We have had two basic responses from testers to the physical appearance of the Alien Tutch Mallet. One is, “That’s the ugliest putter I have ever seen.” The other is, “Wow, what a cool-looking putter.” You’ll have to judge this unusual offering for yourself. One thing that everyone agrees upon is that the Tutch looks [...]
Gun Metal Competitor Irons – Golf Club Reviews
We use a number of various testers during testing sessions and on-course playing rounds. That’s the theory, at least. In the case of these Gun Metal blades, two lead testers laid claim to them after the first session. Each decided that these blades would be their new, full-time playing irons. A third tester was very [...]
Titleist Pro Titanium Drivers – Golf Club Reviews
The Pro Titanium 975J is Titleist’s answer to the jumbo, titanium drivers from Ping and Taylor Made that have become so very successful of late. Size-wise, it is substantially larger than its predecessor, the 975D, but that is not readily obvious. In the bag and at address, the handsome, pear-shaped 975J looks only moderately large [...]
Tour Edge Any Lie Hybrid – Golf Club Reviews
This Cinderella almost didn’t make it to the ball. We were so unimpressed with it during several range sessions, that we repeatedly forgot to put it any bags during playing rounds. Luckily, we finally remembered. Few, if any, clubs have ever made a more sterling on-course debut than did this Tour Edge. It knocked our [...]
Tour Edge T-Balance Putter – Golf Club Reviews
Tour Edge T-Balance putters are distinguished by a wide, T-shaped head and a patented shaft that bends 90 degrees. The standard “01″ version comes in several conventional lengths. Two longer versions – the Belly and the Long – have a heavier, wider head and go under the designation of “02″. We tested the “01″ in [...]
LMG Sports – Liquidmetal II Irons Review
The first thing that strikes the user about LMG’s Liquidmetal II Irons is their sharply distinctive good looks. These irons look good in the bag and at address. The heads have a bright, sophisticated design that comes across as both elegant and friendly at the same time. The TTR graphite shafts from Liquidmetal have a [...]
Callaway Steelhead Plus Driver – Golf Club Reviews
The Steelhead Plus is a good-looking little driver. The stainless steel head is painted a deep, deep blue. The design of the compact Steelhead Plus driver head is an extension of the fairway wood line. It features Callaway’s variable face thickness technology. There is a spring effect to the face, but less so than in [...]
Titleist Tour Distance Golf Ball Review
We never set out to intentionally review the Titleist Tour Distance. Several of our testers had played the Tour Distance and the Tour Distance SF on numerous occasions. In addition, we had frequently used both balls for comparative purposes during the reviews of other balls. One day it dawned on us: No one disliked this [...]
Ping Specify Putters – Golf Club Reviews
The Ping Specify Line of putters is built around the concept of customization. Every customer must “specify” what hosel, body, grip, weight and length he wants his putter to have. Hundreds of different combinations are possible. Ping has long been known to putter junkies as a company that provides a large number of variations for [...]
Thomas Golf SightLine Fairway Woods Review
Aside from the unique crown design, the first thing that everyone notices about the SightLine is the very distinctive sound that it makes at impact. When a ball is struck, a metallic-sounding “dink” is made. It is a substantially loud and assertive sound. Some found this to be distracting; others liked it. After testers witnessed [...]
Orlimar Hip-Ti Driver – Golf Club Reviews
The design of the hipTi Series represents quite a departure for Orlimar. The TriMetal heads of recent years were low and compact with shallow profiles. They were conservative and understated in design. The hipTi heads are large, rounded and deep-faced. They have jazzy, swooping graphics. The older TriMetals worked great, but had little pizzazz. Such [...]
Callaway HX Tour Golf Balls Review
The Callaway HX Tour Series balls are available in four forms. The basic HX is a 3-piece ball that comes in a Blue and a Red version. The HX 2-Piece is a less expensive ball that also comes in a Blue and a Red version. Appearance-wise, they are very similar balls. This review is based [...]
