Here’s a little secret.
Golf doesn’t have to be expensive.
That’s right! There are deals to be had out there if you look past the cool commercials starring your favorite PGA Tour pro.
Every company is bound by the same regulations that govern club manufacturing. They all play by the same rules. If a driver has all the features you’re looking for, who cares what they call it?!
We searched high and low for the best cheap golf drivers that wouldn’t max out our credit cards. And we were surprised to find some real diamonds in the rough (pun intended).
With these drivers, you can improve your game, AND your kids still get to attend college.
Everyone wins.
Table of Contents
In-Depth Product Reviews
- HiBore crown lowers the center of gravity
- Extra lightweight to increase ball speed
- Variable face thickness to correct off-center strikes
- Mini diamonds on the back of the face for distance
- CUP face technology for better strikes off the sweet spot
- Power channel allows for more flexibility
- More flex in the face surrounding the sweet spot
- A brand new type of titanium creates a livelier sweet spot
- CUP face also contributes to distance
- Twist face technology to keep your ball straight
- Hammerhead speed pocket for a larger sweet spot
- Geocaustic sole adds forgiveness
- Exceptional style and look
- Fully customizable weight system
- Easy to work the ball in any direction
- VFT to correct misses
- Early speed frame technology
- Opti-fit hosel adjusts the face angle
- Power rib sole for a solid foundation
- Milled face reduces side spin and increases distance
- Added heel weight to create a draw bias
- Easily align to your target with the crown design
- Interchangeable sole plates to change the launch angle
- Customizable weight system to change your trajectory
Cleveland Launcher HB — Best Overall
This Cleveland golf driver seems to find its way into many different review articles. It has a lot of features that golfers are looking for. They may not be one of the bigshots in the club manufacturing business, but they sure know how to make one of the best cheap golf drivers.
More Distance For Slow Swingers
This golf club is perfect for players with a slow swing speed. It offers a high launch so you can get the most out of your swing. This is made possible by the HB part of the name. It stands for HiBore, which refers to the crown.
It sits a bit higher than the face and because it’s made from carbon fiber. This alone lowers the center of gravity something fierce. It’s this low center of gravity that allows you to get some initial height from your drives.
Using CUP Face Technology Better Than All Other Cheap Golf Drivers
The face itself uses CUP face technology. While this is nothing new, Cleveland has taken it a step further to add maximum distance to this premium driver.
A CUP face wraps around the front of the club instead of just affixing to it. By doing so opens up the sweet spot and makes the face a little hotter.
In the middle, the sweet spot is extra thin to provide a serious trampoline effect. Your ball comes rocketing off the face when struck correctly.
If you do miss the sweet spot, then Cleveland has you covered there as well.
The Face Has Another Trick Up Its Sleeve
Using variable face thickness, they strengthen parts of the face that usually wouldn’t see action. So if you hit it off the toe, the face is thicker there and will reduce twisting. This keeps your ball on line with minimal loss of distance.
The last thing I want to mention is the weight of this club.
Increase your swing speed quickly because this club is so light. A considerable part of that is the lack of loft adjustability. With no loft sleeve, this driver saves a lot of weight.
This isn’t the cheapest driver on the list, but it’s a hot driver for what you get, and it’s the best deal.
Tour Edge Hot Launch C522 — Best For Slow Swing Speeds
This may not be the most prestigious name in the golf industry, but they are steadily gaining traction. You might not see it on tour any time soon, but it can provide lots of help to the weekend warrior at an affordable price.
The technology used in this driver is perfect for anyone looking for extra distance.
Using Current Driver Technology
This cheap golf driver also uses CUP Face design to enlarge the sweet spot and give you more ball speed. It’s less exaggerated than the Cleveland driver, but it still gets the job done.
Behind the face, Tour Edge has implemented a diamond shape pattern. This adds to the amount of pop you get from a well-struck drive. The tiny diamonds act as trampolines and give the face some serious flexibility. This also assists in keeping your off-center hits much straighter.
Extra Focus And Features To Give You More Distance
The last thing they installed, to give you the most distance possible, is a power channel. You can see it right away. It’s that trench that runs parallel to the face along the sole.
