Three editors and a rabbi walk into a clubfitting. yes, they walk out with new gear,  but also hope for where their games are headed.

For the entire 18-year history of the Hot List, there has been one constant: the undisputed value of getting custom-fit for new clubs. Although we frequently extoll the virtues of clubfitting, it’s not often we tell you what it’s like to get fit, how the experience is no less – and no more – daunting than hitting a shot off the first tee on a busy Saturday morning, and, most importantly, how results can be both game-changing and soul-soothing. What follows are four stories on recent fittings from three of our editors and our part-time contributor and full-time spiritual adviser Rabbi Marc Gellman. Let their wisdom be an inspiration to see how far new clubs – the right clubs – can take you.

Name: Brad Clifton, 37
Handicap: 3
Type of fitting: Driver

A driver fitting at a driving range: Trust the process and let it fly
Investing in a clubfitting shouldn’t be a tough sell, but golfers find excuses. I’m not good enough to get fit, or I hit my driver just fine, or the new stuff’s not any better than what I play – all might sound like you. That last bit was me. Well, that’s not completely true. You see, I’ve always been a gear nerd. I marvel at the innovators working on tomorrow’s new flexible face or multi-layered core, many of whom left their previous jobs at NASA and Boeing to do so. I believe them when they explain the science behind the design, and then show me the reality of its performance. That’s irrefutable evidence, right before your eyes.

 While old-schoolers love scouring eBay for amazing hickory-shafted bargains, I’m all about the shiny new stuff. Putters that make alignment dummy-proof. Wedges that help stop it on a 20-cent piece. And drivers, for the love of God, that can finally end my eternal mission of clearing that netting at the back of the driving range.  

Little did I know, the man who was going to help me with my pursuit lived no more than a 9-iron from my front door. Sydney’s a big place – about 5.3 million people for those counting – but not big enough to separate me from TaylorMade master fitter Will Urasaki. Not only do we live in the same postcode, we live on the same block. Small world, and a great ice-breaker to make this fitting a relaxing experience. 

“Clubfitting involves a lot of high-tech gadgetry these days, but you shouldn’t be overwhelmed,” writes Golf Digest’s Joel Beall. “First, it’s a guaranteed way to get better. Second, it’s easy to educate yourself so that you can have a meaningful dialogue with the fitter. Familiarise yourself with the basics of what launch-monitor numbers mean.” 

I’ve paid enough attention to Bryson DeChambeau’s mad-scientist explanations to know high launch and low spin are crucial to maximising distance. Urasaki was there to apply these same principles.

If you go into a fitting unprepared, you have to rely on the fitter’s interpretation of your swings, and you won’t know what questions to ask. It’s similar to taking your car to a mechanic. Without a general understanding of the basics, you enter the transaction wondering if you will be taken advantage of. 

But trusted fitters like Urasaki go out of their way to get you understanding everything from the outset. He got me hitting shots with my current driver to see where I was at. After carefully examining my numbers, setup, shot shape and trajectory, he quizzed me on what my “miss” was – the shot that brings me undone the most. 

“Far left and right, in any order, at any time,” I replied without hesitation, before explaining my fast swing speed can cause major problems when my hands get out of sync at impact. I also tend to hit down quite steeply with my driver, as Trackman data confirmed, which balloons my spin rate and robs me of even more distance. 

The goal was soon clear: “Due to your slight draw swing, we want to help keep that face open to optimise launch and spin for you,” explains Urasaki, before fitting
me into a Sim 2 Max 9-degree head, adjusted one notch lower (8.25 degrees) with a Tensei Blue AV Raw 60-gram X shaft (tipped 0.5 inches) and Golf Pride MCC Plus 4 MID grip. “The reason we are tipping the shaft is to help create more stability at impact but to also help reduce spin,” he adds. 

To my surprise, my one-year-old driver had competition. (Now, don’t expect a year-old driver to be obsolete, but I wasn’t fit for this driver, so lesson learned.)

 A couple of 80-percent swings to get the feel of my new setup and BOOM! The restricted-flight range ball was too hot for the poor old netting at the back, sailing over into the land beyond. 

“Let’s see… 302-yard carry rolling out to 331,” says Urasaki, eyes firmly on our Trackman computer. 

“Holy s–t!” I blurted aloud, before teeing up another ball. BOOM! Same result, 326 yards, straight over the back netting with frequent flyer points. Before I could tee up a third and attempt the hat-trick – and potential removal from the premises – Urasaki snatched the driver from my hands and said, “I think that’s the one.”

 We tried a few more shafts to compare results but deep down we knew there was no second guessing. I had a new big stick on order, a new controlled swing, and a new thirst to play more golf. 

“What we’ve done is allowed you to keep the clubface open 1.5 degrees and that helps reduce on average, about 150rpm in spin,” Urasaki concludes. Happy days.

 While my search for more distance was complete, it was the new ball flight and increased accuracy that had me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. For me, keeping my tee shots in play makes golf feel more like a holiday and less like yard work. I also like a pleasing sound at impact, attributes I know are important after almost 10 years of taking notes from our testers at the Hot List. 