Nike Oz Putters – Golf Club Reviews
The Oz is one of Nike’s Blue Chip Series of putters. The blue chip referred to alludes to the milled, blue insert in the face. The Oz is a beautifully crafted product. Tom Stites, Nike’s Director of Product Creation, and his crew went well out of their way to make this flatstick an object of [...]
Taylormade 300 Series Fairway Woods
The 300 Series drivers from TaylorMade impressed the crew just as they have so many other golfers around the globe. Because of our success with the drivers, we had great expectations for the matching 300 Ti fairway woods. The TaylorMade 300 Ti’s are very attractive woods. No one has disliked them and most have agreed [...]
Jazz Golf Clubs – Driver Review
The Jazz CFO driver, like all its stable mates, is distinctive looking. In keeping with the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) theme, the color of the uniquely contoured head is a sparkling, almost iridescent gold. Matched to the burgundy and gold Grafalloy ProLite shaft, it makes an aesthetic statement that loudly declares itself. At first, most [...]
Srixon Soft Feel – Golf Ball Reviews
The Soft Feel has what Srixon calls a “Soft EGG Core” – softer than the regular EGG core. The Soft Feel is a 2-piece ball with a “highly elastic” ionomer cover and 410 dimples. We have been hitting and playing this ball a great deal of late. It is included in an upcoming comparison review [...]
Srixon Pro UR – Golf Ball Reviews
The Pro UR is designed to be a compromise ball. It is Srixon’s response to the popularity of the Titleist Pro V1. The Pro UR is a 3-piece, solid ball designed to produce good distances while maintaining a high degree of green holding ability. Between the Poly-Amide enhanced Urethane cover and the Srixon EGG core [...]
Precept U-Tri Extra Distance – Golf Ball Reviews
The U-Tri Extra Distance has built a substantial following among North American players. It has a good reputation. Golf forum regulars will be well aware that more than a few U-Tri Extra Distance devotees swear by this ball. It has a three-piece construction with a seamless Thermoplastic Urethane cover. The Extra Distance also features Precept’s [...]
Maxfli Tour Golf Balls Review
The Maxfli M3 Tour comes in two versions: the regular Tour (Red) and the Tour LT (Black). The “LT” stands for “Low Trajectory”. Maxfli developed these balls to go head to head with the Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x. They were designed to create solid distances and good shotmaking abilities without excessive spin characteristics. [...]
Bobby Grace Amazing Grace Putter Review
The Amazing Grace MOI was originally named the MOI-35, and is still referred to often as the “Moi”. The initials, M.O.I., stand for Moment of Inertia. For the layman, Moment of Inertia comes into play when the mass of a club makes contact with the ball off-center. This is particularly relevant in the case the [...]
Snake Eyes Quick Strike Hybrid Review
The Quick Strike is a “fusion” or “hybrid” wood/iron that was inspired by the successful design of the TaylorMade Rescue line. The Quick Strike has a look of its own and includes some obvious design variations from the Rescues. The head shape and design are roughly similar to those of the Rescue. The Snake Eyes [...]
Jazz Irons – Golf Club Reviews
We encountered some problems in our attempt to complete a comprehensive review of the Jazz P2W-TSi. A number of our testers were reluctant to hit this kind of iron/wood for more than a few quick shots. It is too different from anything to which they are accustomed. The image of this type of hybrid is [...]
Purespin Diamond Face Wedge – Golf Club Reviews
This diamond-coated beauty from PureSpin was a universal favorite with our testers across the board. All understood the great popularity of this new company they had seen on so many infomercials and in the hands of so many PGA Senior Tour players. Of the twenty lofted wedges reviewed this season the PureSpin was one of [...]
Golfsmith Soft Stroke Plus Putter Review
The Soft Strokes Plus line of putter heads includes four models. We have been testing the SS+1 and SS+4 versions. Both are a heel-toe weighted, 45-degree hanger in terms of balance (more or less). Each of these putters is attractive, but each has a very utilitarian look to it. In the manner of Chevy pick-up [...]
