Nothing against your neighborhood golf store, but our experts are the most knowledgable golf gearheads around. Golf Digest’s equipment editors, Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson, have covered the golf equipment business for decades, and there are few who know this space better. We’ve asked them to answer your questions in a weekly equipment round-up.
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The Majesty Royale line of woods and irons may not be on your equipment watch list. Thousand-dollar drivers and $500 irons (per club) might not be aimed at the meat of the U.S. golfing market, it’s true. But it’s also clear the Tokyo-based company believes there’s an opportunity. Consider this: Founded in 1971 under the
Tour pros are better than average golfers in just about every way, but they really separate themselves with the driver and wedge. Tour pros are about a football field longer off the tee than average golfers, according to stat-tracking data from the Arccos GPS app. They also hit the fairway 62 percent of the time
The Honma XP-1 lineup of woods and irons may live in the world of game-improvement with their draw-biased woods and multi-material irons and lightweight graphite shafts. But apparently Justin Rose, the former world No. 1 who is the company’s leading tour player, thought they looked good enough for him. According to Chris McGinley, Honma’s vice
Professional golfers are a pampered bunch. Between equipment manufacturers and tour trailers, players have access to every club imaginable—often before equipment is even available at retail. Some players, however, are perfectly content to stay away from the latest and greatest, opting instead for familiarity over technological superiority. Here are seven players who might that philosophy
The Cleveland Launcher family of irons and hybrids drew their inspiration from desperation, specifically the desperation of average golfers with their relative lack of success hitting shots toward the green. According to data Cleveland’s engineers have studied, from 150-200 yards, average golfers are only hitting the green 15 percent of the time from the rough,
We all have those shots. Your contact is as good as any shot you’ve hit all round, but the result might not be as good as impact felt. Somewhere internally, you make a mental note about achievement, but you likely forget about it by the time of your next round. Now there’s an app for
Nothing against your neighborhood golf store, but they have nothing on our experts. Golf Digest’s equipment editors, Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson, have covered the golf equipment business for decades, and there are few people who know this space better. We’ve asked them to answer your questions in a weekly equipment round-up. Tweet them
The Bettinardi Queen B 8 Slant Limited Run putter is no doubt another enhancement to the company’s putter lineup courtesy the mind of founder and chief designer Robert J. Bettinardi. But it’s also a development fueled by the minds of the 13 professional golfers on the Bettinardi tour staff. The result is not merely another
Chances are good that in the past two years, either you’ve played TaylorMade’s P790 irons or know someone who has. The company’s top-selling players distance iron of all time has developed a devoted following. It’s easy to understand why. The hollow construction has been a game-changer. Combined with an ultra-thin clubface backed by a polyurethane-foam
The golf equipment landscape is a continual cycle of innovation and bold ideas brought to fruition through manufacturing prowess—all to help everyday players and tour pros play better. Most of the time those ideas hit the mark, or at least are not far off of it, gaining acceptance from consumers. Occasionally, however, a product runs
The Callaway JAWS MD5 wedges, the company’s most vast wedge offering in its history, reflect a wholesale rethinking of a subject many thought the USGA already had closed the book on: wedge grooves and spin generation. When the new groove rule was instituted back in 2009, it led to a rash of experimentation about grooves
The Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo lineup of metalwoods, and most especially the driver, take their inspiration from a wedge. It isn’t every day the shortest hitting club in the bag inspires the longest hitting clubs, but like the company’s CBX 2 wedges, the Launcher HB Turbo woods are a call for functional simplicity designed to
Last week at the Omega European Masters, Tommy Fleetwood contended early in the week with an Odyssey DFX 2-Ball Blade putter that his caddie purchased for £90 (about $108) off eBay in January, eventually finishing in the top 10. Tour players using clubs they purchased is a rarity. After all, tour players are a pampered
