Magazines: golfdigest.com

What's Changed in Golf Equipment

By Caroline Stetler

Driver

"Yesterday's driver heads were smaller, heavier and had thicker walls, which kept the club's center of gravity (CG) high and forward in the head. As a result, players hit lower, shorter shots than they do with today's drivers. The clubheads also had a much lower moment of inertia (MOI, or resistance to twisting at impact), which made them less consistent on off-center hits. Today's driver heads are bigger in size and designed with thinner walls, allowing weight to be placed in positions that produce higher, straighter and longer shots."

Fairway Wood

"The new fairway woods are easier to hit, partly because they're the size of old drivers. But they're not just bigger: Through improved technology, the CG is lower and deeper so it's easier to launch your ball off the fairway, and they have rounded soles that are designed to produce less drag and move more easily through the grass. The older fairway woods, like the older drivers, were smaller, had higher CGs and launched the ball lower, and their soles were not very forgiving."

Hybrids

"This category of clubs is new, but it's become a great long-, mid- and, sometimes, short-iron replacement. Unlike an iron, the hybrid launches the ball high and far because it's a shell-like club, very similar to a 3-wood or a driver. That helps put the CG in a position that improves your launch and makes it hard to hit a topped shot. In some hybrids you'll see weight plugs toward the back that help get the ball up in the air faster. The sole is wide, so it glides through the turf more easily than the equivalent iron from a few years ago."

Irons

"Today's game-improvement irons are very easy to hit compared with their predecessors. They have wider, rounder soles and a lower CG to launch the ball higher in the air and combat the lack of spin generated by slower swing speeds. And the thinner clubfaces allow manufacturers to place more weight in the perimeter of the club, which increases forgiveness and produces straighter shots. The feel is by no means sacrificed, thanks to vibration-dampening plastics placed in the back of the head."

Balls

"When wound balls were replaced by two-piece balls a decade ago, the covers were still designed to keep spin low, which made it difficult for women to get much distance out of their shots, as the ball never got high enough in the air to carry very far. Players with slower swing speeds need velocity and lift from a golf ball. The manufacturers are finally combining high-speed (supersoft) cores with dimple patterns that create more lift—which equals distance."