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Titleist Vokey ‘09 Spin-Milled Wedges

Heather Flyte — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:51:51 +0000

Vokey’s 2009 wedges are putting a new spin on the short game.

If you were watching last year’s Children’s Miracle Network Classic, then you probably already know all about Titleist’s Vokey ’09 Spin-Milled Wedges. Pros frequently lavish praise on their sponsors in post-tournament interviews, but rarely do they go to the lengths winner Davis Love III did to praise his new Vokey wedges. Of course, if you had just gone up-and-down on 17 and 18 to win $828,000, you’d probably be pretty happy, too. Now, Vokey hardly needs Love’s endorsement — with 16 majors to their credit, they’re already among the most popular among pros and amateurs alike. What sets them apart from your “standard” wedge — besides their 17 different loft/bounce options and three different finishes (chrome, oil can and black nickel) are special spin-milled grooves that employ the precise blade of a small circular saw to cut high-volume grooves that grip the ball on the downswing to help maintain spin on shots from the rough, when it’s tougher to drive those grooves straight down into the ball. Indeed, the Vokey’s grooves provide so much of an advantage, Love III is going to have to give his up in 2010 when new USGA legislation kicks in. Fortunately, the same won’t be true for amateurs, who can keep on spinning their approach shots right up next to the pin for years to come.

Cleveland CG14 CAMO Wedges

Heather Flyte — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:50:16 +0000

The first thing your buddies will notice about Cleveland’s new CAMO wedges is the finish — with its camouflage patterning, it’s a far cry from the chrome- and nickel-backed wedges they’ll be pulling out of their bags, and sends an immediate message that you’re not one to be messed around with. The second thing they’ll notice, however, is the way your ball explodes out of the lie, arcs gracefully through the air and lands softly on the green. That’s because Cleveland’s CAMOs, an offshoot of its popular CG12 brand of wedges, boast Cleveland’s patented “dynamic sole design” (DSG). At its most simplified, it basically just means that Cleveland designers have varied the thickness across different parts of the sole, allowing the club to provide both a high bounce angle and high backspin — the essential elements of a good wedge. It’s a particularly strong pick out of the sand, with a narrow leading edge of the sole that reduces the contact between sole and ball when the face is open, allowing the grooves to work their lift and backspin magic. Come to think of it, pulling out your CAMO in a sandtrap is a bit like riding an M-1A Abrams tank into the desert … you know you’re the best-equipped dog in the fight, and your adversary — be it an enemy militia or that nerve-wrackingly small landing area next to the pin — doesn’t stand a chance.

Cleveland Niblick Short Iron Hybrid

Heather Flyte — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:47:55 +0000

There’s few things on the golf course more frustrating than wasting two or three shots trying to blast out of a bunker or deep rough, or watching your 25-yard pitch fall five yards shy of the green. Cleveland’s Niblick is designed to be the club that will finally bring an end to that self-defeating feeling, by combining the face angle and loft of a short iron (the Niblick comes in both 37- and 42-degree lofts) with a modified hybrid clubhead. The short-iron face provides the loft you need to clear any obstacle and land gently on the green, while the second level of the sole allows for the weight to distribute more easily across the clubface, and increases the power of your swing at impact — meaning you won’t have to watch the ball roll back down into the bunker ever again. The Niblick’s square grooves — an increasingly common feature of irons and wedges — increase the grip at impact and thus significantly add to the backspin, allowing the ball to settle perfectly onto the green each time. Best of all, depending on the loft you use, the Niblick could replace as many as two clubs in your bag — either a nine-iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge or chipper — leaving you room to finally add that 7-wood or a hybrid that you’ve had your eye on.