Zebra Putters – Golf Club Reviews
Distinctively striped putters from Zebra have been around for many years. They have long had a reputation for friendliness and easy alignment. Zebras putters were formerly associated with Ram Golf and were sold only as assembled OEM clubs. For the past year, however, they have been available from Golfsmith in component form. There are four [...]
Callaway Steelhead Irons – Golf Club Reviews
The Callaway X-14 Steelheads are the successors to the popular Big Bertha X-12′s. There have been some adjustments made to this newest version of the basic, oversized cavity-back design. The primary change is the relocation to the sole of a greater percentage of the head weight. This is to help in getting the ball airborne. [...]
Eidolon Wedges – Golf Club Reviews
Terry Koehler, who co-founded Eidolon Golf with partner, Ralph Thompson, was also one of the founders of Reid Lockhart Golf. At Reid Lockhart, Terry established a reputation for creating beautiful clubs that were traditional in their nature, yet modern in their playability. He is now starting over with a new venture called Eidolon Golf. For [...]
Top Flite XL Irons – Golf Club Reviews
Top Flite has been building excellent irons for quite some time. Their “Tour” irons have always had a reputation for being strong hitting, versatile irons that work well for a wide range of players. The middle-class image of the Spalding and Top Flite names have apparently always prevented the irons from being as successful as [...]
Srixon Hi-Brid Tour – Golf Ball Reviews
The Hi-Brid Tour golf ball is the Srixon’s premium offering. It is a 3-piece ball with a thin middle layer of high-tension rubber windings and a soft, elastomer cover. The Hi-Brid Tour is a performance ball, but it is not an aggressive, power ball in the vein of the Titleist Pro V1. Instead it is [...]
Srixon Golf Balls Review
Srixon is the name used by Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries (Japan’s largest ball manufacturer) for their North American golf balls. In spite of winning many PGA events including seven majors, Srixon is a brand name that is just vaguely familiar to most American golfers. Accustomed to the soaringly optimistic golf ball names such as Titleist, [...]
Cleveland Launcher Fairway Wood Review
Since we had always been quite fond of the Cleveland Quadpro fairway woods, we were surprised when they were discontinued. These woods had worked well for every tester who had ever used them. We asked a representative of Cleveland why they replaced such a nice line with one that was so dissimilar. He explained that [...]
Tommy Armour 845 Irons – Golf Club Reviews
The 845 Silver Back irons from Tommy Armour turned out to be as easy to review as any irons that have ever come through Golf Product News. A half a dozen testers tried them out, and a half a dozen testers had the exact same feedback as concerned playability. There was minor disagreement about the [...]
Cobra SS Driver – Golf Club Reviews
The head of the Cobra SS 427 driver is huge and deep-faced. Other drivers with heads in the 360 to 400cc range can seem almost compact and traditional in their appearance next to the Cobra. But while this driver does have a massive, somewhat awkward-looking head, it is far from unattractive. In fact, it looks [...]
Sonartec Fairway Woods – Golf Club Reviews
The Sonartec SS-03’s with their shiny black heads, black shafts and black grips are handsome clubs. The heads have a traditional size and shape similar to the Titleist 975F. The face is slightly larger on the SS-03, however. The swingweights are in the standard D2 to D2.5 range, but they give the impression of being [...]
Sonartec TRC Hybrid Utility Woods – Golf Club Reviews
The T.R.C. in the name of these Sonartecs stands for Twin Rail Cavity. That’s actually a misnomer. The center of the sole on the TRC’s has a raised section with a characteristic Sonartec cavity in the middle of it. The resulting center-sole is shaped liked a sideways ‘U’. Nonetheless, this sole functions as a twin-rail [...]
