best control driver Archives

Best Discs Golf Discs 2026

July 29, 2026 Ted Hegemann 18 comments

Throughout this series, we’ve been breaking down the top disc golf discs for 2026. We started with putters, moved into midranges, and then stepped up to the faster discs with fairway and distance drivers. Now, it’s time for the big finale: bringing all the winners together to see which mold truly stands above the rest.

Best Discs For 2025

Innova Wraith	Distance Driver
Discraft Buzzz	Mid Range
Infinite Discs Emperor	Distance Driver
MVP Trail	Distance Driver
Innova Destroyer	Distance Driver
Discraft Zone	Putt & Approach
Axiom Pixel	Putt & Approach
Innova Mamba	Distance Driver
Gateway Wizard	Putt & Approach
Discraft Luna	Putt & Approach

The top two molds have been around, and popular, for decades. The Innova Wraith and the Discraft Buzzz have been best sellers since the early 2000’s. In third place is the slightly newer Infinite Discs Emperor. The Emperor is known for being a bomber of a driver, with many open-bag Infinite pros choosing it as their high-speed driver of choice.

The MVP Trail and the legendary driver, the Innova Destroyer were fourth and fifth in popularity. Completing the top ten are the Discraft Zone, Axiom Pixel, Innova Mamba, Gateway Wizard, and the Discraft Luna.

The Pixel went from first place in 2024 to 7th for 2025. 2023’s winner, the MVP Glitch, finished 44th place

Let’s check out the top sellers for 2026:

The Infinite Discs Emperor is off to a good start for 2026, moving up a couple spots from last year to take the lead. The ever-present Innova Wraith dropped one spot to second. The final podium member is another perennial winner

Check out the complete list of the best selling discs at Infinite Discs:

Best Selling Disc Golf Discs

Brands in the Top 50

Innova once again leads the pack. The number in the top 50 dropped from 14 last year, to 11 for the first half of 2026. MVP made a leap from three to eight molds. Discraft stayed the same, while Infinite Discs had one fewer molds in the top 50.

Most Popular Disc Types

Last year there were more putt and approach discs in the top 50 than any other type of disc. This year control drivers, or fairway drivers, take the lead. In the top 10, distance drivers tied with putt and approach discs for the most. In fact, there is only one control driver in the top 10: the Bokeh However, expand to the top 50 and control drivers surpass any other type.

Highest Rated Disc Golf Discs

The Infinite Discs rewards program includes incentives to give reviews about discs and accessories that we offer. We show the results of those ratings on every product page. The rating system allows customers to rate a disc/product on a scale from one to five stars, as well as give brief reviews about the item. This valuable feedback gives seeking customers insights to what their fellow disc golfers think about the disc/product.

Infinite discs has pages which show the highest rated discs on a single page, to give you an overview of the top rated discs. Bookmark these pages and refer to them next time you are shopping, to help guide your purchases.

Highest Rated Disc Golf Discs

Best Putters 2026

Best Midrange Discs 2026

Best Fairway Driver 2026

Best Drivers 2026

More Best Disc Features

This is just a sample of the many best-selling disc features we have. Bookmark these links to find the best disc golf discs for you.

Comment About Your Favorite Disc!

We love gathering data and we want to hear from you. Try to decide which disc you rely on more than any other disc in your bag. Since your disc choice depends on the situation, you are welcome to list your favorite mold for each disc type (Putter, mid, etc.)

Best Fairway Drivers 2026

July 20, 2026 Ted Hegemann 36 comments

Every year we like to look at the best sellers and the highest rated disc golf molds to see what it hot. We present this information in a series of blogs. This week we’re doing it again. We’ve already covered the top putters and midrange discs. Now we’ll take a mid-year look at the best fairway drivers 2026. Let’s start with the best fairway drivers, often called control drivers, for last year

Why Fairway Drivers

Fairway drivers fit the gap between midrange discs and distance drivers. With a more narrow rim than distance drivers, many people with small hand prefer them. They are often referred to as ‘control drivers’ because they are easier to control the shape than distance drivers.

Control drivers typically range from speed 6 to speed 9. Like all discs, they come in a variety of stabilities. They can be used to fight through thick woods or thrown on an open fairway. Approach shots are also in the control driver wheelhouse. They will skip farther than mids or putters, so that needs to be taken into consideration.

