I Got The NEW 2025 TAKOMO DRIVER – Brutally Honest Review!

I Got The NEW 2025 TAKOMO DRIVER – Brutally Honest Review! – 2025 Takomo Driver Review | Can It Compete with TaylorMade, Ping, and Callaway?

The all-new 2025 Takomo Driver is here — and it’s turning heads. Co-owned by golf personalities Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros, this driver isn’t just another release — it’s a statement.

In this video, we put the Takomo driver through a full hands-on test: distance, forgiveness, feel, and overall performance. Can this bold new entry stack up against the heavyweights like the TaylorMade Qi35, Ping G440, and the Callaway Elyte?

👀 Watch until the end to see:
✅ Real-world launch monitor data
✅ Head-to-head comparisons
✅ Who this driver is best suited for
✅ Whether it deserves a spot in your bag for 2025

🛠️ Is this the sleeper hit of the year? Or just another overhyped release?

⛳ Let us know in the comments what driver you’re gaming this year, and if Takomo made your shortlist!

2025 has seen the launch of some jaw-dropping golf equipment. In the driver categories, we have the brand new Tailormade driver. We have the new Ping G440. And we of course have the time for this range of GT products. Now, are they the best drivers on the market? Is the Tailor-Made Qi35 the best driver on the market? Is the Callaway Elite the best driver on the market? Well, today we have a brand new offering from a company that isn’t as well known for making drivers as you may think. Introducing the brand new for 2025 to Okay, guys. So, hear me out. The driver I’m about to show you costs $319. That’s sub $250. And I wanted to really get that information over to you before we show you how good this driver looks. So, without any further ado, let’s unbox the head and see exactly what we’re talking about. So, let’s have a look at this brand new driver head from Tacomao. And it actually looks, I think, absolutely fantastic. Very minimalistic, as you can see. An all black finish, a three-way adjustable weighting system here. So, I think for the traditionalists, this is going to be a fantastic looking driver. There’s plenty of technology in here for people to get the teeth into. And I’m really interested to see first of all how it performs to last year’s um cowbell and to my Ping G430 which I’ve been using cuz I really really enjoy that driver this year. But obviously this is going to be coming in at marginal price to the very expensive clubs. So without any further ado, let’s get out there. Okay guys, so as you can see we have the Ignis D1 here and we have that three-way adjustable weighting system. already a vast improvement on the looks of last year’s model from Tacoma. I say last year, it’s been out a couple of years. Although Chris, you quite liked it, didn’t you? Yep, I did. So, you can see we have a lovely kind of carbon crown on here. And one of the big things for me is this adjust adjustable sleeve here. So, we can go two degrees up, we can go a couple of degrees down, and we can of course change lie angle and loft and things like that on here. So, first shot with the new Tacomao driver. Quite a tight hole here. The second hole at Lindrech. Now looking down at this, it really does look nice. It’s got almost a kind of titalistesque shape to it. But you can see that carbon crown looks a little bit more modern, I think, is the right terminology for this. So let’s see what kind of shot we can play. Three fairways would be a lovely start to this review. Now, I didn’t expect that to go as well as it has done. That’s bounding down the middle of the fairway, and it felt like a pretty decent strike as well. I’ve hit that just out of the toe here, as you can see. Now, what I find with some drivers like this, if you can get it out of the high toe, you can maintain element of ball speed. There is technology in here to help you do that, but it can also drop that spin rate as well. So, I’m really looking forward to talking spin rates and strike locations with this new Ignis DI driver, or D1 driver, should I say. Guys, get in the comments below. Could you see yourself using the new Tacomao driver this year in 2025? Are you using Tacoma lines and wedges? Could you see yourself matching that up? And I think the really interesting thing will be, will we see the likes of Grant Horv and the Brian Brothers use this driver? We all know that they’re heavily invested in the Tacoma brand. I believe Grant does use a Tailor- made driver because he’s contracted, but when that ends, will he move into this? Will we test it against a tailor made for us and see which is best? And will the Brian brothers, of course, do something similar. Right. Can we hit the same again because it’s all good and well hitting one drive out