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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2006 (Part 5)

The Best Products and Ideas of 2006 Including Honorable Mentions

By Leith Anderson

The end of the year is a good time to think about the golf equipment and underlying ideas that worked best in 2006. More important, what will be in your bag in 2007?

The same question is appropriate for golf equipment companies. Which ones are rising and which ones are declining? What are the new ideas for club fitting electronics and training aids? What direction will technology take?

No one person has the perspective to provide a totally comprehensive view of the golf equipment marketplace – that is my alibi for what I might have missed. I do my best with the information I have so I admit in advance that my “honors” are personal opinions, supplemented by the opinions of the hundreds of golfers that I worked with in 2006. I get a lot of information and a lot of help from players and support from manufacturers that make it possible for me to convey pretty accurate information about what happened in 2006 and what’s coming in 2007. With disclaimers noted, and my apologies to the companies that I don’t know well, here are my opinions for the “Best of 2006”.

2006 Top Ten List

Number One: Nike Sasquatch – “new driver geometry”. The ultimate “love it or hate it” driver of 2006 was the radical Nike Sasquatch. While most of the industry was chasing the moveable weight concept, Nike took a different tack and focused on “moment of inertia” influenced by shape. The slightly less radical Cleveland Hi-Bore earned second place in the love it or hate it sweepstakes. The results were definitive. Nike led with wins on the PGA Tour – receiving more than a little help from shareholder Tiger Woods. When you dig deeper, there were a lot of money winners who used the Sasquatch. The best news? The Sasquatch was not for professionals only. It was a great driver for normal amateurs. If you haven’t yet, have a look at the SQ. It will be on bargain status as 2006 inventory is cleared out.

How about the second act? Nike will be hands-down winner of a second “love it or hate it” prize in 2007 with its radical SUMO (SUper MOment of Inertia) and SUMO 2 (SUMO Squared) drivers. K.J. Choi won his first tournament using a prototype SUMO Squared – focusing attention on the new model. He also pumped up his driving stats. Just when you start thinking that USGA restrictions will prevent new drivers that deliver better performance – and no hope for a miracle – Tom Stites comes along with the SUMO. The SUMO is one model you WILL try in 2007. Fair warning: if you carry a lightweight bag, it might not fit. Nike will have company. Callaway announced a SQUARE driver for 2007. Square is in.

Number Two: The Taylor Made R7 and followers. We’re three years into the moveable weight designs. Taylor Made led the way with the invention which has now been copied by most of the other companies in the industry who couldn’t think up anything better. Our experience is that the moveable weight driver heads can be “tweaked” to raise or lower spin by moving weights back and forward. If you’re looking for a few hundred RPM to get the last couple of yards of distance, moveable weights can do the trick. It is less likely that moveable weights will significantly influence your shot shape. More radical weight distribution can be effective – together with face angle adjustments. That’s the story behind the Taylor Made “draw bias” driver introduced at the end of 2006. At a minimum, adjustable weights are a handy and “neatnik” way to adjust swingweight in lieu of lead tape. Look for adjustable weights to sweep all club categories – including inexpensive component clubs. If you’re going to buy an adjustable weight driver head, you should look at models with four weight ports – which will limit your choices to the 425-430 cc size range. Stay away from the 460 cc size which only offers two weight ports. You cannot change spin rates with two weight ports.

Number Three: Super lightweight graphite driver shafts. The Fujikura SIX was the first lightweight shaft to gain Tour play and recognition from pros and top amateurs as a great performer. It was rated as a 50 gram shaft but tended to be a bit porkier on the gram weight scale. We loved that shaft for years and found a lot of players who benefited from lighter weights. Now, manufacturers are pushing the weight envelope with shafts that are down in the 40 gram range. UST ACCRA is the leader in this category. Also, look for the premium ACCRA SC in a 55 gram version – a shaft that will be quite similar to the Fuji SIX. “SC” stood for “Speeder Clone” when the shaft was in development. We’re thinking that the livelier tip in the ACCRA could add a measure of feel to lightweight, low-torque driver shafts.

