Innehållsförteckning för Hot List SIP 2024 från Golf Digest

CALLAWAY Paradym Ai Smoke WHY WE LIKE IT This family can fit four groups of golfers because of the design freedom of its carbon-composite-fueled structure. Not only does it feature a carbon crown on top, but much of the sole is now formulated with a specialized combination of carbon fibers. That matrix provides shaping flexibility and maintains durability in the sole for clubs that are routinely hit off the ground. More importantly, it eliminates the need for steel support bars, saving 22 grams over a traditional steel sole, which allows for specific weighting and shaping for four kinds of players. PARADYM Ai SMOKE MAX $350 • The shallow face makes it easier for a broad group of players to launch shots. • A carbon-composite crown and sole save weight that…

A common problem for amateur golfers is swinging a driver like it’s an iron. When you do that, your angle of attack is too steep and moving in the wrong direction (downward, not upward), and you can’t take advantage of all the technology built into these forgiving clubs. To better understand how you should swing a driver, imagine you’re hitting it out of a fairway bunker. Sound a little crazy? Perhaps, but hear me out: When you make a fairway-bunker swing, you want to contact as little sand as possible and clip the ball out, which is not all that different than your swing path with a driver. You want to come into the ball on a shallow angle of attack and, hopefully, clip the ball slightly on the upswing…

If you want to take advantage of that fancy new driver you spent half your paycheck on, you’ve got to learn to make contact with the ball in the sweet spot more often. Many golfers I teach tend to hit the ball out on the toe of the clubface (the spot farthest from you). This typically happens when you lose your posture in the downswing, spin out or use a shaft that’s too flexible and droopy. A lot of faults in golf can be corrected by trying to do the opposite. It’s the, “You can’t find the middle if you don’t know where the ends are” adage. In this case, you can find the sweet spot more often if you try to hit the ball in the heel of your…

One thing I love about mallet putters is how easy they are to align with your intended start line. Knowing this, I scratch my head when I give a lesson on the green and see a golfer step into their putts in a manner that makes it harder to get aligned properly. Let me explain: When you are about to putt, do you set the putter down at the same time or just after you start to get into your stance? If you do either, you’re greatly increasing your chance of misaligning the putter to your line. It’s difficult to get an accurate view from this perpendicular standpoint, which is exactly what happens when you set up feet first. Instead, always get your line from behind the ball and then…

To the observer, removed, all one sees is monotony, sprinkled with frustration and lonesome fatigue. But look again, beyond the battered, bandaged fingers and sweat-stained ankles, raw from bunker sand and the spray of divots, and maybe this search, this endlessness, reveals a kind of pleasure or satisfaction or even serenity. Another ball in the air. Broken body posed like a trophy. A quiet exhale. The hint of a half-smile. Then, a microsecond and the reach for the next ball. Another swing, and, hopefully, this time, a revelation.…

‘Small head, thin topline with a powerful sole. The feel is slightly soft, even on mishits.’—4-HANDICAP CALLAWAY APEX CB $215 (per iron) WHY WE LIKE IT With its effective mix of classic looks and contemporary technology, the Apex CB is made for the demands of elite players. This is an iron that gets the details right, especially the features better golfers appreciate, like an improved sole design for more effective turf interaction, tweaked centers of gravity via the use of tungsten weights that are dialed in for each individual iron, and hitting the trifecta of shape, sound and feel that better players require. • Single-piece forging produces a soft feel. • Tungsten toe weights move the CG closer to the face’s center. • Progressive CG promotes appropriate ball flight. •…

The relationship between a player and a new set of irons can be lukewarm at first. Same for pulling your clubs out of the garage for the first time in months. They might not feel quite right at the start. My advice is to get to know each other better by hitting punch shots for a while when you practice. Grab a 7- or 8-iron and set up over a ball with 70 percent of your weight on your lead leg and the ball centered in your stance. Your chin and the grip should be leaning slightly closer to the target than the ball (above, left). From this position, make a half-swing going back, feeling like your wrists stay firm (no hinge). Then pivot in the through-swing around your lead…

‘The wedge’s balanced weight creates consistent contact and makes it easy to find the center of the face. I generate a lot of spin with these.’—7-HANDICAP CALLAWAY JAWS RAW $180 WHY WE LIKE IT Golfers dream of sucking the ball back like they’re playing walk the dog with a yo-yo. Callaway’s groove design is an effort to get players there. A 37-degree wall angle enhances the sharpness of the groove edge for extra grab on full shots. Micro-milled grooves between the regular grooves are milled at a 20-degree angle, helping spin on greenside shots. Tungsten—used for the first time in a Callaway wedge—helps position the center of gravity in the middle of the face for control and feel. • Raw face provides direct impact between ball and grooves. • A…

