Hot List: golfdigest.com

Arriving At Hot List Wisdom

February 2010

Photo: Dom Furore

There are 94 products profiled in this, our seventh annual Hot List. How did we get here? It's the culmination of a year's worth of investigation, including unbiased input from a team of 32 players, teachers, golf retailers and scientists during two weeks of testing in Mesquite, Nev., at the CasaBlanca Resort. Their advice, along with mountains of technical data from equipment manufacturers and independent sources, was carefully considered by our four Hot List judges before we arrived at our final list. No other media source in golf devotes this much time, energy and resources to discovering what new products work in the most creative, effective and pleasing ways.

The Hot List has never been about ending your search for new clubs; it has been about making it more focused. Fewer than a quarter of the 403 products originally considered for this year's list earned a spot in this issue. We know there's a lot of good equipment in the market, but only these products receive our highest recommendation: a Gold or Silver medal.

Every club featured in the Hot List offers game-changing technology, but how do you know which one will improve your game? It's simple: Make your choice with the help of a qualified clubfitter. The technology of fitting helps take the guesswork out of selecting clubs. Most reputable golf shops use launch monitors to determine your swing speed, spin rates and launch angles, and those numbers will show you how the new stuff beats the old. The fact is, an analysis of all 14 clubs in your bag is a major step toward real improvement. The first step starts right here, with the Hot List. --Mike Stachura

Bounce

The amount of space between the leading edge and the groundline when the club is in the square address position. In general, more bounce is better for soft sand and lush grass; less bounce is better for firm sand and turf.

BULGE

The face curvature from heel to toe that corrects spin on mis-hits.

CAMBER

The radius measurement of the sole from front to back or heel to toe.

CAST

A way of manufacturing a clubhead by pouring molten metal into a wax mold.

CENTER OF GRAVITY (CG)

A theoretical point that defines the average location of weight in a clubhead, or the internal point about which the club rotates.

A low CG helps to launch the ball higher. It isn't always found at the geometric center.

COEFFICIENT OF RESTITUTION (COR)

The measurement of springlike effect of a flexing clubface. The USGA limit is .83, which means that if a ball is projected at a club at 100 miles per hour, it must bounce off at 83 mph or slower to conform.