The new 2025 Srixon ZXi drivers are living proof that three seemingly conflicting conclusions can all be true.
First, they might be the best drivers Srixon has released in the past decade, at least. There’s an intriguing new face material and face design, three models with distinct differences and a look that rivals anything we’ve seen so far this year.
Second, despite what we just told you, it’s unlikely the new Srixon ZXi drivers will shake up this year’s driver market. We don’t see TaylorMade, Callaway, PING, Titleist or COBRA worrying much about ZXi.
Third, Srixon doesn’t much care about what you just read. Like most metalwood challenger brands, Srixon is fighting for its share of the 10 percent of the market the Big Five don’t already own. Success is measured in feet, not miles.
That said, we’re going to focus on that first conclusion today. Srixon has always had “nice” drivers but this is the first time in my memory that Srixon is bringing a compelling driver story to the table.
Should they be on your 2025 driver demo list?
Speed through materials
Srixon, by nature, is not the most hyperbolic company. It’s not into big marketing splashes and won’t (with maybe one exception) smack you in the face with words like “revolutionary” or “game-changing.” While it makes for a more responsible organization, Srixon drivers don’t generate the same buzz as the usual suspects.
That’s why hanging your hat on a newly developed face material and a new variable-thickness face design is quintessentially Srixon.
The new material is called Ti72S titanium, developed by Srixon engineers in Japan and California.
“The limits have been pushed as to what we can squeeze out of titanium,” Srixon Engineering Director Dustin Brekke tells MyGolfSpy, “but we can improve its yield stress and what it can withstand. We can get gains in mass reduction and improve our variable-face thickness.”
The face is one of the heaviest parts of a driver clubhead. Any time you can make it lighter and improve strength, that’s an opportunity for better. Ti72S is lighter and stronger than Srixon’s previous Ti51AF. Lighter and stronger lets you make the face thinner and a thinner face is a ball speed multiplier.
Speed through “i-Flex” and Rebound Frame
Every OEM has ball speed-enhancing technology, with face flex and variable-face thickness playing major roles. The goal is twofold: maximize ball speed on center strikes, and minimize ball speed loss on off-center strikes. Some may be more effective, but all serve the same purpose: to get the ball moving like a bat out of hell at impact.
After that, the ball is on its own. The club has done its job.
“Twenty years ago, we had a uniform face thickness stamped out of a sheet of metal,” says Brekke. “It gave you pretty good ball speed but it was inefficient. You had a lot of mass that wasn’t optimized for performance.”
Mock artificial intelligence if you will but AI can create an optimized variable-face thickness pattern that may take 100 engineers 100 years to iterate. The computer isn’t flying blind, however. It uses player impact information, Arccos data and other human input. With all that data, Srixon’s supercomputer created “i-Flex.”
“The new Ti72S titanium is a dial for us,” says Brekke. “It’s our thinnest face so we can improve center impact.”
If you look at it from the inside, the i-Flex face pattern resembles either a stylized capital “I” or, if you prefer, the Green Lantern’s green lantern symbol. (Don’t tell me I’m the only one who sees it.) Srixon backs i-Flex with its fourth generation of Rebound Frame to create ball speed.
Rebound Frame essentially creates two trampolines at the front of the club. The first trampoline features the thin i-Flex face backed by a rigid frame. That frame is then backed by a flexible zone which is then backed by another rigid zone. Think of it as a double boing.
“i-Flex brings focus to the face itself,” says Brekke. “Rebound Frame is about maximizing the overall deflection profile.”
Three new Srixon ZXi drivers: Spin is the thing
For an industry that resists standardization (shaft flex, anyone?), golf seems to have settled on a basic driver nomenclature. Srixon’s 2023 driver lineup featured the better-player-focused ZX7, the more forgiving ZX5 and, for the first time, a low-spin model in the ZX5 LS.
It’s 2025 now and the industry has adopted the standard, MAX and LS terminology. Srixon is joining the party with its new ZXi, ZXi MAX and ZXi LS drives. If you’re trying to match them up, the ZXi replaces the ZX7, the ZXi MAX replaces the ZX5 and the LS replaces the LS.
The standard Srixon ZXi should fit the widest swath of golfers (Shane Lowery gamed it in last week’s TGL debut) and offers a balance between ball speed, MOI, forgiveness and low spin. The ZXi MAX is, as the name suggests, all about forgiveness. It has the highest MOI of any Srixon driver to date. 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 benefits golfers with aggressive swings, even if their swing speed isn’t what you’d call high.
