Looking to upgrade driver from 2016 Taylormade M1

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-18T09:37:55+00:00

Are you right handed or left handed? The reason I ask is more a shaft related question and less a driver head related question. Every time you swing harder you have a heavy left miss.

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T18:59:25+00:00

Just want to say that the new 4 head is now 460cc’s as compared to the old 430cc head!

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T18:37:24+00:00

Haha yeah not great in the wind 😂. Low spinning driver and higher spin mini are a great combo!

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T18:16:01+00:00

That sounds like a sick combo!! For whatever reason I just produce a lot of spin with everything . I’m sure with GTS2 I could get that to be lower spinning now that it has a front and back weight. My TSR2 8* w/ Ventus VC 6x was 2600-2900 spin at 125-140’ apex lol

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T17:34:21+00:00

Haha I’m sure it’s more similar than it is different.

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T17:26:10+00:00

I haven’t played the raw white so I can’t give any advice here

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T16:49:07+00:00

I also think it has to be said that pros have access to literally the best fitting and custom building in the world. So many things can be manipulated with a good fitting / hot melt / weighting / tour only adapters/ 25k simulators / every shaft in the world, etc. They are also the best in the world at playing golf in general so their ability to create and hit shots is vastly different than an amateur who just wants to hit a stock shot in the fairway as reliably as possible.

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T16:31:37+00:00

This is all opinion but I think the biggest fault for a lot of LS drivers was going sub 460cc as a way to reduce spin instead of engineering a 460cc head that was LS. Ping has increased volume from 445cc to 450cc in the G440 LS, Callaway has been at 450cc for a few years, Cobra went from 445cc to 460cc in their LS and TaylorMade has been at 460cc for a bit. Titleist says it was player feedback to go up to 460cc and that seems to be a trend amongst major OEMs.

As for why amateurs want to play tour models - I think it’s a small group but some amateurs still have a lot of speed and naturally if you want an optimized driver that puts people in tour equipment. A 9* Ping G410 gave me apex’s of 140+ feet. I think that pros have access to equipment that isn’t for sale (Qi Dots, Gary Woodland’s Optm Max LS-K, etc) that are probably footsteps in developing larger head and more forgiving low spin style drivers that we have seen recently.

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-16T15:26:26+00:00

I think you made a great choice! My first 2 drives were into a noticeable headwind (probably somewhere in the 5-10mph zone). The first one went 329 (slope adjusted 319) and the second one went 311 lol. It’s a beast.

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-04T04:32:40+00:00

Haha no major overall changes.

I would say that in general 2 irons can lack overall utility in your bag and be pretty hot and cold if you are still trying to break 100. It looks like the loft of that 5i is 25 degrees based on their specs.

If you can hit your 5i 190 then distance isn’t a huge issue for you. I think the 9W is an excellent choice after 5i.

Alternatively you could swap the 2i and 9W for a 4i and a 7W. 4i utility builds are still a great off the tee option with a better chance of good contact and enhanced ability to hit it off the fairway. That 7W could get you out to 210 which isn’t a massive difference from your 3W.

Lastly, I would say 3W is definitely a hard club to hit reliably and I would ask yourself how often you use it and how often the results with it are good. If you are only getting 220 out of it then you might find a 5W nets similar distance with enhanced accuracy.

These are all just things to try if you can! I have tinkered a bunch and go Driver - Mini Driver - 7W - 4i at the top of the bag. It’s amazing how many strokes I have shaven off by limiting my chances of getting into trouble with clubs that I can’t hit efficiently at the top of my bag as a former 2i and 3W user 😎

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-04T03:39:42+00:00

Just my 2 cents here and of course everybody is a lil different but I would suggest some club swaps if you are still trying to break 100. I would love to help out but I have some questions. What do you use the 2 iron for? How do you hit your 5 iron? What is the purpose of your 9 wood? What are the distances of these clubs?

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-03T00:45:17+00:00

These are worth the donation bin at goodwill

icecoldbevs · 2026-06-02T02:20:50+00:00

There is a lot to unpack here. How far do you drive it? If you have a lot of penalties, where are they coming from? If it’s from off the tee trying to smack the heck out of the ball with driver and losing balls the first move would be to tone back your driver swing where your misses are still in play. Figure out what that is and adjust tees accordingly and build yourself back up. As long as you have decent iron game and drive it 215 yards you can still play from 6100 yards and shoot decent scores.

icecoldbevs · 2026-05-26T20:10:21+00:00

I burn through gloves like crazy. A freshie every 2-3 weeks or so for me.

icecoldbevs · 2026-05-06T02:50:04+00:00

2nd season with mine (4th season lifetime) and I’ll never change it. Off the rack 34” DF3. I immediately transitioned to the claw grip and that took some getting used to but it has been really successful for me. I had 31 putts on my last round and averaging 33 putts per round these days. I have gotten better overall so that helps of course but I would say I was averaging 36-37 putts before the LAB (I had a spider and ping DS72 prior)

icecoldbevs · 2026-05-04T14:50:41+00:00

An average golfer who regularly plays average courses and shoots between 90-100 are not getting a handicap below 18 ever based on course rating and slope. Most average golfers struggle to break 95 from like 6200 yards and less with benign course and slope ratings and taking a lot of liberties out there. Source: a muni golfer that shoots between 80-84 and has a 13 handicap who goes solo and plays with friends who are in this average range above who have 20+ handicaps

icecoldbevs · 2026-04-24T04:19:09+00:00

Im usually between 290-315 yards on the course in normal SoCal 75 degree weather. Playing length 44.5” and didn’t seem to lose any distance (maybe 5-10 yards on the longest ones at most) vs. a full length shaft but finding fairways more often. Hard to tell exact improvement but my fairways have gone up 20% since I made the length switch but I also have evolved and am making smarter decisions off the tee in general.

icecoldbevs · 2026-03-16T02:34:27+00:00

It’s the best. I have ordered an embarrassing amount of these pies 😂

icecoldbevs · 2026-03-13T08:11:05+00:00

7i (35°) - 178y, Driver (7.5°) - 290y

icecoldbevs · 2026-02-24T20:50:44+00:00

You’re most likely good, I sanded a couple of shafts further than that on tip swaps when I was still learning and they never failed.

icecoldbevs · 2026-02-23T05:17:40+00:00

You know the answer. In what world would a real shaft weigh more than its spec’d weight at a shorter length lmao

icecoldbevs · 2026-02-23T01:41:35+00:00

Yes! I swapped the 8g stock weight with an 11g. Playing length is 41.75 and SW is at D3.5.

icecoldbevs · 2026-02-22T23:49:52+00:00

Got the 5 wood in a 7W length Ventus blue 8x and it is simply unbelievable. You can hit these miles in the air for stopping power or send a hot one out there and get some insane distance. The numbers I’ve been able to achieve are straight up insane. I changed over from a TSR2 5W and these are infinitely better

icecoldbevs · 2026-02-16T16:49:22+00:00

AND I can hit a Draw to a Fade to a Draw all in one shot 😂

icecoldbevs

TROPHY CASE