The Best Budget Drivers of 2023 Under $150, $200 & $300

Do you need to spend $600 on a driver to get more distance and better accuracy? 

You certainly can, and if money is no object, there are some incredible drivers out there today. But we found plenty of drivers that prove you do not. If you're truly looking for the best budget driver, here are several drivers that will wow you with performance, distance, durability, and some added confidence when you need it the most.

The Callaway Mavrik driver is arguably the best driver of 2020 and one of the best of the last five years, and since drivers are only getting better with time, that means it’s one of the best drivers ever made. 

You’d never know it by simply comparing prices. The Mavrik is down to just $233 on Amazon and around $249 most other places, a refreshing price compared to the $600-plus drivers being released today. 

If you’re looking for the longest, most forgiving driver at the lowest possible price in 2023, the Callaway Mavrik is it.

Pros:

• Around one-third the cost of many drivers released today
• Distance, forgiveness and accuracy as good as any driver released this year

Cons:

• Limited supply
• Specific specifications may be hard to find

For the same cost of three dozen premium golf balls, the Tour Edge Bazooka 470 driver can help so many new golfers at a price that won't ding their budget.

Tour Edge has had previous Bazooka drivers with the same theme of "Get in the Game" products for high handicap and beginning golfers. That's the exact point of this driver, but it has a ton of great modern features to help you along, like Variable Face Thickness, which gives solid contact and forgiveness even when you miss the sweet spot. The head is noticeably light, but Tour Edge does a great job pairing it with shafts that range from 50 to 57 grams, making it difficult to balloon drives. We encourage all players looking for some additional distance, loft, and forgiveness to give this minimal-cost model a try.

Pros:

• Easy to launch high
• As inexpensive as any quality driver available today
• Forgiving design results in great distance even on off-center strikes

Cons:

• Not available in left-handed
• No adjustability

The Top-Flite Gamer driver isn't for advanced players, but for beginners or those who have an older driver, it's more than adequate and can be a nice upgrade. 

For around $150, with the price sometimes dipping as low as $89, you get a 460cc driver that produces decent distance and really shines in the forgiveness category. We really like how a player who isn't very consistent with a driver can still find good tee shots with this club.

One great spec of the Top-Flite 2022 Gamer is that it has a classic shaft in the Aldila NV. Not only does this shaft produce a nice, high launch, it also allows for moderate swing speed players to get distance and roll. 

Anyone looking to spend under $150 on a good driver for the money should consider the Top Flite 2022 Gamer.

Pros:

• Good shaft offering
• Forgiving and easy to launch high

Cons:

• Not for advanced players

The Wilson D9 Driver is built for golfers who don’t always hit the center of the club face, and let’s be honest, that’s pretty much everybody.

Wilson stretched the sweet spot as far towards the heel and toe as possible by fine-tuning each individual area of the club face.

The D9 is confidence-inspiring from the get-go. With carbon peeking through the black crown, and an understated, but effective alignment aid, and satisfying acoustics, the D9 is the complete package. 

At just $179, it was easy to give the D9 our “Best Driver under $200” label for 2023.

Pros:

• Forgiving club face
• Premium distance

Cons:

• Must purchase interchangeable weight separately if you want to opt for less rear weight

In case you haven’t caught on yet, Cobra makes some of the best clubs for distance, period. Sure, the Cobra KING Radspeed XB is one of the longest, but it’s also extremely forgiving. That means you can find the fairway and squeeze out satisfying distance even when you deliver a below-average strike. Let’s face it, that happens to the best of us.

With a combination of fixed and adjustable weight in the sole, the Radspeed XB generates optimal spin rates for a deep and penetrating ball flight. Paired with Cobra’s infinity face, which maximizes the sweet spot, and a price tag under $250, the Radspeed is a beast.

Pros:

• Easy to reach personal best swing speeds with normal effort
• Appealing combination of distance and forgiveness

Cons:

• Spin could be on the low end for some players

Sub 70 is a direct-to-consumer golf brand that has gained some serious fanfare over the past few years. One of Sub 70s hallmarks is building clubs that produce results on the course and look great at a palatable price point. The 849D driver checks all of those boxes and a few more.