I’m happy I trusted the data, and Urasaki’s instinct to go with a setup I wouldn’t have otherwise considered. With the right bit of pre-fitting self-study, you should, too.

Name: Christopher Powers, 28
Handicap: 8
Type of fitting: Putter

Putter intervention: technology and a top-level fitter
When I received an e-mail that I’d been volunteered for a putter fitting by senior editor Mike Stachura, I assumed it was an intervention. (I’d earned a reputation of “serial three-putter” on our old office putting green.) It read: “I’d be forever indebted to you if you did this,” but it might as well have said, “Have a seat; we have something to say to you.”

Before that e-mail, it would not have crossed my mind to get fit for a putter. I thought my issues were completely mental. No magic wand could save me. I quickly learned that a putter fitting won’t cure everything, but it’s more important than I thought. Jon Bock, the master fitter and builder at Club Champion who took me on my putter-fitting journey, simply bent my old putter’s lie angle 1 degree. This was before I even glanced at the hundreds of putters surrounding the practice green. While I was rolling a few, Bock asked questions about my putting problems. I told him I’m great from distance but abysmal from five feet and in. Clearly Bock was an expert on equipment and the technology at his disposal (he’s been doing this for 15 years), but he was also once a teaching pro. He threw all of this knowledge into a blender and scoured the green for a few putters.

My miss is a pull, 99.9 percent of the time, and when it’s not, it’s a push because of over-compensation. Bock noticed I open the face on the backstroke and cut across on the through-stroke. He used what looked like a leftover droid from “The Mandalorian” that measured more things about my putting stroke than I knew could be measured. He called the droid “Sam”. Later, I realised that was short for its name: SAM, as in Science and Motion PuttLab. You have probably heard of launch monitors for driver fittings, but launch monitors and devices like the SAM PuttLab, the Quintic and other systems like Odyssey Fits are bringing that kind of data to putter selection.

First roll I was 15.2 degrees open on the takeaway and 6.5 degrees open at impact. To make a putt with that stroke, I would have to aim like I was trying to miss. My “rotation consistency” was about 58 percent. Does that sound good to you? Unless you are running for elected office, it shouldn’t. Bock said the average for a decent player like myself (8-handicap) is 70 to 75 percent.

What’s rotation consistency? The ability to repeat the relationship between the putterface and the path of the stroke from takeaway to follow-through. Some high-speed cameras can see that, but so can my new friend SAM. It was a teachable moment. 

Bock laid out four putters: two big-name models, one other putter that we are not going to talk about, plus an Evnroll ER5 Hatchback, which I’d never heard of. (Pro tip: just because you haven’t heard of it isn’t a good reason not to try it, especially when you’re working with a top-level fitter.) Naturally, I was drawn to the more famous name brands. I didn’t even take the Evnroll seriously at first. (The “other” was dead from the start.) Still, Bock noticed immediately that the Evnroll was the one. I rolled in almost every putt, and the perfect clicking sound was like getting instant feedback. He made some slight adjustments to the loft and lie angle, and I rolled in four more without blinking. Was this the one?

 “I’ll just say it now, 110 percent, this is your putter,” Bock said. This might be the most important thing I learned from the fitting: forget what you think you know. Trust your fitter. Trust the results.

The results showed that 110 percent was an understatement. My rotation consistency went from 58 percent to 90! I went from having the putter 6.5 degrees open at impact to 3.2 degrees, and 15.2 degrees open on the takeaway to 11.2. On the follow-through, I was 3.2 degrees closed, as opposed to 0.6 degrees open when I first rolled a few. All of this with a putter I initially scoffed at. 

The final stats revealed that my overall consistency – which takes alignment, impact, path and rotation into account – was 75 percent, the same average as a PGA Tour player! “Even on your misses, they still rolled perfectly,” Bock said. “That’s a huge advantage.” In other words, technology. Shockingly, the measurements on this putter weren’t all that different from the one I had been using. Just a quarter of a degree change in loft and lie angle. In other words, these minor changes, changes I didn’t know I needed, made a monumental difference. The right putter with the right specs has brought out the perfect stroke I knew I had in me all the time.

Name: Alex Myers, 38
Handicap: 8
Type of fitting: Wedge

A fitting with the guru of wedges
“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 day, the legendary clubmaker spent more than three hours with me, most of which involved watching my golf swing, and yet he was beaming just as much after as he was when I first showed up to the Titleist Performance Institute for the eponymous Bob Vokey Tour Experience. It should be noted that I’m beaming, too. For years I’ve played off-the-rack Vokey wedges, but now I’ll play actual Vokey wedges. I tried to explain to my wife that this would be like wearing a dress hand sewn by Gianni Versace only much more useful. After all, how many times can you wear a dress?

We start with a pep talk/lecture from the man who has helped create short-game magic for everyone from Seve to Tiger. I learn more about terms like bounce and grind and camber as Vokey takes me through a display of wedges lying on a table. “I make what the players want,” Vokey says flatly. “It’s not rocket science.” But it seems that way as he riffs through different grinds he has developed through the years, who played them and when they were put in play. He says technology changes in wedges as fast as it does in drivers. Though I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, Vokey quickly reassures me. “You don’t find the grind,” he says. “The grind finds you.”