The bottom line on driver shaft weight: the lighter the better for most amateurs going for maximum distance. If you go lighter, you can also go longer. In California, most of the senior players who are competitive on the state level have gone to 46” lengths and longer and are continually searching for the lightest overall weight. Keep in mind, when going to lighter shafts, stiffer flexes and lighter head weights are also desirable. If you want to know for sure what works best for you, you can always find a club fitter with a launch monitor who can tell you exactly what setup produces the highest ball speed. Combine the highest ball speed with the optimum launch angle and spin rate and you’ll be hitting the ball as far as possible.

Be warned: drivers over 44.5” are much more temperamental and difficult to control. If you’re going to play a long driver, be prepared to try a lot of different models. Most long drive competitors have at least a dozen drivers in their rotation. Up wind, down wind, left wind right wind, cold weather or hot weather. If accuracy is your most important requirement, stick with shorter lengths and test heavier weight shafts. The conventional wisdom of clubfitting says that “swingers” do better with lightweight shafts and “hitters” do better with heavier shafts. I’m not sure there’s such a big difference. The hottest super premium shaft of the year was the Matrix Composite OZIK.

The bottom line: players have finally come to the realization that off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all drivers never deliver the best performance, either distance or consistency. Find a club fitter who can “tweak” your driver with shaft flex, shaft weight, head weight, length, counterbalancing, grip and SST PUREing. Compare the “before and after” results. At the Golf Lab, we guarantee that we can improve results with any stock driver. I doubt that you will find a custom club fitter anywhere who won’t do the same.

Number Four: Heavyweight graphite iron shafts. Just the opposite of drivers, and against the industry trend to go with lighter weight graphite iron shafts – we like graphite iron shafts in heavier weights. Our favorite at the end of 2006 was the Aerotech 110, but there is significant competition from Aldila with their 105 gram NVS. In 2007 Mizuno is bringing out a proprietary Exsar 110 gram shaft that will be offered as an option for their irons. Of course, Matrix Composite (Apache) has had their 115 gram shaft in the market for years and a Tour-proven (shareholder) supporter in K.J. Choi.

Heavier weight iron shafts are going to benefit better players with higher swing speeds. Manufacturers have not figured out how to make heavy graphite shafts in soft flexes, so most seniors and women will have to settle for lighter weights. If you believe in custom fitting with launch monitor data, you will find that performance, measured by ball speed and carry distance will be better with fitted shafts, whatever your skill level.

Number Five: Sonartec MD, set makeup and the rise of the hybrids. I’m giving Sonartec credit for starting the move toward hybrids – a matter of Todd Hamilton’s win at the British Open in 2004 – which called attention to hybrid designs. Since that time, hybrid clubs have knocked the three iron out of most amateurs’ bags. Many professionals have also turned to hybrids. They like the higher trajectory and softer landings on tournament greens that aren’t friendly to hot long irons. For amateurs, the hybrid story is simply “easier to hit”. The trick is to make sure your hybrids are no more than half an inch longer than the iron it’s kicking out of the bag. If you bought into the hybrid craze early and didn’t find the magic, your clubs were probably too long and the heads too light. Later models corrected those problems.

Rather than looking into the bags of PGA Tour pros to figure out what you should play, most amateurs should buy a ticket to an LPGA Tournament and see what the ladies are playing. In the LPGA, most sets start at the five iron, many at the six. Due to the influence of hybrids, set makeup will never be the same. As for me, my three iron is in the closet forever, due to a yearlong love affair with a 21* Mizuno Fli-Hi. I’m dusting off a place for my four iron. If you’re looking at hybrids, be sure you try the Nike CPR “flying saucer” and the Bobby Jones models. They are emerging as the winners at the end of 2006. The new Mizuno Fli-Hi is good looking but mainly a cosmetic change to match the “cut muscle” styling if its irons.

Number Six: Respect for Quality - Miura Irons. One of the most amazing results from 2006 was the unbelievable support for the Miura Golf Company. Until 2005, Miura was a relative unknown to American golfers. Miura was content to do contract work for some of the biggest names in the business, including Titleist and Taylor Made. But in 2004 they decided to enter the American market under their own name. Despite a limited product line with little forgiveness and sky-high pricing, Miura made its mark among better amateur golfers across the country. A lot of good golfers want to play Miura. At the custom level, Miura supplies their irons in a wide range of precise head weights. This allows custom clubmakers to build sets with unparalled precision in balance.