Best Fairway Drivers 2025

My go-to fairway driver, the Sphinx, took the number one spot! I recommend everyone give the Sphinx a try. If you are a more advanced player, look for more overstable plastics, like glow metal flake C-Blend or Halo S-Blend. Or a more flippy plastic if you’re looking for a roller or big turnover shot.

The Crave moved up several spots to take second place. It is a straight-flying mold that works great with a backhand or forehand throw. For MVP fans, the Crave is compared to a seasoned Servo.

Completing the podium is the Innova Teebird. Most of us would consider the Teebird an ‘old-school’ disc. It was approved in 1999, and has been popular since it was released. It is a speed 7 disc that has a bit of overstability to give it a reliable fade.

The Doomsday Discs Chemtrail made the list last year. It was released in 2024, so it had its first full year of sales in 2025. It proved to be a popular mold!

The Latitude 64 River moved up a bit from the previous year, breaking into the top five.

Best Fairway Drivers 2026

The Axiom Bokeh will have its first full year of sales this year, and it is off to a great start. The Bokeh takes the top spot so far, with about 4% of all fairway driver sales.

Another Axiom mold took second place. The Crave has a decade head start over Bokeh, and has been a popular fairway driver, took the bridesmaid position last year, too.

The Sphinx slipped a little, moving from first place last year, to third this year. Still a good showing for the understable fairway driver from Infinite Discs.

A perennial favorite, the Innova TeeBird, comes in fourth so far this year. It will likely be on the list forever.

Doomsday Discs has their Chemtrail, which made the top five list for 2026. It has turn, but not too much, and a mild fade. The Chemtrail can be found in the bags of newer players and veterans alike.

Brands With the Most Molds in the Top 50 July 2026

Old-school disc golf brands Innova and Discraft top the list. The two companies are responsible for a little under half of all fairway drivers sold so far this year. The third podium member is Infinite Discs. While Infinite is available for sale at disc golf retailers around the world, a majority of the sales of our own brand comes from our own website.

Highest Rated Disc Golf Fairway Drivers

One of the biggest perks of shopping on the Infinite Discs website is the ability to browse real player reviews and see how each disc is rated before you buy. As more players share their experiences, those ratings become an incredibly useful snapshot of how the disc golf community feels about specific molds. The rating system also ties into the Infinite Rewards program, which lets you earn points for leaving reviews or making purchases. If you haven’t explored Infinite Rewards yet, it’s worth a look (click HERE). Your feedback not only earns rewards but also helps strengthen our growing library of disc reviews.

With that in mind, we decided to dig into several disc categories to highlight the molds that rise to the top. With our ratings system, we weight molds that have more reviews heavier than those with fewer reviews. Let’s kick things off with the highest‑rated disc golf fairway drivers of all time.

Highest Rated Fairway Drivers

The Firebird and Teebird tied for first place with 4.74 stars out of 5. The Firebird is a reliable overstable driver that can still be thrown by newer players, because of its lower speed. It is excellent for headwind shots and spike hyzers.

The third highest rated control driver is the Thunderbird. It is like a faster Teebird. Less overstable than the Firebird, you can get more distance with the Thunderbird.

You could bag all three of these molds and cover a big variety of shots.

Click to see the highest rated fairway drivers.

Highest Rated Very Overstable Fairway Drivers

The Innova Firebird takes first, of course, with the Dynamic Discs Felon coming in second place. The popular Felon was created to battle the Kansas winds, and it does a great job. If you’re looking for a disc that will not turn and give you a beefy fade, check out the Felon in Lucid plastic.

The Goliath Discs Chainbreaker is the third highest rated very overstable fairway driver. It lives up to its name, and will not back down from the fiercest wind on its way to the chains.

Click to see the highest rated very overstable fairway drivers.

Highest Rated Overstable Fairway Drivers

Obviously, the Champion Teebird and Champion Thunderbird will podium with this category, since they were the highest rated overall. Taking third place is the Discraft Undertaker. The Undertaker has a little more turn than the top two discs, but still has the reliable fade. The Undertaker will be celebrating its tenth birthday this year, having been released in 2016.

Click to see the highest rated overstable fairway drivers.