This groove allows the face to flex even more and contributes to the spring-like effect that this face already has. This technique has been used by other companies as well, such as Adams and Taylor Made.
Both of which make fantastic drivers.
Keeps Your Ball In The Fairway As Well
But this driver is not all about distance. It has some other great features that will help get your ball in the short stuff more often.
The rear sole weight keeps the center of gravity low. You can get a better launch angle on your tee shots with this. It also helps to create a more prominent sweet spot.
For faster and more accurate swingers, this may not be a huge selling point. But if you’re in the mid-low swing speeds, you WILL notice a difference.
Srixon Z785 — Best For Low Handicappers
Usually, you don’t find a Japanese club on a list of cheap drivers, but thankfully, there is one. While this isn’t the newest model, it still stands the test of time and will continue to give you better drives in the long run.
Pushing The Limits Of What Affordable Golf Drivers Can Do
The face of this club has been reworked to give golfers maximum distance and maximum forgiveness.
Usually, you have to sacrifice one for the other, but not with this club.
The sweet spot has been expanded to allow for a larger flex zone. This pushes the limits of what is permitted by the rules of golf, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw other companies start to follow suit.
The area around the sweet spot has been made thinner to provide more flexibility. This may not help your trajectory if you slice, but it sure helps with pushes and pulls. And it DEFINITELY helps to add yards.
Creating New Materials Never Before Seen
The face is made from a new kind of titanium that is much stronger than other companies use in their golf clubs.
This lets them go thinner.
The face is also a CUP face, so there are no welds on the front of the club. As mentioned earlier, this helps with distance and also lessens vibration.
With less CUP face than others, this driver still has an incredible feel.
Will Help Low-Handicappers Go Even Lower
This is good news for lower handicap players; they will be looking for feedback from their tee shots. It helps improve your drives if you know exactly where you made contact on the face.
Lower handicap players will also enjoy the traditional shape of this club head. It’s a pear shape and is much shorter from front to back than the newer models from its competitors.
The carbon crown is the last piece of the puzzle here, allowing the designers to move more weight to the back end. This will give your golf ball more lift initially while still maintaining low spin.
Taylor Made M4 — Most Affordable Premium Driver
It’s tough to find a Taylor Made driver that is cheap.
They are notorious for always being on the upper end of the pricing scale. But, just like cell phones, as soon as the new one comes out, the older models drop in price. That doesn’t make them obsolete, though.
The Club Face Is Where The Magic Happens
This still has their incredible twist face technology. This might be the best driver face out of all the best cheap golf drivers.
It combines the ability to straighten your ball flight without giving up any distance. The face’s curvature is exaggerated on the upper toe and the lower heel, the two most popular misses.
Their research proves that having this extra curve reduces sidespin. It works to direct your ball more to the middle.
Science is a beautiful thing in golf.
Do You Know What Geocaustic Technology Can Do For You?
The other breakthrough on this club is the sole. They call it geocaustic technology, which is a fancy word for stronger. This sole supports the face more than other cheap golf drivers to add stability, which really helps with off-center hits.
It’s also responsible for the unique sounds that this golf driver makes. It doesn’t have that hollow tin can sound that so many other budget golf drivers have.
Your shots will sound mighty as they leave the club face and will let your playing partners know that you mean business.
A Tried And Tested Way To Get More Forgiveness
Another expensive feature of this golf club is the hammerhead slot located just behind the face on the sole.
This has been used in previous models to much success. This speed pocket technology allows for more flex in the face to increase your ball speed. It also improves forgiveness by making the sweet spot bigger.
These were made famous on the RBZ fairway woods, and they work great here as well.
This is also one of the few cheap golf drivers with loft adjustability. While this may not benefit everyone, for some, it could save having to buy another driver if your swing changes.
Related: Best TaylorMade Driver
PXG 0811X — Best Looking
PXG is the new kid on the block for quality drivers and golf clubs in general. But they’re like the new kid whose parents are really rich, so they make friends fast.