The background is that Miura used to be mainly a contract manufacturer for the USA market. If you’re an eBay buyer, and you’re very careful, you can find Miura irons produced for Titleist and Taylor Made. Look for the TM 300’s without serial numbers on the five iron, the RAC CB’s before Taylor Made moved the production back to China and the Titleist “T” stamp. That’s a good way to get a set of Miura’s if you want to save a few bucks.

New models are under development. Mr. Miura also has plans to enter the driver market. In October 2006, the Miura team gathered in Munich, Germany to evaluate current and future designs. Attendees included the worldwide Miura distribution network. The technical testing session was lead by the scientific minds of the Max Out Golf Group who suggested some improvements. Mr. Miura went home to “get it right”. We expect Miura to continue to be the darling of the low handicap end of the market in 2007.

Number Seven: Ultimate Custom - Scratch Golf Company. All golfers dream about getting a set of irons that is truly custom made for them. I find it just a little crazy that players seek out “tour” clubs that were made for somebody else. What does that have to do with your game unless your swing is like Tiger or Ernie? Until now, the best you could do was to buy a set of Miuras and accept the standard grind. You could try to find a set of cast heads and do your own thing with a grinder, but that always presents problems with taking too much more weight off of an already finished product. Scratch Golf Company founder Ari Techner is a true golf nut and he’s managed to find a few True Believers, including his brother Chad, to follow his vision.

If you know what you want, you can start with any of several “blank” designs that come from the Ishihara foundry in Japan and have them ground to your exact specifications. After grinding to shape and precise head weight, you can have them stamped with your initials and the date you were married. Then, you can have them finished any way you can imagine. Iron Byron spent a day working with Jeff McCoy, the Master Grinder at Scratch to get his clubs totally perfect. Of course, he knew what he was looking for. Where else can you sit with the grinder while he finished your irons? The price list is just like your local service station: $100 if they do the job, $200 if you watch and $500 if you help.

If you want custom made for you instead of someone else, it’s available from Scratch. As a customer service option, Scratch Golf has named a few custom clubmakers “Charter Dealers” who stock the full line and have access to the custom options – and will help players figure out the appropriate head weight and sole grind to match their most common playing conditions and shaft choice. Naturally, the Golf Lab, Max Out Golf in LA and the Complete Golfer in White Plains NY are on that very short list.

Number Eight: Heavy Putters – It’s all about balance. On the putter side, the most innovative idea in 2006 was the acceptance of a putter that weighed two pounds. Some players would have liked to try it, but couldn’t make eighteen holes if they had to carry their bag. Lucky for me. I ride carts.

The Heavy Putter quiets your hands and forces you to use the “big muscles” of your shoulders and arms. It hasn’t exactly won the popularity contest on the PGA Tour but Troy Matteson won on the PGA Tour this year and credits his success to the Heavy Putter. Our experience was that the Heavy Putter proved very effective for average amateurs who don’t have perfect putting strokes.

The Heavy Putter was actually the continuation of a trend toward changing the balance of putters. Over the last few years, I have covered the activities of the Balance-Certified company – actually three guys: Jeff Lindner, John Cranston and Michael Cranston headquartered in the center of the golf universe, Huntsville, Alabama. That’s where Jeff and John used to make their livings working for NASA. The B-C story has been a lot of weight in the grip – tested and proven by performance. B-C’s systems have been designed to enhance feel while improving shot making performance. They managed to gain a big following on the Seniors Tour where players don’t expect to get paid to test a product. If the seniors find something that works, they’re content to keep it for free. Scott Hoch and Tom Jenkins are B-C Staff Players. The “Balance Boys” also came out with a revolutionary putter shaft that was produced by UST. The “frequency filtered” shaft has made some friends but like most new ideas that don’t look like anything you’ve seen before, is a little slow to catch on. It’s an amazement to me that with all of the attention paid to putters and the importance of your putter to your game, the cheapest of all components is a putter shaft. Why do you trust a slick three footer to a crooked putter shaft?

