BOMB: It's always interesting going through the Hot List e-mail inbox and seeing what awaits. But rather than keep all these gems to ourselves, we thought we'd share a few of the questions along with our answers.

From John: "I have a TaylorMade 510 TP with a Fuji Speeder 757. What's the closest equivalent today?"

BOMB: Aside from the original Pittsburgh Persimmon, you mean? John, seeing how you're more than five years removed from your last driver purchase it is likely you would be impressed by the gains in this category. In short, you don't want something equivalent, you want something better. Clearly though it appears you prefer a more traditional head shape. A look at the Titleist 909 drivers, Ping's G10 or TaylorMade's R9 may not be a bad starting point. Cleveland's Launcher is another option to consider.

From Brigham (and several others): "I couldn't find anything on golf balls this year and I'm kinda disappointed. Am I an idiot and just couldn't find it?"

BOMB: Well, idiot may be a bit strong. Not reading closely may be closer to the truth. As we mentioned in the February issue, we have broken out golf balls to allow for a more extensive treatment of them. The golf ball Hot List will appear in the May issue of Golf Digest that should hit newsstands around April 10.

From Nikki: "How come the Nike Victory Red forged split cavity set or the TW forged did not make the Hot List?"

BOMB: Let's start with the TW forged. In short, we do not consider pure muscleback blade irons for the Hot List. They're certainly beautiful to look at, but if you have enough game to hit musclebacks you likely don't need our help with your equipment selections. As for the Victory Red split cavity-back, its scores in Innovation and Performance were not among the upper echelon in the category. To make the Hot List you almost without exception have to do extremely well in at least our three most highly-rated criteria (Performance, Innovation and Look/Sound/Feel) and perhaps all four.

GOUGE: This feels a little like Dear Abby, or maybe a weaker version of the Suze Orman show, but I dug up a few gems, too. Like this one from Tim: "My son currently plays the the Mizuno MP-60. Looking for something in the Mizuno line that would offer a little more forgiveness."

Dear Tim, I hope your son is a solid single-digit handicapper or a card-carrying member of the PGA Tour. Otherwise, you could be brought up on charges of child abuse. Seriously, the MP-60 is a fine iron for accomplished players, but if you're looking for a smarter, kinder, gentler alternative, we heartily endorse Mizuno's  MP-52 with the milled pockets within the back cavity.

We love the thorough reader, too. Like this note from R Hunt, who asks "Can you tell me if the Ping G10 irons are smaller in 2009 than they were in 2008?" The note details how our surface area, heel to toe, topline and sole width measurements are slightly smaller than in 2008's Hot List write-up.

OK, we confess. The numbers are different, but the size of the G10 irons hasn't changed. While we remeasured every repeat iron with this year's batch of new irons and while there are some differences attributable to manufacturing plus-minus tolerances, we did adjust our measuring methodology slightly to bring it more in line with advice we received from some of the R&D folks at the top manufacturers. That explains some of the variation you see. Also, it's worth noting that in the driver spin and launch angle numbers, you may see some changes in the descriptions of some repeat products (like the G10). Remember, though, those spin and launch ratings are based on the field of drivers considered this year, which is of course a different group than last year. The rating is a relative scale, hence the slight differences year to year.

Finally, while we pride ourselves on getting all the new products in our February issue, sometimes an entry just can't arrive in time for our full consideration. Unfortunately, that was true with the TaylorMade R9 this year. We weren't aware of the product until early December, which is too late to put it through the full Hot List process, and thus we couldn't give it a rating for the Hot List. It seems to be a fine entry, smallish perhaps but tech rich and always with that distinctive and appealing TaylorMade sound and feel. Rob from Calgary wants to know if R9 is "worth the hype or should I stick with my R7 Quad?"

Dear Rob, the R7 Quad was revolutionary, but so was the telephone. Time to upgrade. From a technology standpoing R9 seems to offer more potential ballflight correction. But TaylorMade alone has introduced at least (I am not making this up) 16 drivers since R7 Quad. And if you want to consider the rest of the industry, you could probably multiply that number by 10. If you can't find a driver better somewhere in that bunch, then go ahead and stick with your R7 Quad. The best news, of course, is you can take your old driver to a launch monitor and find out whether you're producing better numbers with it vs. something new. So I'll give you a gross of balls if the old r7 gets better numbers than the best of the new stuff.

Keep those cards and letters coming. We'll figure out answers, or at least make up something that mitigates the confusion.