PXG 0211 Metalwoods – Key Takeaways

PXG has released a new 0211 lineup. Drivers, fairway woods and hybrids are available. Retail prices are below the market average – $375 driver, $325 fairway wood, $275 hybrid.

The start of a new year and the release of a full line of 0211 clubs provide PXG with an opportunity to reestablish its identity.

What’s true for most of us is true for PXG: 2020 was an odd year.

How’s that for an understatement?

To its credit, when COVID hit, PXG jumped ahead of the curve. It launched a pair of prototype drivers while extending its “Hero” military and first-responder discount program to the masses. The special pricing was set to expire after a month but was extended and extended again and again until Hero pricing simply became what their stuff costs.

A tech story behind the proto drivers was never discussed.

PXG: Golf’s Fanciest Discount Brand

Somehow, golf’s most premium semi-mainstream brand found itself competing with Tour Edge … on price. If that wasn’t strange enough, the second half of PXG’s season, save a putter or two, was dedicated almost entirely to its apparel collection. Odder still, PXG capped off its 2020 with the release of a signature scented candle.

I swear I’m not making that up.

Nobody melts wax the way do. PERIOD!

Yeah, man, things got weird.

Who is PXG?

Given the apparent shift in PXG’s pricing model, it’s plenty fair to ask: Who is PXG?

The answer, it turns out, can be found in the new PXG 0211 line – an affordably priced offering that unapologetically plays to the “no fitting required” middle of the equipment market’s fitting and buying curve.

“We make product for everybody,” says Brad Schweigert, PXG’s Chief Product Officer. While that may or may not apply to the candle market, it certainly means golfers of all ability and budget levels.

Within the larger picture, the idea behind the 2021 0211 lineup is to make the PXG brand more affordable, extend PXG’s reach deeper into the market and do both without sacrificing performance or technology.

About the PXG 0211 Lineup

While there’s no GEN moniker attached to the 0211 product, it is the second go-round for the 0211 name. The first 0211s launched in early 2019. Back then (it seems like forever ago), the product was limited to irons only. The new incarnation of 0211 offers a new set of irons but what’s notable for PXG fans – and fans of pricing below industry averages – is that the company is extending 0211 to include nearly all of the bag.

The new 0211 line includes drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons (from 4-iron through lob wedge).

Apropos of nothing, the headcovers are flippin’ sweet. They’ve got magnets embedded to help hold them in place.

PXG 0211 Driver

If there’s a common theme across the 0211 lineup, it’s versatility. The 0211 driver is designed to work better than “well enough” for golfers of all ability levels.

Available in three lofts (9, 10.5  and 12 degrees), the PXG 0211 driver is described as having a moderate to large profile. From a shape and profile perspective, it sits between PXG’s lower-spinning offering, the 0811X GEN2 and its uber-forgiving 0811 XF GEN2.

With respect to the 0811X in particular, the PXG 0211 driver has a more elongated profile at address and a face that’s roughly 10-percent taller. The side profile reveals shaping that’s not entirely dissimilar from COBRA’s Speedback/Speedzone and TaylorMade’s SIM designs.

PXG 0211 Driver Face

Every brand has a story around its face material. For PXG, the material is Ti-412. Combined with a variable thickness design, the properties of TI-412 allow for greater face deflection without suffering deformation over time.

If you guessed that gives you more ball speed, please step forward and collect your prize.

PXG 0211 Driver Hybrid Crown Construction

Whether you want to call it hybrid or multi-material, the takeaway is that the crown of the PXG 0211 driver is a mix of carbon and titanium.

While most designs that leverage carbon fiber seek to use as much of it as they can, PXG opted to rely more heavily on titanium over a larger area in the heel and toe to support a comparably smaller carbon section.

What looks like carbon is the carbon. What doesn’t, isn’t.

PXG says the additional titanium makes the driver stiffer and more durable while the carbon fiber section serves to pull weight from the center where it isn’t desirable while helping to lower the center of gravity and boost MOI.

That increased stiffness reads a bit like a different take on Jailbreak. It boils down to creating speed by more tightly joining the various parts of the driver head.

Honeycomb TPE insert

Like other PXG metalwoods, hidden inside the driver is a honeycomb TPE insert. While the insert plays a role in driving mass low and back, it, along with internal ribs and the railed sole geometry, help provide better sound and feel.

PXG 0211 Driver Adjustability – or Lack Thereof

While the PXG 0211 driver features the same hosel-based adjustability as other PXG metalwoods, it doesn’t offer movable weights.