Bob Parsons, the man responsible for PXG, is an avid golfer and a bit of an eccentric. He has poured a lot of money into the development of these clubs, and it shows.
Professional Look At A Lower Price
There is a particular look that PXG is going for here, and that is professional sleek.
The matte black design makes this look like the batmobile of affordable golf drivers. There are no gimmicks or sharp edges here to draw your attention unnecessarily.
Low handicap players will love its simplicity and pear-shaped head. This design makes it easier to work the ball in both directions. It’s set up to be very versatile.
No Other Company Uses Such An Advanced Weighting System
The first evidence of advanced technology in this great driver is the adjustable weights. You can see it on the sole of the golf club. There are ten spots to add or subtract weight from different areas of the club head.
This is much more advanced than other drivers with one weight that can be manipulated; this has ten!
Use these adjustable weights to counteract that pesky fade that always seems to show up at the worst possible time. Add weight to the heel or subtract it from the toe (or both) to speed up the toe rotation and get a square club face at impact.
This Driver Has A Voice Of Its Own
It does have a unique sound to it, though. It’s very different from any other driver. It’s solid but not loud.
No matter where you make contact with the face, it produces this sound. Over time some may come to love it, but if you’re nitpicky about that kind of thing, then it may get on your nerves.
Callaway X-Hot — Cheapest Callaway Driver
Callaway has some pretty great and affordable golf drivers these days. Their flagship models are prevalent on tour and at your local muni. They have established themselves as a top-tier driver manufacturer.
But it wasn’t always like that.
After all the Great Big Bertha buzz wore off, Callaway quickly lost ground to other companies. They had to change something to make themselves relevant again.
Starting Anew With Groundbreaking Innovation
Enter the Callaway X-Hot driver. The technology put into this club is what started them back on the road to success.
The newer drivers currently being played on tour today use technology that this cheap golf driver inspired. You could say this X hot driver is the reason for Callaway’s comeback and kept them in business.
The face of this club stands the test of time.
It uses a very rudimentary version of what is now called jailbreak technology. The interior is reinforced by strong yet light titanium to stabilize the club to flex the face.
A flexible face means the ball can bounce off it with tremendous ball speed and therefore add yards to your tee shots.
The Best Cheap Golf Drivers Still Use A Version Of This Today
It’s also one of the early users of VFT (variable face technology). This increases the size of the sweet spot by making the face different thicknesses. The outer edges are thicker metal, so your off-center hits still have some power.
It also sports an early version of their opti-fit hosel.
This feature allows you to change the face angle of the driver to counteract your most feared shots. If you’re fading the ball too much, break out the tool and adjust the face angle to straighten it out.
Many drivers still feature this, but at a much higher cost.
The look is relatively simplistic, as was the style back then. The crown is a little bulbous, and it doesn’t have an aerodynamic shape compared to the best golf drivers. But the signature Callaway alignment icon will put you at ease and is there to remind you that this dog can eat.
Related: Best Driver From Callaway
Bridgestone J815 — Most Underrated
This might be the best cheap golf driver you’ve never heard of.
Even though it’s simplistic, all of the features come together nicely to produce a solid golf driver. It focuses on forgiveness and trajectory. It’s not the longest driver on the list, but at this good price, it’s worth a look.
Every Good Club Starts With A Good Foundation
The most defining characteristic is the sole. It’s called a power rib sole, and it adds support to the face and crown. This is where the club’s stability comes from.
By having a sturdy sole, they can make the face extra thin to flex on impact. The sole also provides excellent aerodynamics. So even though this golf driver is meant for control and forgiveness, it still has some incredible distance features as well.
One Of The First Of Its Kind
It’s one of the first golf drivers to utilize milling on the face. Generally reserved for wedges, the milling on this face is used to thin it out. You can get some good speed off this when struck correctly.
The milling also helps to lower spin, which this driver is great at. Less spin means your ball will launch forward once it hits the ground for added yardage.
Milling Provides Multiple Benefits
It also helps to reduce sidespin. So if you have trouble controlling the direction of your ball, this will soften any harsh slices or hooks. This process is still used in the new Cobra drivers, which come with a much heftier price tag.
