drivers that are not pushing the extreme limits of MOI.

That said, we think most average golfers would benefit from drivers higher on the MOI scale, presuming an extremely high MOI does not negatively affect how consistently you return the clubhead to hit the ball in the center of the face, square to the target line.

We slotted drivers into four groups:
MODERATE—Less than 4,500 grams-centimeters squared
ABOVE AVERAGE—4,500-4,900
HIGH—4,900-5,500
EXTREME—Higher than 5,500