Best of the 2022-23 PGA Tour Season: Drivers | What's in the Bag?

The 2023-24 PGA Tour season may already be underway, but with the new year here we thought we’d take a look back at some of the top performing players of the 2022-23 season, and more specifically, what clubs they played with. 

Our Best of the Season series begins much like a golf round does, off the tee. Who are the PGA Tour’s best drivers of the golf ball, and are there certain clubs that were used more often than others among the Tour’s elite? 

Let’s take a look.

*All WITB information courtesy of GolfWRX.

Strokes Gained Off The Tee

Of the Tour’s Top 10 Drivers the most popular manufacturer was Titleist, which was found in 4 of the Top 10’s bags. TaylorMade was the only other manufacturer with multiple players gaming their clubs. Though TaylorMade wasn’t the most popular manufacturer, it was the top-performing with Scottie Scheffler and Rory Mcilroy finishing first and third respectively in Strokes Gained while each was using a TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver. 

When it comes to individual models, there was a tie at the top with the Titleist TSR3 and the TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus, with each being the driver of choice of 2 players in the Top 10. Most of the Tour’s top drivers were using current generation clubs, with just 2 players using an older model. Viktor Hovland continued to use the PING G425 LST, which helped him to an 8th place finish in Strokes Gained Off The Tee. But taking the crown for the oldest driver among the top 10 is Patrick Cantlay and his Titleist TS3. The 2018 Titleist release served Cantlay well, helping him finish 4th in Strokes Gained.

Driving Distance

Once again Titleist was the most popular manufacturer in the distance category with 4 players in the Top 10 playing with one. Titleist also takes home the most popular model honors with its TSR2 being the only model used by multiple players with both Ludvig Aberg and Cam Young sporting one. Every driver among the top 10 longest drivers on Tour was a current generation choice except one, Peter Kuest’s TaylorMade Stealth Plus, which was released in 2022. While TaylorMade may not have been the most popular manufacturer, it did occupy the top two spots in driving distance with Rory Mcilroy and Kuest each gaming one.

Fun Fact
Luke List, who finished 9th in Strokes Gained off the Tee, had the longest drive of the season with a 459 yard bomb on the 7th hole at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. His driver of choice, a Titleist TSR3.

Driving Accuracy

Titleist continues its reign as the most popular manufacturer with 3 players in the top 10, including the top spot. Unlike Strokes Gained and Driving Distance though, there was not a consensus most popular model. The PING G430 and Titleist TSi series each had multiple players using one, but different models, with the PING G430 LST and G430 Max being played along with the Titleist TSi3 and TSi1. There was definitely the most variance among generations in the accuracy component. Half of the most accurate drivers use a current generation driver, while the other half do not. The oldest model used among the most accurate drivers is Lucas Glover’s Srixon Z785, released in 2018. 

Fun Fact
Though it happened in the 2023-24 season we still thought we’d highlight Adam Long’s record setting performance. He broke the PGA Tour record for consecutive fairways hit with 69, breaking Brian Claar’s previous record of 59. Using a TaylorMade Stealth 2, Long’s streak began on the 16th hole of his final round at the Shriners Children’s Open. It then continued at the World Wide Technology Championship, where he hit all 56 fairways over the course of the tournament, becoming the first player since Brian Claar to hit every fairway in a tournament. He then hit his first 11 fairways at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship to set the new record.