there? But I like the element of consistency. So, how close can we get these drives to each other? Put my bag in a terrible place there, haven’t I? Same again. That was a draw. All that, Chris. Unbelievable scenes. That head shape is really nice. And that’s even better. That’s um that’s really that’s really good. Now, sound and feel-wise, it’s all very subjective. A lot of people will like the sound of it. Some people may still think it sounds a little bit tiny. I believe Tacoma have worked tirelessly to get this to sound better, and it does sound a little bit better. But it still sounds a little bit kind of high pitch. So very different sound. This is not a scientific test by any means in this. Do the face as well. So two totally different sounds there. So very interesting. Very scientific test there. Almost like the old school ping drivers. Now that may be something positive for you. It may be something negative. I quite like it cuz I think the carbon crown really gives it that kind of acoustics that you do want. So there’ll be an internal ribbon structure in there as well to help that. Now that’s two for two. Can you zoom in on them? And that’s unbelievable, isn’t it? That’s um quite remarkable. I can’t wait to test this against the old one because the old one you could generate ball speed with it, but it wasn’t the most forgiving. Chris actually put it in play and used it really really well. But I also can’t wait to test it against my ping and see just how it can cope headto-head for ball speed, spin rate, and of course distance. What a day we’re having, by the way. I’m absolutely buzzing with this so far. And that’s three for three. Little bit higher that one. That’s probably more my swing dynamics. That might just Is it going to catch the bunker? That’s three in the fairway with the first shots with the brand new Tacomao Ignis D1 driver. Very consistent strike locations. Look, delightful. Now, one of the things which I look for in a driver is consistency, as you all know, and forgiveness. That’s two things I know. I’m sorry. But two very consistent drives with the first two and three shots in the fairway as you can see. But one of the things I’m really happy with there, and this is my proper first impressions of this driver, although you may have seen back in Orlando in January, I was lucky enough to test a prototype of this driver. I can safely say this one sounds, feels, and looks a lot better than the prototype. They didn’t even have paint on it at the time. Sorry, Seb. I know that’s kind of your baby. But what I’m really impressed with here is we haven’t lost too much distance with the high spinning one that we hit for that final shot. I thought that might have made the bunker. didn’t, but we’re still only kind of 10 yards behind with a really kind of poor strike. So, forgiveness wise, this could be a big tick in the box. And it also could be a big tick in the box for people who want a forgiving driver for um a little bit less money. So, just what have the boys from Finland managed to do with this new driver? because we all know that they make fantastic irons. But compared to the previous Tacomao prototype driver, it has a 25% larger sweet spot. That’s due to its variable face thickness and caned ellipse design. Now, it does feature a couple of really good shafts that are available as well. We have Aventus red shaft, which is a nice high mid-flighted shaft, and Aventus blue, which is more a low low spin option. So, you can get lots of different potential options here. And of course with that variable weighting system, we can change it from a low spin head to a max CG head. And what I like is there’s only one head whereas I think the bigger brands have three, four, five, six different driver heads and they have to try and sell them all. Whereas Tacomao just sell one, which is nice. Positive. With those first three drives, let’s see just exactly how consistent we can be on this long par five. 550 yards here at Lindric off the blue TE’s which have just hosted open qualifying. So will there be a time where you see someone enter qualifying using a Tacomao driver? We probably have already seen it with irons. I don’t know that specifically, but I know obviously the Brian Bros are using them and will they have entered up why would they not enter up on qualifying. I bet they breeze through. Finchy got did well, didn’t they? Yeah, good point. Very interesting point. Right. Uh, very very narrow. Almost Augusta 18th this drive, isn’t it? Up to the right in the bunker there. Okay, so we’ve had some nice draws. Let’s just try and hold this against the wind with a bit of a fade. That honestly is frighteningly good, isn’t it? That’s carried that bunker as well. