BOMB: Hey, you see the sticks Bubba Dickerson had in the bag when he won the Nationwide event in Louisiana last week? Callaway X-14 irons and and a Callaway FT-2 driver. Here we’re touting that everyday players should use the new stuff and a tour player wins an event with clubs released at the start of the new millennium. Is nothing sacred?

That said, we also have been pretty consistent in our position that the old stuff isn’t exactly garbage. Fact is, if your cost-benefit analysis for golf clubs is that you’d rather save a few Benjamins than a few strokes, there’s plenty of great options. We’ve talked about used clubs and sites such as 3balls.com, but now it’s interesting to note how closeouts from major companies and even those who keep earlier model products in their line longer than most provide high-end equipment--albeit, not the latest and greatest—at a very reasonable price.

The latest Golf Datatech numbers prove that consumers in this economy are responding. Only three irons have a market share at on- and off-course shops over 4 percent. The new Callaway X-22 is one and is selling at a healthy $757 for a set of eight according to the average sales price. The other two, however, are older models with dropped-down prices. Callaway’s Big Bertha ’06 model is going for $368 for a set of eight while Adams Idea a3 (the category leader in sales) is at $515—including hybrids!

Ping has kept its G5 iron set in its line and it is attractively priced as well at around $400. And Callaway is bringing back one of its better sellers in a reduced-price role, the X-18 R (also for about $400), basically the iron that was introduced in 2005. In a tight economy and when players such as Dickerson show you can play at a high level with such sticks, it gets harder to make the case that everyday players should pony up for the new stuff. But I’m sure you have a reason why they should.

GOUGE: The market obviously is overwhelmed with quality products, and not just the newest stuff. But there are two things that trouble my addled brain:

1) In an era when modest leaps, let alone quantum leaps, in technology are excruciatingly difficult (impossible?) to engineer, it's clear to me that the rapid introduction cycle for new products that has infected the golf industry in the last five years doesn't seem to have much of a point anymore, other than to lead to consumer disinterest and distrust. Especially if you're trying to convince the common man golfer to shell out serious money in a troubled economy. Why does every company need to introduce multiple drivers every year, or more often, when it takes at least a year for consumers to legitimately understand what these latest innovations might promise? For instance, in the rush to develop adjustable drivers, too many of the first efforts were unimpressive and unnecessary. They offered nothing that utilized adjustability in a way that made golfers better. The current crop of Nike DYMO STR8-FIT and TaylorMade R9 offers a potential sea change, a change that would have been no less intriguing if we didn't have to wade through last year's shaft-kits-in-a-box approach. So here's a call to let product cycle breathe a bit, a call I'm sure that will be ignored or ridiculed, much like a call for unilateral nuclear disarmament.

2) Is the average golfer's nagging sense that the new stuff ain't all that great anyway because Bubba Dickerson is using a bunch of garage sale sticks and winning pro tournaments going to obscure those new products that attempt to change the technology landscape? In other words, how do you find significant technologies when TaylorMade has 13 drivers currently for sale at Dick's Sporting Goods, or Odyssey has 61 putter models available at Golfsmith.com, especially when each likely will be presented as something fantastic? The easy answer (and a smart one) is that the Hot List is always a good starting point. In fact, I'd say this if you want to look for a great investment: Start at the top of the 2007 Hot List, and see if you can find a used or close-out model of one of these clubs. You'll get a great price and a better club than anything in your bag.

I am a firm believer that there are always a handful of products that offer the potential for groundbreaking improvement for average golfers, followed by a much larger group of products that are mild enhancements on pretty good products. Let's not lose sight of that fact just because some guy who could shoot 68 with a set of Johnny Palmer Signature irons and a Kro-Flite ain't dialed in on the new technology yet. Golf's best new technology isn't about the best players. It's about the rest of us. That's why you need to get to a qualified fitter and check it out.