Tom Lewis plays on the European Tour, but his win at the Tour Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour shows how just one well-timed week on the developmental circuit can be a career-changer. Lewis entered the event despite never having played on the tour and finished the week with a five-shot win over Fabian Gomez
The Cleveland Frontline putters stand as a counterargument to everything you thought you knew about putters and off-center hit forgiveness. Specifically, we’re talking here about the property of moment of inertia (MOI), which is a measurement of an object’s resistance to twisting on off-center hits. In putters, MOI has been a kind of selling point
The Nippon N.S. Pro 950GH Neo is not merely a commemorative version of a long ago popular steel shaft. Yes, it was 20 years ago that the Nippon N.S. Pro 950GH hit the market as the first constant weight steel shaft less than 100 grams. But while there are now plenty of shafts that fit
The new Golf Pride Pro Only grip series, a reboot of the classic, understated all-rubber putter grip, is a reminder of something we forgot we knew. While there’s been a buzz in recent years over wider, polymer-based putter grips to steady balky strokes or better line up with non-traditional hand positions, the fact is the
Q: My friend Fred teed off on No. 17. His ball hit a tree on the right side of the fairway, bounced onto the 16th green and rolled into the hole. Does this count as . . . anything? —Jack Haga, Nicholasville, Ky. A: Absolutely. Although it wouldn’t have affected his score (he needed to
The answer largely depends on the CBD company and that’s why doing research is so important. For golfer Charley Hoffman, one of three PGA Tour players to endorse Medterra CBD, the product’s purity is as important as its health benefits. “I did my research,” said Hoffman. “I had heard a lot of players talking about
Not all 7-irons are alike. We’re not talking about shape or even materials. We’re talking about loft—for all of golf eternity the most basic building block to determine ball flight. Some clubmakers keep lowering the “standard loft” of their 7-irons in a race for more distance. (The 7-iron is what most golfers test first when
Wedges are an interesting category as it often can be difficult for a manufacturer to come up with a technology story that resonates with consumers. TaylorMade was able to make some inroads with its original Milled Grind and Milled Grind Hi-Toe wedges, and now is seeking to expand on an already solid idea with its
The TaylorMade TP Patina putter collection may get attention for its distinctive tarnished finish, but it’s what’s not seen that is the hallmark for improvement in the company’s lineup of traditional putters. While TaylorMade’s putter lineup has gotten the majority of attention for its high-stability, alignment-focused Spider mallets, including this year’s Spider X, the company
The PXG 0311 ST continues the classic blade-like look of the heritage of the company’s 0311 franchise. But unlike the rest of the 0311 family, the 0311ST actually is a pure blade, not the hollow construction with the thin, high-strength steel face insert. As such, it’s a special entry aimed at elite players, according to
The Titleist 620 CB and MB irons have a throwback name (the Titleist 600 series irons date from the early 2000s), a throwback construction (forged carbon steel) and a throwback shape (the compact, narrow sole look). But these new models maintain their classic appearance with subtle modern tweaks that just might add a little speed
As a rookie, Hall played all five matches for Team Europe at the 2017 Solheim Cup (2–3-0). Hall was a relative unknown until the Solheim Cup. “I was very impressed with Georgia,” says captain Annika Sorenstam. “It’s not easy. The stage is big, and she performed beautifully.” Hall qualified for the LPGA Tour via Q
The new Titleist TS hybrids (TS2 and TS3) serve as a reminder that while they serve as iron replacement clubs, hybrids first and foremost share the DNA of metalwoods. That’s why the TS2 and TS3 take their fundamental improvements from the learnings of the company’s TS drivers and fairway woods, introduced a year ago. Like
Steve Stricker won the U.S. Senior Open on Sunday, and on Tuesday, added an endorsement deal with puttermaker Odyssey, which is one of the most unusual endorsement deals we’ve seen. There is no signage on the cap or shirt or anywhere, for that matter. The deal only applies to tournaments on the PGA Tour Champions,
The Cleveland CBX 2 wedges, just as their original predecessor, are kind of an indictment of the current state of the wedge marketplace. While the company made the case two years ago that approximately 84 percent of golfers were playing wedges that didn’t fit in with the rest of the cavity-back irons usually found in
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” I’ve heard people say that before, but I’ve never quite believed it when they do. That is, until I met Bob Vokey. On this particular day, the legendary club maker has spent more than three hours with me,