I Was Skeptical About This New £949 Luxury Driver… Then I Hit It And Was Blown Away

The XXIO Prime Royal Edition driver forms part of a new line of clubs designed for women and seniors with a moderate swing speed. The aim of this driver from the Japanese brand, renowned for creating lightweight golf equipment for amateur players, is to make it super easy to hit higher and longer shots.

I’m a big fan of the XXIO 13 driver, but this is the next level, not just lightweight, but ultralightweight, and packed with technology for a top-tier price. As I fall into the target market I was therefore excited to try this new driver to find out if its performance justifies the price tag to sit as one of the best golf drivers for women on the market.

Just by looking at the magnetic headcover, this driver exudes luxury. It’s cream with gold piping and gold embroidered stitching to signify the number one and a classy ‘RE’ logo, which makes it feel very royal! I also couldn’t help notice the shiny gold insert in the butt of the club, it’s almost jewel-like.

The clubhead is a unique color and I haven’t seen anything similar. It’s chocolate brown with a few gold and bronze accents and this is complemented by a graphite shaft that’s finished with gold ion plating and Royal Edition branding.

It's good that this colorway is gender neutral, so will appeal to women and seniors. I actually prefer the colorways of some of the other women’s drivers on the market, such as the XXIO 13, Ping’s G Le3 and Callaway's Paradym Ai Smoke MAX Fast, but that’s personal choice. If a club can deliver on performance, I will forgo my favorite aesthetics!

Comparing its overall weight with the XXIO 13 driver, I didn’t notice a dramatic difference, but interestingly, as soon as I picked up the XXIO Prime, it looked slightly longer and true enough, it’s about an inch longer than XXIO 13. It is very lightweight and some players will prefer a heavier club.

The clubhead is a simple bulbous shape, without any fussy detailing, although I like the small alignment made on the top of the crown. There’s even very subtle Royal Edition branding ingrained into the gold clubface - the attention to detail is incredible.

As for performance, I tested this 11.5 degree driver over multiple rounds including one round where I was outdriving one of the women at my golf club who is deemed to be one of the longer hitters, so let’s say, I was suitably impressed.

The funny thing is, when I struck some of my drives, I didn’t expect to see them fly as far as they did because the trajectory was high, so this driver definitely helped me to carry the ball further with minimal effort.

This is likely to be due to the BiFlex Face, which works like a strong frame around the face, designed to be highly flexible to reinforce locations to optimize ball speed. XXIO’s ActivWing technology also uses aerodynamics to help get the clubhead square at impact, while this driver’s new Draw-Biased design reduces any distance loss caused by off-centre strikes, so this explains why my drives were not only long, but straight. Also, with a large sweet spot, the XXIO Prime Royal Edition is up there as one of the most forgiving drivers.

All-in-all, this driver definitely gets my gold seal of approval if you have a slow to moderate swing speed and the club is within your budget. We all want to make this game easier, and off the tee, this driver certainly does that.