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Twelve months ago, you could buy your driver in any colour of your choice – so long as you chose black.
That all changed in 2011.
2011 was the year when whites invaded the greens. The year when white became the new black. The year a white dude displaced the black one atop the world rankings. 2011 was the year when the colour white got cool.
The white-headed R11 driver, along with its little sibling fairway woods and hybrids, absolutely took the golfing world by storm when it was first launched in January. It caught TaylorMade a little by surprise and they were unable to keep up with the initial demand. Fast forward 12 months and the R11 driver has become the must-have accessory on the golf course. What a difference a year makes.
Will the white trend continue in 2012? Absolutely. You’re going to see the contagion of white-headed drivers, woods and hybrids spread unchecked in much the same way that white belts very quickly slithered its way around the waistlines of every golfer young and old. Not forgetting white putters too.
PING G20 DRIVERPing, a company that has always charted its own path when it comes to innovation, has just come out with a new driver called the G20. Now how on earth could they possibly improve on the marvelous G15 driver, you may ask. But they have. The new G20 driver has more roll and carry than its predecessor and this is achieved by the thinnest of faces and by pushing Centre of Gravity (CG) lower and further back than ever before. The G20’s head is 7g heavier than the G15’s, which translates to bigger hits and longer drives. How did Ping do this without creating a heavier club overall (which would have resulted in lesser club head speeds)? By shifting the mass from the shaft to the head, that’s how. Ingenious. And yes, I’ve played the G20 driver and it is quite effortless. And long. Good golfers will love the way the club head sits neutrally at address. Little wonder then that Bubba Watson, Miguel Angel Jimenez and
Angel Cabrera haven’t wasted any time sticking the G20 driver in their bags.
PING G20 DRIVERPing, a company that has always charted its own path when it comes to innovation, has just come out with a new driver called the G20. Now how on earth could they possibly improve on the marvelous G15 driver, you may ask. But they have. The new G20 driver has more roll and carry than its predecessor and this is achieved by the thinnest of faces and by pushing Centre of Gravity (CG) lower and further back than ever before. The G20’s head is 7g heavier than the G15’s, which translates to bigger hits and longer drives. How did Ping do this without creating a heavier club overall
(which would have resulted in lesser club head speeds)? By shifting the mass from the shaft to the head, that’s how. Ingenious. And yes, I’ve played the G20 driver and it is quite effortless. And long. Good golfers will love the way the club head sits neutrally at address. Little wonder then that Bubba Watson, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Angel Cabrera haven’t wasted any time sticking the G20 driver in their bags.
PING G20 HYBRIDIf you’re one of those that find even hybrids challenging to play with, have a go with Ping’s new G20 hybrids which apparently have received a lot of development. The G20 hybrids have a more compact head (shorter from heel to toe) which makes the sweet spot a lot simpler to find and their generous bounce and sole camber make them ridiculously easy to hit from any lie.
Shaving weight from the rest of the club and relocating it in the driver head isn’t the sole preserve of Ping. Cleveland has done something not dissimilar with its upcoming CG Black driver. Designed for players with swing speeds less than 100mph, the CG Black driver has a weight screw in
the sole plate which produces higher and more draw-biased drives. The anorexic overall club weight of 265g is achieved by the use of an ultra light Miyazaki C. Kua Gold shaft and a half-weight Golf Pride grip. The driver is being sold with the tagline ‘Outdrive Your Son’, so no prizes for guessing the demographic it’s targeted at.
Adams, the brand that Tom Watson and Yani Tseng endorse, was the first company to produce a hybrid iron set as you may recall. They have now come out with the Idea a12 OS Hybrid irons, which they say are the best performing and easiest-to-hit hybrid iron set ever. These irons are built with ultra thin faces, perimeter weighting and low CGs throughout the set. The Idea a12 OS hybrid utilises Velocity Slot Technology to produce a spring-like effect across the entire face, which improves forgiveness and increases launch angle without increasing spin; this combined with the ultra thin face produces higher ball speeds, increasing distance. Now all that remains is for someone to buy a set and let me know if they are any good.
Srixon’s XXIO driver is a product that fascinates me. If you walk into any proshop and ask the pro for the longest hitting driver on the rack, he will invariably point to the XXIO. I’ve never actually put this to the test but what I do know is that these drivers are extremely popular among Asians, no more so than in Japan where the XXIO series has been the top seller every year since its debut in 2000. SRI Sports, as they are known there, has now released a seventh generation XXIO driver, woods and irons. The new XXIO driver has the heavier club head and lighter shaft combo which seems to be a popular design trend among club makers at present. SRI Sports say this is their longest and most forgiving XXIO driver yet.