Highest Rated Understable Fairway Drivers

People are not only buying a lot of Sphinx’s, they are liking them a lot! The flippy I-Blend Sphinx is the highest rated understable fairway driver with 4.87 out of 5 stars. I have several Sphinx in I-Blend (and other plastic types for different situations.)

Taking second place is the Thought Space Athletics Mantra. This popular mold has a good amount of turn and very little fade. It flies straight for newer players, and a great shapable tool for more experienced players.

Rounding out the top three is the Axiom Insanity. It was Axiom’s first distance/control driver. Like the Mantra, the Insanity works fine for an intermediate player, giving them a straight flight. Advanced players will unlock its understability, and can use the Insanity for turnover shots.

Click to see the highest rated understable fairway drivers.

Let us know what you think, and you could win a gift card!

Those are our lists of the top fairway drivers using sales and ratings data. Now we want to hear from YOU!

What is your favorite/go-to fairway driver?

We’ll pick a few random commenters and give them an Infinite Discs gift card!

See all of our current giveaways HERE.

Best Disc Golf Fairway Drivers 2025

August 1, 2025 Ted Hegemann 53 comments

A disc golf fairway driver is designed for controlled distance and accuracy off the tee. Typically, it has a narrower rim compared to a distance driver, which allows for a more stable flight and greater control over a variety of throws. Fairway drivers are ideal for players who want accuracy, while still covering a substantial amount of ground. They work well for both beginners learning proper technique and experienced players looking for a disc that can handle a variety of shots, such as controlled hyzers, anhyzers, and straight throws. In this blog we will look at the best disc golf fairway drivers for 2025.

Best Fairway Drivers 2025

Much like our Best Putters of 2025 and Best Midrange Discs of 2025 blog posts, this week we will look at the Best Fairway Drivers of 2025. We’ll look at the top selling molds, the most popular brands, and the highest rated discs. Let’s start with the top molds for 2024, so we can look for changes:

Infinite Discs took two of the top three spots on the 2024 list, and four molds in the top 10. Taking first place is the popular Sphinx. The Sphinx accounted for 5% of all fairway drivers sold in 2024. It is a mold that I throw frequently.

Top 50 For 2025

Okay, now lets check out the top 50 control drivers for the first half of 2025:

The flippy fairway driver, the Sphinx held on to the top spot for 2025. Latitude 64’s River is off to a great start for 2025, reaching the podium. Two newer molds broke the top 10: Doomsday Discs’ Chemtrail and the Discraft Cigarra were both released within the past year, and still found a spot in the top 10. They join a long-time favorite, the Innova Firebird as top sellers.

Speaking of Innova, it looks like they had more molds in the top 50 than any other brand. The top 5 most popular brands remained the same and in the same order.

Top Fairway Driver Brands

Smaller brands such as Dino Discs and Mint Discs joined Westside with one mold in the top 50.

Highest Rated Fairway Drivers

Shifting from the best disc golf fairway drivers based on sales, we look at the highest rated fairway molds. Infinite Discs allows customers to rate individual discs and products to help other disc golfers see how other people feel about discs and accessories. If you would like to contribute YOUR reviews, you can earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards. Learn about our rewards program HERE

A quick check of the highest rated fairway drivers and we see that the Infinite Discs I-Blend Sphinx is the highest rated with 4.85 out of five stars. Tied for second place, just a tick behind the Sphinx with 4.84 is the Star TeeBird. They TeeBird is followed by a tie between the Lucid Felon and the Star Firebird. It’s easy to see why these molds sell so many discs. Based on the reviews, people really love them!

Highest Rated Overstable Fairway Drive

The highest-rated overstable fairway driver is a beefy disc from MVP, the Terra. The Terra is a disc that its reviewers absolutely love! It is an overstable mold that is in the James Conrad line of discs. It may not work as well for beginners. But, if you have a good arm you might want to consider this fairly beefy thrower from MVP.

Legacy had two Rivals in the top three, in second place is the Icon plastic, and in third, Pinnacle plastic.

