Your Hot List questions: Editors' Blog: Golf Digest

Your Hot List questions

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Comments

I'll say one thing, you read carefully and have lots of questions, especially when the Hot List issue lands. ("Tiger? Who's Tiger?") Let's answer a few of those questions, with the help of equipment gurus Mike Johnson of Golf World and Mike Stachura of Golf Digest.

Would you know when the Hot List issue will be available in stores? Thank you. Matt Novak, Nazareth, PA

Mike Stachura: We considered all products that, according to each manufacturer when we surveyed them in September, were expected to be part of a company's main line for the first half of 2010. Some companies chose not to make their drivers and other products available to us for our Hot List evaluations, due to their particular manufacturing schedules. As to the in-store availability dates, that is somewhat out of our control (and more in the control of manufacturer vendors), but we would urge readers to contact manufacturers through their websites and customer service numbers, regarding when a product is likely to make it to market.

Just got the new 2010 "Hot List" edition. In the iron section, how on earth could you not have tested the new Wilson Ci9 irons? The only reason I can possibly fathom was they were not available when you tested. Believe me, I am no Wilson big fan or whatnot, but for the past several years Wilson has put our very highly rated game improvement irons, specifically the CI6 and Ci7. The new CI9's are supposed to be even better. Please explain the omission of these clubs.
Peter Hamalian

Mike Johnson: The Wilson Ci9 irons were considered for the Hot List, but did not score highly enough in the uber-competitive game-improvement iron category to earn a medal. The Wilson D-FY won Gold in the Super Game-Improvement category this year and the Wilson FG Tour Forged won Silver in the Players category. The Di9 won a Silver in last year's Super Game-Improvement category.

This was Golf Digest's worst Hot List ever for left-handed players! For instance, under the Scratch 8620 wedge, Golf Digest says "HOT: Just about every wedge company offers choices, but few do a better job of matching a sole grind to a swing type." Really, how does a company that does not make left-handed clubs even come close to matching my left-handed swing type? That's a big NOT in my book! You could have at least put the pertinent information for left-handers online. Looks to me like this year Golf Digest just wrote off all us lefties. Was that an executive decision to piss-off approximately 12% of your readership? William Burke, Williamsburg, VA

Mike Johnson: I'm not really sure what the beef is. The vast majority of the equipment on the Hot List is available for both righties and lefties, so your "worst Hot List ever for left-handed players" charge falls a little flat. I also question the statement about Scratch not having lefty offerings. According to a Scratch representative, the 1018 model and custom clubs come in left-handed options. The 8620, which made the Hot List, will be available in lefty this spring.