Not surprisingly, a private audience with the man who has had a hand in countless Major championships and is the most popular person on the range at PGA Tour events isn’t cheap. The price of the Vokey Experience is $2,400. But that includes your time with the affable “Voke”, as he’s called – a session that mirrors the process he takes the best players in the world through – and a set of four wedges built for you that can be customised down to colour of label and stamping. Spots are limited, and you have to book the session months in advance.

After our initial show-and-tell lesson, it’s time to go outside to the real classroom, a beautiful grass range that is an oasis in an industrial park. I hit wedge after wedge as Vokey watches where the shots go. More importantly, he uses a monitor to look at things like my swing path and how I’m digging into the turf. Every few swings I’m handed a new or tweaked club as we test different grinds, shafts and bounces. It’s similar to other clubfittings I’ve done except for the fantastic tales Vokey shares. Also, those other fittings were never interrupted by 11-time tour winner Scott Hoch calling to ask for a new set of wedges. Get in line, Scott! It’s my turn. Despite being nervous to hit shots in front of one of the most famous clubmakers in history, I feel at ease with Vokey, who turns 82 this year, because of his infectious energy and positivity. “I’m the highest-paid club washer around!” he says while wiping a wedge down between shots.

I’m most excited to fine-tune the specs on a 60-degree. It’s my favourite, to the point I half-jokingly refer to myself as “Mr 60” around the Golf Digest office. In any event, the process is fun and fruitful as we find a combination that works enough for me to become the first person to hole a 40-yard shot from a particular location. By that point during the three-hour session, I had already decided to heed Vokey’s advice to diversify my portfolio of shots around the green by not just using my favourite club all the time. In Bob I trust.

After receiving my clubs a few weeks later, I couldn’t wait to put them in play. In just the second round with my new favourite toys, I holed a difficult pitch with my shiny 60. As I grinned from ear to ear, I couldn’t help thinking that I wish Voke was here to see it. The real Mr 60 would have been even happier.

Name: Rabbi Marc Gellman, 74
Handicap: 15
Type of fitting: Full bag, remote

A rabbi finds virtual (golf) salvation
Let’s get one thing straight. It is the archer not the arrows. Lee Trevino was legendary in his young days for beating guys for money by hitting the ball with only a Dr Pepper bottle. Great story, but for mere mortals even a bag of Dr Pepper bottles is not going to do the job. The arrows matter, and here is why: you probably can’t do much to change your swing, but you can change your sticks so that they fit your swing, and this makes a difference you can see and feel. 

My story: two new knees and an assortment of health issues kept me from the game for almost 10 years, but thanks to God and a team of doctors and physical therapists, I’m healthier than I have been in years. It was time to return to the game I love and hate and mostly adore. Through the kindness of my pals at Golf Digest, I was hooked up with master fitter James Lee III at Ping for a full bag. Clubfitting is always a hit-and-miss proposition. Success obviously depends on the skill of the fitter, and like great surgeons (and great rabbis) there aren’t that many truly great ones around.

Finding a great clubfitter is like shopping for a therapist. You know you are screwed up, but it’s very hard to find a person who can unscrew you. All this is a truly daunting task, but it’s worth a bit of time and diligence to seek out people who are dedicated to the complex task of fitting arrows to archers.

COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into every normal endeavour, and clubfitting is no exception. Companies like Ping are thinking of fitting in a COVID-inspired but truly creative and remote way. Ping’s master fitters are set up on a Zoom site so that each fitter can do several fittings a day remotely. They call it telefitting. I signed up for a session armed with the basic measurements of my decrepit body, a video I took of my swing from a face-on and side-on view and some other stuff like my favourite ice cream flavour and novel (Rocky Road and Moby Dick). The hard part? I had to accept what my swing really looks like now. All this information lets good fitters know, remotely and with brutal honesty, what they are dealing with. James, a truly charming, patient and wise man, took me through all the numbers and choices, some of which were critical and did not show up on any swing monitor.  Example: “Do you really need a 3-wood when you don’t hit it well off the deck?” Touché, James. Touché.

Even with videos and data, clubfitting is a mix of art and science. The possible combinations of shafts and clubs and loft and lie and launch angle and spin rate and landing angle and the confluence of Saturn and Jupiter have made the choices close to infinite. The conventional wisdom is that in-person fittings are the most thorough option for clubfitting because you get a chance to hit the shaft/clubhead combination you are considering. After experiencing telefitting, I’m not sure I agree. I’m betting that telefitting is the best option for most of us. For example, I can’t repeat the same swing 40 or 50 times to get a fair comparison between clubs. I’m also a victim of club lust. At one point I tried to get James to fit me for some Ping Blueprints, which are sexy muscle-back blades played by Bubba Watson, Louis Oosthuizen, Tony Finau and a bunch of other super-elite, super-human golfers. I’m clearly not them, but I’m prone to human desires. What I needed was a fitter/therapist who could get me to listen to the truth about what tools my body needs to golf the way it can right now. Like the painful break-up of that first high-school crush, this is a message better received long distance. Our therapy/fitting session also allowed James to gently guide me towards the virtues of a 9-wood, which my inflated ego could never have accepted previously but now I find exhilarating. Proper terminology also helps. My new 40-gram ulralight graphite shafts are labelled SR, which no longer means “senior” but “soft regular”. Yes, I’m playing gender-neutral golf shafts, and my ego and game are better for it.