Highest Rated Stable Fairway Driver

Fairway drivers that have minimal high-speed turn and fade are considered ‘stable’. These discs are shapable to suit the needs of a particular situation. The mold with the highest rating in this category is the Infinite Discs Centurion. The speed 7 Centurion has a little bit of turn at high speed, and a relatively mild fade at the end of its flight. It has an Infinite rating of 4.86, making it one of the higher rated discs of any category. In second place for fairway drivers is the Discmania Essence, rated at 4.79. A couple tenths behind the Essence is the Innova TL3. The TL3 is a faster version of the TL, which is a less overstable version of the TeeBird. It has an rating of 4.59

Highest Rated Understable Fairway Driver

Sometimes you need a bit more turn on your throws in order to either shape the shot you want, or keep turning over until you get a roller. In other words, you need something understable. Here is a list of some of the highest-rated molds that have a bit more understability in their flight.

Sitting at the top of the list as the highest rated and top selling understable fairway driver is Infinite Discs’ Sphinx. It is a flippy speed 9 disc that can definitely give you some turn in your flight. The Sphinx is rated at 4.87 out of five stars. Second place is another speed 9 mold,the Innova Valkyrie. The Valk has a rating of 4.48. In third place a little behind the Valk is the Innova Leopard. The Leopard is rated 4.46.

Let us know your favorite fairway driver!

Those are our lists of the top fairway drivers with sales and ratings data. Let’s add to the data by hearing from YOU! Please answer one or more of the following questions.

1 – What is your favorite fairway driver?
2 – What is your favorite over/understable fairway driver?

Let us know if the comments below.

Best Disc Golf Fairway Drivers of 2023

January 18, 2023 Ted Hegemann 38 comments

In a recent blog we took a look at the top disc golf discs in each category (Distance Drivers, Fairway Drivers, Mid Ranges, and Putt and Approach). Then we checked out the top 50 disc golf distance drivers, including the top overstable and understable molds. This week, we’ll do the same with the top disc golf fairway drivers.

Fairway drivers have slightly slower speeds than distance drivers. They can be used for drives and approach shots in all but the longest distances. Their rims are narrower than distance drivers, making them easier to grip for most people. Plus, their slower speed makes throwing them within skill set of most people. Fairway drivers are also called ‘control drivers’. Let’s see which fairway drivers were the most popular, and which ones you might consider throwing for 2023.

The top 50 list is based on the direct to consumer sales directly from InfiniteDiscs.com for last year.

Top Selling Disc Golf Fairway Drivers

Sitting at the top of the chart is the Infinite Discs Dynasty. This speed 9 control driver is not even a year old, but is already working its way into many of our bags. This was one of Eric Oakley’s 2022 signature discs which helped propel it as one of the top fairway drivers. The Dynasty has a stable flight, with a little turn and a dependable, but not too harsh fade.

The Finish Line Era got a podium finish for the year. Finish Line was started by Drew Gibson. It is another very new brand, but is making a mark in disc golf. The Finish Line Era has a very similar flight to the Dynasty in Forged plastic, but is substantially more overstable in the Composite blend.

The Centurion, Sphinx, Exodus and Firebird round out the top five (the Exodus and Firebird tied for fifth) Three are sold by Infinite, and one is an Innova classic.

The Leopard and Teebird have been around for decades and are popular among disc golfers of all skill levels. Those two staples were the next two on the list, followed by Axiom’s entry in the top 10, the Axiom Insanity. The Innova Valkyrie Rounded out the top 10.

Best Fairway Drivers by Month

This moving chart shows top fairway driver sales by month during 2022. This is a fun way to watch the trends and see as hot new discs are released or restocked.

Brands In The Top 50

While most manufacturers make some great disc golf fairway drivers, only some of them have the brand following and marketing power to land their discs in the Infinite Discs top seller lists. Below we see how many different fairway molds by each brand made the top 50 list for the year.

Innova was the top manufacturer for fairway drivers with 13 molds in the top 50. Discraft was in second, but several molds behind Innova. MVP and Infinite had the next most molds. Latitude 64 and Dynamic were the only other brands with more than two molds. There were a few manufacturers with two on the list, and a lot with one mold. In all, there were 17 different manufacturers in the top 50.

Let’s see how those molds translates to sales. We listed manufacturers of the top 50 fairway drivers and sorted them by the percentage of fairway drivers sold. There are a few interesting numbers on the list.

