Last March, during a fun-filled but hard-core women's golf retreat at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, I peeked inside the bags of the 75 women who each had paid at least $1,400 to participate in the three-day event. What I found appalled me. Hidden inside designer golf bags and under chic headcovers were countless steel shafts, numerous 1980s-era blades, at least a dozen 3-irons and a few persimmon woods. (Yikes!) I could count on one hand the number of sets that had been purchased within the past two years, and the vast majority were at least 10 years old. When I asked the women -- most of whom were avid golfers -- why they were using such outdated gear, the typical reply was: "I'm not good enough to notice the difference."
As I told the women at Kiawah, I don't care how bad of a player you think you are. If you don't update your equipment, then you're never going to get better. (And by update, I don't mean buying a 1995 Great Big Bertha on eBay -- I mean getting custom-fitted on a launch monitor and investing in a high-lofted 460-cubic-centimeter driver with high moment of inertia.) If you happen to use your husband's hand-me-downs, you might as well hang up your FootJoys and take up blind-folded cliff diving. You're just as likely to hurt yourself.
Today's women's equipment is significantly better than it was three years ago, and it will allow you to play better golf. Many of the clubs included in this year's Hot List are available in women's versions (indicated by "W" icons). But most female players -- those with driver swing speeds of less than 65 miles per hour -- should use women-specific "flow sets" that seamlessly integrate lightweight, high-launching woods, hybrids and short irons in a smaller set (eight to 13 clubs) with larger loft gaps. Clubs like the ones shown here are different from anything the guys play (weight, lofts, flexes, lengths) to optimize the performance of slower swingers.