LMG – Liquidmetal Golf Fairway Woods Review
LMG Sports, Inc. markets a line of fairway woods that was developed by the former LiquidMetal Golf Company. The woods carry the LiquidMetal name and feature a face insert made from the ultra-hard, ultra-smooth alloy that gave that company its name. Under intense magnification, it can be seen that this alloy has a surface containing [...]
Taylormade R500 Series Driver Review
TaylorMade hit a homerun years ago with the release of their 300 Series drivers. Players of all levels responded well to them. Bravely, TaylorMade has replaced that line with the R500 Series drivers. Again, there are three models being offered, each with a larger head-size than its predecessor. New look, new shape, new shafts, new [...]
Titleist 983K Driver – Golf Club Reviews
The 983K represents a departure for Titleist in terms of their one-wood offerings. Past Titleist drivers such as the 975D and 975J have been very popular with better players, but have had only marginal success with mid- to high-handicap players. Past Titleist drivers have been solid performers that were extremely workable. They have been a [...]
Feel Wedges – Golf Club Reviews
Feel wedges have been known to club junkies for some time now. Over a hundred touring pros have played these wedges. The famous names include the likes of Lee Elder, Gibby Gilbert, Harold Henning and Walt Zembriski. The owner/designer of Feel Golf is Lee Miller, a PGA pro and expert clubmaker who used to work [...]
Otey Crisman Lob Wedge – Golf Club Reviews
Five decades ago the Otey Crisman Putter Company was so successful that 27 of the 85 contestants at the 1957 Masters were using Otey Crisman hickory shafted putters. More than 60 professional tournaments have been won with Oteys. As tastes in putters changed the company faded into the background of the golf equipment industry. A [...]
Hogan Big Ben Putter – Golf Club Reviews
Now our putter review process is generally spread out over many weeks as testers alternate taking the putters out to this course or that with them. With considerable outside input already in hand, we had seven of our guys give this big “Hoganardi” a whirl. In six sessions on three, different surfaces, we putted it [...]
Titleist Pro V1x – Golf Ball Reviews
The Pro V1x is the newest version of Titleist’s hugely popular Pro V1 line (see Understanding Pro V1 Variations). This ball replaces the Star in the Titleist lineup. Its target demographic is a bit different, however. Titleist recommends the ‘X’ for players who hit at driver swing speeds of 115 or more. That rules out [...]
Titleist DCI 990 – Golf Club Reviews
Released late in 1999, the DCI 990′s were Titleist’s lead pony in the hotly contested “players’ irons” segment of the market. They were designed to take over the mantle of Number One Players’ Cavity Back, a mantle held for years by the highly popular Titleist DCI 962′s. How successfully the 990′s replace the 962′s is [...]
Wilson Deep Red Fairway Woods – Golf Clubs Review
The Deep Red II fairway woods are modified versions of the original Deep Red woods. The original Deep Reds came in just one style – the Fat Shaft. The new ones come in two versions. One version is the conventionally shafted Tour model and the other is the Fat Shafted Distance model. This review will [...]
Dynacraft Hypersteel Hybrid – Golf Club Reviews
The Dynacraft Hypersteel is a very attractive component head based upon a design from the Japanese company, Kasco. In the new world of hybrid iron-woods, this design approach falls to the “wood” side of the fusion fence. The clubs look like skinny, graceful fairway woods. The Dynacraft Hypersteel and Pal Joey Dingo are siblings originating [...]
Adams Redline Driver – Golf Club Reviews
The Adams Redline 460 Ti is one of the largest, mainstream drivers available today. At 460cc, the Redline is a jumbo in every sense of the word. This driver has a deep, squarish face, a wide, wide sole and a big, round topside. In spite of all this mass, the Redline is a good-looking driver. [...]
Callaway Great Big Bertha Titanium Drivers
Though it has been out of production for years, the original Callaway Great Big Bertha remains a very popular driver. Any number of players still swear by it. Two of our regular testers continue to play the original GBB regardless of the fact that they constantly have access to dozens of newer drivers. Callaway has [...]