Boccieri Heavy Putter Mid-Weight Putter

Heather Flyte — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:40:12 +0000

(Top to bottom) L3 Black, J2 Stainless, K4 Black

In the world of golf products, drivers are the celebrities. Every year, the most anticipated new releases are the hot new drivers, followed by irons and hybrids, then wedges and — finally — putters. Of course, we all know that shouldn’t be the case — on average, you’ll take more strokes per round with your putter than any other single club, so logic would dictate that while it may not be the sexiest club in your bag, it’s almost certainly the most important. Fortunately, designers at Boccieri Golf, makers of the Heavy Putter line of putters, approach the “money stick” with the proper amount of gravitas. Their latest release is the Heavy Putter Mid-Weight putter, which uses a heavier-mass head and a counterweight at the grip end of the shaft to relax the influence of the hands and induce a smoother, pendulum-like stroke. Heavy Putters have already accounted for wins on nearly every major Tour, including Troy Mattseon’s victory at the 2006 Frys.com Open. Available in five different models — including the classic blade design of the CX2, as well as mallet, toe-droop and flanged designs — there’s a Heavy Putter to match just about any golfer’s personal preferences regarding look and feel. Just make sure you try one out first to find the perfect match for you — after all, you’re going to be pulling it out of your bag more than any other club on your next round. Of course, with as true as the ball rolls of its face, you’ll be putting it right back in not long after.

Cobra L5V

Heather Flyte — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:38:12 +0000

If you’ve ever tuned in to watch the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships, you may have noticed that those muscle-bound competitors reach into their bag for the stick they plan to win a cool $1 million with, it’s almost always a Cobra. From the original King Cobra to the all-new L5V, Cobra has committed its product designers almost exclusively to blasting your golf ball as far from the tee as possible. This year’s brand-new offering, the L5V, is making inroads with the PGA Tour set as well — indeed, it was seen sticking out of Geoff Ogilvy’s bag during his winning week at the Australian PGA, and was used by Camilo Villegas in wins at the BMW and Tour Championship. Unlike its predecessors, the Cobra L5V’s “adjustable flight technology” melds all of the latest MOI and interchangeable- and adjustable-shaft features. The L5V includes two adjustable settings in the head and two more in the hosel, one for “standard” flight and one for “draw-biased” flight. We recommend the Diamana red shaft — nothing says intimidation on the tee like a violent flash of red as you let it fly.

Nike DYMO2 STR8-FIT

Heather Flyte — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:35:00 +0000

Lots of new clubs can claim wins on Tour, but how many can claim a green jacket? Nike’s new STR8-FIT can. It turns out that while the STR8-FIT drivers won’t be available in stores until Apr. 1, Nike’s been field-testing the clubs with its Tour pros for the last year, resulting in four wins — two by Anthony Kim, one by K.J. Choi and one by Trevor Immelman at a little Southern tourney called the Masters. With the STR8-FIT, which comes in both standard (DYMO) and square (DYMO2) designs, Nike has created one of the most customizable clubs on the market, including eight different settings resulting in as much as 45 yards of side-to-side bias (Immelman chose the 1-degree closed-face setting, hitting 48 of Augusta’s 56 fairways). Unlike on the TaylorMade r9, where the clubhead is removed from the shaft to change face angles, the STR8-FIT instead rotates the clubhead while still on the shaft, with a sound and light to indicate that the head is in proper position. If it sounds pretty cool … it is. The best news is, it’s not going to take a green jacket to convince you that you’ve received your money’s worth — that first long, straight drive down the middle will do the trick.

TaylorMade r9

Heather Flyte — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:31:59 +0000

By reinserting the shaft at any of eight different positions, golfers can adjust the face-, loft- and lie-angles of the r9.

Pat Perez has certainly always been a good golfer — two second-place finishes on Tour and a top-100 World Golf Ranking will certainly pad the pocketbook. But when Perez fired rounds of 61, 63, 67, 67 and 69 to win January’s Bob Hope Classic — including a PGA Tour-record 36-hole score of 20-under-par — more than one person said, “Where did that come from?” Turns out that Perez had a trick up his sleeve — or rather, in his bag. Perez was one of the first pros — including Sergio Garcia, who placed seventh the same week at the Dubai Masters — to play the TaylorMade r9 driver, a club so new it won’t even be in stores until April. So what’s so great about the r9 that it’s quickly becoming the most popular driver on Tour? Using a small wrench included with the club, the shaft of the r9 can be removed and reinserted in any of eight different positions, allowing golfers to change the face angle, loft and lie angle of the clubs — what TaylorMade markets as “face control technology.” The same wrench can also be used to adjust weights in the head and to change shafts as desired. While it probably won’t mean to you what the Bob Hope’s $918,000 winner’s share meant to Perez, being able to customize a driver to your precise swing is a benefit you simply can’t put a price on.

