Best / Worst / Most iconic drivers of all time

Britishshooting

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There’s one in my shed - I binned it and then the missus used it for a year or so - she loved it and was raging when they banned it - I never got on with it at the time but think I’ll retrieve it for a hit - just for fun and the ridiculous noise - pretty sure you could generate sparks if there was sand on the tee.

Hahaha yes you could, winter mats would always get sparks from the odd stone or grit!
 

sunshine

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That square Nike thing was disgusting, looked terrible and sounded horrendous.

Best for me was TM R320ti, I used to be able to hit balls over the back of the range with that beauty. I'd probably still be using it if it was conforming!

Most iconic I think of the first TM white driver, R11? Straight away I noticed how many on tour were using it (lots). M1/M2 pretty iconic too: top pros were putting it in their bag even if they weren't sponsored by TM, and it lured tiger and Rory to TM.
 

Lost_Cause

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A controversial response...

Best / Worst / Most Iconic;- Nike SQ Sumo

Why does it take all three you ask, simple really, it’s the most recognisable driver of a generation, you mention “Nike Golf” and it’s usually followed by “Do you remember that square driver they made?”. It was the best and worst driver wrapped into one, it was reasonably forgiving and fairly long so exactly what most average golfers wantEd in a driver but it’s possibly the ugliest driver design (both in that it was square and yellow), horrible to look down at and had that ridiculously loud hollow-tin-can sound. I know it gets a lot of hate but it’s the one driver that is instantly recognisable with that era of golf (at least to someone younger like myself), you could show a wealth of other drivers from over the years but for the most part a lot have just been lost in time and forgotten.
 
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Best / anything current

Worst / those square abominations

Iconic / Macgregor eye o matic, things of persimmon beauty
 
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Best and worst drivers obviously depends on individual experiences but surely the most iconic has to be the original Great Big Bertha? The first of the oversized titanium drivers that started the ball rolling (no pun intended!)
 

slowhand

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Best: Titleist TS2. By far the most forgiving driver I’ve had since I came back to golf 15 years ago
Worst: Those square Nike abominations
Most iconic: The original no-hosel Big Bertha
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Best: MacGregor Eye-o-matic. Truly a thing of beauty.

Worst: Cobra something or other, all I recall is the offensive noise it made.

Iconic: Taylormade Pittsburgh Persimmon. It changed everything.
I love my eye-o-Matic woods. No longer in use they are indeed things of beauty.

And I have to call out a big plus for my Callaway steelhead III driver. Not used it for over ten years but with my PingG10 snapped (also a cracking driver) I have used my Callaway last two days and I’m smacking it straight down the middle dead easy. Right from the off. Doesn’t go so far as my G10 but so very easy to use.
 

jim8flog

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Very hard to rate the best as most of my drivers were the best for me the time

My most loved have been

Wilson Whale Wooden head version - most of my longest ever drives were made with this club.
Yonex ADX Tour 500 carbon composite head
Callaway Biggest Big Bertha (this would defintely fall in to the iconic group)
Taylor Made R580 also in the iconic class (but I switched the shaft to a Grafalloy Prolite pro)

I cannot say the worst simply because it did not take many hits on driving range test to see that a particular club did not suit my swing.

Worst purchase that went into the bag was a Wilson DD6+ but that was simply about the trial club being so different to the one bought.
 

ScienceBoy

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Best- Ping G5, G10 and K15/G15 driver, they lost their way after the 20s...

Worst- 2000s Cobra Drivers, I think the fixed the sound issue from 2010 onwards.

Iconic- Ping G5/G10/G15 These things are just so easy to hit and are well suited to any new golfer. A whole set of G10s just screams ESR in the hands of a golfer with their first ever handicap.
 
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Best...2016 M2

Worst..Any of the wooden ones

Iconic...The Biggest Big Bertha Driver Titanium

Best Named ...Killer Whale Orcinus Orca
 

Paperboy

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Agree with the sound of the Nike. Painful. I remember Callaway also having a square model but clearly they were yet another short term fad which a lot of golfers would have bought into with all the marketing spiel

I had the old callaway FT-I square headed driver, best driver I ever had. Hit so many fairways, it snapped when my boot collapsed (hydraulic failure) on it.
Got a similar spec one and just not the same :(
 

GB72

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Driver I have had is still the Cleveland Classic XL. Nothing has beat it despite many trying.

Worst drive for me was the re-release TM Burner. As a higher handicapper there was no hope of me controlling something with that shaft length (which is pretty much normal now).

Most iconic for me was the first white TM driver. It removed all of the rigmarole of pros hiding one manufacturers driver in the head cover of another. If it was white, you knew it was a TM driver. It was also when TM/Adidas nailed social media. On the release day there as nothing on twitter but white drivers and Adizero shoes. They were giving them away to people like confetti but it go the attention they were looking for. That was when social media really became the marketing battleground.
 
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