So I say that remote telefitting sessions from any major club manufacturer or golf-fitting company that offers the service are not just easy but desirable. You are trading the immediate advice of a salesperson for the remote advice of an expert. For me, it was a good trade. James was terrific and was firmly resistant to my preconceptions and bad ideas. I now trust him with my deepest secrets. Next week I’m calling James for a wedge consult and for his take on the meaning of my latest dream: I’m playing golf with a bagful of Dr Pepper bottles. 

ILLUSTRATIONS: Zohar Lazar

The post Why you should get fit for clubs appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

AGE 23 

LIVES Stillwater, Oklahoma

STORY Winner of two PGA Tour events, including the 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic. 

CAN’T WAIT I started playing at age 11. My father brought some clubs back to Norway from St Louis where he had been working. Growing up, I never had a specific club I really wanted. However, after going through clubfittings or when I got a club for my birthday, I was always excited. Just to get some new equipment to play with – I couldn’t wait to try it out. I couldn’t get out to play fast enough.

Driver

SPECS Ping G425 LST, 7.75°, Project X HZRDUS Black 60 shaft, 45.75 inches. 

The head says 9 degrees, but I have it set at 7.75 degrees. I don’t want to spin the ball too much, so I use this low-spin version of the G425 family. The moveable weight is on the heel. My driver miss is a little leak to the right, and having the weight in the heel lets me close the head at impact better. 

Fairway wood

SPECS TaylorMade SIM, 14.5°, Mitsubishi Tensei Blue AV Raw 85 TX shaft.

It’s the versatility of the club that I like. I can hit it kind of low and chasing off the tee so that I can get pretty decent distance out of it. At the same time, I can hoist it in the air. From bad lies I can be really aggressive and chomp it out of there.

Irons

SPECS Callaway X Forged UT (2), Graphite Design Tour AD DI-85 X shaft; Ping i210 (4-PW), KBS Tour-V 120X shafts.

I’ve gone back and forth since turning pro. What I found is that the i210s are best for me. They give me a lot of forgiveness. I’m able to flight my irons better with them, and that’s when I tend to play my best. I have more control. 

Wedges

SPECS Ping Glide 3.0 (50°, 56°), Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks (60°); KBS Tour-V 130X shafts. 

I had a Glide 3.0 60-degree, but then I experimented with the Vokey and changed my chipping technique a little bit. I found that I don’t need the same grind I needed before. I also found I was a little better from 70 yards and in flighting the ball.

Putter

SPECS Ping PLD DS 72, 36 inches, 2.5° loft, Winn putter grip.  

I’ve always been a bit of a Tiger fanboy and wanted to use an Anser-style putter. But I picked up a counter-balanced mallet putter at Oklahoma State University and noticed my stroke became so much better. I wasn’t pulling it as much, and my speed control was better, too. A win-win.   

Line it up
I prefer less spin rather than too much, and the Pro V1 is lower-spinning than the V1x. I mark it with a simple black line. I have no awareness of where I’m aimed without it.  

Loose change
The inside of my golf bag is pretty boring. There’s just a bunch of random tees, coins and perhaps a new Sharpie that I got that week. I don’t have any superstitions or things of note.

Beach boy
I won the 2018 US Amateur and was low amateur at the 2019 US Open, both at Pebble Beach. The course sets up for my fade well, especially on the holes that run along the water.

IMAGES Hovland: Dom Furore • CLUBS & coins: J.D. Cuban • PEBBLE BEACH: David Cannon/Getty Images

The post What’s in my bag: Viktor Hovland appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

The PGA Tour Champions is always ripe for interesting equipment stories – with some of the senior players using old equipment or trying different clubs to boost their game, both relatable moves to the average golfer.

At the Insperity Invitational, John Daly provided an equipment first for Tour Edge.

Tour Edge has made a big play on the PGA Tour Champions the past couple of years, and it almost walked away with potentially the company’s biggest win ever. Although John Daly came up a little bit short (literally, as his ball found the water at the last), he had one of his best performances in recent years, finishing T-2 at the Insperity Invitational with a bunch of new Tour Edge equipment in the bag for the first time.

The two-time Major champion had the company’s C721 driver (9.5 degrees of loft with a Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 60X shaft) as well as a EXS Pro 13.5-degree fairway wood with the same shaft. The big story, however, was his irons.

Daly played Tour Edge’s C721 irons – a players-distance club – to become the first golfer to use the model in competition on tour. Daly had the 5- through 9-irons equipped with True Temper’s X100 shafts.

