Best Disc Golf Fairway Drivers For Beginners 2023
Looking for a new fairway driver to add to your disc golf arsenal? Here's what you need to know plus our top picks
Are you a newer player after a fairway driver to add to your disc golf stack as you continue to work on your game?
Fairway drivers (also known as control drivers), are popular discs that are, generally speaking at least, easier to control and throw than distance drivers. You can check out our guide to the best distance drivers for beginners here.
In this article, we’re going to bring you all of the key things you need to know about when it comes to picking out a great control driver. We’re going to take a look at the main aspects to consider, and also reveal our pick of five of the best control or fairway drivers for beginners on the market right now.
So, with the introductions out of the way, let’s begin taking a look at the key things to be thinking about when it comes to picking the right fairway driver for you.
(Photo: Adobe Stock)
Picking A Fairway Driver – Things To Consider
Before we start taking a look at the main things to think about when shopping for a fairway or control driver, let’s quickly touch upon what fairway drivers are and what they’re great for.
Simply put, fairway drivers are a type of disc that help to fill the gap between distance drivers and shorter-range discs such as putters. If you’re a beginner, then you may want to steer clear of distance drivers to begin with, simply because they are generally more difficult to throw and master.
(Photo: Adobe Stock)
Fairway or control drivers can be a really great option for your collection if you need a disc with a little bit more distance that’s easier to control. As mentioned above, distance drivers are notoriously difficult to control and a fairway driver can offer a great alternative or ‘middle ground’.
And of course, the more you practice with a fairway driver, the more you’ll get used to discs that fly further and therefore be ready to make the step towards actual distance drivers.
So, now that we’ve covered some of the main plus points of fairway drivers for beginners, let’s look at some of the main things to bear in mind when shopping around for one.
(Photo: Adobe Stock)
• Manufacturer Flight Ratings – If you’re new to disc golf, you may have noticed the four numbers printed on the front of most discs. These are the manufacturer flight ratings and aim to give you an idea of how the disc will fly. They stand for Speed, Glide, Turn and Fade. As a beginner, the main numbers to be looking at for a fairway driver are the Speed (ideally 10 or below) and Glide (ideally three or more). You may also want to choose a disc with low Fade (zero to three) and some notable Turn. We’ve placed the manufacturer flight ratings by the disc names in our list below.
• Customer Reviews – It’s always good to know what other disc golf players are saying and recommending. We recommend taking the time to check out some customer reviews for yourself. This could look like reading a few on Amazon or navigating to a social site such as Reddit to see what’s being said.
• Brand And Company – We always recommend taking a bit of time to do some research into the company and brand behind the disc you’re looking at. This could involve reading a bit about the history of the manufacturer and checking some customer comments to see whether they are a respected name in the disc golf world.
(Photo: Amazon.com)
Best Fairway Drivers For Beginners – Our Pick
Now that we’ve covered some of the main things to be aware of when it comes to shopping for a fairway driver, it’s time to reveal our pick of five of the best options available right now.
All of the discs shown below were available to buy on Amazon at the time of writing. Do bear in mind that the colour and design of the discs shown below may vary from what’s sold, so be sure to check the product description page on Amazon if you’re in doubt.
1) Innova Leopard (6, 5, -2, 1)
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
(Photo: Amazon.com)
The Innova Leopard (available here on Amazon) is one of the most popular and highly-rated disc golf fairway drivers of all time. It’s very well-regarded by users and was mentioned multiple times by lots of different users during our research. Innova are one of the biggest names in the disc golf world and the Leopard is one of their top-selling discs. It’s also a very highly rated option on Amazon – it had an average score of 4.7 out of five stars from more than 1,200 reviews at the time of writing.
2) Latitude 64 Diamond (8, 6, -3, 1)
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
(Photo: Amazon.com)
The Latitude 64 Diamond (available here on Amazon) is the next choice on our list. This is another disc that was mentioned regularly by players during our research. The Diamond is marketed as a “beginner friendly driver” that’s perfect to players with slower arm speeds. It’s known for being easy to throw and came up multiple times during our research. It’s also another very highly rated option – it had an average score of 4.7 out of five stars from nearly 250 reviews at the time of writing.
3) Axiom Discs Crave (6.5, 5, -1, 1)
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
(Photo: Amazon.com)
Next up is the Axiom Discs Crave (available here on Amazon). Axiom Discs are another very respected brand in the disc golf world and the Crave is a straight-flying fairway driver with notable fade. Axiom say that this disc is best suited for long, straight, neutral to stable shots. The Crave was mentioned by happy users during our research, and it had an average rating of 4.7 out of five stars from 97 reviews on Amazon at the time of writing.
4) Latitude 64 River (7, 7, -1, 1)
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
(Photo: Amazon.com)
The next choice on our list is the Latitude 64 River (available here on Amazon). Another option from the popular Latitude 64 brand, the River is another easy to throw fairway driver that has “effortless glide”. It’s another very popular disc that was mentioned regularly during our research. The Diamond is marketed as being designed to “easily execute accurate shots that demand control”. Another highly rated option, this disc had an average score of 4.6 out of five stars on Amazon at the time of writing.
5) Innova IT (7, 6, -2, 1)
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
(Photo: Amazon.com)
The final option on our list is another disc from Innova – the IT (available here on Amazon). As mentioned above, Innova are well known to be one of disc golf’s leading brands. It’s engineered to offer good distance, even at slower arm speeds, and it’s been designed to hold “on the line of release and carry”. At the time of writing, the IT had an average rating of 4.6 out of five stars on Amazon from 12 reviews.
How We Chose The Best Disc Golf Fairway Drivers For Beginners
There are loads of Fairway Drivers out there made by a range of different brands, and sometimes the sheer number of products on offer can make picking the right one for you a bit overwhelming.
To compile this guide, we conducted our own online research. We unearthed some of the top selling fairway drivers on Amazon and checked out lots of customer reviews to find some of the highest-rating options. We also checked out social sites such as Reddit to see what real players were saying and recommending when it comes to control drivers for beginners.
(Photo: Adobe Stock)
We then combined all of this information to put together this guide and arrive at our top picks.
Although we very much hope that this guide has been useful, we do strongly recommend doing some of your own research before making a purchase. This could include reading some customer reviews for yourself, or seeing what other players are saying and recommending on social sites such as Reddit.
(Photo: Adobe Stock)
Anything Else To Bear In Mind?
It’s worth popping into your local disc golf store where possible to try out a few discs for yourself. This is a great way to get a feel for what kind of discs you like and also receive some tailored feedback from staff.
If you’re shopping online, be sure to get familiar with the returns, refunds and exchanges policy of the site you’re shopping from.
We also want to point out that drivers are generally tricky to handle for beginners. If you’re just starting out playing disc golf, you may want to go for some easier to throw discs to start with before moving onto any kind of driver.
(Photo: Adobe Stock)
Wrapping Things Up – Our Final Thoughts
That brings us to the last part of our guide to the best fairway drivers for beginners.
We’ve walked you through some of the key things to bear in mind when looking around for a great fairway driver, and have also revealed our pick of five top options on the market right now, which are all available on Amazon.
We’ve placed the popular and highly rated Innova Leopard (available here on Amazon) at the top of our list, but all of the drivers we’ve featured on this page can be great options!
