Range Results: How We Processed nearly 27,000 Shots for the Hot List

When you're looking at almost 27,000 shots, it's easy to get lost in all the numbers. That's why for this year's Hot List we brought in the expertise of our team of scientists to quantify the performance differences that our players were seeing. Their conclusion: The differences are not vast, but they provide subtle clues as to how one model is distinct from another.

The scatter plots that you see accompanying each driver model and 7-iron model reflect data recorded by the Rapsodo MLM2Pro launch monitors, which were set up at every player's hitting station during this year's Hot List player testing sessions. All the data was analyzed by Tom Mase, Ph.D and professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cal Poly and a long-time member of our Hot List Technical Advisory Panel. In addition to working as an engineer at several leading golf companies, Mase has been researching golf club performance for decades for multiple outlets, including the USGA and Golf Digest. He was the lead researcher in our landmark study of whether leaving the flagstick in or out would lead to more made putts.

Hot List: The Best Drivers for 2025

Hot List: The Best Irons for 2025

In simplest terms, these graphics show how a particular model driver or 7-iron performed in distance and dispersion during our player testing sessions, relative to the field in its specific club category (all drivers or all 7-irons). The two ellipses represent the shots produced by a particular model (in red) compared to all of the clubs in that category (in black). The distance number is shown as a percentage (plus or minus) that each player who hit that model saw compared to that player’s particular average for that club category. This was done for each player allowing us to aggregate shots hit by players having different club head speeds. For example, if Player A's average drive with Driver 1 was 247 yards and Player A's average with all drivers was 243 yards, then Player A's average gain with Driver 1 was 1.6 percent. The average of all of those gains and losses for all of the players who hit Driver 1 is reflected in the graphic by the center of the red ellipse.

Each player’s Rapsodo data was cycled through and considered separately. Each club hit was analyzed separately. A two-sided Grubbs test for distance outliers was applied to the club distance data. Total distance was used for drivers while all others used carry distance. The Grubbs test was set such that there was less than a 5 percent chance data eliminated belonged to the sample. Shots whose distance was less than 80 percent of a players’ average were considered mishits and eliminated. For example, shots less than 120 yards were tossed out for a player with an overall 7-iron average of 150 yards. Simply put, a 20-percent miss in distance is a swing error, not a club deficiency.

Some important points to consider:

DRIVERS

1. Not each of our 32 player testers hit every model driver. Each player was custom fit on site to the model of driver within each family that our fitters determined was ideal for his or her game. For example, there were three models within the Srixon ZXi family. Of those, 16 of our players hit ZXi LS, 10 hit ZXi and six hit ZXi Max. The averages reflect that distribution.
2. The number of individual player comments that accompany each driver largely reflect the number of players who hit that specific model. The scatter plot reflects their hits. In short, these graphics represent the results of those players who hit that model. They do not necessarily mean they are the expected results for all players who would hit that model. In other words, a high-swing speed player who plays a natural high draw would see different results on a driver designed to fight a slice and launch it high than what would be shown by a graphic that reflects what happened when that same driver was hit by a group of slicers who swing at below average speed and naturally launch it low. In other words, a high-speed, high-launch player hitting a driver designed to accentuate that kind of ball flight, might hit it too high (shorter) and excessively left. That’s why players were only evaluating drivers that our team of Golf Galaxy fitters determined were the best possible fit for their particular specs.
3. Drivers without an accompanying graphic were not hit by a sufficient number of players.
4. Just because a model is billed as anti-slice does not mean it produces shots in these plots that would indicate a left-of-center bias. Players who were fit into those specific models tended to miss shots consistently to the right as a baseline so their results would likely still reflect something of a right bias but still less right than their normal shots likely would fall.

IRONS

1. All 32 players hit all the irons in the Players Distance and Game Improvement categories. Only our Low and Middle handicap panelists hit Players irons. Only our High handicap panelists hit Super Game Improvement irons.
2. Remember the range of 7-iron lofts is vast. Some 7-iron lofts dip as low as 25 degrees, while others reach as high as 33 degrees. Generally, 7-irons in the Players category are the weakest (higher), and Game Improvement and Super Game Improvement can be the strongest (lower). Still, the same player may see distance differences that might reflect as much the loft differences as technology differences. In other words, lower lofts like on Game Improvement irons could produce more distance for many players with faster swings, but they might also produce shorter distances for slower-swing players who struggle to launch the ball.