Cleveland HiBORE XLi Irons

Heather Flyte — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:11:10 +0000

Cleveland HiBORE XLi Irons

Where designers at Cleveland went traditional with the Launcher, they’ve completely thrown tradition out the window with the HiBORE XLi irons. Truthfully, if you find yourself in the Cleveland booth at the PGA Show next year, you may have a hard time believing the two clubs came out of the same design shop — of course, while the appearances may differ, the shift towards increased control and playability, higher MOI and faster ball speeds make the Launcher and XLi lines more like fraternal twins than distant cousins. Designed specifically for the higher handicapper, the HiBORE XLi is without a doubt Cleveland’s most forgiving iron line — hybrid or otherwise — to date. Certainly, when holding one the differences between the XLi and other hybrid offerings are immediately noticeable — the XLi’s hollow construction and thinner face make the club among the lightest we’ve swung, while helping shift the center of gravity six times deeper than a traditional iron to create a larger sweet spot and help snap the club through the target zone with greater consistency. In addition, the XLi’s progressive offset maximizes the distance and launch angle for every iron in the set, allowing the high handicapper to benefit from the power and accuracy advantages of hybrid clubs while not sacrificing the creativity or versatility allowed by more traditional irons. Already having generated its fair share of buzz after its late fall release, we’re certain the XLi will be on every critic’s list — and in many of their bags — come 2009.

Cleveland Launcher

Heather Flyte — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:08:52 +0000

Cleveland Launcher

If you’re a traditional golfer — the kind who prefers the classic look of the rounded clubhead — you’ll appreciate the latest release in Cleveland’s successful Launcher series. Most notable in this year’s Launcher is the increased size of the clubface — a full 21 percent larger than the original Launcher 460. That extra surface area allows for greater forgiveness on mis-hits, while a slimmer crown and perimeter weighting on the sole mitigates the additional weight factor and lowers the center of gravity for a lower launch trajectory and greater distance. Cleveland has also applied the same technology to its Launcher fairway woods and hybrids, creating a whole line of high-MOI clubs that are a worthy addition to the company’s respected brand. From a purely technological standpoint, the basic updates to the Launcher series mirror those in the other clubs we’ve seen for ’09 — moving the center of gravity down and back, redistributing weight on the face to increase forgiveness, etc. But while many manufacturers have shifted towards more unconventional head shapes, designers at Cleveland have preserved the classic look, and maintained a lower price point that appeals to the budget-conscious golfer. Really, it comes down to personal preference — the new Launcher may not have the same impact on your buddies as the square-shaped drivers when the headcover comes off, but they’ll be oohing and aahing plenty as your ball sails down the fairway.

Callaway FT-iQ

Heather Flyte — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:05:55 +0000

Callaway FT-iQ

If the PING Rapture V2 is a rocket, Callaway’s FT-iQ is a finely tuned sports car – which, in at least one small part, it is. According to Callaway designers, the back side of the FT-iQ was designed to mimic the tail end of a Lamborghini Reventon (see cover). The FT-iQ may not blow your hair back in the same way accelerating down the freeway at 90 miles per hour would, but the speed and power generated by the sleek design will certainly inspire you to go full-throttle on the tee. For all of its exterior appeal, however, the club’s best qualities remain hidden to the naked eye. A titanium face shields an X-shaped pattern that redsistributes weight to the center of the face, while a similar weight redistribution to the back and bottom of the clubhead helps generate less backspin and longer, straighter drives. The FT-iQ is also fully compatible with Callaway’s iMix technology, allowing golfers to quickly and easily switch out shafts to compensate for weather, course conditions or swing speed. Come to think of it, it’s a bit like modifying the engine of your Lamborghini … only, this one doesn’t require refueling, and there’s no such thing as a speed limit on the tee box.