BOMB: Comedian Ron White once said "You can't fix stupid." In some ways, our retailer panel, which convened for its first day today was, in essence, said the same thing when the general consensus was that, when it came to drivers, you can't sell straight.

"Distance is the drug and the consumer is hooked," said Susan Roll of Carlsbad Golf Center. Added two of our other panelists, "How many drivers did Calvin Peete sell back in his heyday? How many is Corey Pavin selling
today? People want distance." Our august panel of experts includes Roll, Ken Morton Jr. of Haggin Oaks Golf Complex, Leigh Bader of Joe & Leigh's Golf Shop and 3balls.com, Dale Robbins of Dale's Winning Edge Golf Headquarters, Casey Baker of Michigan's Miles of Golf and John Lyberger, PGA Professional and Director of Golf at Congressional Country Club. 

Unfortunately, some manufacturers, especially those with high MOI drivers, are trying to convince the consumer that straighter is better. But it's an uphill climb to be sure. One experiment we conducted earlier this week was a shaft-length test that showed in over 200 hits that a 44 1/2-inch driver was more effective for a number of players than a 45 1/2 or a 46 1/2-inch driver. Why? Because the shorter-shafted club went straighter. It also, in many instances, went a little shorter. And in this era of launch-monitor fitting, trying to convince a buyer that straighter is better may be more difficult than figuring out the Pythagorean theorem that shows that to be true.

But then again my number-crunching friend, I did see you with your calculator out during dinner. What did you find out?

GOUGE: Sadly, the calculator was for adding up my score on the back nine. Even more sadly, I doubt either of us could successfully apply the Pythagorean Theorem to our tee balls, even if you spotted us the a² plus the b². Still, here's something to think about the next time you start eyeballing a crazy long driver shaft: Accuracy matters for two simple reasons: Hitting it solid is the difference between a productive smash factor and an inept smash factor. (Smash factor is an indication of how solidly power is transferred from the clubhead to the ball. It means the ball is leaving the face with more intensity and with a spin axis in line with the direction of the intended target.) It is no great stretch to suggest that the average golfer hits more solid shots with his 7-iron than his driver, so why would you give him a longer shaft, thus making the most unwieldy club in the bag even more prone to calamity than a brain surgeon hopped up on Red Bull, Hot Tamales and cocaine? So, let's assume you're trying to convince someone that straighter is better than longer when it comes to a driver. It's a fool's game. The two concepts, accuracy and distance, don't reside on opposite sides of the street. Rather, they share a driveway. Distance starts with ball speed, ball speed starts with solid contact. In terms of real numbers, if you take all the drivers that have reached the final stages for our Hot List consideration and then you compared off-center hits ball speed vs. on-center hits ball speed, you will see an average of 3 mph of difference. That's easily seven yards difference right there in the favor of the more accurate driver. But it's better than that: It's not much of a stretch to say those off-center hits are inefficient impacts, too. That means they launch with too low an angle, too much spin or both. And that means another 15 yards lost. So your "longer" driver is actually going to produce more terrible hits and ultimately less distance. And don't forget that those shorter carrying straight drives are going to hit the fairways and roll more. Those wild longer carrying shots won't roll so much when they land in the rough, or worse. It all speaks to the need of average golfers to get fit, and be willing to get into a shorter-shafted driver. And that research on shaft length? I don't think it's anywhere conclusive yet, but those longer-length shaft shots produced inconsequential and sometimes less total distance for all players, regardless of ability level.

You may not be able to sell straight, but that's only because you're equating straight with short when straight is about as long as you can get.

BOMB (pictured above): One of our main tenets of the Hot List always has been this: That if you're not at least investigating new products and new technologies, or finding ways to make your clubs be a better fit for your game, then you really don't want to get better. The same holds true for us. Even though it's our job to look at, hit and decipher every piece of equipment imaginable, we also, like you, want to play better (and losing to Gouge and his partner, Jerry Tarde, in our inter-office team competition only makes me more determined to do that). In some ways, the Hot List offers that opportunity. And today I think I found something I never dreamed I would have.

As an amateur player, when I swing I'm hauling the mail, clocking in with somewhere between a 104 and 106 mile per hour swing speed. So like most players, I make the assumption that I need a stiff shaft in the driver, right? But I'm also a low launch, high spin player -- which makes driver fitting a bit of a problem. More loft adds launch, but also adds spin. But one of our tests today had us trying to figure out if loft or shaft flex mattered more. I hit a 10.5-degree driver with a stiff shaft and then a 9-degree regular flex driver. Guess what boys and girls? Me, the self-proclaimed "Bomb," had a better launch condition and hit the ball farther with the regular shaft driver. Moral of the story being to check your ego -- and your assumptions -- at the door.

GOUGE: I think your case points to the challenge that consumers face when it comes to equipment. The only way new equipment can't help you is if you assume you understand it completely. It's unfortunate, however, because you can't understand equipment completely unless it's your full-time job and no one has that kind of time. The answer? Challenge your assumptions. Don't think a new driver makes a difference? Get on a launch monitor with your current driver and get educated. Think your 3-year-old wedge is just fine? Borrow a new wedge and hit one 20-yard chip shot and see if you see a difference. Or maybe just trust that it matters so much that the USGA is progressively outlawing those aggressive wedge grooves starting in just 14 months. And, like we investigated today, if all you have is a pitching wedge and a sand wedge, and you might have as much as a 30-yard gap in your bag.