Number Nine: Adams Golf. For the last few years, Adams Golf has been a “sleeper”. They focused their energies on the Senior Tour, emphasizing their relationship with Tom Watson. For the most part, Adams has been relegated to the senior niche. Their claim to fame has been their fairway woods and utilities.

I’m picking Adams as the “surprise of 2007” based on what we’re finding with their drivers and their plans for irons. Despite little recognition in the marketplace, Adams drivers, especially the 4-weight 430Q has delivered surprising performance both on the launch monitor and on the course. Fuji Bob hit his all-time bomb on the sixth hole at Stanford – 30 yards longer than his previous career best – and it’s November. We still can’t figure that one out – no one saw it hit the sprinkler head.

Adams has some very stylish forged irons in development and plans to offer its “Tour Only” line for customization by a group of select custom golf shops. (Guess who?) Sooner or later, all of the Big Brands will recognize that superior customer service requires that their products be available for Tour-grade customization without paying the penalty of buying stock product, taking it apart and throwing away the shafts. There is no such thing as “Tour Quality” unless it is custom fitted and custom built for a specific player. No manufacturer custom department can offer all of the options.

Number Ten: Refined Technology for club fitting. When it comes right down to it, new golf clubs don’t do you any good unless they work better for you than your current clubs. How do you know that for sure? In the old days it was a tedious, inefficient, time-consuming process that involved taking demos to the range and then your course and trying to figure out what worked best. That was easier for younger players with better memories. Most of us just took a couple of demos and made our choices in an hour or so. Right or wrong? Who knew? Today, the preferred method to find better golf clubs is to test them with a launch monitor and find out which ones perform the best, based on measurable factors like ball speed, launch angle and spin rate. Then, take the two or three best candidates to the range or your course to see which ones like fresh air the best.

Launch monitors have been part of the club fitting picture for more than three years. The problem is that launch monitors are, to be polite, a “work in progress”. Some machines registered accurate ball speed and launch angle, but didn’t know squat about spin rate. Others were just a few hours out of the development lab and wouldn’t work for more than an hour at a time. Unfortunately, a lot of players relied on launch monitor data that was wrong or incomplete.

Then, there’s a big hole in what a launch monitor can do – like recommend the right shaft, flex, shaft weight, shaft length and bend profile for a player. That’s important and can only be done by a club fitter with eyes, experience and skill. Finally, once you have the right combination, it has to be built. That takes sensitive frequency matching and specific knowledge of the playing characteristics of the shaft being fitted. Finally, there’s stable shaft orientation. The SST PURE shaft alignment system is continually gaining more “True Believers” on the PGA Tour.

The independent leader in electronic fitting diagnostics has turned out to be the Max Out Golf Group, based in Sherman Oaks, California. The key instruments are the Max Out Launch Max launch monitor and the Max Out Shaft Max shaft load detection system.

Honorable Mentions

Number One: Respect for forged irons. Mizuno and KZG lead the pack. Mizuno has long been the commercial leader in forged irons. The MP-32 and MP-60 models were the classic design winners for the last two years. Mizuno is not competitive in paying Tour players to play their clubs so when you see Luke Donald and others with Mizuno in their bags, it’s because they love the product more than the money. KZG, on the other hand, never makes it to the PGA Tour. Affectionately known as the #1 Custom Proline, KZG should be known as the last irons you will every buy with your own money. It’s party time at KZG when a pro tees up their clubs in a mini-tour event. Alas, as soon as a pro gets his name on a leader board, he’s going to find a bunch of free clubs in his trunk. KZG’s business model hinges on their customers paying for what they get. If you want top-quality irons, still forged in Japan, you can’t do better than KZG.

Number Two: Driver technology. MacGregor NVG2 Drivers are a dramatic, “bet the ranch” story. The MacGregor saga has been a frequent subject of the Golf Equipment Chronicles. It’s been a never-ending source of amazement how difficult and costly it has been to resurrect the proud old company. Owner Barry Schneider might have scored a coup at the end of 2006 when he attracted Greg Norman as an investor and bought the Greg Norman Apparel line out of Adidas bondage. The historic “King of Irons” has somehow been incapable of designing and producing a hit iron. But this year, the MacGregor NVG2 driver was a competitive product – testing near the top of all drivers on the Max Out Launch Max launch monitor. If the “King of Irons” could only figure out how to make an iron that the faithful would buy.

