Innehållsförteckning för SIP 2022 - Hot List från Golf Digest

You had to be paying attention, but 2021 was The Year of the Long Putter. The U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion (Stewart Hagestad), U.S. Senior Amateur Champion (Gene Elliott) and most dominant senior pro (Bernhard Langer, age 64, bless him) all brandished the big broom. By small degrees the golf these men play is closer to the recreational game, though chances are the only scuttlebutt you bothered to hear came from the Big Tour. Like when Xander Schauffele said in June he thought armlock putting should be banned after trying it himself. Debates over unconventional putting styles have raged at least since Leo Diegel started Diegeling in 1924, and Sam Snead switched from croquet-style to side-saddle in 1968. After Keegan Bradley, Ernie Els and Adam Scott reeled off a string of majors…

(1) Proceed with caution. The Internet is a haven for the dishonest and counterfeiters. Make sure you’re buying from an authorized dealer. That means a legit retailer such as Golf Galaxy or similar. Resist the temptation to buy a new club on an auction site like eBay at substantially less than its retail price. Although some stories of “just won in a raffle” or “got as a gift” are true, many are just fronts for bogus clubs. (2) Do your homework. The endless club choices available can be overwhelming. The fact you’re reading this publication means you’re off to a good start. The Hot List offers information—like knowing the subtle differences between driver models—that will help you narrow your choices to a manageable number. Self-awareness is helpful, too. That new…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “The Pro is my favorite. Just evokes confidence because it’s so nice and square to the target. It gives you a feeling of control with that compact head.” CALLAWAY APEX/APEX PRO $270 WHAT IT DOES: Good golfers and less-skilled golfers play very different games when it comes to hybrids. Less-skilled players need hybrid shots to fly high and stay left, and good players need shots to fly low and, well, not go left. Hence, these two versions of Apex are as different as a bogey is from a birdie. However, whether you’re a tour pro or you only watch them on TV, these two siblings share all the technology that helps propel strikes farther. The forged 455 steel cupface is…

▶ FOR A number of years, players at the Hot List Summit hit a variety of models of golf balls. All were tour-caliber, multilayer golf balls with urethane covers, but our mind-set on having variety was straightforward: We did not want a player staring down at a Titleist all day—or a Callaway or TaylorMade or Srixon or Bridgestone. So we used a combination of all of them to avoid the possibility of instilling any perceived brand bias in our testers. However, though each ball was similarly constructed, it’s a fact that every ball—even those of similar construction—is somewhat different from another. In our testing, eliminating as many variables as possible is a desirable goal. After consultation with manufacturers on our testing process, it was determined that using a single ball…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “I love the firecracker sound these make at impact. It feels like you’re getting something done. You know where the club is at all times during the swing.” CALLAWAY APEX DCB $185 (PRICE IS PER IRON) WHAT IT DOES: The use of a cupface to wrap around part of the topline and sole (through the 9-iron) is one of two technological highlights of note. The other is 50 grams of tungsten encased in urethane with microspheres (tiny bubbles of air within the urethane) to foster trajectory control while allowing the face to flex more at impact. The use of artificial intelligence also allowed engineers to more rapidly figure things out, in this instance, designing faces for each individual iron in…

We are gear heads. It’s a passion that has its own lexicon, and you’ll see plenty of this vocabulary scattered across the issue. But we recognize it’s a vocabulary not known to all. The reason we publish the Hot List is to make the club-buying process easier for the consumer, but that process falls apart if we’re speaking a foreign language. What follows is a glossary of terms that you will encounter in the 2022 Hot List. We’ve tried to simplify it as much as possible while still making sure you’re informed for your potential purchase. Face ▶ The forward-facing surface of the head that strikes the ball—often to mixed results. Toe ▶ The outward part of the clubhead. If you hit it here, it feels like, well, you stubbed…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “It has a sound that connotes power, like you’re always hitting it well even on slight mis-hits. The distance is there for me, and the turf interaction is exceptional.” CALLAWAY ROGUE ST MAX/MAX D/LS $350 WHAT IT DOES: Callaway has used its computer-driven, machine-learning platform to improve the “jailbreak” internal support structure in its woods for years. That system stiffens the body, directing more flex into the face. But high-speed computers are relentlessly smart, so the structure has been updated. Rather than two bars joining the crown and sole directly behind the middle of the face, the new frame is pushed to the extreme heel and toe. This frees up the center of the wraparound cupface for better flexing where…