And when it comes to shafts? We've both seen plenty of research that "shows" how crucial they are to ballflight, and we've seen research that suggests they might not affect ballflight in any way at all, and even more research that indicates shafts are only reliable when oriented in a certain way. Truly, I don't think anybody can say anything with certainty about some universally constant effect of a shaft. But I do think you can't know anything for certain about what's right for you without a thorough investigation. And that means challenging your assumptions. So tomorrow we'll try some Senior Flex shafts for you.

BOMB: Perhaps the last thing I expected from our first day here at CordeValle Resort (other than you passing on the chocolate lava cake for dessert), was seeing Kirk Triplett tee it up two spots down on the range from us (he was here for the annual Steve Young/Jerry Rice Bay Area Classic). Even better was his open and honest assessment of the state of equipment and how it has impacted the game.

He listed three things he felt would help combat the advances technology had made. And when a three-time PGA Tour winner speaks, it serves people well to listen. Triplett felt that if you reduced driver head size to 250cc, took away square grooves and banned the long putter (an offense so egregious that you feel people should be banished to an island for using them), that the game would be more interesting. He even drove his point home by hitting some shots for us with a TaylorMade metal driver, circa 1983 which showed him getting 10-15 m.p.h. less ball speed than on a modern driver. Such limits might help rein in the game's elite, but I'm not sure they should be in place for the masses. You, however, may have different thoughts--even if you did hit one 7-iron shot a whopping 48 yards with a smash factor of 0.52 according to
Trackman.

GOUGE: I'm pacing myself. And we all know that long putters and belly putters are grotesque malformations of the game's true intentions. Triplett's assessment was intriguing, measured and thoughtful, not full of the blather you usually hear from golf technology reactionaries. He used the phrase "more interesting, not necessarily better," and admitted he had played his entire career with square grooves. He thinks that particular adjustment will be significant for shots from the light rough. Either way, I think we've both seen enough smart minds at the game's equipment companies to realize that any 250 cc driver of the future (the size of the old Great Big Bertha Titanium driver of 1995) would be way better than the original invention, but still not as helpful to you or I as the current crop of 460 cc clubs. In fact, we let a few other of the guests at CordeValle try out the TaylorMade relic, including a decorated teacher with a syrupy swing that Triplett assured us was much better than his own. Well, that swing that moved through the ball effortlessly with a a 460 cc driver head snap hooked a few and actually topped a couple others before hitting a couple serviceable pops (although short and low and about as lifeless as one of those lame parachute men you get at Chuck E. Cheese for 50 tickets).

And you'll see some research upcoming in the January issue of Golf Digest that shows just how uncertain performance might be with those everything-old-is-new-again V-like grooves. But you wonder just how much the game is going to change in the next 18 months. And how those changes will trickle down from the greatest players to the paying customers. In the meantime, our trailer is full of bounteous supplies of big drivers, sharp-grooved irons and wedges and a full fortnight's worth of enjoying just how playable all those mis-hits now are.

But search through every corner and every staff bag in our trailer and there's about only one piece of equipment you won't find: long putters. Or as I like to call them: Golf's Mortal Sin. Put it right up there with idolatry, genetic manipulation of humans for personal profit and baby seal clubbing.

BOMB: Well, for those of you that may have wondered what happened to us, the answer is simple: We've spent the last couple of weeks gearing up for our annual Hot List summit meeting which, as I write this, has us at JFK airport in New York getting ready to wing out west to CordeValle Resort in San Martin, Ca. At least we don't have to worry about the weather like at the inaugural summit in 2003 when we spent one day dodging snowflakes.

The summit is, by far, the most extensive, expensive and exhausting undertaking done by Golf Digest all year. It involves more than 30 outside panelists and more than a dozen editorial and support staffers. But the Summit is merely the culmination of a year-long effort to provide the most comprehensive, helpful equipment coverage anywhere. As such, we will update our blog every day until the meeting breaks up on October 25th. We won't give away the results (except for our annual golf match that we'll squeeze in on the lone half-day off we have), but we will give you a feel of what it is like to be at the Summit, including some comments from our panelists.

GOUGE: I thought we were going to keep the results of our annual Hot List match a secret, too. I don't need any more public embarrassment. But you are right about how extensive this annual trek through the industry's best equipment has become. This isn't about a couple of editors in a room throwing darts. This is an editor working with a pair of panelists every day, every hour, every swing to get a sense of their assessment of our key criterion PERFORMANCE and (a new critierion this year) LOOK/SOUND/FEEL. This is our entire Hot List editorial team locked in a conference room full of Ph.Ds in physics and engineering trying to understand what might be the most significant technological developments in the game, all in an effort to best judge another Hot List criterion, INNOVATION. This is hours of consultation with the top retailers in the country to determine where products stand in the marketplace for the criterion of DEMAND. What it is is a whole lotta long days and short nights trying to help the golf consumer figure out which way to turn. And in the end it's not anything like a vacation. But it is pretty cool. And I know you all are just a little bit jealous. Don't worry. We'll show you some pictures, too.