It is not surprising to see Innova on top, since they had the most molds. Infinite was next in line. Although Infinite is quite a bit ahead of third place, it is even more behind Innova. In third place is Discraft. The top three make up 50% of all control driver sales for the year!

Top Overstable Fairway Drivers

Just like the distance drivers, we will find the top 10 overstable fairway driver molds. This category is for overstable and very overstable discs. Here are the top 10:

Discraft has the most molds in the top 10 with 4, with Innova one mold behind them. Five brands had a disc in the top 10.

Overstable Discs Approval Dates

I like to see what dates each mold was approved to see which molds have been around for a while, and which ones are newer. The older molds are well established and have been popular for a long time. Newer brands might be hype, but they might also be the popular for a long time. Here are the dates.

Mold	Approval Date	Sales Rank
Innova Teebird	May-99	2
Innova Firebird	Mar-00	1
Dynamic Discs Escape	Dec-12	10
Innova Thunderbird	Aug-14	3
Discraft Undertaker	Apr-16	8
Discraft Raptor	Dec-18	4
Infinite Discs Scepter	Apr-19	6
Discraft Anax	Jun-19	7
Thought Space Athletics Votum	Mar-21	5
Discraft Captain’s Raptor	Dec-21	9

The oldest two molds are also the top molds. The Firebird and Teebird are more than two decades old. The Votum and Captain’s Raptor are the new kids on the block, each getting approved around two years ago as of this writing.

Top Understable Fairway Driver

For this blog, understable fairway drivers are those molds that have a turn of -2 or more. Understable discs are popular among beginners and people who don’t have a lot of arm speed. Here are the top 10 understable fairway drivers.

Innova had half of the molds in the top 10. The other five spots were taken by five different brands.

Axiom and Latitude 64 made the understable list, but not the overstable list.

Understable Discs Approval Dates

Mold	Approval Date	Sales Rank
Innova Leopard	May-99	2
Innova Valkyrie	Aug-00	4
Innova Sidewinder	Nov-04	8
Innova Roadrunner	Aug-05	9
Latitude 64 Diamond	Mar-11	10
Discraft Heat	Oct-14	7
Axiom Insanity	Dec-14	3
Innova Leopard3	Aug-17	6
Infinite Discs Sphinx	Mar-18	1
Thought Space Athletics Mantra	Oct-19	5

Just like the overstable molds, Innova has a couple discs in the top 10 that have been around for decades and have earned their way in our bags. That didn’t get them the number one spot, but they did get second in the top 10. Infinite took first with the Sphinx. While not as old as most of the Innova molds on the list, it has still been around for nearly half a decade. View the most recent listing of highest rated fairway drivers, according to reviews of customers here.

Next Blog Well Look At Mid Range Discs

What are the Best Fairway Drivers for You?

What will be the best fairway drivers of 2023? Will any brands catch up to Innova or Discraft? Or will the old school molds continue to dominate? The PDGA has already approved 17 new molds for this year (as of this writing). Maybe one of them will be a top fairway driver.

What is your favorite fairway driver? What fairway drivers do you think will be the best selling in 2023?

Best Discs

Best Disc Golf Discs for 2023

January 3, 2023 Ted Hegemann 151 comments

As a new year and new tournament season dawns, disc golfers will once again be considering which discs we will be throwing, and looking for new discs to try. Here at Infinite Discs, we thought we would check out our sales from 2022 to let you know what the most popular discs are and give you some discs to consider trying this year. We’ll break it down by disc type and find the top five for each category. Let’s check out the top discs!

Before looking at the individual disc types, let’s look at a graph of all discs sold by Infinite last year, sorted by category. The category that won by a small margin is Putt & Approach, which is just under a third of all sales. Second place was more of a battle. Distance Drivers barely beat Control Drivers by a fraction of a percent. Midranges brought up the rear.

Top Selling Disc Types

Putt and Approach Discs
Distance Drivers
Control Drivers
Midrange Discs

Best Distance Drivers

The top three drivers were all pretty close in sales, with each of the three representing about 6% of all Distance Driver sales. They are also very similar in flight, having a little turn and good fade. The Infinite Disc’s Emperor just edged out the Innova Wraith for the top spot, both selling within a hundred discs of each other. Innova’s hot selling disc, the Destroyer, was the third most popular disc for 2022. In fourth place was another popular Infinite mold, the Pharaoh. It accounted for about 5% of all Distance Driver molds. Wrapping up the top five is the Aztec, Infinite’s speed 10 driver.