The technical story behind the MacGregor NVG2 driver was “cup face technology”. Oversimplified, that’s a titanium cupcake face welded to the head. Most drivers are constructed with a plate welded to the head. The advantage of the cupcake is touted as “the whole face is the sweetspot” a claim which only marketers can repeat without blushing. But, the cupcake technology was proven in the Tour Edge line as you will read in a few minutes. Will Greg Norman’s star power help Mr. Schneider pull MacGregor out of the swamp? My guess is that most players will be looking for a great iron designs, a version of the NVG2 where the weights are actually adjustable and a better selection of non-proprietary shafts. The saga continues . . .

Number Three: Bobby Jones Utility Clubs. One of the biggest success stories of the nineties was the Orlimar “flash in the pan”. Lou Ortiz worked for almost a lifetime to build up a tiny but well-respected company in the San Francisco Bay Area. In a couple years, on the basis of Golf Channel pumping up infomercial sales, the company surged from under a million dollar volume to the hundreds of millions. Alas, the decline was just as sudden. Within a couple more years, the company blew up and Lou’s son, Jesse, was left to pick up the pieces – which was mainly done with a dust pan.

If you can find an Orlimar Hip-Ti today, it will perform as well as any club that was manufactured in 2006. Jesse Ortiz was ahead of his time. But, being good isn’t always good enough. Enter Walter Rosenthal with a bankroll and sense of history. Mr. Rosenthal forged a relationship with the very wary “Bobby Jones Executors” who own the Bobby Jones trademark. The result: a new line of drivers, fairways and utilities with dramatic, original styling and classy packaging. The driver is good but a little too unusual form to appeal to mainstream buyers, but the utility is coming on as a winner at the end of 2006 – and will surely carry over into 2007.

Number Four: Advanced Golf Technologies Fairways. In the golf industry, the ultimate underdog is a company that tries to manufacture it’s product in America, with American materials. There aren’t many of those. AGT is one of my favorite companies – just trying to make a narrow line as good as it can be. They redesigned their already good fairways in 2006 – along with their driver. For 2007, have a look at the “Fairway Driver”. It is an original idea and I think it will create a tiny new product category in 2007.

Number Five: SMT – the Survivor. There is one market where standard, name brand drivers rarely survive. That’s the Long Drive business. Most long drivers will break an average driver in a week or two. That’s where SMT founder Mike Tate had a problem. He was selling drivers to the Long Drivers of America and more came back broken than he shipped out. When his supplier refused to honor warrantees, he bought a plane ticket to China and found suppliers who would guarantee their work – for life. In 2006 the womens’ World Long Drive Championship was won with an SMT 455 DB. That model is three years old. So much for so-called “new technology” – at least in long drive competition.

Number Six: Nike Fairways. An overlooked component of the bag is frequently fairway woods. Nike has done a great job with its selection of fairway wood designs. Last year, the T-60 was so popular with Tiger Woods that Nike kept it in the line for 2006. Tiger banked on his three wood, eschewing his driver on his way to winning the 2006 British Open. The new SQ fairway wood line from Nike was also very good.

Number Seven: KZG Gemini II Drivers. KZG is the Chihuahua golf company. As an owner and friend of a few Chihuahuas over the years – all you need to know is that they’re very small but act like they’re very big. They’ll chase a bear off of your property. And, they bite. (But not very hard.) That’s KZG.

KZG had a great innovation in 2005. The Gemini driver was manufactured with “two faces”. The idea was to help the ball go straight. The problem was that their Chinese manufacturer was working on the bleeding edge and too many broke. KZG pulled the Gemini back off the market for redesign. Now, it’s back. If there’s a technical story to compete with “geometry”, “moveable weights” and “cup face” it is “dual face”. I think that sums up all of driver news that’s based on any kind of technology story for 2007.