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that gentleman walking his dog was actually in danger with that position. I think this could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and that’s not a metaphor I’ve ever used before in my life, but I think it really could be, especially for again that kind of lower price point that a lot of people do want. I’m worried here cuz I’m not a bad driver with it yet. Shaftwise, we have Aventus here, Fujicora. Very, very nice shaft. Again, it’s a premium component for the price, isn’t it? One thing that I’m not a huge fan of is the little alignment aid arrow there. Again, very subjective. I’d just wipe that off. I feel like it doesn’t need that, but a lot of people will like them. Can we hit the same shot again? Really starting to get used to that sound and feel as well, which is a nice positive. Oh, that’s left. That’s left. Sit. Interesting because that’s left, but I reckon that’s gone a very, very long way. That might be a ball lost, but we’ll try and find that. It’s a seed, and we don’t like losing seeds too much on this channel. Tried to go after that one. So, no driver’s perfect. No driver is going to be the ultimate forgiving driver. Let’s try that same shot again and see if we can pull it off. Really excited to talk numbers for this club that again. So, we’ll go two out of three this time. Is that carrying the bunker? What? Did you see that? It just popped in. It’s It’s 20 yards over it. Jumped. It all popped in. Honestly, did you Did you zoom? I’m surpris And a lot of the time on these YouTube videos, we go, “We’re shocked. It shocked us. We’re shocking.” I’m genuinely surpris genuinely surprised by that because the last one just wasn’t very good in my opinion. But this is improvement. So, one of the really interesting things for me about this driver is the sound and feel of it. So, I was never a fan of the previous or the initial Tacomao driver sound and feel. It performed okay. You could get some good numbers with it if you got it out of the middle, but it was Chris and the cowbell, Chris, wasn’t it? Yeah. But I think what Tacoma managed to do here is just tweak it a little bit. So, it still it doesn’t sound like a Callaway or a Tailor Made or a Ping. It sounds very much still like a Tacomao driver. That could be on purpose. I think the guys at Tacomao are amassing quite a big following actually and quite a big I can imagine it’s going to be like Ping where once you’re in the brand, you’re in the brand for life. Yeah. Doing it their own way. Yeah. And you like the sound, you like the feel and you don’t want too much change. So realistically here, if the last one, as said by a great man, a fine driver with one big problem, it sort of sounded like this one sounds I think quite a lot better. I would like to see a different head cover as well. I think the head cover is very similar to the previous one, but it is very Finnish, black, white, and a little tag that says designed in Finland. So, to test this new Tacoma driver phone numbers, I took it out onto the range with my Gulf on Wave launch monitor and really put it through its paces, not just to see what it performed like, but to test it against my current driver, the Ping G440. So, I thought this would be a really interesting comparison and really interesting test because obviously you could almost buy two of these Tacomao drivers for the price of one of the Ping drivers. Now, I hit some really, really nice shots with the Ignite D1. I even managed to hit some little baby draws as you can see here, and they were carrying a decent distance. I was getting kind of a 270 plus carry, which for a driver of this price, I have to say I’m really, really pleased with the sound and the feel, I really started to get used to it a lot more after hitting a lot of shots. So, some real positives to take from there. I don’t feel like it’s the most forgiving driver in the world. I did have it in its forgiving setting, but I do feel like it does feel and perform a lot better than the prototype driver that Tacomao originally had. So, looking at some of the ball flights, I was getting nice varying ball flights. I could hit it high. I could flight it down low and still get a decent carry. Now, the area that I thought this driver performed really well was if I hit it slightly high out of the face. You can see there that dropped spin and I managed to get some more distance. Now, obviously, we all know how good the Ping G440 LStech can perform. And yes, I could have done this test with the standard G440, but this LST is the driver that I’ve been using. So, when it comes to the numbers, the spin rates are always going to be a little bit higher with the Tacomao, and I feel like if you do move those weights around, you will just bring