That costs you a bit of fitting flexibility but that’s not to suggest it’s entirely “what you see is what you get.” The back weight (10 grams standard) is swappable. The 0211 driver takes the same weights as PXG’s putter lineup, which gives golfers the ability to go as light as 2.5 grams or as heavy as 20 grams (in 2.5-gram increments). The stock length is 45 inches but the weights provide plenty of flexibility for longer or shorter builds.

PXG 0211 Driver – Mass Properties

It’s reasonable to say most discount drivers sacrifice mass properties to hit a price point. Tour Edge’s prior-generation Hot Launch product, for example, was sub-5,000 MOI with a center of gravity that’s significantly higher than average.

That’s a recipe for spin and lots of it.

By contrast, PXG says its 0211 driver should spec out around 5,200 MOI with a center of gravity about one millimeter below the neutral axis. If I’m starting to lose you, understand that, on paper, that projects to something akin to a higher-launching, lower-spinning PING G410 LST.

It’s an intriguing proposition regardless but, at only $375, it’s unquestionably worth a look.

PXG 0211 Fairway Woods

From a design and construction standpoint, what’s true for the PXG 0211 driver is largely true for the PXG 0211 fairway woods.

Versatility – the idea of one club to fit all – plays heavily in the design.

To that end, PXG has tweaked the shape a bit. The larger, more rounded profile provides greater forgiveness than previous PXG fairway woods.

Most notable in the PXG 0211 fairway wood design is the inclusion of a railed and rounded sole. Both elements are visible in the face-on view.

The appreciable heel and toe relief, coupled with sole rails similar to COBRA’s signature Baffler rails, help the club move through the turf and avoid fat shots.

While there’s an obvious element of mimicry here, quite frankly the railed designs work and it’s actually surprising more brands have not implemented the feature – especially on clubs designed for golfers who struggle to hit their fairway woods with any degree of consistency.

As with the driver, the PXG 0211 fairway wood features hybrid crown construction (AM355 body). The face material this time around is HT1770, which some of you may recognize as the same material PXG uses in its iron faces.

Yup, there’s a honeycomb TPE insert as well. And also, yup, the 0211 fairway wood leverages the same weights as the driver.

PXG 0211 Fairway Wood Options

PXG 0211 fairway woods are available in a 3-wood (15 degrees), 5-wood (18), and 7-wood (21).

There aren’t stock shafts in the conventional sense.  Anything in PXG’s no-upcharge lineup is fair game. Anything in the upcharge lineup is fair game, to … so long as you pay the upcharge. The same is true for the driver.

The retail price is $325 each.

PXG 0211 Hybrids

I’m going to save us all some time and simply tell you the hybrid is a mini version of the fairway wood. I’m not wrong as it relates to materials and construction. Face and body material, hybrid crown construction, TPE material … it’s all there.

Is it any wonder why it’s so difficult to get golfers to engage with hybrid stories?

Here’s the thing, though. In my admittedly sometimes myopic opinion, the 0211 hybrid is the most interesting club in the 0211 lineup if for no other reason than – and, yeah, this is just me talking —  PXG very quietly makes some of the best hybrids in the game.

The original 0317 – awesome. 0317 awesome-IER.

Having said that, while no means a peanut, the 0317 trends a little bit towards the small side. That’s actually what I like about them. The shaping just suits my eye.

PXG 0211 Hybrid – Larger and More Forgiving

By comparison, the PXG 0211 hybrid retains the same general shape but it’s been upscaled. That’s not to say it’s a big hybrid. In fact, the 0211 didn’t look big to me until I set it down next to the 0317 X GEN2.

As I said, the shapes are nearly identical though there is some refinement in the shaping in the transition between the topline and the face at the topline. I haven’t decided if I like it or not.

The larger shape again speaks to the desire for versatility – a hybrid for the masses. The bigger footprint provides more forgiveness. That part is visible.

Hidden under the hood of the 0211 hybrid is a center-of-gravity location PXG describes as “forwardly placed.” As you’d expect, it’s about cutting spin and providing a little extra distance.

While not as visibly rounded as the fairway wood, the PXG 0211 hybrid offers a bit of heel and toe relief with turf interaction further aided by rails on the sole.

PXG 0211 Hybrid Options

PXG 0211 hybrids are available in 3H (19 degrees), 4H (22), 5H (25), and 6H (28). The retail price for the PXG 0211 hybrid is $275.

The same shaft rules apply.

Parting Shots

“0211 is a really important part of the brand moving forward,” says PXG’s Brad Schweigert. The emphasis is likely on part.

Trying to predict what Bob Parsons is going to do with his golf company is a fool’s folly but by establishing a full line of somewhat inexpensive clubs, PXG has created an opportunity to reestablish itself as a premium brand above and beyond its scented candle lineup.

I can’t wait to see what’s next.

The PXG 0211 lineup is available now. For more information, visit PXG.com.

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