Whilst moveable weights are nothing new, having sixteen of them in a driver probably is. This is what makes the PXG 0811 driver stand out from the adjustable crowd in terms of function as well as visually.
As standard there are 10 lighter black titanium and 6 heavier silver tungsten screws to play with through the PXG Precision Weighting System. This gives you 8,008 possible combinations to enable you to move the CG heel to toe and back to front or any combination thereof in order to maximise the forgiveness to suit your swing.
You can also use the adjustable hosel to vary the loft and lie of the 9° or 10.5° heads through eight different settings by +/- 0.75° or 1.5°, so that increases total possible options to over 128,000.
The hosel uses a toothless locking system and this helps reduce the weight of the adjustable fitting. These types of hosel look less bulky at address and the PXG version makes the head sit nice and square.
Even if the style of the loft lettering looks familiar, the driver is all PXG and features several technologies that are tried and tested in driver design such as a channel behind the face on the sole to enable the face to flex more.
The whole head is cast from high strength Ti 8-1-1 titanium to enable the variable thickness face to be as thin as possible where it needs to be.
Put it down and the 0811 looks great at address with hints of a slightly pointy backside, but it manages to maintain its beautiful curved lines with a lovely swept back sole.
It is named 0811 after the military code for the career of a Field Artillery Cannoneer so I was hoping for big things when I lined it up and lit the touch paper.
The sound was lovely and solid to go with excellent feel at impact. The flight was in the right window for a driver and compared to some of the market leading drivers I was launching it fractionally higher with a little less spin so I gained a couple of yards here and there.
How much you gain will all depend on how the 0811 driver is set up as there is also the option to vary the shaft and also the head weight by replacing some of the lighter silver screws with heavier black ones and vice versa.
This is where the custom fitting service like that offered by the PXG fitter I visited at Scott Gourlay Golf Technology comes in, as you can only order the PXG driver through a fitting session, but that means you will also get the best out of it.
The other driver in the market that has thousands of weight position combinations and a similar price tag is the TaylorMade M1, but even its RRP is £70 less and includes a shaft. When you go for a fitting you are likely to pay more than this just for the PXG head and that is before you add on the cost of the shaft.
The driver uses the same weight philosophy and design style as the ground breaking PXG 0311 irons, but is maybe not as revolutionary as its sibling, as most of the technological features such as channels and materials are already in use elsewhere.
However, the looks, performance, sound and feel are all excellent and the adjustability options give a dynamic look and offer a very high level of fine tuning. Whereas the PXG irons are something different technically, the driver delivers competitive performance within a striking head design that uses a unique moveable weight system and for some that will be worth the extra investment.