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Golf Digest's Hot List


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I love the categories they use to rank/value the clubs: Buzz Factor, technology/innovation, personal preference ...

 

Does the Buzz Factor make me hit the ball better?

 

And isn't Personal Preference a personal thing so how does that work in a ranking?

 

Why don't they add more categories such as: color, name, headcover ...

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I love the categories they use to rank/value the clubs: Buzz Factor, technology/innovation, personal preference ...

 

Does the Buzz Factor make me hit the ball better?

 

And isn't Personal Preference a personal thing so how does that work in a ranking?

 

Why don't they add more categories such as: color, name, headcover ...

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Maybe Im behind in the info department, but did anyone else notice that under the Hybrid category there is a Callaway Fusion FT Hybrid listed?

 

I thought there wasnt going to be a new hybrid?

 

The Bridgestone J33 CB's made the list as well (might be my next set of irons). List price of $800, which is where I figured they'd be.

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I totally agree!! When looking at the hot list I only look at the performance, playability and personal preference categories, all others are BS. Buzz factor?? How about BS Factor? Oh wait this club is the editors choice becuase their sales are up in high handicappers thinking this is the cure they have been waiting for!! - Editor's choice!!

 

as a side ntoe, i do think the 3 categories mentioned are useful and so I ONLY buy those clubs becuase I am looking for the cure too.

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Yeah, I think the ratings are a little wacky. They can have their "judges" make their own hot list... But isn't this a democracy? When do we get involved and vote for what we think are the best clubs? Just a suggestion. I sent them a long letter about that last year, and it looks like they didn't listen...

 

Either way, performance is what I look at.

 

I read the review on the Halo. The guy said the scooped out crown distracted him at address. Ooookaaaay.... and the Sasquatch's serving plate size head wasn't distracting? Let's rethink this...

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i didn't like how they had all the new stuff from Callaway and Taylormade, but theydidn't give any love to the 905tsr which I was really hoping they would because I want an honest opinion of th 905r, even though this is probably the best place to get a honest opinion. Also, no love for bridgestone woods/hybrids? They say these are the best but I guess they didn't pay golf digest enough money.

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Got my mag today, so I'm reading it more in depth than I did online. About the money thing, I think Taylor Made pays them the most. If you look on the last page of the drivers, you'll see a alittle blip titled "Still The Champ" Sounds like they were paid to write what they wrote about TM. It's making me madd. And there is no love for Titleist in the driver category, NONE! What the heck? Even I think their clubs are good. And, I've come to a conclusion that GD hates cleveland woods. It's always TM and Nike. Arrrg! This is making me mad!

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As far as the drivers and fairways are concerned I will never remotely believe the rankings until Headcovers are added. They are certainly as important as buzzzzzz. Always humorous to read but can honestly say I have never been influenced to try anything by these ratings. Quite the opposite, I have avoided some things that were recommended due to the silly way things are evaluated. For example I have tested and owned everything they have listed and more and the Sasquatch isn't even in the top 5 (including the Tour) for me. Obviously the scientists involved had no input as to how the evaluations were conducted. I notice the liquid metal guy was there---that will get me to try/buy something. Maybe I can bounce a ball bearing off my club face longer than others---that helps. My purchases come on one basis and one basis only MY TESTING, not some article, advertising, excitement on a forum. The bottom line is what works for me not what worked for Joe Blow or who was influenced by buzzzzz.

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Don't know how much cred the "hot list" had in the first place, but it seems to me that they kind of took a "we're just going to say something nice about every club" approach this year... can't risk ticking off potential advertisers I guess.

 

Last year they actually assigned a point ranking to each club, and they didn't even go so far as to do that this year.

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I have to agree, I've tried alot of the clubs they give high ratings to and wasn't all that impressed.

 

Perfect example is the Slingshot OSS, they're certainly not as good as the Hot List says, they're alright, but if you're looking for gave improvement I wouldn't recomend these, they look like a Black and Decker iron on a shaft :birthday:

 

And the SQ is a great driver, but far from the best, even based on price/performance (I'd give that to Ping's G5 or Cleveland's Launcher 460)

 

None the less, I think the Hotlist has very little or any credibility anymore.

 

They should make it based on votes from readers and players, not those hacks they use to test them

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Could not agree with you guys more ! Golf digest should give information on the new equipment because we are all interested and enjoy seeing the new pictures. However, the biased comments coming from 20 handicappers with over-the-top swings is getting a little out of hand. There are to many types of golfers with to many skill levels to recommend one club for everybody. Keep the reports informative and stay away from the opinions !!!

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I guess I don't have a problem with the little hotlist they have every month that says what is hot selling, but as a "club test" this was far from it.