Srixon’s fitting story, however, is what makes the lineup interesting.
“These are all designed for fast ball speed and max distance,” says Brekke. “But from an impact performance standpoint, spin is the driving force. Do you need low spin? Would it help you to have more spin, provided you can deal with the tradeoffs that might come with that?”
For most golfers, you’d start with the ZXi as it will give you some left-to-right variation. If you need more spin and forgiveness, you shift to the MAX. If you need less spin and can tolerate the loss in forgiveness, you can look at the LS.
A new adjustable hosel (FINALLY!)
That Woodstock 1969-level roar of approval you’re hearing is me celebrating a new adjustable hosel in the Srixon ZXi drivers.
Hallelujah!
Not that the old Srixon adapter was junk. It wasn’t. The problem was it had more positions than the Kama Sutra and you needed an advanced degree to use it.
“Hosel adjustability was engineering-driven for the longest time,” admits Brekke. “It was like, ‘Oooh, look at everything it can do.’ It was just so overwhelming.”
The new hosel has a larger range than the old one but you won’t need a decoder ring to figure it out. It’s loft-based but as you adjust the loft up or down (1.5 degrees in ½-degree increments) you also adjust the lie angle down from standard and the face angle to be more open or more closed.
Altogether, the new hosel offers 12 different settings. When combined with the swappable sole weights, a good fitter can easily turn three different Srixon ZXi drivers into dozens of possibilities.
“Unless a driver says ‘Draw’ on it, everyone is trying to go straight,” Brekke says. “We have a little left tendency with the MAX but there are things you can do with face angle and other stuff. We’re trying to provide fitting solutions and clarity in performance expectations.”
The sound of distance?
I’ve tried all three of the new Srixon ZXi drivers and while I wouldn’t describe their sound as off-putting, it’s no vintage 1985 Kathleen Turner whispering in your ear, either.
“It’s not a loud driver. There’s nothing crazy about it,” says Brekke. “But I do think it has more of a signature sound. It’s not as high frequency as previous Srixon drivers, but sound is another design tradeoff. Depending on how sole, heel and toe weights are arranged, you can get sole vibrations that might be outside of where you’d want them to be.”
That’s a long-winded way of saying we designed the driver to do certain things and this is the sound we got. Srixon, like PING, eschews carbon fiber in favor of all-titanium construction. Carbon fiber crowns do change the sound dynamic a little bit, so a degree of high-toned clinkyness is expected.
Maybe the best way to describe it is that it sounds like a PING driver.
“As an engineer working on sound, there are a lot of wrong answers but very few right answers,” Brekke explains. “There are spaces you can’t live in. But once you’re in the right space, it becomes a tradeoff. Moving a couple of grams in the internal ribs or changing face curvature influences the sound.
“There will be things you will and won’t want to do.”
Then again, if the fit works for you and you like the performance, it’s amazing how quickly the sound won’t bother you. I’ve hit worse-sounding drivers over the years, that’s for sure.
Besides, once you hit a few bombs, any driver will sound like a Paul McCartney lullaby.
Srixon ZXi drivers: Price, specs and availability
The standard Srixon ZXi driver will be available in nine- and 10.5-degree lofts for righties and lefties. It comes standard with swappable heel and toe sole weights. With the 10-gram weight in the heel and four-gram in the sole, the ZXi is more draw-biased. Swapping them makes it more fade-biased.
The Fujikura Ventus TR Blue (X-, S-, R-flexes) is stock as is the Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grip.
The ZXi MAX comes in nine-, 10.5- and 12-degree heads (nine is RH only) with a 14-gram sole weight in the back for a low and deep center of gravity. The lighter-weight Project X Denali Red 50 is the stock shaft, in S-, R- and A-flexes. The Tour Velvet 360 is the stock grip.
A 12-degree ZXi MAX women’s model is available in left- and right-handed models (lefties will have to custom order). The Aldila Ascent PL 40 shaft and Lamkin ST Soft grip are stock.
The Srixon ZXi LS comes in three lofts (eight, nine, 10.5 degrees) with the Project X HZRDUS Black in X-, S- and R-flexes and Tour Velvet 360 grip stock. Only the nine-degree model is available for lefties.
The new Srixon ZXi drivers will retail for $549.99. They hit the stores Jan. 24.
For more information, visit the Srixon website.
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