The post John Daly nearly wins using a set of players-distance irons never-before-seen on tour appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

Saturday after the third round of the Valspar Championship, co-leader Sam Burns was asked what he learned from his failure to convert a 54-hole lead at the Genesis Invitational in February – the second time he held a lead or co-lead after three rounds in his nascent PGA Tour career.

“I wouldn’t really say that was a failure,” said the 24-year-old Burns, who ended that streak by winning at Innisbrook Resort on Sunday. “For me, personally, I think every opportunity is something you can learn from. So, I think it’s not a matter of winning or losing, it’s a matter of going out there and seeing what the golf course is going to teach me that day.”

Whatever lesson he was being taught, Burns learned it well, following rounds of 67-63-69 with a solid six-birdie, three-bogey 68. His final round at the Copperhead Course came with several clutch shots, including a 9-iron on No.2 to five feet that allowed him to start birdie-birdie on the round, and a 26-foot putt for birdie at the seventh. A 15-footer for another birdie at the 11th kept Burns locked in a battle with Keegan Bradley before a clutch eight-foot par-save putt on the 13th put him two in front after Bradley found the water on the par 3. Burns extended the lead with a kick-in birdie after a stellar approach on the par-5 14th and capped things off with another birdie at the 16th.

Although his ball-striking stats didn’t leap off the page, Burns did rank fifth in strokes gained/tee-to-green with his Callaway Mavrik driver and Callaway Apex TCB irons. Still, it was his work on the greens that stood out. Burns made putt after putt, not registering a three-putt all week and finishing first in strokes gained/putting with his Odyssey O-Works Black #7S putter, picking up more than nine strokes on the field on the greens.

Interestingly, Burns said Saturday night that he didn’t recall what his last win was. It’s sort of hard to believe considering it was the 2018 Savannah Golf Championship on what was then the Web.com Tour. That day, he birdied the final three holes to defeat Roberto Castro by a shot.

Perhaps birdieing three in a row to win on the developmental tour isn’t memorable, but there is no doubt Burns will remember this win for some time to come. And probably learned a little bit more along the way, too.

What Sam Burns had in the bag at the 2021 Valspar Championship:

Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X 2020

Driver: Callaway Mavrik (TPT prototype), 10.5 degrees

5-wood: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero, 17 degrees

Hybrid: Callaway Apex, 23 degrees

Irons (4-9): Callaway Apex TCB; (PW): Callaway Jaws MD5 Raw

Wedges: Callaway Jaws MD5 Raw (50, 56, 60 degrees)

Putter: Odyssey O-Works Black #7S

The post The clubs Sam Burns used to win the 2021 Valspar Championship appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

Marc Leishman and Cam Smith teamed to win the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, defeating Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel on the first playoff hole to cap a wild final nine that saw the pair jump out to a lead, only to squander it before getting to overtime after Leishman missed a 16-foot birdie putt at the last hole in regulation that would have won the tournament.

The Aussie pair got off to a strong start, with four birdies in the first 11 holes, culminated by one on the par-5 11th in which Smith hoisted a Titleist TS2 7-wood onto the green from 236 metres away.

Things got more challenging in the always-difficult alternate-shot format, with the team making three bogeys over the final seven holes, but with a key shot wedged between. That would be Leishman’s chip in for birdie on the short par-4 16th after Smith drove it into the water. After the penalty stroke, Leishman popped his Callaway Jaws MD5 60-degree wedge under the ball and watched as the pitch rolled in for a birdie 3.

Leishman had a chance to finish things off, but his 16-footer slid by the hole on the 72nd hole, resulting in a five-birdie, three-bogey 70.

Oosthuizen – one of the more reliable drivers in the game – flared one way right into the water off the tee on the first playoff hole, providing an opening to where a par proved good enough to hand Leishman and Smith the title. Wild, indeed.

What Marc Leishman and Cam Smith had in their bags at the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans:

Marc Leishman
Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft LS
Driver: Callaway Epic Speed (Fujikura Ventus Black 7X), 10.5 degrees
3-wood: Callaway Epic Speed, 16.5 degrees
Hybrid: Callaway Apex, 20 degrees
Irons (3-4): Callaway Apex UT; (5-9): Callaway Apex TCB; (PW): Callaway Jaws MD5
Wedges: Callaway Jaws MD5 (54, 60 degrees)
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #1 WS

The post The clubs Marc Leishman and Cam Smith used to win the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

It’s getting embarrassing. How can a guy of my position at Australian Golf Digest play a six-year-old club, barely in one piece, designed by a player who himself wasted little time moving on from his first foray into wedge design?

OK, so it’s no persimmon head or hickory-shafted relic I’m clinging onto here. No. But for any club to last six years in my bag, let alone one so critically important to my scorecard (more on this shortly), it has to offer that little something extra or it’s overstayed its welcome by Christmas.

My 2015 Callaway Mack Daddy PM Grind is grazed, chipped, bruised and thinning out on top (grip) and below (grooves) quicker than its brainchild’s coffee-infused waistline. 

