A century ago, Bobby Jones was making a back-up for his legendary Jeanie Deans driver. He sorted through “5,000 pieces of first-grade hickory to find four shafts” that were close. The process was an elaborate exercise of “guess and check”. Fitting golfers to clubs has changed immensely since then, and yet it hasn’t. It’s still a tentative dance between what the experts Read more…
I read the other day about fears of a high-rise in Manhattan that was on the verge of collapse because its upper floors were showing signs of sagging and that one of its primary beams was “compromised.” (Tell me about it. I pull a muscle stirring my oatmeal these days.) Seems developers were trying to Read more…
When you think about mallet putters, odds are your first thoughts lean toward more industrial terms like stability and alignment and even ball speed normalization. OK, maybe that last one is just us golf tech nerds, but what we can surely surmise is that squishy things like feel and softness are lower on the ladder Read more…
Soft is a defining characteristic of putters, at least when it comes to how golfers perceive them. How do we know this? When we asked our players at the Hot List Summit for their comments on the best new blade putters, the word “soft” appears 273 times. For perspective, that’s more often than they used Read more…
There’s always been an active debate about which piece of golf equipment might be the least fit in the game. Balls, putters and wedges used to get a lot of call, so, too, shoes, but those segments have seen significant shifts toward fitting in recent years. But there remains one category that is rarely if Read more…
Having now reached a certain age, I find myself increasingly thinking about the Third Act. (What age? Somewhere between needing reading glasses to clip my toenails and insisting on double knee braces and a headband while playing somnambulant pickleball.) But a Third Act seems appropriate when we come to the U.S. Open and Shinnecock Hills. Read more…
Shinnecock Hills has produced some of the US Open’s greatest moments — and most controversial collapses. Ahead of 2026, questions remain about whether the iconic Long Island course can be set up fairly without tipping into chaos again.
After the controversies of 2004 and 2018, USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer reveals how the governing body plans to tackle Shinnecock Hills at the 2026 US Open and why this historic venue deserves to shine.
As the longest and lowest-lofted club in your bag that you still need to be able to hit off the turf, the fairway wood is the most difficult for most average golfers to launch effectively. That’s why when we pore over the data from our Hot List testing to see the fairway woods with the Read more…
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: L.A.B. Golf’s putters have made inroads in simplifying the putting stroke through its specially weighted and lie-angle balanced designs. The aim is to reduce the need for the hands to manipulate the face back to square at impact. Now, the company’s new VZN.1i mallets take aim at, well, aim. With a Read more…
On the surface, it seems like wedges are all variations on the same theme, that the differences aren’t necessarily immediately obvious. But if you’re looking for differences in such a precise and microscopically nuanced category, it seems a good place to start would be looking at what players who have a good short game have Read more…
As launch monitors have become more and more prevalent and stand fundamental to the fitting process, we realize there’s been a lot of focus on ball speed. That even goes beyond drivers to irons, and it’s also a vital piece in how our players at the annual Hot List Summit think of their club evaluations. Read more…
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Tour Edge gets in on the “zero-torque” putter design trend with the launch of its Zero T line of four mallets. Each of the four wide-body, high-stability designs feature a shaft position that joins the head at the location of the center of gravity. The intent is to produce a Read more…
The switch to a two-year launch cadence for its woods lineup likely will mark the first year since 2001 that the company has not launched a new driver.
The Titleist GTS fairway woods feature more composite than in past models with the lightweight piece wrapping around the crown to the sole. The saved weight allows for adjustable heel and toe sole weights, two different shapes and face heights and deeper centres of gravity and higher launch compared to previous models.
Titleist’s three GTS drivers each create fresh opportunities in forgiveness, low spin and fitting/adjustability, all made possible by a newly enlarged polymer-infused lightweight carbon shell that covers some 60 percent of the body’s surface area.
Like jury duty, colonoscopy prep and collabor-dating, we find ourselves again at the “if we must” major, the PGA Championship. Fortunately, it returns this year to a course with what they used to refer to as “character,” as in cheesesteaks, soft pretzels and “wooder ice.” Just outside Philadelphia, Aronimink Golf Club will host for the Read more…
A hybrid club has one function: to replace the unhittable irons in your bag with something relatively life-altering. Because an afternoon of knee-high fizzers by your long irons would make anyone reconsider whether fishing might be a better use of time, while gentle, high-floating, target-seeking shots from what used to be your 4-iron makes you Read more…
For the eighth straight year, the average driving distance for men has barely moved, according to the GPS stat-tracking system’s analysis of 2025 users’ tee shots.
Australian Golf Digest
