The brand new 2025 Srixon ZXi drivers live proof that three seemingly conflicting conclusions can all be true.
First, they is likely to be the most effective drivers Srixon has launched up to now decade, at the very least. There’s an intriguing new face materials and face design, three fashions with distinct variations and a glance that rivals something we’ve seen to date this yr.
Second, regardless of what we simply instructed you, it’s unlikely the brand new Srixon ZXi drivers will shake up this yr’s driver market. We don’t see TaylorMade, Callaway, PING, Titleist or COBRA worrying a lot about ZXi.
Third, Srixon doesn’t a lot care about what you simply learn. Like most metalwood challenger manufacturers, Srixon is preventing for its share of the ten % of the market the Huge 5 don’t already personal. Success is measured in toes, not miles.
That mentioned, we’re going to deal with that first conclusion at present. Srixon has all the time had “good” drivers however that is the primary time in my reminiscence that Srixon is bringing a compelling driver story to the desk.
Ought to they be in your 2025 driver demo record?
Pace by way of supplies
Srixon, by nature, just isn’t probably the most hyperbolic firm. It’s not into massive advertising and marketing splashes and gained’t (with maybe one exception) smack you within the face with phrases like “revolutionary” or “game-changing.” Whereas it makes for a extra accountable group, Srixon drivers don’t generate the identical buzz as the standard suspects.
That’s why hanging your hat on a newly developed face materials and a brand new variable-thickness face design is quintessentially Srixon.
The brand new materials known as Ti72S titanium, developed by Srixon engineers in Japan and California.
“The boundaries have been pushed as to what we will squeeze out of titanium,” Srixon Engineering Director Dustin Brekke tells MyGolfSpy, “however we will enhance its yield stress and what it could possibly face up to. We are able to get positive aspects in mass discount and enhance our variable-face thickness.”
The face is among the heaviest components of a driver clubhead. Any time you can also make it lighter and enhance energy, that’s a chance for higher. Ti72S is lighter and stronger than Srixon’s earlier Ti51AF. Lighter and stronger helps you to make the face thinner and a thinner face is a ball velocity multiplier.
Pace by way of “i-Flex” and Rebound Body
Each OEM has ball speed-enhancing expertise, with face flex and variable-face thickness taking part in main roles. The aim is twofold: maximize ball velocity on heart strikes, and reduce ball velocity loss on off-center strikes. Some could also be simpler, however all serve the identical function: to get the ball shifting like a bat out of hell at impression.
After that, the ball is by itself. The membership has accomplished its job.
“Twenty years in the past, we had a uniform face thickness stamped out of a sheet of steel,” says Brekke. “It gave you fairly good ball velocity however it was inefficient. You had plenty of mass that wasn’t optimized for efficiency.”
Mock synthetic intelligence if you’ll however AI can create an optimized variable-face thickness sample which will take 100 engineers 100 years to iterate. The pc isn’t flying blind, nonetheless. It makes use of participant impression data, Arccos information and different human enter. With all that information, Srixon’s supercomputer created “i-Flex.”
“The brand new Ti72S titanium is a dial for us,” says Brekke. “It’s our thinnest face so we will enhance heart impression.”
In case you have a look at it from the within, the i-Flex face sample resembles both a stylized capital “I” or, in the event you desire, the Inexperienced Lantern’s inexperienced lantern image. (Don’t inform me I’m the one one who sees it.) Srixon backs i-Flex with its fourth technology of Rebound Body to create ball velocity.
Rebound Body basically creates two trampolines on the entrance of the membership. The primary trampoline options the skinny i-Flex face backed by a inflexible body. That body is then backed by a versatile zone which is then backed by one other inflexible zone. Consider it as a double boing.
“i-Flex brings focus to the face itself,” says Brekke. “Rebound Body is about maximizing the general deflection profile.”
Three new Srixon ZXi drivers: Spin is the factor
For an business that resists standardization (shaft flex, anybody?), golf appears to have settled on a fundamental driver nomenclature. Srixon’s 2023 driver lineup featured the better-player-focused ZX7, the extra forgiving ZX5 and, for the primary time, a low-spin mannequin within the ZX5 LS.
It’s 2025 now and the business has adopted the usual, MAX and LS terminology. Srixon is becoming a member of the get together with its new ZXi, ZXi MAX and ZXi LS drives. In case you’re making an attempt to match them up, the ZXi replaces the ZX7, the ZXi MAX replaces the ZX5 and the LS replaces the LS.
The usual Srixon ZXi ought to match the widest swath of golfers (Shane Lowery gamed it in final week’s TGL debut) and provides a steadiness between ball velocity, MOI, forgiveness and low spin. The ZXi MAX is, because the title suggests, all about forgiveness. It has the best MOI of any Srixon driver up to now. The ZXi LS is the follow-up to the ZX5 LS, Srixon’s surprise performer for MGS in 2023. It has a low-spin profile and advantages golfers with aggressive swings, even when their swing velocity isn’t what you’d name excessive.