This was just a little marketing game and nothing more.

 

It would be nice to see someone really do a big genuine club test. Have some human golfers as well as some robot testing to give some honest feedback. No buzz factor score (or even headcovers!) just facts (distance, speed, trajectory etc) Each person swings differently but it would at least be a good compairsion of the clubs instead of the warm fuzzies Golf Digest gave eveyone.

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ANYONE who takes ANYTHING written about equipment in Golf Digest at all seriously is asking for trouble. If you don't think they bias their opinions toward: a) OEM's who do the most advertising and/or: b) players who are somehow affiliated with the magazine, you are extremely naive. They're "ho's" in the same way players who change equipment at the first sign of a bigger contract are "ho's". It's all about the money. :birthday:

 

I subscribed for over 20 years but I had to cancel when they started showing some Republican favoritism with their "Buddies" issues. Besides, how many times can Jim Flick try to fix your slice? I'll never understand why the USGA stopped Golf Journal. It was the only golf magazine (other than Golf World) worth reading.

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It would be nice to see someone really do a big genuine club test. Have some human golfers as well as some robot testing to give some honest feedback. No buzz factor score (or even headcovers!) just facts (distance, speed, trajectory etc) Each person swings differently but it would at least be a good compairsion of the clubs instead of the warm fuzzies Golf Digest gave eveyone.

 

That's what I was thinking. They should show the shot patterns for each club, with color coded ball flight lines to show what the different handicaps did with the club. Then, list the spin rates, distance, and ball speed. It make take up alot of room in the magazine, and it may take more time, but it would show what people with my handicap were doing on average. Problem is, I'm looking for honest review, aka, tell me what the ball did. Did it hook left, banana ball right, or fly straight? Thats what I wanna see. But, time is money, and GD clearly wants money over making an honest review. BUT... One thing to remember is that they really can't bash companies too much, otherwise they won't get advertising slots filled by the biggest advertisers. Notice, month to month, the biggest advertisers are TM, Callaway, and Nike, with mulitple ads every issue(this is where your post comes in Johnny). So, since GD makes most of their money off the advertisements, they don't wanna make OEMs angry at them.

 

It makes sense, but I REALLY don't like it. :birthday:

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"Check out the hdcps of the evaluators..Hogwash"

 

I was able to find four of the panelists on GHIN.com

 

Burke: reported in Hotlist as +1, USGA index: +1.1

Fairlie: reported as +2, USGA index: +1.8

Bouffard: reported: 12, USGA index: 10.5

Gally: reported: 18, USGA index: 20.2

 

The others I could not locate. I believe this is the first time they included higher handicap panelists. I'm thinking the idea would be to receive feedback from players who better represent the golfer the club is designed for.

 

I would agree that I would like to see the Buzz Factor removed, but otherwise I disagree that the feature is worthless. There's a lot of clubs by big advertisers that get left off the list. Does anybody have any real disagreements with certain clubs being recommended? Just curious.

 

Unfortunately, I for one, can only dream of buying a new set of clubs. I have to file the article, and pull it out a couple of years later to try to buy closeouts or slightly-used.

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Noticed on GolfDigest.com that the Hot List equipment editor is doing a Live Chat at 4pm EST today; might be a good place to ask him your questions about what the heck Buzz Factor is, and exactly how personal the Personal Preferences is. You can find the link to the chat on the home page under the What to Play section. Hope that helps--

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They may have given the Sasquatch extra points due to Tiger's affiliation with Nike and their magazine, but I don't think so. Last I saw he was still using his Ignite.

 

Still I thought the list was a good reference point, although I do agree their catagories are a bit fubar.

 

Either way I love the game. I love watching it and reading about all aspects of it. So biased or not (and I don't think they are too biased if at all) and relevant to me or not I still get enough information and entertainment value out of the magazine.

 

Also, I think most of you are pretty hard core golfers and are most likely better than a lot of their high-handicap golfers, so it is natural for their opinions to mean less to you.

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In my experience, you can take forty guys, give them a dozen or so different drivers with various shafts and get a wide range of opinions about what is the "best". What it really all comes down to is fitting. If the club isn't a good match for a player's swing style, the person without much insight will declare the club to be a worthless piece of junk with the added obligatory "the stock shaft is a POS" comment. The "clubsmart" players will figure out how to hit the thing, be well aware of the swing type it was designed for and recommend it for people they think it will fit.

 

The people who design and build these clubs are not stupid. They build clubs that work. If the magazine articles trashed a club there would be an endless stream of posts on forums about how they got it wrong because the Long Tom Turkey Shoot Driver from PowerMedalist is the greatest club in history and barely legal.

 

Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

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