It’s now lasted the entire duration of World War II and looks every bit like it could have served on the front line. I can’t even begin to count how many times this 60-degree weapon has rescued me from potentially catastrophic situations on the course. When faced with impossible up-and-downs from treacherous traps, 100-metre water carries off tight lies, flop shots over towering gums, fizzing chips out of ankle-high rough, or even the common, uphill, bump-and-run pitch, upon thee I do rely. This magic wand has travelled with me all over the globe and been my go-to club, without fail. 

Such sorcery should come as no surprise given its designer – “PM”, Phil Mickelson, the greatest short-game wizard of modern times, who built this toy with one key demographic in mind – Phil Mickelson. You see, ‘Lefty’ came to the realisation that he hit a lot of shots high towards the toe, a trait exaggerated by the PGA Tour’s penchant for bordering its fairways with thick, juicy rough, and Phil’s own obsession for showing off with a wide-open clubface. So Phil worked with Callaway’s master craftsman Roger Cleveland to create a face with 39 percent more groove area and pushed those grooves all the way up the toe and to the very edge of the face. He added more curve to the sole, attached a shorter hosel and grinded the perfect amount of bounce to prevent digging. He even drilled some holes in the back, not for aesthetics but to remove extra weight to counter the larger face. The end result is pure artistry, if I don’t say so myself.

I get mixed reactions when I show playing partners but, for reasons unexplained, it just works for me. It radiates a level of confidence at address that every golfer deserves, the kind that leaves you thinking, It’s almost impossible to mis-hit this shot. In fact, if I had the same command of every club in my bag as I do over Mack Daddy, I think I could have had a shot at the tour, or at least my club’s monthly medal.

I love it like a child.

Before you make fun of me for getting all gushy, I bet there’s a club in your bag you can’t part with either. It’s not uncommon for golfers to have two or three or even four such relationships during their golf lives. 

But, like all good things, the end is nigh. I don’t want to accept it but I need to start preparing for the day. My red-flag moment came in the New Year when, boasting to my playing partner that my 20-metre chip would land, take one hop then stop right next to the cup, it did anything but. Instead it took 10 bounces and rolled 25 feet past.

I was in complete shock.

Then, the same thing happened on the next hole. And then again… It was like that old, reliable car you just couldn’t kill had finally lost its brakes and thirst for life. I knew I had worn my grooves down but I had no idea they no longer worked like Phil intended them to. 

I was devastated. My confidence was shot, my short game officially at crossroads… my pro dreams dashed.

It was right then Golf Digest’s US-based equipment editor Mike Stachura, in the midst of finalising this year’s annual Hot List (starting next month) reminded the team that it’s exactly this sort of delusional thinking that forms the paradox of club shopping. We each search for that forever-club, something so good and perfectly matched that it transforms us. But it doesn’t exist. 

“Why we ascribe emotional affinity or even loyalty to golf clubs, or worse, believe they are something sentient to be relied upon is disturbing, frustrating and at the same time the sole reason for the golf-equipment industry,” Stachura says. “Marketers know we are looking for that miraculous Wonderboy, our Excalibur, that somehow imbues us by its mere existence in our bags with a strength, wisdom, courage and confidence that goes beyond earthly physics and mechanical engineering, high-strength alloys, heavy-rare tungsten and the practical wisdom of men and women who have devoted their professional lives to improving the tools of our game.”

If I could just learn to let go and work up the courage to go try this year’s new line of wedges in front of a launch monitor, the numbers would be unequivocal, and I could relegate Mack Daddy to my bedside for self-defence. 

If you, too, need to break an unhealthy relationship, make sure check out Australian Golf Digest’s 2021 Equipment Hot List. Subscribe at https://subscribe.australiangolfdigest.com.au

Here’s hoping it will be love at first sight.

The post LET IT GO: Is emotional attachment to a golf club hurting your game? appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

It is often said playing with the lead is one of the toughest things in golf. Stewart Cink did a pretty good job of destroying that mindset at the RBC Heritage, starting 63-63 to take a five-shot lead into the weekend and then playing steady, almost error-free golf (just two bogeys) over the final 36 holes to win by four shots from Harold Varner III and Emiliano Grillo for his eighth PGA Tour win and second win of the 2020-2021 season.

Cink showed almost no weaknesses in his game at Harbour Town Golf Links with his worst ranking in the major strokes-gained categories being 25th (strokes gained/putting) while ranking second in strokes gained/approach-the-green and fifth in strokes gained/around-the-green. For the week he was tied for first in greens in regulation and when he did miss a green, his short game showed up, witnessed by a perfect five-for-five in sand saves and ranking T-4 in scrambling. Such sharp play into and around the greens resulted in just three bogeys the entire week for Cink.

The 2009 Open Championship winner’s irons are Ping’s i210 models with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts and Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet grips. The irons offer more forgiveness than typical in most players irons, but Cink is just fine with that.

“I’m looking for my mis-hits to be handled and the i210s do a terrific job of that,” Cink told Golf Digest late last year. “If my dad, who is a 15-handicap, can play them and I can play them on the PGA Tour then that’s a great set of clubs. I played forged blades for a long time but the predictability of a club with more perimeter-weighted mass is priceless.”

