Q: What are the three most important things in your golf bag?
Other than clubs and balls …
- Rain gear – I have a Kjus rain jacket and pants and they’re worth every penny. I played in constant rain last weekend. Everything underneath stayed dry. The guys I was playing with spent less on their rainwear and all they got for their savings was wet.
I also have a 35-year-old Outdoor Research Seattle Sombrero that’s still the best rain hat I’ve ever used. - A small first aid kit – A simple kit with Band-Aids, blister bandages, Advil and tweezers that I’ve had to use more than once. What can I say? I spend a lot of time in waste areas and woods.
- Ball Marker – It used to be my Bad Mother F*cker ball marker from Seamus. I lost it and now I’m sad.
Q: Do you think golf ball quality has improved since you started testing?
I think there have been improvements in some places. Callaway has certainly invested in getting better (though I think they planned to, regardless). TaylorMade bought a factory and Titleist just keeps being Titleist.
COVID’s inventory demands put a strain on a lot of factories so, in some cases, we’ve seen a dip.
We’ve also seen overseas factories taking measures to obfuscate a bit of what they’re doing. For example, some factories change core colors for different brands even though the balls are the same.
We’ve also seen less specificity in cargo/shipping information as some brands try to hide where their product is being sourced.
Q: PING G430 Irons- Power Spec, what are your thoughts? – markogorzlak
In general, I like the G430 irons and I’m certainly interested to see how they perform in our Most Wanted testing.
It may sound odd but I think the PURFLEX cavity badge in the G430 irons is one of the best tech stories of the year. It’s easily overlooked but we haven’t seen anything like it before.
As far as Power Spec (stronger lofts) goes, it’s great so long as you’re getting playable spin rates, descent angles … that sort of thing.
Q: How many times can I hit a Pro V1 at 185 mph before the core goes bad and starts losing distance? – KopDreamer
It’s not something I’d worry about. Long before that happens, you’ll either lose it, damage the cover or crack the ball (especially if you’re hitting into a screen).
Q: If Titleist died tomorrow, what golf ball would you play going forward? -DrHighGround
Well, that’s a morbid thought.
Anyway, I’d like to defer this answer until early next year. The answer is either Callaway, TaylorMade or Bridgestone.
All three have new Tour-level balls coming next year and, while I’ve had issues at one time or another with all three, I think I could find a way to be happy with something in the mix.
Q: Are Wilson putters and balls good enough? – MWFarizK
For sure.
It seems like every year we have at least one Wilson putter that finishes high in the rankings and warrants our Best Value award.
As far as the balls go, I’d stay away from the ionomer stuff (I’d say the same about everybody) but their Foremost-made urethane product has performed well both on the robot and in our Ball Lab.
From a fitting perspective, the Staff Model and the Triad aren’t for everyone but the quality is among the best.
Q: With Adams making its comeback, what other defunct golf company would you like to see rise from the ashes? -crimsoncowboy31
I gave this some thought and what I came up with was nobody.
Enough of this nostalgia crap. Let sleeping dogs lie and whatnot.
I understand the allure of reviving old brands—we’ve seen quite a bit of it in the last decade: Hogan, Hogan again, MacGregor, Lynx and now Adams (although, technically, Adams never went away).
I hope something comes of Adams but, at some point, we also have to acknowledge that the heritage of these brands, the reason why we loved them once upon a time, is gone.
In most cases, nobody associated with the original brand is still around. All that’s left are logos and a story about how things used to be.
There’s no real point in that.
Q: Who’s the worst for giving high speed players a raw deal on shaft upcharge pricing? -drewboy31
I don’t know why this question fascinated me but it did. So I did some digging. I looked at upgrade pricing for the top five driver brands (Callaway, COBRA, PING, TaylorMade, Titleist). I grabbed prices from the company websites as well as PGA TOUR Superstore (because PING doesn’t sell DTC).
As you can imagine, there’s not a ton of overlap in upgrade offerings so I focused on a couple of popular lines that everyone offers: Fujikura’s Ventus (VeloCore) and Graphite Designs’ Tour AD series.
With the caveat that some retailers and custom fitters may sell upgrades for less (or more) and that other upgrades might offer better (or worse) value, here’s what I came up with.
PING is the worst.
At PGA TOUR Superstore, both the Ventus and Tour AD lines carry a $355 upcharge. For a bit of context, MSRP on Ventus is $350. I’m hoping that’s a $5 typo.
Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist are marginally better. The first two charge $350 for the Ventus upgrade while Titleist charges $345.
Tour AD pricing is $250 through Callaway and TaylorMade. Titleist sells many Graphite Design offerings for a $200 upcharge under its premium featured shafts program.
Frankly, charging full MSRP for Ventus (or any other upgrade) is mind-boggling. To me, it suggests that the stock shafts are worthless. Seriously, they have no value. Electing not to buy the stock shafts gives you a $0 credit toward the shaft you actually want.
That’s lame.
You’d be better off sourcing a Ventus elsewhere and trying to offload the stock shaft for $50 on eBay.
Hey, manufacturers. Is that really what you want?
Of the top five driver brands, COBRA has the most consumer-friendly upgrade pricing. No doubt, some of that has to do with its relative size which, to an extent, mandates that it has to bundle performance with some measure of value.
Through COBRA’s custom program, a Ventus upgrade is only $250. The same is true for the Graphite Design stuff.
Let’s look at the big picture.
Pricing out the cost of what I’m most likely to play in each of those manufacturers’ lineups along with a Ventus Black upgrade shakes out like this:
- TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus: $979.99
- Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond: $949.99
- Titleist TSR3: $944
- PING G430 LST: $934.99
- COBRA Aerojet LS: $799
Worth a mention: Either of TaylorMade’s other two Stealth 2 drivers will save you $30. The same is true for the PING lineup. That said, my conclusion here is that COBRA offers a ridiculous amount of value (on a relative basis), especially for golfers who want/need a premium shaft in their driver.
And not for nothing, I’m still in the process of testing drivers to figure out which one is going in my bag this year. All of the above will get a look but the leader in the clubhouse right now is the AEROJET LS.
Bang for the buck, it’s the no-brainer in this conversation.
Edward Wainwright
3 years ago
I am very frustrated in my search for a new driver. I have tried several of the most popular brands all of which are supposed to provide increased distance all have promised increased distance from every model year since I bought my 20 year old titliest yet the results are always less distance with the new models?