For the slicers out there, you get a little extra help. There is a strategically placed weight on the sole that is near the heel. This will slow the heel down through impact so that the toe can rotate through faster. Meaning your face will be more square, more often.
With its low center of gravity as well, you can get an optimal launch angle. Put all these things together, and you have one of the best affordable golf drivers out there.
Wilson Staff Triton — Most Adjustable
For the more adventurous golfer and someone who likes to fiddle around with settings, I present Triton. An avid golfer designed this for a reality TV show on The Golf Channel. The challenge was to develop a new and unique driver. This one took home the top prize.
Some of the features may seem far-fetched, but the science and the numbers don’t lie. And with this price tag, it deserves a spot on this list.
You’ve Never Seen A Sole Like This Before
The unique part of this club is the sole plate, both of them. Yes, this driver comes with two removable sole plates.
One is made from titanium and decidedly heavier than its carbon fiber counterpart.
The theory is that you have complete control over your launch angle. This, plus the other reasons I will mention, all work together so you can get this golf driver dialed into whatever kind of shot you want to hit.
The sole plates attach via three weight holes. These weights are also removable and come in either 2-gram or 6-gram. You can move the weights around based on your preference.
Control Your Trajectory Easily
Use the 6-gram weight at the back to increase the driver’s forgiveness and get a higher launch. Or you can move the 2-gram weight to the toe side to help with correcting a slice. The possibilities are endless.
The crown of the club is just as unique. It has what they are calling “Speed Active Technology.” This may sound cool, but upon further investigation, it’s basically a fancy alignment tool.
The thick gray line on the crown does make it exceptionally easy to align to your target. This is more beneficial than you think because you aim for targets far away from the driver. Being able to get a better visual on your target is always a good thing.
The design even thins out towards the back of the club head. This gives you a good sensation of keeping your swing path online.
Get The Best Launch Angle Possible
If you’re still with me and not confused by all these driver adjustment capabilities, then that’s awesome. But you can adjust even more.
An adjustable loft sleeve lets you change the loft 1.5° in either direction with the free tool.
If you’re the type of golfer who likes to tinker and manipulate the ball flight with your driver, then I think you found your match.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a golf driver cheap?
A golf driver is cheap because it’s older in most cases. While cheap drivers are being released all the time, those are the ones that don’t have any advanced technology. You can get a cheap driver that still has a lot of added benefits. They don’t expire, and they are all built to last a lifetime, so we might as well take advantage.
What is the best cheap driver?
The best cheap driver right now is the Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo. It’s all in your definition of cheap. But for what you get in terms of technology and functionality, this driver is the best cheap golf driver. It’s well worth its weight in gold. Being one of the lightest drivers, you can count on faster swing speeds right away, translating to massive distance.
Do I need a driver with adjustability features?
No, you don’t need a driver with adjustability features, but it can be helpful in the right situations. For most players, you will make the changes you need when you first get the driver and then leave the settings alone. Others may want to play around and change settings based on each day’s conditions. It can also be fun to play around on the driving range as well. We all love hitting driver.
Are expensive golf drivers worth it?
Not all expensive drivers are worth it. It depends on your swing speed, skill level, and what suits you best. It also depends on your budget. Having an expensive driver doesn’t mean you’ll have more fun, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. I recommend trying out all the drivers you possibly can before purchasing. Having experience with many drivers will help you narrow down your search. You’ll know exactly what you’re looking for to improve your golf game.
When should I buy a new driver?
You should buy a new driver once you have outgrown your old one. That means that if you have improved and the 12° driver you purchased as a beginner is no longer producing, then it’s time to get a new one. You don’t have to update your driver every year, but it pays to stay updated with the latest equipment if you’re playing a lot. Use new technology to your advantage.
Conclusion
Golf doesn’t have to be as expensive as most people want to believe. With the right advice, you can save money on golf clubs and instead spend it on green fees (or a new golf bag).
That also doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality.
The Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo is the perfect combination of technology, performance, and fair market pricing. You don’t have to break the bank to find more fairways. Avoid the big names and save your money for actually playing golf.
Have fun and hit ’em straight.