It will probably not come as a surprise the most popular plastic for the first-place Emperor is the Halo S-Blend. That good-looking plastic is a hit for any mold. About 22% of all Emperors sold in 2022 was in the Halo S-Blend. The next closest was the Metal Flake Glow C-Blend, with 16% of all Emperors sold in that plastic.

2022 Top Selling Distance Drivers

Read the full breakdown of best disc golf distance drivers of 2023 here.

Best Control Drivers

Stepping down in speed a little bit we find Control or Fairway Drivers. The best Control Drivers for 2022 were also quite close in sales. The Infinite Discs Dynasty was the best-seller for the year, just beating the Finish Line Era by half a percent of all Control Drivers sold. There was a neck-and-neck race for third place with two Infinite molds. The Centurion ended up beating the Sphinx by a fraction of a percent. Rounding out the top five is the ever-popular Innova Firebird, not too far behind the Sphinx.

The best-selling plastic for the top Control Driver, the Dynasty, is the Signature Swirly S-Blend. The Eric Oakley Dynasty is a beautiful stamp, and the Swirly S-blend adds even more to its appeal. A little over a third of all Dynasty’s cam in the Signature Swirly S-Blend. The second most popular plastic is the I-Blend. Infinite’s I-Blend has the perfect balance of amazing feel at an inexpensive price. It’s one of my favorites.

Top Selling Fairway Drivers

Get the data and read our article on the best fairway drivers here.

Best Midrange Discs

For the Mid’s, there isn’t much of a surprise in discovering the mold that sold the most in 2022. It feels like it has been the category leader forever. Selling more than double the second place mold is the amazing Discraft Buzzz. The Buzz made up 12 percent of all Mid’s sold last year. Taking second at around 5% is the Innova Mako3. Just a smidge behind the Mako3 is my favorite, the Infinite Anubis. Another smidge back and you have the Thought Space Athletics Pathfinder. Bringing up the rear, a tick behind the Pathfinder is the Innova Pig. The interesting thing about the Pig, is that for many this disc is classified as a putter or at least an approach disc.

A little over one in four Buzz fans preferred the mold in ESP plastic. ESP was the most popular Buzzz plastic in 2022, beating Z-Line by about 4%.

Top Selling Midrange Discs

Get the full article on the best midrange discs here.

Best Putt and Approach Discs

On to the final, and largest category, Putt/Approach. Technically, that is two categories. Most of us have our putting putters, and separate discs for throwing. Many molds do both quite well, like the number one seller for 2022, the Infinite Alpaca. Just a couple years old, the Alpaca has quickly become a favorite of many disc golfers. The Alpaca was the best seller in the Putt/Approach category AND the number one selling mold in all categories in 2022.

Next up, also with some respectable sales numbers, is the Infinite Tomb. It trailed the Alpaca by a couple percentage points. Nearly matching the Tomb in sales is the Discraft Zone. Coming in as the third hottest Putt/Approach disc, the Zone is a perennial favorite among disc golfers. The Axiom Envy moved up a little from last year, cinching the number four spot. Last on the top five best-selling Putt/ Approach discs is the Kastaplast Berg.

The top plastic preference for the top Putt/Approach disc is the Signature P-Blend Glow. Nearly one in four Alpaca buyers chose that plastic. A little over 15% of the Alpacas sold were in D-Blend.

Top Selling Disc Golf Putters and Approach Discs

Read this article for more sales stats and recommendations on the best disc golf putters.

Best Discs Compared To All Disc Sales

Looking at just the top mold in each of the four categories we see that just those four molds make up over 7.5% of all disc sales for the year!

There you have the top five disc sales in each of the four categories. We will provide follow up articles with more details about top sales for each of the four categories of golf discs.

The Best Disc Golf Brands for 2023

And finally, let’s check out the top five discs in each category, and sort by the number of molds each manufacture has in the top five. It turns out that Infinite dominates the field, even beating out Innova as having more molds in the top 5. It’s also interesting to see some of the smaller brands make the list. Here is the breakdown:

Top Selling Disc Golf Brands of 2022

When you include all disc sales of all brands (not just those that included top five discs) on InfiniteDiscs.com these were the top selling disc golf brands of 2022.