Number Eight: Tour Edge Fairways. Who would ever think that you could design and build a new fairway wood that delivers better performance than standard models? When Tour Edge first came out with it’s “Exotic” line of fairway woods, most of the industry, including myself, thought that they must be nuts. How could a company that built its brand on “Joe Six-Pack at the Muni” ever sell a fairway wood for $399? They did. The original sales projection was 6000 units and they sold north of 60,000.

Players didn’t buy it only because it was the most expensive. Player after player found that the Tour Edge fairways just went farther. I even bought a set for myself and true to form, found that they actually were a little better under certain circumstances.

Number Nine: Cleveland Hi-Bore Technology. Cleveland introduced their Hi-Bore to a lot of fanfare and early season sales that seemed to fizzle at the middle of the year. But time and again, in launch monitor testing, we found players who hit the Hi-Bore better than all other drivers. Alas, it was not a consistent result. Overall, the results were good enough for Cleveland that they’re patterning the 2007 line after the Hi-Bore profile. If you haven’t tried this model, it’s worth a few swings with a launch monitor looking over your shoulder – once in a while, it delivers a miracle.

On the Radar Screen

Company story of the year: True Temper. The collapse of Royal Precision has left one American supplier of steel golf shafts. True Temper acquired the assets, intellectual property and very good product line from Royal Precision and moved manufacturing to TT plants. They brought key Royal Precision employees to True Temper. Long term, it’s great for True Temper but has lead to a few burps with supply problems, especially the popular Project X shafts which disappeared from the marketplace in September and October. Look for some consolidation of models and a little confusion as the acquisition gets digested.

Tour Tempo. Small companies can have big ideas. We picked up a couple of copies of the Tour Tempo book, CD and MP Player that gives you the beat. Several Golf Lab regulars have begun to work with the program. Results are starting to look very interesting. The background is that Tour Players share a tempo that is three beats back, one beat down. It can be a little faster or a little slower, but the ratio of backswing to downswing remains the same. If you’re looking for a good, original idea that could make a big difference, this is worth checking out. www.tourtempo.com.

The Putting Zone. Like most golfers, I’ve always focused on ball striking. Now, as I whip past some age milestones, I’m starting to think about a renewed interest in chipping and putting to stay in the game in 2007. There’s a lot going on with putters – Heavy, balanced, new materials, swappable face materials – to say nothing about varied techniques. There’s a resource that you need to know about if you’re interested in putting. Geoff Mangum is positioning himself as the “Putting Guru” and quite willing to engage in debate against Dave Pelz’ ideas and techniques. We all love a good argument. Check out: www.theputtingzone.com.

On the Downside: There’s another dangerous trend if you’re a fan of custom fitted golf equipment. In the Bay Area there’s a virus on the loose that’s killing the custom shops. The virus was let out by the big companies who dropped their prices to grab market share. Ping lead that charge with the $299 G2. Then there are the “Big Box” stores who are throwing lightening spears at each other to see who will be the Home Depot of the golf business. Finally, eBay has become the Internet retailer of choice – proving that the perfect market comes out in favor of the buyer. The result: The Club House in Marin County closed at the end of 2005. The Golf Cobbler in San Jose closed at the beginning of 2006. Rob Sirota’s Tour Tech in Campbell shut its doors at the end of November.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are three serious full-time shops that survive: The Golf Lab in Palo Alto, Kepler’s in Walnut Creek and Bay Golf in Burlingame. I would love to see new customers come to the Golf Lab, but if that’s too inconvenient, I urge you to visit Matt Coe at Bay Golf or Bill Kepler at Kepler’s in Walnut Creek. We are all small, independent businesses that deserve your patronage and provide a lot of options that you don’t get from the Big Guys. Outside of the Bay Area, I encourage you to look for the independent golf shop – hopefully the guy who fits with a state of the art launch monitor and builds and rebuilds custom clubs in his shop. Sometimes it might even be worth it to spend an extra buck to keep competition alive.

The Golf Lab publishes a monthly email newsletter. Send a message to Leith@calgolftech.com and you will be included on the distribution list.

Leith Anderson is a Partner in the Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
He will answer any and all questions relating to club fitting and club making. Contact: Leith@calgolftech.com.