Given the announcement of new PGA TOUR staffers late last week, it’s not particularly surprising to see PXG 0811 GEN4 drivers on the USGA conforming clubs list. What is surprising is that, with GEN2 being its current lineup of metalwoods, the company appears to be skipping GEN3 entirely.

A line of drivers so good they skipped an entire generation?

TBD, obviously.

As per usual, the USGA pics don’t tell us everything we’d like to know. The description (and the sole of the driver) reference AV Carbon Fiber Tech but beyond that, there’s not much to go on. AV could be short for the technology or, like Titleist’s ATI face, it could refer to the company that produces the carbon material used in the driver.

Also TBD.

PXG GEN4 Drivers – Skipping a Generation

The PXG GEN4 drivers share obvious visual similarities with the PXG Limited Edition Prototype drivers that were released (without any performance details) last spring. You may recall those were four weight models so we can confidently say that the GEN4 drives aren’t just rebranded protos.

What we see on the USGA list suggests that there will be three PXG GEN4 driver models.

PXG 0811XF GEN4

We can reasonably assume the PXG 0811XF GEN4 driver, the easiest of the three to classify, will be PXG’s high MOI (Xtreme Forgiveness) option. There wasn’t much left on the table with the GEN2 version of the 0811XF driver so I think we can safely assume that heel-toe MOI will nudge the USGA limit while the combined MOI will likely be above 10,000.

Basically, if extreme MOI is your thing, your choice in 2021 will likely boil down to the PING G425 MAX and the PXG 0811XF GEN4.

PXG 0811X GEN4 and 0811XT GEN4

That leaves us trying to decipher the differences between the other two PXG GEN4 driver models—the 0811X GEN4 and the 0811XT GEN4.

We haven’t seen an XT before from PXG but past naming convention suggests it’s going to offer something Xtreme. Trajectory maybe?

The standard industry convention would suggest one of the two would be the middle of the bell curve offering, designed to fit the highest percentage of golfers, while the other would presumably be a low-spin offering.

PXG 0811 GEN4 Drivers – Bucking the Trends?

PXG is sometimes unconventional so the standard expected rules may not apply.

With the prototype drivers, there was certainly the suggestion that the “+” model was designed for positive-attack angles while the X model was intended for negative-attack angle players.

Given the similarities between the 0811 GEN4 drivers and those prototypes, it’s certainly possible that’s where PXG is headed.

As always, we’ll have more info on the PXG GEN4 drivers as it becomes available.