Check out this moving graph showing monthly disc sales by brand on InfiniteDiscs.com since 2014.

Best Disc Golf Discs for 2023

We Want YOUR feedback!

What do you think the top selling discs of 2023 will be? Let us know what discs you think will make the list for the top distance driver, top control driver, top midrange and top putter. Which disc golf brands do you see moving up or down the list in 2023?

How many of the top molds do you throw? Do you throw the top plastics for the top molds? How many of discs on our list are in your bag?

Best Discs

Best Fairway Driver of 2022

February 3, 2022 Ted Hegemann 66 comments

Best Fairway Driver of 2022

To find the best Fairway Driver of 2022, we looked at the sales date and mold ratings to determine which discs you are buying the most, and which ones you rate the highest. Then we reached out to you to have you vote for the mold that you throw the most. Combining all of that data we can now announce the Best Fairway Driver of 2022! Here are the top molds:

	Disc	Sales	Rating	Fan Vote	Total
1	Innova Leopard	3	4	2	9
2	Innova Firebird	1	9	3	13
3	Innova Teebird	2	14	1	17
4	Innova Thunderbird	6	11	4	21
5	Innova Leopard3	7	8	7	22

Although Innova is the consistent leader in disc golf sales, we didn’t expect a clean sweep of the top spots in the category. The fan voting really cinched it for several of the molds. The results of the fan voting is listed near the end of this blog. For now, let’s take a closer look at the top molds.

Although I would be tempted to call the top three molds, ‘old-school molds’, if I did, I would immediately get corrected by someone who has been playing disc golf from its beginning, who would remember when the Leopard, Firebird, and Teebird were the newest kid on the block. Those three molds were released in 1999, 2000, and 1999 respectively. They started selling when there were far fewer choices than we have now, at a time when ‘e-commerce’ wasn’t the popular way to shop for disc golf discs. Although that might have been a giant assist in getting the molds off the ground, they have since proven themselves as useful discs in our sport.

Innova Leopard – The flight of this popular disc is such that it can be used by a wide variety of arm speeds. The Leopard is a commonly found in starter sets because it can be thrown rather easily by someone who lacks the proper form for throwing faster molds. It is also useful for people with more experience, who will gravitate to heavier discs and more stable plastics. The Innova Leopard looks like it will be a staple in disc golf for a long time.

Innova Firebird – Even for newer disc golfers, the overstability of the Firebird can be tamed enough to use this utility disc in a variety of situations. Excellent for flick shots and headwinds, it can be flexed with full confidence that it will come out of the anhyzer and finish strong. Need to throw an must-have hyzer? Count on the Firebird to deliver. Its lower speed and variety of plastics makes it easy to see why the Firebird is consistently among the top discs.

Innova Teebird – While more overstable and a little faster than the Leopard, the Teebird can still find a home in the bag of players at a variety of skill levels. It is commonly used to shape shots in tight fairways, and is a reliable disc in medium-range shots. Like the Leopard, it can also be seen in the hands of newer players, typically in DX plastic. Even at its low speed the Teebird can be thrown into the wind with confidence.

Fairway Drivers

Moving up in speed on our list of best discs of 2022 we find the fairway driver. The fairway driver, or ‘control’ driver, fills the gap between the versatile midrange and the higher speed distance driver. Fairway drivers are easier to throw than distance drivers for a couple of reasons. First, their lower speed means that you don’t have to generate as much arm speed to be able to get the disc to fly like it should. That makes the disc more useful for newer disc golfers, as well as more experienced golfers that can shape the disc more than newer players. And second, their slightly smaller rim diameter means they are easier to throw for people with smaller hands. (The smaller rim, by definition, means that disc has a lower speed).

Using the common 4-number flight rating, the fairway drive has a speed rating that falls from speed 6 to 9. Some manufactures list speed 9 discs as distance or ‘high-speed’ drivers. But enough list speed 9 as fairway drivers, so that’s what we will go with for this blog post.