that spin rate down ever so slightly. You can see I hit some really nice high bombs there with the Ping. I’ve actually been working on my driver swing quite a lot, and I have noticed it’s improved quite well. You can see there, that one came out a bit lower, but still got the distance. So, when it came to the overall numbers, to be honest, yes, the Ping had a little bit more ball speed and lower spin, but realistically looking at those numbers and looking at how far that Tacomao driver can go for the price, I think it’s going to be a really, really nice option for those who don’t want to go and spend $500, $600 on a new driver in 2025. So, guys, we’re joined by someone who gamed the last Tacomao driver, even though it was a bit of a protoype. And Chris, in your video, you state that Tacomao, they’re they’re doing something a bit different than what big brands would usually do, similar to another brand. I’m not going to tell you which one, so go and check out Chris’s review because I’m I take my hat off to you with it. Well, thank you very much. I think it’s probably the most insightful thing you’ve said about a golf product I’ve ever heard. But what do you think are the big differences between this and the cowbell you christened and loved so much? So again, sound is obviously a big thing here and obviously the movable weights. much easier to obviously get that low spin option. But for me, obviously it’s been 2020 was when the first prototype driver came out. So 5 years and there’s a lot of technology that’s gone into it and it’s certainly being worth the wait in my opinion. I think so. Yeah, I think a lot of brands are quick to rush something out because they have well they have targets to meet, they have investors they need to pay out, they have a lot of people who need to make a lot of money, but I think the guys from Finland are just like we’ll do it when we’re ready, which is what they’ve done with the irons as well. So, um, yeah, Chris, thank you very much for your time. Enjoy your Coca-Cola. Um, we’re growing up cuz I’ve got a Sam Pelro, right? Not an onto the onto the next. Right guys, I do believe that the fairway is clear cuz they’re up near the green. How cool is that, by the way? Just to see exactly where you’re going. Um, and you can see that the numbers were very, very interesting. You can see a very competitive driver here from the guys at Tacomao. So, we all know in golf you get one chance and one chance only. So on this rather difficult fifth hole at Lindrich Golf Club, I’m going to hit a Tacomao driver and we’re going to hit my Ping G440 driver. We’re going to use a seed 4 for the Tacomao driver and we’re going to use a seed two for the Ping driver. Let’s see exactly what difference we get when it comes to one shot and one shot only. Because for me, when we do start talking about budgets, we start talking about how much things cost. Yes, you can stand on a range with a launch monitor, hit shot after shot after shot, and you can gauge an average, but really when it comes down to the bones of it, that one shot on one shot only in the round of golf is how you want your value for money. It’s what you want it for. So, seed for Tacomao D1. I’d just like to hold my hands up as well and say I’m not a fan of the name. I’d use I’d have had it a different name. I’d have called it the Tacoma 301. That’s a terrible example. That’s why I don’t work for a golf brand because that’s what the irons are called. But you know what I mean. You know what I mean, right? Straight over the post with a little bit. I’m going to go with a bit of draw actually cuz I feel like I’m able to work this driver as I want to. Let’s go after it. That’s just stayed out there to the right. It should catch the right side of fairway. Maybe the right hand rough, but it’s not too bad of a ball fly. I struck it really nicely actually. So, onto the ping. And it’s funny because the ping actually looks very very similar just with turbuls. Matte black carbon crown. That’s a very similar shot as well. They’re going to be very close together, but how will they do for distance? Let’s go and find out. So, I can see two balls on this penultimate challenge. One of them with a big fly on and that is the seed 4. So that’s the Tacomao driver which makes that the seed 2 and of course the Ping driver a little bit further up but a little bit more offline. Guys let us know in the comments what do you think to this brand new driver from the boys in Finland. I think again it’s fantastic. We have so many brands offering more affordable product DTOC to you guys to save yourself some money. If you’ve enjoyed that, smash that subscribe button below. I look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow. 40° today by the way. It’s hot.