Jack Hirsh
Getty Pictures
Apart from Max Homa making a transfer to Cobra, the beginning of 2025 has been comparatively quiet when it comes to gamers altering gear sponsors. However with 2025 product beginning to get out on Tour, loads of professionals have taken the chance to improve to the newest and biggest on the prime of the bag.
Whereas presently Callaway, Cobra and Cleveland (Titleist GT drivers have already been out for the reason that summer season) are the one OEMs to announce their 2025 drivers, Tour professionals have a knack for getting the good things earlier than us mere mortals can.
Preserve studying under to see who’s already taking part in new 2025 drivers this week on the Sentry in Hawaii.
Callaway Elyte
Callaway formally grew to become the primary OEM to launch their new driver in 2025 on Thursday with the unveiling of the Elyte product line.
Instantly, Xander Schauffele, who gained two main championships final season with the Paradym Ai Smoke driver, switched into the brand new Elyte Triple Diamond driver.
“I’ve all the brand new Elyte woods in. It most likely was — I’ve been with ’em, shoot, I’ve been with Callaway for, looks like six or seven years now, and I’d say it was most likely the simplest,” Schauffele mentioned Tuesday. “I’ve been testing the Elyte driver for 2 months, and I actually have the very same driver that they gave me in Vegas as my first look factor they did for his or her social media crew. So it’s been such a simple, tremendous straightforward transition, and I actually haven’t actually felt like I believed a lot about it. Trying down and it’s good to go.”
In response to Callaway Tour content material supervisor Johnny Wunder, Schauffle’s ultimate construct is a ten.5-degree Triple Diamond head within the N/-1 setting with a Mitsubishi Diamana PD 70TX shaft at 45.5″ and tipped one inch, the identical shaft from his Ai Smoke. He fired a gap spherical one-under 72 at Kapalua Thursday whereas gaining almost a half-stroke off the tee.
Schauffele isn’t alone in switching to the brand new Elyte household. Akshay Bhatia, Max Greyserman, Adam Hadwin, Si Woo Kim, and defending champ Chris Kirk are all utilizing the brand new driver at Kapalua as effectively.
Bhatia had been within the now three-year-old Rouge ST driver, which he had for each of his PGA Tour wins the final two seasons, however is now in an Eltye core head with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7-X. He opened with 71 on Thursday.
Cobra DS-ADAPT
Cobra made the largest gear splash of 2025 thus far when it introduced Max Homa as their latest Tour staffer.
Homa is debuting the brand new DS-ADAPT LS driver this week. He’s taking part in a 9-degree head with the FutureFit33 hosel within the C4 setting, giving the membership 9.4˚ of precise loft, and utilizing a Fujikura Ventus Blue 7-X at 44.625 inches.
Homa shot a gap spherical four-under 69 with the brand new gear setup, gaining almost eight-tenths of a stroke with the brand new driver within the course of.
The DS-ADAPT drivers have been introduced final month in an early launch and have been on the USGA conforming listing since October. Rickie Fowler put the DS-ADAPT X driver into play final month on the Grant Thornton Invitational.
Ping G440
Whereas nonetheless but to be launched, the Ping G440 has already picked up a worldwide win since being added to the conforming listing in early December as Joaquin Niemann gained the PIF Saudi Worldwide. A number of gamers put the membership into play on the Hero World Problem and Grant Thornton Invitational final month.
On the Sentry, Ping staffers gaming the brand new G440 fashions embody Corey Conners, Sahith Theegala and Austin Eckroat. Denny McCarthy and Taylor Pendrith are additionally taking part in the driving force, although neither is beneath contract with Ping.
Conners started his 2025 season with a seven-under 66 Thursday utilizing a G440 LST with a UST Mamiya Parts LIN-Q M40X White 6F5 shaft and had .917 strokes gained: off the tee.
TaylorMade Qi35
TaylorMade has simply two staffers within the area in Maui after Scottie Scheffler’s stunning WD, however each are already gaming new and yet-to-be-released Qi35 drivers.
Collin Morikawa opened with a 66 with the brand new Qi35 LS driver whereas hitting 11 of 15 fairways at Kapalua and gaining almost seven-tenths of a shot off the tee. Morikawa took till final season to lastly retire his trusty SIM driver he used to win his two main championships in 2020 and 2021, however nonetheless trialed all three of TaylorMade’s Qi10 fashions in competitors final yr.
To begin off 2025, he’s going with the identical sort of mannequin he ended 2024 with (LS) and the identical shaft within the Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Restricted 60 TX.
In the meantime Nick Dunlap, contemporary off his PGA Tour Rookie of the Yr season, is switching into the Qi35 core mannequin. Dunlap earned his historic win on the American Categorical final season utilizing the Qi10 LS, however gamed a Ping G430 LST towards the top of the season. Dunlap mentioned he favored how the core mannequin resembled the Ping.
“I feel it’s quite a bit higher for me,” Dunlap mentioned. “The top’s just a little bit larger than they’ve prior to now, the core head, I feel it’s like LS, the core and the Max. And the core head’s just a little bit larger, seems to be extra like my Ping. They usually switched that, it’s grey on the highest now as a substitute of black, so I feel it seems to be actually, actually good. I’m wanting ahead to taking part in it.”
Dunlap initially added the driving force final month on the Grant Thornton Invitational, the identical week the driving force went on the conforming listing.
Need to overhaul your bag for 2025? Discover a becoming location close to you at True Spec Golf.
“>
Jack Hirsh
Golf.com Editor
Jack Hirsh is the Affiliate Tools Editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State College, incomes levels in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his highschool golf crew and lately returned to this system to function head coach. Jack additionally nonetheless *tries* to stay aggressive in native amateurs. Earlier than becoming a member of GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but additionally producing, anchoring and even presenting the climate. He could be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.