Golf Digest Issue 2, 2021

My hybrid is a Motorola flip phone in terms of golf equipment. IT’S GETTING EMBARRASSING. How can a guy of my position at Golf Digest play an 11-year-old club from a brand whose current proof of life is an infomercial? The rest of my bag I keep pretty fresh—it’s easy with steady sneak peeks at new products from our expert equipment editors, Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson—but my hybrid is beat. My 17-degree Adams Idea a7 has half the paint chipped from the crown and some small dents, but I do love her so. She carries the exact distance with the same trajectory as our first season together, I swear. Sweet, sweet constancy, when 3-wood is too much and 4-iron not enough, upon thee I do rely. Before you make fun of…

FUNNY HOW WORDS evolve over a lifetime. In college a “land mine” was a class that was going to detonate your GPA. When I first started caddieing, that label was reserved for players whose rounds would explode over the smallest mistake. Now, after years in this business, “land mine” means something else: anyone who could potentially blow up my career. Listen, we get fired. That’s a part of the job. Usually it’s the player’s call. However, as the inner circles of players continue to grow and evolve, there are more voices in all decisions, including who will be on the bag. So who do we have to worry about? Not to sound paranoid but darn near everybody. Let’s start with the agent because he’s the most misunderstood of the bunch. Sure, he…

“It took the four-month layoff for me to remember who I am as a golfer.” MY MOM RAN TRACK at Oregon, middle distance, the 400 and 800. They’re brutal races. You’re sprinting as long as humanly possible. Golf can be similar. She always said to me: “Don’t force anything early.” She doesn’t play much golf, but she gets the mentality. Playing Monday qualifiers and trying to shoot 65 every time is like running the 400; you’ve got to be a little sick to do either. I spent 17 months doing that. There were dark times. It took the four-month layoff for me to remember who I am as a golfer and how to have fun again. I grew up at Bent Tree Country Club in Texas. When I was 9, my parents…

FRANK HANNIGAN, the golf bureaucrat and jazz aficionado, liked to tell the story of Wild Bill Davison who played a wicked cornet early in his career until, abruptly and forever, he switched to the trumpet. “Why?” he was asked. Davison said the night he heard Bix Beiderbecke play the cornet he knew “there was nothing left to say on the cornet.” Good thing I never used the same logic with golf. We all would have given up the game after watching Trevino check up a wedge or Crenshaw brushstroke a putter or Tiger sting a driver. There might be nothing left to say with any of those clubs, but we keep trying. American golf came to a head in the Jazz Age of the 1920s, like Beiderbecke and Bobby Jones. It began…

After a year in which we were forced to make the best out of having a lot less, the golf-equipment industry has a message for you about 2021: More is finally here. Exhibit 1A is this year’s Hot List. Our 18th ranking of the game’s most intriguing clubs produced the most winning entries in our history, an inspiring sign that there is more game-changing gear out there than before. On the next few pages, you’ll find our roster of all 137 winners in 10 categories, followed by a look at the 14 top drivers. It’s a taste of the deep dive you’ll get in our first exclusive Hot List issue (details at right). The annual equipment review inspires your search for a better game. There might not be one driver,…

DRIVERS CALLAWAY Epic Max/Max LS/Speed COBRA Radspeed/XB/XD MIZUNO ST-Z/ST-X PING G425 Max/LST/SFT PXG 0811 X Proto/0811 X+ Proto SRIXON ZX7/ZX5 TAYLORMADE SIM2/Max/Max•D TITLEIST TSi2/TSi3 CALLAWAY Big Bertha B21 CLEVELAND Launcher HB Turbo/Draw HONMA T//World GS PXG 0211 TOUR EDGE Exotics C721 WILSON D9 FAIRWAY WOODS CALLAWAY Big Bertha B21 CALLAWAY Epic Max/Epic Speed COBRA Radspeed/Tour/Big Tour/Draw PING G425 Max/LST/SFT PXG 0211 PXG 0341 X Proto SRIXON ZX TAYLORMADE SIM2 Max/Max•D TAYLORMADE SIM2 Titanium TITLEIST TSi2/TSi3 CLEVELAND Launcher HB Turbo HONMA T//World GS MIZUNO ST-Z TOUR EDGE Exotics C721 HYBRIDS CALLAWAY Apex/Apex Pro COBRA Radspeed/One Length MIZUNO CLK PING G425 PXG 0317 X Proto SRIXON ZX TAYLORMADE SIM2 Rescue/Max Rescue TOUR EDGE Exotics C721 CALLAWAY Big Bertha B21 HONMA TR21 PXG 0211 TOUR EDGE Hot Launch C521/E521 WILSON D9 PLAYERS IRONS CALLAWAY Apex Pro (2021) CALLAWAY X Forged CB COBRA King Tour MIZUNO JPX921 Tour MIZUNO MP-20 MMC PING i210 PXG 0311 T GEN3 SRIXON ZX7 TAYLORMADE P•7MC TITLEIST CNCPT CP-02 TITLEIST T100 MIURA TC-201 TITLEIST 620 CB WILSON Staff Model CB PLAYERS-DISTANCE IRONS CALLAWAY Apex (2021) COBRA King Forged TEC HONMA TR21X MIZUNO JPX921 Forged MIZUNO JPX921 Hot Metal Pro PING i500 PXG 0311 P GEN3 SRIXON ZX5 TAYLORMADE P•770 TAYLORMADE P•790 TITLEIST T200 MIZUNO MP-20 HMB TITLEIST CNCPT CP-03 GAME-IMPROVEMENT IRONS CALLAWAY Apex DCB COBRA Radspeed MIZUNO JPX921 Hot Metal PING G425 PING G710 PXG 0211 (2021) PXG 0311 XP GEN3 SRIXON ZX4 TAYLORMADE SIM2 Max TITLEIST CNCPT CP-04 TITLEIST T300 HONMA T//World GS TOUR EDGE Hot Launch C521 WILSON D9 SUPER-GAME-MPROVEMENT IRONS CALLAWAY Big Bertha B21 CLEVELAND Launcher HB Turbo COBRA F-Max Airspeed COBRA T-Rail TAYLORMADE SIM2 Max OS TITLEIST T400 TOUR EDGE Hot Launch E521 WILSON Launch Pad XXIO Eleven XXIO Prime YONEX Ezone Elite 3 WEDGES CALLAWAY Jaws MD5 CLEVELAND CBX2/CBX Full Face CLEVELAND RTX ZipCore COBRA King COBRA SB MIZUNO T20 PING Glide 3.0 TAYLORMADE Milled Grind 2/Hi-Toe TITLEIST Vokey Design SM8 CALLAWAY Mack Daddy CB PXG Sugar Daddy 0311 WILSON Staff Model MALLET PUTTERS BETTINARDI Inovai 7.0 BETTINARDI Queen B (2021) CLEVELAND Frontline EDEL EAS EVEROLL ER Series/V-Series ODYSSEY Ten/2-Ball Ten ODYSSEY White Hot OG PING 2021 Putters PING Heppler PXG Battle Ready TAYLORMADE Spider S/SR TAYLORMADE Spider X/EX TITLEIST Scotty Cameron Phantom X TITLEIST Scotty Cameron Special…