WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The TaylorMade Stealth 2 drivers take another bold step in moving to fully carbon composite constructions, this time with special attention to making mis-hits more like centre hits. The changes this year include a new variable thickness carbon composite face that offers improved ball speeds for off-centre hits. Meanwhile, there’s even less titanium in the body, freeing up more mass to add more stability over last year’s models. The trio includes the low-spin Stealth 2 Plus, which offers a sliding weight to tweak ball flight; Stealth 2, the neutral flight, high-forgiveness option ideal for most golfers; and Stealth 2 HD, the most stable model of the three with draw-biased weighting to fight the slice.

Stealth 2 Plus, (8, 9, 10.5 degrees); Stealth 2, Stealth 2 HD, (9, 10.5, 12 degrees). All models feature an adjustable hosel that changes loft by plus/minus two degrees. RRP AED 2,845 – AED 2,945 (TBC)

3 COOL THINGS
1. The hottest face story from 2022 gets hotter for 2023. When TaylorMade debuted the carbon composite face in last year’s Stealth, it wasn’t so much the magical properties of carbon fibres that made it a better face. It was that carbon fibre made the face 40 per cent lighter than a titanium face. In the Stealth 2 drivers, it’s lighter still, just 24 grams or just shy of half of what a standard titanium face might weigh. That frees up more mass to explicitly pinpoint the optimal centre of gravity position and forgiveness for each of the three Stealth models. Basically, that means slightly more forward for the low-spin Stealth 2 Plus, slightly more rearward on the forgiving Stealth 2 and slightly deep and more heelward on the high-launching, slice-correcting Stealth 2 HD.
But that’s not the only improvement in the carbon composite face on this year’s Stealth 2. Like the original, the face is constructed by 60 distinct layers of carbon fibre that are arranged to provide a more flexible perimeter with thinner sections around the centre thicker region. This year, those perimeter areas are even thinner. Thinner means more flexible, thereby leading to more consistent ball speed all across the face. It’s more than just making a thicker centre and thinner perimeter, said Tomo Bystedt, TaylorMade’s senior director of product creation for woods.
“The thickest part was basically in the centre face before and we moved it about seven millimetres toe-ward,” he said, noting that makes a little more area of the face on the heel side thinner. “That evens out the speed profile of the face because obviously the heel is going to tend to be slower because you have a little bit shorter span in the heel. So this really maximises the hottest area of the face.”

2. More carbon equals more forgiveness. It wasn’t only the face that increased forgiveness for this year’s edition of TaylorMade drivers. A new body construction also reduced the non-carbon sections to almost none, freeing up more mass that was used in different ways in Stealth 2 Plus, Stealth 2 and Stealth 2 HD. In past models, there was a titanium frame that housed the carbon composite face and then a ring of either titanium or aluminium that circled the body or like in last year’s Stealth, a titanium sole plate. The carbon composite crown and sole sections were bonded to that ring. Now the ring itself is a carbon-reinforced composite, making it even lighter and allowing for a fully carbon composite sole to replace the titanium sole plate.
While that made the sole itself lighter, it allowed for more mass to be precisely positioned. On the Stealth 2 Plus, that means the sliding weight is now 15 grams instead of 10 to help increase the low forward centre of gravity position, but it also means more mass also could go into the weight at the rear base of the driver, far away from that CG. It’s what TaylorMade calls the “inertia generator”, and it sits low in a keel at the back end of the driver to maximise off-centre hit stability. In fact, it’s nearly triple the weight that was in the back before. On the Stealth 2, that rear weight is now 25 grams and it’s some 30 grams on the high-forgiveness Stealth 2 HD, some four or five times what it was before. The freedom to move mass to specific different regions within the head is what sets the Stealth 2 family apart, Bystedt said.
“I think you can see where we’re starting to basically break the trade off between ‘Do you want a low-spin, low-forward CG type of club or do you want the forgiving one?’” he said.

3. Which one’s for me? While each of the Stealth 2 drivers are more forgiving than last year’s models, particularly the Stealth 2 Plus, they still target distinct audiences. The movable weight on the Stealth 2 Plus is more substantial so it can better tweak a slight fade or slight draw preference, but it is still aimed at players who contact the centre of the face more often. As the lowest spin offering, higher swing speed players will see more benefits from this model versus the others. The Stealth 2 offers the most ideal mix of forgiveness, launch and spin for most non-elite players. Meanwhile, the Stealth 2 HD is the highest-launching and most forgiving of the three drivers. Its rear weight is repositioned more toward the heel to particularly target the slice, and its standard lie angle is four degrees more upright than Stealth 2 Plus to encourage more of a draw.

TaylorMade Stealth 2 Fairway Woods

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Stealth 2 family of fairway woods and hybrids benefit from a new lightweight carbon composite crown section that extends around the edges of the perimeter to save more weight and lower the centre of gravity for better launch and increased energy transfer. The line includes high-forgiveness, draw-enhancing fairway woods and hybrids (the HD models), the easier launching, faster-faced standard models and better player options with the more iron-like flight of the Stealth Plus hybrid and multiple adjustability and driver-like face of the titanium Stealth Plus fairway wood.