Cink also has another equipment trait the everyman can relate to: his gap wedge is the same model as his irons – a rarity on the PGA Tour. “It’s a full-swing club,” he explains. “It’s a transition club. It’s the shortest and highest-lofted club that gets more shots from the fairway than short-game shots. The gap wedge is doing today what my pitching wedge used to do 15 years ago.”

Cink made good use of his Ping Vault 2.0 Ketsch mallet, too. “I was playing a Korn Ferry event in 2019 and a friend was caddieing for me,” he said. “He knew more about equipment than me. I had not used the Vault putter before but the line on my ball and the line on the putter matched up nicely. It made it easy to get the clubhead lined up. I putted fairly well that week and have stuck with it.”

Given the results at Harbour Town, expect him to stick with it a while longer.

The clubs Stewart Cink used to win the 2021 RBC Heritage:

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Driver: Ping G425 Max (Graphite Design Tour XC-6 TX), 10.5 degrees

3-wood: Ping G425 Max, 14.5 degrees

7-wood: Ping G410, 20.5 degrees

Irons (4-UW): Ping i210

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM8 (56, 60 degrees)

Putter: Ping Vault 2.0 Ketsch

The post The clubs Stewart Cink used to win the 2021 RBC Heritage appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: TaylorMade’s popular P·790 players distance iron, which features a hollow construction, tungsten weighting and a springy L-shaped face insert, now comes in an all-black PVD-coated version.

THE DEEP DIVE: TaylorMade’s original P·790 irons were an unqualified success by selling more than a million sticks, and its second generation continued that popularity, consistently ranking in sales as one of the top-selling $US1,5000-plus-per-set irons tracked by Golf Datatech. It’s done so by remaining that rare iron that appeals to players whose handicaps range from the low single digits to the high teens, mixing the faux muscleback looks that appeal to a better player while injecting (literally) the horsepower of a hollow construction, thin face and multiple materials that gives average golfers results they’d expect from a bulkier game improvement iron.

Now the second-generation P·790 will add an all-black finish to its family, what Matt Bovee, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for irons calls, “elegant aggression.”

The all-black coating comes through a physical vapour deposition process where solid metal is vapourised and then applied to the entire exterior of the iron in the finishing process. TaylorMade has produced similar black PVD versions of its popular irons for years, dating back to its Burner 2.0 irons, the rac TP MB Smoke and a black version of the first P·790. The latest version offers the most complete coating and includes the Dynamic Gold 105 Black shafts standard, as well.

“The bold aesthetic blends perfectly with the powerful performance, delivering a daring look and irons that are made to take on daring shots,” Bovee said.

The new P·790 Black irons carry all the technology of the standard chrome model. That includes the hollow construction, which is injected with a urethane-foam filling that provides a soft feel but still allows the new 7-percent thinner, L-shaped face insert made of forged 4140 steel to flex for more ball speed and higher launch. The guts also include a bar of heavy tungsten (15 percent heavier than the on the original model) slung low towards the sole to further boost launch and lower spin to power more distance. The face features the circular variable thickness shaping, known as inverted cone technology, that changes with each loft to better optimise distance and dispersion.

The sole again features the cut-through slot that allows the face to flex even more, especially on impacts below the mid-line.

The P·790 Black irons are offered in 3-iron through pitching wedge. Stay tuned for Australian pricing and availability.

The post TaylorMade pushes P·790 irons towards ‘elegant aggression’ with P·790 Black appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The line features 11 models, with blade and mallet offerings that fit every stroke type from strong arc, slight arc to straight-back, straight-through strokes. The multimaterial designs promote forgiveness on mis-hits. On the face, the front section is a softer material while the back section is a firmer material that the company found from working with its tour staff provided an ideal impact experience.

THE DEEP DIVE: When it comes to putters, it’s not that they are devoid of technology (they most certainly are not), but that technology is often overshadowed by the relatively straightforward metric by which consumers judge a putter’s relative worth: Did the ball go in the hole?

Ping has realised this since the first inventions of Karsten Solheim some 60-plus years ago, which is why Ping’s new line is simply named the 2021 putter series. Though it is technologically advanced, the company has placed an emphasis on maximising the moment of inertia in order to reduce grief on the greens.

“We just think we’re in the right space for having the appeal of the classic look at address with the technology that really prevails from the impact experience and the forgiveness standpoint,” said Ryan Stokke, director of product design for Ping.

The line features 11 models, with blade and mallet offerings that fit every stroke stype from strong arc, slight arc to straight-back, straight-through strokes. Ping took advantage of its relationship with its work with its tour players via its Putting Lab Design program to include versions made for Viktor Hovland (DS 72) and Cameron Champ (Tyne 4).

According to the company, each model in the series is built using aerospace-grade materials to achieve new levels of forgiveness. The three Anser versions (Anser, Anser 2, Anser 4) combine a stainless-steel head with tungsten heel and toe weights to elevate the MOI to its highest ever. “The Anser models are a little bit smaller heel to toe,” said Stokke. “A little bit softer ballasting and radius. By utilising the multimaterials we’ve been able to go to a little smaller Anser design, but make them even more forgiving.