Srixon’s becoming story, nonetheless, is what makes the lineup fascinating.
“These are all designed for quick ball velocity and max distance,” says Brekke. “However from an impression efficiency standpoint, spin is the driving power. Do you want low spin? Would it not enable you to to have extra spin, supplied you’ll be able to cope with the tradeoffs that may include that?”
For many golfers, you’d begin with the ZXi because it will provide you with some left-to-right variation. In case you want extra spin and forgiveness, you shift to the MAX. In case you want much less spin and might tolerate the loss in forgiveness, you’ll be able to have a look at the LS.
A brand new adjustable hosel (FINALLY!)
That Woodstock 1969-level roar of approval you’re listening to is me celebrating a brand new adjustable hosel within the Srixon ZXi drivers.
Hallelujah!
Not that the previous Srixon adapter was junk. It wasn’t. The issue was it had extra positions than the Kama Sutra and also you wanted a sophisticated diploma to make use of it.
“Hosel adjustability was engineering-driven for the longest time,” admits Brekke. “It was like, ‘Oooh, have a look at every thing it could possibly do.’ It was simply so overwhelming.”
The brand new hosel has a bigger vary than the previous one however you gained’t want a decoder ring to determine it out. It’s loft-based however as you alter the loft up or down (1.5 levels in ½-degree increments) you additionally alter the lie angle down from normal and the face angle to be extra open or extra closed.
Altogether, the brand new hosel provides 12 totally different settings. When mixed with the swappable sole weights, a superb fitter can simply flip three totally different Srixon ZXi drivers into dozens of prospects.
“Until a driver says ‘Draw’ on it, everyone seems to be making an attempt to go straight,” Brekke says. “We have now slightly left tendency with the MAX however there are issues you are able to do with face angle and different stuff. We’re making an attempt to supply becoming options and readability in efficiency expectations.”
The sound of distance?
I’ve tried all three of the brand new Srixon ZXi drivers and whereas I wouldn’t describe their sound as off-putting, it’s no classic 1985 Kathleen Turner whispering in your ear, both.
“It’s not a loud driver. There’s nothing loopy about it,” says Brekke. “However I do assume it has extra of a signature sound. It’s not as excessive frequency as earlier Srixon drivers, however sound is one other design tradeoff. Relying on how sole, heel and toe weights are organized, you may get sole vibrations that is likely to be exterior of the place you’d need them to be.”
That’s a long-winded means of claiming we designed the motive force to do sure issues and that is the sound we received. Srixon, like PING, eschews carbon fiber in favor of all-titanium development. Carbon fiber crowns do change the sound dynamic slightly bit, so a level of high-toned clinkyness is anticipated.
Possibly one of the simplest ways to explain it’s that it feels like a PING driver.
“As an engineer engaged on sound, there are plenty of fallacious solutions however only a few proper solutions,” Brekke explains. “There are areas you’ll be able to’t stay in. However when you’re in the precise house, it turns into a tradeoff. Transferring a few grams within the inner ribs or altering face curvature influences the sound.
“There might be issues you’ll and gained’t wish to do.”
Then once more, if the match works for you and also you just like the efficiency, it’s wonderful how rapidly the sound gained’t hassle you. I’ve hit worse-sounding drivers through the years, that’s for positive.
In addition to, when you hit a couple of bombs, any driver will sound like a Paul McCartney lullaby.
Srixon ZXi drivers: Worth, specs and availability
The usual Srixon ZXi driver might be obtainable in nine- and 10.5-degree lofts for righties and lefties. It comes normal with swappable heel and toe sole weights. With the 10-gram weight within the heel and four-gram within the sole, the ZXi is extra draw-biased. Swapping them makes it extra fade-biased.
The Fujikura Ventus TR Blue (X-, S-, R-flexes) is inventory as is the Golf Delight Tour Velvet 360 grip.
The ZXi MAX is available in nine-, 10.5- and 12-degree heads (9 is RH solely) with a 14-gram sole weight within the again for a low and deep heart of gravity. The lighter-weight Mission X Denali Pink 50 is the inventory shaft, in S-, R- and A-flexes. The Tour Velvet 360 is the inventory grip.
A 12-degree ZXi MAX girls’s mannequin is obtainable in left- and right-handed fashions (lefties must customized order). The Aldila Ascent PL 40 shaft and Lamkin ST Tender grip are inventory.
The Srixon ZXi LS is available in three lofts (eight, 9, 10.5 levels) with the Mission X HZRDUS Black in X-, S- and R-flexes and Tour Velvet 360 grip inventory. Solely the nine-degree mannequin is obtainable for lefties.
The brand new Srixon ZXi drivers will retail for $549.99. They hit the shops Jan. 24.
For extra data, go to the Srixon website.
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