Though Golf Digest Senior Editor Mike Sachura remarked in the Golf Digest 2012 Hot List podcast that “…plenty of small companies…are on the Hot List this year”, while referencing SeeMore (mSeries Private Reserve) and SCOR (SCOR4161 wedge), we would say this is a bit of a stretch. Only these 2 products from smaller manufacturers were selected out of 98 total clubs on the Hot List (see table at right), which doesn’t quality as “plenty” in our book.
To alleviate any confusion, let’s get one thing out of the way to start. The 2012 Golf Digest Hot List is, just as in previous years, a Hot List, not a Performance List. You may wish to use the 2012 Hot List as a starting point to determine what clubs might fit your game, but it won’t tell you the best performing clubs.
We take a look at the handicaps of the Hot List panelists so you can determine which player comments are the most relevant to your level of play. Who doesn’t like a good graph?
The Paradox of Choice indeed. With so many gloves to choose from, where does one begin? Options are wide, ranging from inexpensive multi-packs to gloves made from the finest Corinthian – er, Premium Cabretta leather. And just what is this Cabretta leather? Well, it’s produced from the skins of sheep that have hair instead of wool (straight-haired sheepskins). And what makes them Premium? Marketing.
It’s been the rare instance over the last 20 years that I purchased the same golf shoe twice. I grew up wearing old school FootJoy shoes with metal spikes (translation = incredibly uncomfortable). Over time I branched out into other brands (Nike, Adidas, Oakley, ECCO) and models (both traditional styled shoes and sneaker-style), but still never found quite the right shoe. Clearly it was time to give the latest spikeless golf shoes a try.
So you’ve decided to want to maximize your Vitamin D while not in your cubicle? A convertible is just what the doctor ordered. If you are having difficulty justifying this purchase to your spouse, keep in mind that auto manufacturers do indeed design these cars to work with child seats (the time to starting working on that golf scholarship is NOW!).
Though we would rather be at the course, sadly it’s just not possible to be there 24/7. So when away from the course, it’s time to break open a good book or watch a DVD. About golf, of course. While there are hundreds of books and DVDs, we have selected a number that we enjoy in different categories – fiction/non-fiction, coffee table, classics and history, and instructional. Don’t forget, some books may be available on the Amazon Kindle.
If you are like any of the folks we play golf with on a regular basis, you probably have a barrage of reasons why you’ve never considered being fit for clubs by a professional:
Your current clubs fit well enough that you won’t gain any performance improvements from being fit (you will). Based on testing out equipment at your local retail store or demo day you can pick out the right match for your swing (you can’t). You aren’t “good enough” for a fitting (you are). That the fittings cost too much (they don’t).
You can spend a lot on exercise equipment, but you don’t have to in order to get a great workout. The items below are a select handful to get you started, and work well in conjunction with some of the golf fitness books.
It’s time to get started on your 2011 resolution to get in shape (hey, it’s only September). It’s easier to prevent an injury that to rehab from one, right?
We once were nonbelievers…carrying our bags regardless of the length of the course, elevation changes, and temperature. But as our shoulders and back gradually feel the effects of time, and common sense starts to override whether we will take flack from our buddies, we have become push cart converts.
It wouldn’t be quite right for us to comment on Golf Digest’s Hot List without making a few remarks about Golf Magazine’s ClubTest at the same time. Golf Magazine’s March 2011 issue focused on drivers, and we eagerly flipped open our copy to see what insights we would find.
Online golf addicts have undoubtedly seen (and perhaps have been authors of) the barrage of complaints in forums and blogs about the Golf Digest Hot List. And every year you can hear many of the same criticisms: the list is based on whether the manufacturer advertises in Golf Digest, if companies have personal relationships with the Editors, a ranking process that favors larger equipment manufacturers, and panelists that don’t thoroughly test all clubs but rather gravitate to those they know best. And hey, what were each club’s numerical scores by category? Can we see the scores for all products tested, not just those that made the Hot List?
To give a sense for the level of player evaluating equipment for the Golf Digest Hot List, we compare the handicap indexes of the judges and players in the panel against USGA handicap index statistics. Your play may not be quite the same level as the players who are ranking the clubs (who have an average handicap index of 5!), so take this into consideration when evaluating the Hot List if necessary.
For all the debating that occurs each year over the Golf Digest Hot List, one thing is for certain: there is no more Value in it. Zero. This isn’t anything new, however. “Value” as one of the Hot List criteria was removed back in 2009, with more significance given to the Look/Sound/Feel of the equipment.
We found a bit more information on the Golf Digest Hot List process to shed some additional color. Personally, we find each additional tidbit interesting as there isn’t a great amount of detail included in Golf Digest concerning details of the process. This information comes from an article on Tom Allen, a Middletown, OH resident with an 8.8 handicap index, who participated as a player in the Hot List team for 2011.
I don’t know about you, but the last time I paid for some software for my computer or for an iPhone app was….well, I can’t remember when. We all expect to get free information from the web. For a while we were even conditioned to expect to be able to download music for free (yes, we have reformed). And as part of the growing masses that own an iPhone, we expect to download free apps. At the very least, we consider it payback for the crappy AT&T wireless service that we have to deal with on a daily basis. So for those that won’t spend one thin dime on an iPhone app, we downloaded all the free iPhone golf apps we could find and headed to the course to see how they would perform.
So you’ve learned to live with AT&T service. But you haven’t learned to live with the short battery life of your iPhone. Well, neither have we. Since the iPhone battery hasn’t evolved to the point of being able to keep up with our needs during the day, we purchased a handful of iPhone battery packs and gave them a thorough testing. We don’t know what a mAh is, nor do we want to. All we wanted to know was which is the best.
We’ll consider paying $1.29 for a song on iTunes, and if we’re feeling flush maybe try a cheap app for $1.99. But $10 for an app for an iPhone? $30? Are you nuts? That’s a good percentage of the cost of the iPhone itself! How can that possibly be a reasonable amount to pay? That’s insane.
Well, that was before. Having bitten the bullet and sprung for a number of iPhone golf GPS apps that cost much more than $1.99, we can honestly say that many of them are worth the price of admission. These paid apps (well, the top ones at least) offer much better course coverage, support, functionality and overall quality than iPhone GPS free apps.
There isn’t anything better when a nice price ware breaks out. I sure love them. Plane fares to Vegas, cars, mattresses, or electronics. As consumers, we all win.
So those who have been holding off purchase of a dedicated golf GPS unit, cringing at the prices, will be happy to hear that the competition is heating up and prices are coming down. The combination of the economy, end of the season, and increased competition in the market has dropped both list and street prices of a number of devices considerably.
One of my favorite sports writers, Bill Simmons at ESPN.com, recently wrote a column that included a funny section on how everybody loves to tell a fantasy football war story, but no one wants to listen to them. It struck me that this is EXACTLY the same in golf.
The list of etiquette rules in golf can be painfully long – but there are some simple ones that we think are worth posting, because if just one person learns something from this, the golfing world will be a better place.
We’ve assembled a few of the best golf quotes ever (we limited ourselves to one from Caddyshack)…Feel free to add your favorites!
All too many garages sit unused, collecting a barrage of items that you haven’t used in years (yes, including the treadmill you bought after you put on a few extra lbs in the 90s), covered with dust and spiderwebs. The good news is we consider this to be an easily fixable problem. The solution, of course, is to get rid of all that crap via freecycle, and build your very own custom residential golf swing analysis center. You’ll be the envy of the neighborhood!
