For example I use an 8° driver, my buddy uses a 9 1/2 and my other buddy uses a 12°. Me and the guy that use a 12° hit the ball pretty much the same distance, but we couldn’t hit each other's drivers if we wanted to, and they are the same brand.

It just depends on the spin do you put on the ball. The most forgiving and longest drives will be with a spin rate around 2000....Any less or more you could be sacrificing distance or accuracy. Honestly, the most important thing is the shaft of the driver, just picking any driver with a stock shaft off the rack is a huge mistake for most players.

Almost all expert fitters can find a combination to get you to that point. If you live in a decent size metro area they recommend going to a real fitter like club champion, tru spec, cool clubs, etc. Driver fittings are usually $100 but you can put that to the cost of your new driver.

If that is not available to you someone at PGA superstore or uinta golf etc. could at least get you in the right ballpark. That’s usually free if you tell them you’re interested in buying a driver. You can also call around your local courses and see when they’re having companies come in for fittings/demo days. There’s a good chance in the next couple months one of the big companies Callaway/Titleist will be at your local course doing free fittings.

If you just really want to buy something off the rack and you don’t want to get completely dialed in to the best possible fit, I would default to a driver with more loft, it’ll generally help amateur players get it up in the air which might equal distance and be more forgiving. But at least go to the golf shop and hit it on the simulator.

That said, that works for many but A driver like that would probably cost me 30 yards off the tee.