There is more than one way to add loft to a wedge shot, but some are easier than others—an important point for those who don’t have a lot of time for short-game practice. The method I teach a lot of golfers gets much of the work done at address. When trying to create more loft with a wedge, some players get into their traditional chipping stance (narrow feet, ball back, shaft leaning forward) and then spin the face open so that it’s pointing more skyward (above, left). That setup can work, for sure, but executing from it requires more practice and near precise execution. Instead, you can create more height on your shots by simply standing wider and farther away from the ball than normal, which lowers the shaft in…

CALLAWAY Paradym Ai Smoke WHY WE LIKE IT For Callaway, making a driver face more flexible is not enough. It must be flexible in specific ways. Starting with the detailed data behind 250,000 swings, Callaway’s team and its artificial-intelligence platform worked backward from where those shots ended up to find four kinds of drivers (and four kinds of faces) to fit four kinds of golfers. Aided by a body made nearly entirely of weight-saving carbon composite, the intricately varying dips and swirls on the face create pinpointed “micro-deflections” at impact to enhance everything from off-center ball speed to spin and dispersion. PARADYM Ai SMOKE MAX $600 • Carbon composite in the crown and sole saves more than six grams. • The face-thickness pattern is optimized to maximize off-center hits. •…

Though they look similar and often produce the same type of shots, hybrids and fairway woods should not be treated the same way. When swinging a hybrid, your goal should be to strike a little down on the ball—not sweep it off the turf like you do with woods. Think of hybrids more like a 6-iron. One issue with amateurs I see a lot is playing the ball too far forward with these clubs. Not only does that make it more difficult to get ball-first contact before catching a little turf—which is your goal—it also exacerbates a slice because your swing path becomes even more out to in before contact. You put a glancing blow on the ball. Next time you’re ready to hit a hybrid, set up with your…

If you’re struggling to make good contact with your fairway woods when the ball is on the ground, I’ve got a drill that will help you get a better feel for how these clubs are meant to be swung. In short, it’s all about the approach. Perhaps from listening to commentators on TV, a lot of my students mistakenly think they need to pull the handle of the shaft downward before the club releases into the ball. This notion of pulling typically puts the club on a steeper approach, makes it harder to square the face and produces all kinds of poor shots—from pop-ups to tops to slices. To get the clubhead moving on a good path into impact, address a ball with your lead hand (left for righties) on…

‘Like Van Halen’s first album, you know what you’re getting. Consistent roll and distance.’ —13-HANDICAP BETTINARDI BB SERIES $450 WHY WE LIKE IT The appeal of Bettinardi’s putter shaping is that the designs look like something from a simpler era. The company’s milling process, however, is built on a seamless blending of old-world vision and modern-day precision. The face’s fly-mill pattern creates a uniform feel, sound and control from heel to toe. The subtle sloping of the shoulders in the back flange frames a ball-width cavity and centers the putterhead’s mass to stabilize aim and stroke. • Milled from 303 stainless steel. • Slant neck works best for moderately arcing strokes. • One model (BB48); head weight: 352 grams; length: 33-38 inches; loft: 3 degrees TOP 5 HEAVIEST FEELING, MALLET PUTTERS,…

If you prefer the look of a blade putter over a mallet, that’s fine, but I’ve always felt that blade models are more challenging to align. A mallet offers more of a straight-back and straight-through feel to the stroke, but a blade seems to move on a slight in-to-in arc in relation to the line of the putt. It’s more feel versus real, but it does influence aim. To be sure you’re lining up over your blade putter correctly, try this drill to check if you’re standing too far away from the ball—a common mistake. Find a straight four-foot putt and set a ball down. Then, a few inches in front of it, place a ball marker, making sure both are aligned in relation to the cup. Take your address…

You might have been told to get really good with one of your wedges and rely on it for most of your short-game shots. But let me ask you something: Why do you have three or four wedges in your bag if you’re only going to pull out the same one every time? Get to know all of your wedges. Focus on technique and tempo, and just switch out which wedge you’re using to regulate distance and trajectory (they go hand in hand). For technique, set up with more weight on your lead leg and keep it there while you make a swing that relies mostly on body rotation, leading your arms into impact (above). Your arms and hands simply come along for the ride. For tempo, I know it’s…