Like any other disc type, fairway drivers come in a variety of stabilities, from very overstable discs to molds with a lot of turn. Checking out the molds in the top 20, below, reveals a wide variety of flight characteristics, giving us a ton of different flights within on disc type. Here are the top 20 discs based on sales:

2022 Sales rank	Disc Mold	Percent of Sales
1	Innova Firebird	5.2%
2	Innova Teebird	4.7%
3	Innova Leopard	4.3%
4	Infinite Discs Exodus	3.9%
5	Innova Valkyrie	3.8%
6	Innova Thunderbird	3.5%
7	Innova Leopard3	3.4%
8	Infinite Discs Sphinx	3.1%
9	Infinite Discs Scepter	3.1%
10	Thought Space Athletics Mantra	3.1%
11	Discraft Undertaker	2.9%
12	Innova Roadrunner	2.5%
13	Discraft Heat	2.4%
14	Infinite Discs Centurion	2.2%
15	Discraft Raptor	2.1%
16	Innova Sidewinder	2.0%
17	Discraft Passion	1.9%
18	Innova TeeBird3	1.8%
19	Thought Space Athletics Votum	1.7%
20	Discraft Anax	1.7%

Best of the Best

Innova is the king of the top 20, holding nearly half of the top 20 spots, and a majority of all fairway drivers sold. That’s not surprising, given that Innova has been around for a long time and offers more fairway driver options than some smaller companies have molds in total. Discraft has a fourth of the top 20. Their chunk combined with Innova’s heaping pile doesn’t leave a lot of spots for other brands. Infinite Discs and Thought Space Athletics still managed to land in the top 20, with Infinite nearly matching Discraft with the number of molds represented. In fact, even though Infinite has one few mold, their total sales exceeds that of Discraft. Here is the percentage of sales of the top 20 molds:

Most Molds Sold

Looking at how many fairway drivers each brand offers, we see several that offer quite a few molds, but still didn’t end up in the top 20 for percentage of sales. That goes to show you how popular the top 20 brands really are. Here are the top 20 brands based on the number of different molds sold:

Best Rated Fairway Discs

Turning our focus from the sales records, we look at how our customers feel about certain molds once they try them out and review them. We’ll check out the top 20 molds in sales, and compare their customer rating. Topping the list are three molds from Infinite Discs. The Sphinx, Scepter, and Centurion hold the top three spots, and TSA’s Mantra was the fourth-highest rated mold. Rounding out the list at number 20 is the relatively new fairway driver from Discraft, the Passion. Here are the top 20 molds and their average rating:

Fan Vote

We asked you to tell us about your favorite fairway driver. Below are the top 20. Innova certainly dominated the polls! Over half of the top 20 molds belonged to them. Infinite and Latitude 64 were tied in distant second with three molds. In addition to the top molds, there were a lot of discs that didn’t make the cut, but still received some love from the fans. There were also votes for molds from Lone Star, Millennium, MVP, Gateway, Legacy, Streamline, and Axiom. Here’s are examples of feedback about some of those mentioned:

Joshua – “I’d have to say the Lone Star Disc’s Mad Cat! That thing is so reliable and glides a ton!“

Adam – “I love the Axiom Clash. It’s a perfect straight flying control driver that has the stability to resist any power, but has a gentle reliable fade at the end. Great for both forehand and backhand, it is perfect for any skill level.“

Here are the top 20:

1	Innova Teebird
2	Innova Leopard
3	Innova Firebird
4	Latitude 64 River
5	Innova Thunderbird
6	Infinite Discs Centurion
7	Infinite Discs Sphinx
8	Latitude 64 Explorer
9	TSA Mantra
10	Infinite Discs Exodus
11	Innova Sidewinder
12	Innova Leopard3
13	Innova TL3
14	Innova Valkyrie
15	Latitude 64 Diamond
16	Innova Roadrunner
17	Innova Teebird3
18	Discraft Undertaker
19	Discmania Essence
20	Innova Eagle

We asked you to tell us about your favorite fairway drivers and you responded! We randomly selected one commenter to win a $50 gift card. And that winner is:

Brad H. Congrats! The card will be added to your account.

We Still Want Your Feedback!

Post below and tell us about your go-to fairway driver. Is there one that you throw every round? Tell those looking for the best fairway driver why you like YOURS!

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