The vast majority of golf  drivers on the market today come with some type of adjustability. From the standard adjustable hosel to the customizable weighting, almost every driver has a way to fine-tune performance to better fit your swing. But how should you use this technology and how can it help your game? We’ll examine how to best use the adjustable features of a driver, discuss if they work, and show you some of the top options for adjustable drivers available today.

WHAT IS AN ADJUSTABLE DRIVER?

An adjustable golf driver is a driver with any degree of adjustability. The majority of the drivers on the market today are adjustable. Adjustability can be as simple as a hosel that allows you to change loft and lie angle or more advanced like sliding or movable weights that let you adjust things like center of gravity to help get a slice or hook under control.

WHAT TYPES OF ADJUSTABILITY DO DRIVERS HAVE?

Modern drivers come with two types of adjustability: adjustable hosels and movable weight for the center of gravity. Each feature has its benefits for your swing performance. If you need to flight the ball a little higher or lower off the tee, you can adjust the loft. If you need to correct the left or right ball flight of your drivers, adjustable weight positions can help you there. Here is how each type of adjustability works.

ADJUSTABLE HOSEL

• Allows you to raise or lower the loft to correct a ball flight that is too low or too high off the tee
• Increasing the loft will also fractionally close the face of the driver
• Decreasing the loft will also fractionally open the face of the driver
• Some adjustable hosels allow you to change the lie angle independently of loft
• Increasing the lie angle should help create fade bias
• Decreasing the lie angle should help create draw bias

ADJUSTABLE/MOVABLE WEIGHTS

• Some drivers have weights that can be moved forward or back to produce a lower or higher ball flight
• Moving more weight back can increase the launch for higher ball flight with more carry 
• Moving more weight forward to lower the launch for a more piercing ball flight with more roll out
• Some drivers have weights that can be moved to the heel or toe for draw or fade bias
• Moving more weight to the toe creates fade bias
• Moving more weight to the heel creates draw bias

WHY WOULD YOU NEED AN ADJUSTABLE DRIVER?

If you have a consistent miss with your swing off the tee, adjustability can make a big difference in your game. This makes it ideal to help out the average, everyday golfer. You know your game and know where your misses are off the tee. If that miss is a consistent left or right, there are adjustable weights to help. Maybe your ball flight is too high and ballooning or too low and burns its way along the ground, you can adjust the loft. Adjustable driver technology helps by providing corrections to your one consistent miss off the tee.

WHO CAN USE AN ADJUSTABLE DRIVER?

Every golfer can benefit from an adjustable driver. Any golfer who might struggle with a consistent miss off the tee should try one. If you fight a slice off the tee, an adjustable driver where you can add more weight to the heel of the club head to create more draw bias can help straighten out those shots. If you struggle with a hook, a driver that allows you to move more weight to the toe for fade bias can help stop those shots from turning left. These golf clubs can also benefit golfers who hit the ball too high or too low. You can raise the loft on an adjustable hosel to create higher flight or lower the loft if the ball balloons off the tee. Most golfers don’t hit it perfectly off the tee so the majority of players can benefit from adjustability. If you hit your drivers straight down the middle every time and your ball flight doesn’t put you in trouble, then you might not need an adjustable driver, but we all know those golfers are rare!

DOES IT WORK?

Adjustable golf drivers absolutely work and can help you correct swing flaws, as long as they are used correctly and your expectations are reasonable. Adjustments will never take the place of practice and developing a solid, repeatable swing. It is also highly unlikely that you will adjust your driver from round to round or hole to hole based on the type of shot you need to it. That’s not what they are designed for. Adjustable drivers are more of a one-time fitting tool to correct the one consistent miss in your drives. You can always go back and adjust it again as your swing changes, but the proper way to make it work for you is to adjust the driver to fix your consistent miss.

BEST ADJUSTABLE DRIVERS

We selected the five newest adjustable driver models, each featuring adjustable hosels and weighting.