Golf Digest Hot List 2019

[3woodvt]

The Hot List strikes me as a best age of the pre-internet days. Like fantasy football draft magazine. Useless now...

^^^^^^^^^^^^ +1. You nailed it!!

[QuigleyDU]

Not defending the Hot List at all or GD but I wanted to point out that Scratch Golf made the hot list every time we submitted clubs and we never paid a cent to GD for advertising or anything else.

 

and look where it got scratch. but maybe that was more due to a deal with Ryan Moore.. I dunno. But, you guys did, and still do make great looking stuff.

[FairwayFred]

Not defending the Hot List at all or GD but I wanted to point out that Scratch Golf made the hot list every time we submitted clubs and we never paid a cent to GD for advertising or anything else.

 

and look where it got scratch. but maybe that was more due to a deal with Ryan Moore.. I dunno. But, you guys did, and still do make great looking stuff.

 

I think Scratch did pretty well. We started in a garage w a 10k investment, were around for 13+ years and had a very positive influence on the market and how companies offer customization. I am incredibly proud of what we did frankly. I promise the Hot List and Ryan Moore had nothing but positive effects on Scratch.

 

My point was only to say factually that companies do not have to pay GD for advertising or anything else to make the hot list and I know this from personal experience.

[QuigleyDU]

Not defending the Hot List at all or GD but I wanted to point out that Scratch Golf made the hot list every time we submitted clubs and we never paid a cent to GD for advertising or anything else.

 

and look where it got scratch. but maybe that was more due to a deal with Ryan Moore.. I dunno. But, you guys did, and still do make great looking stuff.

 

I think Scratch did pretty well. We started in a garage w a 10k investment, were around for 13+ years and had a very positive influence on the market and how companies offer customization. I am incredibly proud of what we did frankly. I promise the Hot List and Ryan Moore had nothing but positive effects on Scratch.

 

My point was only to say factually that companies do not have to pay GD for advertising or anything else to make the hot list and I know this from personal experience.

 

Fair enough, and i think you should be proud of all of that. for about 5-6 years WRX was all about scratch and had quite the following here.

[BlkNGld]

Same old report every year. Agree with above post

 

And same comments, too. Should just repost the thread from 2010 and save everyone the hassle.

[mds5062]

Wonder how much $$$ is exchanged to make sure they are on this list. Can't be unbiased right?

[FairwayFred]

I'm pretty sure that every company on the hot list pays Golf Digest except for the ones that don't.

[nsxguy]

Wonder how much $$$ is exchanged to make sure they are on this list. Can't be unbiased right?

 

Have you read the thread ?

 

Not defending the Hot List at all or GD but I wanted to point out that Scratch Golf made the hot list every time we submitted clubs and we never paid a cent to GD for advertising or anything else.

 

Now Scratch and Callaway aren't exactly the same but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[cjyner97]

Callaway is by far the best in my opinion rn

[scott406]

> @linkerpan said:

> The 2020 Hot List coming out soon has the Rogue Flash, the G420, the M7/M8, Cobra F10 as gold. In the silver category we have the Bstone, the Tour Edge and Mizuno.

 

Cobra F10?

When is that coming out?

I hope soon so I can get a deal on an F9

[shanx]

I think its a few factors that contribute to the list:

Market Share/Brand Awareness

Availability at "big ticket" golf retailers

Advertising support

readership demographics

 

GD can't award makes/models that are not "mainstream" or easily found at PGASS or Golf Galaxy, so lower tiered, "unknown" brands are not typically represented. They also need to cater to their readership and demographics, which I am guessing is middle aged, relatively wealthy white males, over 10 handicap. They also need to be careful with advertisers. After all of that is considered, there really aren't too many golf manufacturers remaining...

 

I have visited GDs offices, met with their staffers, saw the "bag room" that is filled with clubs that they have tested for these lists. They are legit, have a process, just kind of handcuffed with what they can publish...

 

[jdowning111]

Golf Digest provides a means of advertising for all the golf manufacturers so it’s hard to believe they could provide an unbiased review...they simply can’t

[HappyGilmore22]

The hot list is literally the most pointless thing I have ever seen in golf ratings. Absolutely worthless year in and year out. Provided nothing useful other than showing every brand's new releases which you already know. Top brand gets gold. Next tier gets silver. What is the point. At least rate the clubs on a scale 0-100 to provide people something better. Not like I care what they have anyway I'm going to buy what I want and fits me rather than some dude with half my swing speed that struggles to get the ball airborne.

[Babydaddy]

We all know that pretty much all of the manufacturers are making good stuff. It's mostly down to preference and brand loyalty. There was a time in my opinion where Ping was ahead in engineering and design to such an extent that if you weren't playing Pings as a non-professional golfer you were possibly costing yourself some strokes. But I could happily play irons from just about any company- Most drivers are pretty good too- I think part of this is shaft matching technology-

Now- as much as anything, I am looking at quality and durability when I think about buying golf equipment. To me, Srixon has excelled in terms of selection and quality. I have never heard of anyone who wasn't pleasantly surprised after playing with Srixon irons - yet they are "silver". That really is about all you need to know about the Hot List.