Suzann Pettersen holed out so well on the last day of the Solheim Cup with a Nike Method Core Drone putter that it’s worth a mention. The Drone’s radical shape is meant to prevent club twisting on off-centre hits. The red aluminum face insert with its polymer grooves is interesting too – apparently they help grab the ball at impact and get it rolling forward quicker.
The putter is the one piece of golf equipment which I thought had hit a ceiling, technology-wise. But Ping has taken the science of putting a notch higher by categorising all their new putters as facebalanced, mid-hang or toe-down – intended for straight, slight arc or strong arc putting strokes respectively. Ping is effectively stating that it’s far easier to find the right putter to suit one’s putting stroke than to change one’s stroke itself. Makes sense. And how does one know what is their inherent stroke type? Simple, use Ping’s new and free iPING putting app which works on all iPhone 4s, iPod touch 4s and above – it’ll tell you everything about your stroke, including how good or bad it is. The only thing you’ll have to pay for is the clip-on cradle which attaches your smart device to the shaft of the putter. Expect the sight of putters with iPhones clipped on to become as common on practice greens as camcorders have in driving ranges.
For the Nike-philes among you, Nike has a new driver and it’s called the Nike VR Pro Limited Edition, an improvement on the present VR Pro driver. What’s so different about it? For one, it isn’t adjustable, which means it doesn’t have the STR8-FIT shaft. Secondly, with its head measuring only 430cc, it’s smaller, which apparently helps reduce spin. It has a thinner face too. Anthony Kim and Paul Casey have already stuck it in their bags.
Titleist is a brand that seems to only associate itself with really good players – like Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, Bill Haas and Ricky Fowler. And it’s hardly surprising because Titleist never fails to produce great golf clubs it seems, in particular their irons. Their AP irons have proven to be an unqualified success in the last few years both at pro and retail level.
Recently, Titleist launched a new line of AP irons called the 712 series, with the design mission of Advanced Performance with Feel’ in mind. The old AP1 and AP2 irons already performed superbly, so how could the Titleist engineers improve them any further? The key with the new 712 series is increased stability and forgiveness without compromising workability and shot control. They did this by distributing more weight to the club head perimeter to reduce twisting on off-centre hits. With a thin beveled top line and smaller blade length, the new 712 series AP irons look a lot more pleasing at address too, a lot more traditional looking.
The most expensive clubmaker in the world has come up with new fairway and utility woods called the Perfect Switch Fairway Wood and Perfect Switch Utility. These come with adjustable lofts, lies and face angles and what’s new for Honma is that all three can be adjusted independent of one another. Now if only they didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Speaking of great irons, I have to mention Mizuno’s newly launched MP series irons. I reviewed their older MP-58 irons some time back and loved the high performance that these clubs offered – straight hitting
and uncomplicated, I can see why the world’s number one Luke Donald has stuck with his Mizuno irons for years. The new irons are called MP-59 and MP-69 respectively. And yes, I have tried them both and I did like the MP-59 irons a lot, a muscle back semi-cavity type iron which felt precise yet forgiving, not at all vague. The MP-59 has a 5% larger sweet spot than its predecessor, the MP-58. Low to scratch golfers may be more inclined towards the MP-69 blade irons, which actually don’t feel like traditional blades in the sense that they’re a lot easier to play with.
Mizuno have also launched a new MP-R12 wedge in varying lofts. The wedge has grooves cut with Mizuno’s patented Quad Cut Groove
technology which enables it to impart more spin. The wedges also have different groove sizes according to the loft. I was gifted one by Mizuno distributor Royal Sporting House and I’d have to say it plays just as good as any Vokey or Cleveland wedge. Some would even say better.
Last but certainly not least is Cobra, a brand that has garnered its own faithful following, thanks to its reputation of producing easy-to-play golf clubs. I played and reviewed their new S3 driver earlier this year and really liked it – it’s long, straight and uncomplicated. And this year Cobra quite cannily began painting some of them in white too – I wonder why. They now have a new driver in the offing, it’s called the Long Tom and it’s designed to be a kick-ass distance-munching club. The Long Tom is a 48-inch ultra-light driver that is purely designed and built, in Cobra’s own words, for “jaw-dropping distance”. The driver has the highest weight to length ratio of any Cobra driver and is fitted with a special 50g Grafalloy Blackbird shaft. The Long Tom isn’t in Malaysia yet but when it arrives, I
assure you that I’ll be the first to get my hands on one of them and give you the lowdown.
Watch this space!
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