What’s better than getting new equipment? Getting the best clubs for you. The Hot List is here to help.
Golf, we’ve heard, is booming. The problem with a boom isn’t that it goes bust. It’s that it gets going so fast you can’t keep up. Golf clubs are like that. From an innovation standpoint, clubs have been booming since the 1980s and haven’t let up. Today, the right clubs for the game you want not only exist but are more accessible than ever. We’re not talking about some collective “you” but you and you alone right there in your living room wondering where you can find another 15 metres off the tee, or four more greens a round, or, Lord, please, the end of three-putting.
After our extensive review and testing process, including player evaluations at the CasaBlanca Resort in Mesquite, Nevada, there are more clubs on the Hot List this year than ever. One (true) answer is that they’re better than ever. Another explanation is more complex. The best golf clubs we have identified – 138 Gold and Silver medallists out of 289 considered – matter because they resonate, adapt or discover ways to optimise each golfer’s potential, not just via more shafts or adjustable wrenches or even the undeniable and strongly encouraged benefits of custom-fitting. No, designers know the number of golfer types goes beyond the two categories of tour professional and everyday golfer. Before this equipment technology parade passes you by, stop sitting on the sidelines and hoping. Get into Part 1 of the Hot List and learn how the game you want can be had with the drivers in this year’s Hot List.
The process takes 3 judges, 5 scientists, 19 golfers, 1 fitter, 2 teachers, 5 retailers, 14 days at the hot list summit and a year’s worth of golf-industry research.
Criteria
Our judges, cast the only votes in the Hot List, but they gather insight from three independent panels. The Scientists advise us on Innovation. Retailers assess Demand. Players evaluate Performance and Look/Sound/Feel. Those criteria are not equally weighted, as indicated below.A product’s final score is based on its weighted average in these four criteria. Performance, Innovation and Look/Sound/Feel largely determine the total score. All scoring is based on a 100-point scale for each of the four criteria, relative to the entries in a category.
Performance
45% Based on interviews with our player panellists, the judges assess the utility of each product. In other words, this is a score of what happens to the ball when a player hits it. (Note: both Foresight Sports GCQuad and Rapsodo MLM launch monitors are used at every hitting station.)
Innovation
30% In consultation with our technical panel and based on interviews and our review of company technical documents, this score reflects how a particular technology advances the category in all aspects, to what degree the commitment to fitting the vast majority of golfers is executed, and how that technology is explained to the public and to our editors.
Look • sound • feel
20% Using input from the player panellists, our judges evaluate the relative excellence of the visual, auditory and tactile experience of using a particular club. The more the club resonates with our understanding of what a golf club should be, the higher the grade it receives. In short, this is a grade of what the player experiences when viewing, holding, swinging and hitting the club.
Demand
5% An assessment of the reputation, interest, intrigue and excitement about a particular product, considering market presence, tour use, relative value and consumer satisfaction through consulting research from Golf Datatech, other published resources and a panel of leading retailers.
All judging is based on a 100-point scale.
Gold
Products earned a score of 93 to 100.
Silver
Products earned a score of 88 to 92.99.
On the basis of sex
The right clubs for a woman are the same as the right clubs for a man
Jennifer Herold is one of the many new golfers who improved significantly during the pandemic. But, as her friends reminded her, the old ill-fitting clubs in her bag stunk. A 25-handicapper, she was thrilled with a birthday present for a club-fitting with one of the best in Connecticut, Angela Aulenti at Sterling Farms Golf Course. Herold found her bag rebuilt with a new Callaway driver, Titleist hybrid and wedge and Mizuno irons – none of which could be labelled “women’s”. It was a revelation.
“I was struck by how the smallest details made a big difference in my shots,” says Herold, whose realisation is no different than what any player experiences after a quality fitting. It highlights the problem with gendering the Hot List. The fitting options available have more to do with ball flight than which locker room a golfer uses. It’s possible each club on the Hot List could be fit to a female golfer. Fitting is the great equaliser of the sexes. “I don’t fit by gender; I fit by TrackMan,” Aulenti says.
Callaway, Cleveland, Cobra, Honma, Ping, PXG, TaylorMade and Tour Edge offer full sets to fit female golfers in a general way, and many companies are introducing versions of their flagship drivers and irons in a “women’s” spec.
The women’s version of TaylorMade’s Stealth includes the same clubhead technology as the men’s with a shaft that weighs barely 40 grams. In fact, most drivers, fairway woods and hybrids today offer lofts, weights and shafts that will work for players – male or female – with slower swings and limited strength.
It’s less clear cut in irons, but the stock offerings are getting better. Callaway’s Max OS Lite irons come with a C-1 swingweight, lighter than its women’s Reva set. Herold’s Mizuno JPX921 Hot Metal irons, however, end up in more men’s bags than women’s. Smartly, though, her set starts at the 7-iron, which is why it works for her.
“It was a great experience, and I learned a lot about my game,” she says. “I worked with a fitter who clearly understands that women don’t necessarily need to play with ‘women’s clubs’. Most of all, however, I started playing a lot better and having even more fun.” – Mike Stachura