▶ WHAT’S BETTER than having a launch monitor to help guide you? Having two launch monitors. At this year’s Hot List, each full-swing hitting station featured a Foresight Sports GCQuad that every player, such as rookie tester Alejandra Bedoya (below), could reference after hitting shots for feedback on things like ball speed, carry distance and spin. The data analysis didn’t end there. Behind each player was an iPad collecting information from Rapsodo’s MLM (Mobile Launch Monitor)—a device that not only tracks shot data, but captures video of each swing (retaining up to 100 swing videos) and shot-tracer lines of each shot struck. Golf Digest gathered all the shots recorded from the Rapsodo MLM to further inform our decision-making on this year’s Hot List. Of course, that begs the question: Why…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “Easy to hit and extra hot: The ball jumps off the face. I can control shot shape and trajectory. Mis-hits still go straight and don’t lose much distance.” CALLAWAY APEX (2021) $185 (PRICE IS PER IRON) WHAT IT DOES: Ever since Callaway re-introduced the Apex irons in 2014, golfers have enjoyed the benefits of extra distance via its cupface technology. Wrapping around part of the sole and topline, the cupface serves as a mini-trampoline. Forgiveness wasn’t forgotten, either. A tungsten core (up to 64 grams in some irons) is enclosed in urethane with “microspheres”—tiny air bubbles encased in glass. The added weight helps not just shots struck on the heel and toe, but those hit low on the face as…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “The technology is packaged in a clean way. Really rewarding: On slightly heavy shots, the club feels like it cuts through the ground effortlessly.” CALLAWAY ROGUE ST MAX OS/LITE $143-$157 (PRICE IS PER IRON) WHAT IT DOES: Callaway has a penchant for making irons that are easy to hit, and this one ranks with the best of them. To achieve this, the company took tech improvements from its other Rogue models and put them in a package designed to eliminate as much user error as possible. With the aid of artificial intelligence, the face has varying thicknesses for each iron. A durable 450 stainless-steel wraparound cupface brings rebound at impact. Because players in this category often need an assist getting…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “It naturally wants to ride the train tracks of alignment. Good distance control; no need to manipulate your stroke.” BETTINARDI INOVAI 6.0/8.0 $400 WHAT IT DOES: The challenge? Emulate the feel of the company’s classic milled putters with the forgiveness of a mallet. The answer? Milled stainless steel up front with an aluminum body. The stainless-steel face was engineered with an asymmetrical groove design—called “roll control”—that gets the ball running true quicker. WHY WE LIKE IT: The 303 stainless steel, the source material for the company’s proven milled blade putters, also provides a tour-requested feel at impact here. The Inovai 6.0 offers parallel wings seen in previous models (although this update is more compact), and the 8.0 uses a squarish…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “It’s the classic blade you’d expect but with a modern, expensivelooking finish. The offset makes it easy to line up.” BETTINARDI BB SERIES (2022) $430 WHAT IT DOES: It’s easy to see Bettinardi’s milled putters as a series of jewelry pieces. However, these shapes and combinations of hosels yield distinct functions through different degrees of toe hang and off-center-hit stability. That means depending on how much arc there is in your stroke, only one is ideal for you. The BB1F has the most toe hang and is best for feel putters, and the BB1 is the traditional plumber’s-neck blade for more of a moderate face rotation during the swing. The new BB8W features a wider sole for the least arcing…

