SF1 Driver Life-Tested Review
Is the SF1 slice-fighting driver legit? We tested it out first-hand to answer that exact question.
Have you heard of the SF1 driver? It’s the driver made by Performance Golf that promises to fix any slice instantly. So, does the SF1 driver really work? If it does, such wizardry would be an ideal weapon for plenty of the 26 million Americans who play golf.
Performance Golf makes a lot of bold claims about its SF1 driver, but we wanted to find out for real whether it works, so we put it to the test ourselves.
SF1 Driver Review
Buy at Performance GolfFind on Amazon
MSRP: $299
I’ll clear one thing up right away: it is still possible to hit a slice with the SF1 driver. If you visit the product page and believe every word there, you might be tempted to think you’ve hit your last slice ever, but don’t get too excited.
With that out of the way, let’s take a deeper dive into exactly how the SF1 Driver performs, looks, and feels, and who could really benefit from it.
SF1 Driver Slice-Fighting Performance
Since the SF1 Driver is all about hitting straight shots, let’s start there.
If you were to close your eyes and set up in your driver stance with the SF1 driver, then open your eyes and look down, you'd notice that the face appears to be somewhat closed. If you’re used to slicing, this could be a confidence-inspiring look, but if you’re accustomed to a neutral ball flight, I suspect you’d be tempted to manipulate that face before moving the club.
I experimented with both, and saw a wide range of results.
I tested the SF1 driver using the Rapsodo MLM2Pro launch monitor on the driving range, and used a sample of drives from my gamer, a PING G425 Max, as a baseline.
I don’t struggle with a slice, and after I watched the first few balls with the SF1 fly off the planet in the hook/draw direction, I decided to manipulate the face so it was more neutral at address. Then I saw a few fly off the planet in the slice direction, confirming it is indeed possible to hit a slice with the SF1 driver.
These results may sound sporadic, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. I don’t step up to a tee box hoping not to slice. So when I put a normal swing on the ball with a driver designed primarily to correct a slice, it should come as no surprise that I saw the ball fly so far in the other direction. That’s exactly what it should do.
However, if you do struggle with a slice with your normal swing, you could expect to see a significant correction back towards the center. In fact, my first couple swings with the SF1 driver, just swinging it with my normal setup and swing, without manipulating the face at address, each traveled more than 50 yards in the draw/hook direction (to the right, I’m a lefty). That’s not ideal if you’re hitting it straight already, but if you’re hitting 30-40 yard slices today, that type of correction is probably exactly what you’re looking for.
One final note on the slice-fighting features before we move on to distance. The crown of the SF1 driver is what Performance Golf calls an AeroSquare crown. I can’t tell you whether or not that design really helps increase toe speed during the downswing, as PG claims, but visually, if you’re struggling with a slice, it’s confidence-inspiring. The design cuts through the crown at about a 45-degree angle, and – at least for me – inspired the feeling of squaring the face through impact (which would rotate those channels toward the target through the strike).
SF1 Driver Distance
I tested the Performance Golf SF1 driver against my gamer, a PING G425 Max. These aren’t two drivers anyone would typically compare head-to-head, but to be honest, this is where the SF1 driver was the most surprising to me, and in a very good way.
From a distance standpoint, the SF1 hung with my PING. The longest drives with the SF1 were as long as all but my two longest with the PING, according to Rapsodo data in a sampling of about a dozen shots with each.
Swinging both drivers at about 105 mph – likely on the top end of the swing speeds the SF1 was designed for – I cranked out multiple 280-yard-plus drives with the SF1, a good poke regardless of the driver in hand by my standards. Don't underestimate the distance this SF1 driver is capable of.
On average, the SF1 was only eight yards behind my gamer, according to Rapsodo. I might say eight yards is significant if we’re comparing two tour drivers, but that’s not the case here. The SF1 is designed to get you in play off the tee, so the fact that it’s only a few paces behind what I consider to be one of the best drivers of the last five years, is a huge win.
If you can be 30 or so yards closer to the center and only a few yards shorter, you could save a lot of strokes.
SF1 Driver Look, Sound, and Feel
Some decisions must be head-and-heart decisions. You have to know it’s good for you, but you also need to feel great about it. Golf club purchases fall into that category, and that’s where the look, sound, and feel of any golf club come into play.
To start, the look of the SF1 driver is pretty impressive. At address, I like the 45-degree angle design, especially from a slice-fighting standpoint.
Even though some of the claims and promises that come with the SF1 package are hokey, the club itself is not. The primarily black build – from head to grip – is sleek and the white and red accents are tasteful. In a batch of 10 other modern drivers, this one does not stand out as anti-slice or gimmicky, instead, it blends in rather nicely, which is a good thing.
At impact, it feels like a knockout blow. It’s a very solid and sturdy feeling. The sound is a touch on the loud side, but the pitch is fair and it’s certainly not distracting or distinct.
Who Should Consider the SF1 Driver?
The SF1 driver is designed for a very specific purpose – fight the slice at all costs. If a slice is not your primary shot shape, I think there’s a better chance this driver will hurt you than help you. Anybody can hit a slice from time to time, but if you have a two-way miss or a fairly neutral ball flight for the most part, the SF1 driver could cause more harm than good.
On the other hand, if you could step up to the ball and make 100 normal swings, and expect to see a slice every time, or at least 75 of them, then a driver like the SF1 can save you strokes.
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Recommended If: |
Avoid If: |
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Your normal swing routinely produces a slice |
You have a two-way miss with driver |
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You have a moderate to slow swing speed |
You have a neutral ball flight with driver |
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Hitting a slice is taking the fun out of golf |
You prefer a neutral look at address |
Gimmick or Game-Changer?
I’ll never forget a moment from my early days of golf, taking lessons from an instructor in his early days as well. I blew a slice off the driving range and was visually embarrassed. The instructor simply said “Don’t worry, the slice is the reason I know I’ll always have a job giving golf lessons.”
The point is, as long as there’s golf, people will be trying to fix their slice. If you hit the occasional slice, along with the occasional hook with some straight shots mixed in, turning to the SF1 driver is probably not the answer. But if you have a consistent slice that’s making golf less fun, this driver really could help you hit drives way closer to the center, and make the game that much more fun again.