We Asked 100 Golfers Which Driver They’re Most Excited For in 2024

Small-scale surveys are a “down and dirty” way to get a pulse on what’s hot in the golf community. When last you heard from me, I polled 100 golfers on Kirkland golf clubs. After the success of that piece, I decided to continue this survey-style franchise.

Ding! Round 2!

This time, I asked 100 golfers which driver they are most excited for in 2024. The results, opinions and thoughts were intriguing. I was not expecting the final results to look at all like they do.

Keep in mind, as with any small-scale survey, these results cannot necessarily be generalized to fit the overall population. That said, it gives quick insight into what some golfers are thinking about the new drivers for 2024.

Demographics

Respondents to the survey (conducted via the MyGolfSpy Forum) ranged in handicap from +.05 to 28. The majority of respondents (57 percent) reported that they play golf several times per week, with 34 percent playing multiple times per month.

What Is the Most Important Thing to Consider When Buying a New Driver?

We asked 100 golfers to share what they feel is the most important thing to consider when shopping for a new driver. Respondents were given four set answers to choose from, (Price, Performance, Looks, Brand Loyalty). A free response section allowed respondents to submit a different answer. This has been categorized in our graph as “other.”

All in all, the vast majority of respondents felt performance should play the biggest role in buying a new driver. It’s worth noting that next to no respondents referred to brand loyalty or looks as a reason that they would purchase one.

Which 2024 Driver Are You Most Excited For?

The survey also asked respondents to identify which new driver for 2024 they are most excited for. Besides offering set answers, respondents were given the opportunity to fill in the name of a driver that was not made available in the initial options.

Early respondents flocked to the PING G430 MAX 10k. However, in the end, the Paradym Smoke Ai from Callaway was the most anticipated driver in this survey. Respondents also chose drivers like the Cleveland Launcher, XXIO 13 and Kirkland Signature driver, all of which fell into the “other” category.

What are your thoughts on the COBRA DARKSPEED driver?

We asked 100 golfers to give us their thoughts on the COBRA DARKSPEED driver. I parsed through the data using a Natural Language Processing Toolkit via Python. Then I filtered responses to extract the adjectives that appeared most frequently.

Interestingly, the words “unforgiving” and “forgiveness” came up multiple times when talking about the DARKSPEED driver. Golfers also described the driver as “sleek”, “sexy” and “nice.”

What are your thoughts on the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke driver?

We asked 100 golfers to give us their thoughts on the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke driver. I parsed through the data using a Natural Language Processing Toolkit via Python. Then I filtered responses to extract the adjectives that appeared most frequently.

Golfer’s described the Paradym Smoke Ai Driver as “solid”, “interesting” and “forgiving.” A few also referred to the driver as “unattractive.”

What are your thoughts on the TaylorMade Qi10 driver?

We asked 100 golfers to give us their thoughts on the TaylorMade Qi10 Driver. I parsed through the data using a Natural Language Processing Toolkit via Python. Then I filtered responses to extract the adjectives that appeared most frequently.

Golfers described the Qi10 driver as “great”, “cool” and “forgiving.” Other adjectives that came up more frequently were “long” and “better.”

What are your thoughts on the PING G430 MAX 10k driver?

We asked 100 golfers to give us their thoughts on the PING G430 Max 10k Driver. I parsed through the data using a Natural Language Processing Toolkit via Python. Then I filtered responses to extract the adjectives that appeared most frequently.

Respondents described the new PING G430 MAX 10k driver as “safe”, “forgiving” and “nice.” Other noteworthy adjectives used to describe it were “straight”, “clean” and “excellent.”

Practice in polarity

After scraping respondents’ answers for their thoughts on the 2024 drivers, I conducted a full sentiment analysis in Python using a Sentiment Intensity Analyzer. As mentioned in my first iteration for this article, the tool assigns each response a polarity score of 1 (positive) 0 (neutral) or -1 (negative) based on its contents. Most answers are not fully positive, neutral or negative. Often they contain a combination of the three.

For example, one respondent described the PING G430 MAX 10K as “PING reeks of innovation and quality.” The Sentiment Intensity Analyzer assigned this response scores of 0 (negative), 0.658 (neutral) and 0.342 (positive). The scores are then compounded (.3818 ) and assigned the polarity score based on the following equation: > 0.2 = 1, < -.02 = -1.

Once all responses were analyzed for overall sentiment, I placed them in a graph to provide an overarching look at the sentiment. I conducted this sentiment analysis for the top four drivers as reported by my survey (COBRA DARKSPEED, Callaway Paradym Smoke Ai, TaylorMade Qi10 and PING G430 MAX 10k).

Sentiment Analysis: COBRA DARKSPEED

Sentiment Analysis: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke

Sentiment Analysis: TaylorMade Qi10

Sentiment Analysis: PING G430 MAX 10k

More Interesting Survey Nuggets

Besides collecting all of the above data, respondents were asked to name what driver they currently play. While a lot of the answers you’d expect showed up pretty frequently (a host of PING, Titleist, Callaway, and TaylorMade), there were a few that shocked me. I also saw brands like Krank, Top Flite, Wilson and Sub 70 make an appearance.

• While respondents rarely chose “looks” as an important consideration when buying a new driver, many commented on things like color, size and shape when asked their thoughts on an individual driver.
• Multiple respondents mentioned waiting for Titleist to release a new driver before upgrading to something new