When we visited Sub 70 to test virtually every club they make, we were very impressed with how this driver reacted to shot-shaping. As mid-handicap players, we don't have the skills of scratch golfers, but that doesn't mean we don't like to hit soft fades and draws when the situations calls for it. 

The 849D is designed to promote a draw, but there are 20 grams of adjustable weighting for you to fine-tune your shot shape. The stock shaft is a Project X HZRDUS Smoke Red RDX 50 5.5 and Sub 70 offers plenty of other options. At just $279 and with Sub 70’s 60-day guarantee, you can’t go wrong.

Pros:

• Great look
• Soft draw
• Simple adjustability
• Premium performance at value price

Cons:

• Not intended for low handicap golfers

Tommy Armour, the brand, has been around for over 50 years, and yet still seems to be a bit unheralded. This 845-MAX driver is easily a gamer for many amateur players and it's just as easily a great fit for this list. 

Aside from costing only $200, the 845-MAX really packs a punch when it comes to performance. Admittedly, we did not expect to like this driver as much as we did. Its main design trait is FLEX-11, a face design that has 11 different thicknesses to produce faster ball speeds on off-center hits.

The driver has an adjustable hosel with six settings that allow you to adjust the loft to hit lower or higher shots, and shape bias to promote your choice of a draw or fade. 

After you give this driver a go in a simulator or on the range, count all the premium features that come with this stick. At $200, this driver is an absolute steal.

Pros:

• Forgiveness on shots away from the center of the face
• Adjustable hosel offers trajectory (high, low) and shape (draw, fade) manipulation
• Feels like it should cost a lot more

Cons:

• Not as draw-biased (slice-fighting) as other options
• 9.0 degree option is available for right-handers only (10.5 degrees available to RH and LH golfers)

There’s a reason Tour Edge is arguably the dominant equipment brand among senior professional golfers, and that’s because it’s a dominant equipment brand.

The 722 line of drivers from Tour Edge comes in “Competition” spec (C722) and “Extreme” spec (E722), but you don’t have to be a top-level competitor to benefit from the C722 driver. When you dial in the spin and launch profile on the Tour Exotics C722 driver, it’s a deep as anything else out there, even at about one-third the price of its top competition.

Two interchangeable weights (20g and 5g) with ports in the front and rear along the centerline let you decide if greater MOI and a higher launch, or lower launch and spin is best for you. With a smaller 445cc head, the heavy weight in the front and the loft standard or turned down, the C722 can be a low-spin as any player needs. However, players who need more spin to optimize their distance can drop the heavy weight in the back and turn up the loft.

Swapping the weights can influence spin rates about 300 RPMs, according to Tour Edge. Meanwhile, the adjustable hosel lets you turn the loft up or down 2 degrees from the printed loft. All you need to do is find the ideal setup for your game, and let the C722 fly.

Pros:

• Adjustable weighting and loft at under $200 is nearly unheard of
• Distance matches the top competition from any brand

Cons:

• As a naturally low-spin driver, players who need more spin should ensure that with the proper adjustments, the C722 provides enough spin for optimal distance, or opt for the E722 version

Wilson Staff previously released a lineup under a somewhat wacky name called Launch Pad. Once amateur players began testing these clubs, they quickly realized that these are some of the easiest clubs to hit in golf. Now, Wilson has followed up its success with the new Launch Pad 2 driver which, in our opinion, is sneaky good.

The standout feature for us is the sheer size of the sweet spot. When you swing this driver you can't help but feel confidence, an area where almost every amateur player struggles. Even on shots that we purposely missed on the toe, heel, and even high and low on the clubface, we really liked the distance and launch.

Its design favors a draw, which is certainly helpful. We also really like the stock EvenFlow shaft which keeps the launch angle and spin from getting out of control. Wilson could have easily put a price tag greater than $350 on the 2022 Launch Pad, but we're glad they didn't.

Pros:

• Draw bias
• Large sweet spot
• Stock shaft

Cons:

• No adjustability