CRITERIA OUR JUDGES, listed at right, 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 panelists, the judges assess the utility of each product. In other words, this is a grade of what happens to the ball when a player hits it. (Note: Both Foresight Sports GCQuad and…

▶ without question driver-testing day is one of the most anticipated by our Hot List player panelists. Not only do they get a chance to swing the big stick, but they get to swing some 20 of them, including many that won’t be seen by the public for several months. It’s one of the reasons each panelist must sign a non-disclosure agreement. Manufacturers are entrusting Golf Digest, and by extension, our panelists, not to dish on any of the clubs they see or hit at the Hot List Summit. That means no talking to friends, no talking with media and certainly no posting photos or information on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or any other social media site. As for testing, manufacturers are encouraged to send as many models, lofts and shafts…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “Consistent. Predictable. No shots you can’t explain. A higher trajectory than I expected. Soft landing on the pitching wedge. This is a weapon club.” CALLAWAY APEX PRO $185 (PRICES ARE PER IRON) WHAT IT DOES: This could be the clubhouse leader in forgiveness for this category. The Apex Pro works for a wider range of players than most. The “flash face” architecture in each clubhead, designed with the aid of artificial intelligence, offers an individual face design for each iron and brings fast ball speeds and improved spin consistency. This helps better players attack the flag stick with more confidence. WHY WE LIKE IT: Apex Pro is a combination of all the things good players want in an iron, such…

▶ THIS PHOTO was taken after the sun came up, but prep for a day of testing at the Hot List Summit begins before dawn. It takes about two hours to set up each day. This includes taking the clubs from their secure location to the range, organizing hitting stations with clubs, setting out golf balls, tees and towels to clean clubs, as well placing launch monitors and hooking them up to power cords. Then editors do a double-check to make sure we have the full complement of clubs with no models or shaft flexes misplaced. After players arrive, we have a member of our editorial team, this year Gabby Herzig, lead them in stretching before they begin their warm-up routine. Before releasing players and editors to their starting stations,…

PERFORMANCE INNOVATION LOOK • SOUND • FEEL DEMAND PLAYER COMMENT “A smaller head profile than most. You don’t have to tolerate an OK shot in one area to play good ones in other areas.” CALLAWAY JAWS MD5/FULL TOE $170 WHAT IT DOES: The two wedges here include the conventionally shaped MD5 and the larger, high-toe-weighted Full Toe. Each model features groove shapes that help more edges grab the ball, and the Full Toe stretches those grooves across the face. Instead of more vertical walls, the grooves have a more oblique angle from the base. This exposes the edges for a sharper angle at the top where the ball and wedge meet. This especially benefits partial shots around the green. WHY WE LIKE IT: The Full Toe (available only at 54…

▶ ONE OF the more underrated aspects of the Hot List is that an editor is assigned to a group of two player testers. The editors are prolific note-takers, although what you see in this issue is just a sample (more are available online). In aggregate the editors routinely gather more than 100,000 words of player comments each year that help guide our decision-making process. More than just writing down comments verbatim, they are there as watchful interrogators, too. (Near left, Golf Digest’s Jared Goldstein interacts with player-tester veteran Sean Harper). The editors keep a careful eye on shots being hit so that they can question scores that don’t match up to the eye test and squeeze relevant feedback from the players. If they’re satisfied with the answer, they move…

▶ PUTTER TESTING might be the most mentally taxing of the categories. That’s especially true of blade putters in which the vast majority bear a monotonous resemblance to the classic Ping Anser, and the differences are more difficult to discern. With a driver or thin-face iron, it’s easier to tell if the club sounds flawed at impact. Commenting on sound when impact is being made at less than 5 miles per hour is far more nuanced. Still, that’s what we asked our testers to do. Our testing method for putters is simple: Choosing from a family of putters (including different lengths and grip options for many), select the model that most appeals to you—just as you would if you were perusing the putter corral at a golf shop. Then spend…