In the Kushin 4, DS 72 and Tyne 4, a steel weight is used in the heel and tungsten is applied to the toe to better optimise the CG location (there’s also a centre-shafted Tyne C model). The Fetch and Oslo H join a cast 304 stainless steel body with an aluminium sole plate to position mass around the entire perimeter to create a highly forgiving mallet. A new design, the CA 70, uses a dense stainless steel sole weight to lower the CG of the aluminium body for added forgiveness. The Harwood, meanwhile, delivers the highest MOI in the line due to its 6061 aluminium body and a total of 93 grams of tungsten in all four corners of the fully-machined head.

“The majority of the volume of these putters is the aluminium,” said Stokke. “The most extreme usage of the multimaterial design is the oversized mallets with machined 6061 Aluminium chassis with four unique weights that combined are roughly 100 grams of tungsten in the full perimeter of the design.”

Though boosting the MOI is certainly beneficial to all golfers, roll is equally as important and the dual-durometer insert employed in the 2021 series has that area covered.

According to Stokke, the insert is a continuation of Ping’s two material co-molded dual layer design. The front section is a softer Pebax material. The back section is a firmer Pebax material that the company found from working with its tour staff provided an ideal impact experience.

“It’s pretty close to a 75-25 split of the softer material and then the firmer material,” Stokke said. “Pebax is a lower-density elastomer material. It has very good energy return, it’s also extremely durable so it has very high impact resistance. Another great aspect is that it’s very consistent for properties at different temperatures.” In layman’s terms, it produces a face that feels somewhat soft, but the ball comes off the face like the face is firm.

The grooves on the face also offer an assist. Developed from the PLD program, Stokke said the groove is a uniform five-thousandths of an inch depth which results in a slightly softer impact experience but with the full retention of ball speed as if you had a perfectly smooth face. “It really aligns the impact experience with the rollout potential and ball speed off the face that our highest level golfers have come to enjoy,” he said.

The 2021 putters comes with a dark PVD finish on the heads and a black chrome shaft. All models come standard with a fixed-length shaft that can be custom built from 32 to 38 inches in one-quarter-inch increments. Ping’s adjustable shaft (which was standard on the Sigma 2 line), which adjusts from 32 to 36 inches, is available as a custom upgrade. The company also offers three grip options.

Stay tuned for Australian pricing and availability.

The post NEW GEAR: A first look at Ping’s new 2021 series of putters appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

Hideki Matsuyama won the 2021 Masters, and when it comes to storylines, well, there are simply too many to count. Matsuyama grabbed the lead with a third-round 65 and kept the pressure on his pursuers by making four birdies against just two bogeys for a final-round 73 that gave him a one-shot win over Will Zalatoris at Augusta National.

Matsuyama won in a manner that he usually does: with solid ball-striking. For the week, he ranked fifth in greens in regulation, hitting 50 of 72 for a 69.44 percentage. Matsuyama’s irons are Srixon’s Z Forged blade irons. “I made the switch from cavity-back to blade when I turned pro,” Matsuyama told Golf Digest a couple of years ago. “It allows me to manoeuvre the shape of the shots more than cavity backs.”

His irons also are CNC milled just for him, in order to keep the precise shape of the blade with a minimum of hand work.

Off the tee, Matsuyama uses Srixon’s new ZX5 driver. The club features what the company calls its “Rebound Frame”, which makes the face rebound more by changing the stiffness around the face by using a 30 percent thinner section at the front of the crown, a strip of a thinner titanium alloy around the frame for extra flex and a larger carbon-fibre crown and internal sole ribs that add rigidity. The ZX5 also stretches longer front to back for more forgiveness on off-centre hits and to provide a higher flight – the latter which appealed to the Japanese star.

The new Masters champ also uses the company’s latest version of its Z-Star XV ball.

The four-piece, dual-core XV features a core design that starts soft but gets decidedly firmer towards the perimeter to give higher swing speed players more potential for longer driving distance. A new firmer, highly repulsive mantle layer also assists the chase for more ball speed potential and high launch with low spin on the longest shots. While these traits appealed to Matsuyama, Cleveland/Srixon director of tour operations, noted another trait Matsuyama liked about the ball. “Believe it or not, the sound of the ball,” McDonald said via text.

Matsuyama now has another sound he is fond of: being called a Masters champ.

What Hideki Matsuyama had in the bag at The Masters:

Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV

Driver: Srixon ZX5 (Graphite Design DI8 TX), 9.5 degrees

3-wood: TaylorMade SIM2, 15 degrees

Irons (3): TaylorMade SIM UDI; (4-PW): Srixon Z Forged

Wedges: Cleveland RTX-4 (52, 56, 60 degrees)

Putter: Scotty Cameron by Titleist Newport 2 Tour

The post Masters 2021: The clubs Hideki Matsuyama used to win at Augusta National appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.