Fairway woods: Stealth 2 Plus (15, 18 degrees); Stealth 2 (15, 16.5, 18, 21, 24 degrees); Stealth 2 HD ($xxx; 16, 19, 22 degrees). Hybrids: Stealth 2 (19, 22, 25, 28, 31 degrees); Stealth 2 HD (19, 22, 25, 28 degrees); Stealth 2 Plus (17, 19.5, 22 degrees, adjustable). Prices TBC

3 COOL THINGS

1. A carbon crown that goes beyond the crown. With fairway woods and hybrids making up the longest clubs hit off the fairway, figuring out ways to lower the centreof gravity (to help shots launch higher) and fixing mis-hits (because the vast majority of impacts occur below the centre of the face) seem crucial. For the new Stealth 2 fairway woods and hybrids, that meant the weight-saving benefits of a traditional carbon composite crown weren’t enough. These clubs extend the carbon composite around the edges of crown so that it overlaps into the rear and side skirt portions of each head. That allows the saved weight to be used differently in each model.
On the Stealth 2 Plus fairway wood and hybrid, that weight is pushed low and forward to decrease spin, while also providing for multiple adjustability features for better players to more specifically tweak their ball flight and distance gapping needs. On the Stealth 2 versions, it’s a mix of low and to the perimeter for improved launch with forgiveness. For the Stealth 2 HD models, the majority of that weight is pushed to the perimeter so off-centre hits lose less ball speed.

2. Distinct shapes for different players and their flight needs. The solutions to make fairway woods and hybrids more effective for different types of players is not just about how different materials might be used or how weight might be redistributed. Sometimes it’s also a case of different shapes. For instance the Stealth 2 HD fairway woods and hybrids are larger to create more forgiveness on off-centre hits (the fairway wood is a whopping 200 cubic centimetres), but they’re still designed with flatter soles to help keep the CGs plenty low. Meanwhile, the standard Stealth 2 models lower the crown height from past models to create lower CG and a more confidence-inspiring shallow face. Finally, the Stealth 2 Plus hybrid is more compact to give better players the workability they prefer in an iron with just the right amount of added forgiveness.

3. How the technology in a $xxx fairway wood makes you forget its price. While all the Stealth 2 fairway woods and hybrids benefit from new variable face thickness patterns that extend the area of the face that produces the highest ball speeds and all also feature a slot in the sole to help shots lower on the face fly faster, only the Stealth 2 Plus fairway wood has the added power of driver-like titanium. TaylorMade is on its fourth generation of compact, better-player titanium fairway woods, but this one easily is the most playable for average golfers, too. Past versions have used a massive steel weight pad to push the centre of gravity extremely low and well forward. That’s perfect for low-spin but not so great for off-centre hit forgiveness. The solution with Stealth 2 Plus fairway is to take that massive weight pad (50 grams on this year’s model) and have it slide from front to back. There are eight possible positions that allow the user to up the forgiveness by nearly 20 per cent and increase the spin, another way to help less than elite players get the ball in the air. Even better, the sliding weight moves in and out from a compartment within the sole, keeping the surface smooth for clean turf interaction.
“We wanted to see if there was something we could do to make that more inclusive and more appealing to a wider audience,” said Bystedt. “So this new system completely changes the club without you having to change the whole club or put a different head on there.”

TaylorMade Stealth HD Irons

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Designed with the slower swinger in mind, the Stealth HD irons offer a low-profile clubhead designed to create a lower centre of gravity to promote a higher launch with a draw bias. The step-down sole helps mitigate the effect of shots hit a tad heavy.

PRICE/AVAILABILITY: $xxx per iron (steel).

3 COOL THINGS

1. Function over form. The low-profile clubhead is, well, a different look, but when players start hitting better shots, any opposition to the shape tends to quickly melt away. Especially when the shape is a main contributor to helping get the ball in the air and promotes a draw bias.
The shallow face height combines with a wide sole to drive the centre of gravity low. The shape combines with a multi-material cap-back that is significantly lighter than the steel it is replacing. That not only drives the centre of gravity lower as well by removing weight from up high but helps make the club easier to square at impact. Further, because there is no badge bonded to the back of the club, it allows the face to move more freely.
An additional benefit of the CG being low is that low is where the majority of iron impacts occur, and you want the centre of gravity as close to where shots are being struck as possible.

2. Understanding the golfer fuelled this design. To design a club for less-skilled players, you first need to understand what makes them tick. The challenge with that is in order to understand that player type, you need to test with them first and the less skilled the player, the more unreliable the data can be.
“This group has a very wide array of swings,” said Matt Bovee, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for irons. “We wanted to simplify the process for them.”
Feeling this player valued hitting quality shots more often than targeting a score, TaylorMade boiled its player testing down to this: Did you consider it a successful shot? “We found that high launching and high spinning was good,” said Bovee. Anything with a draw flight also was valued. Importantly, the data showed that between 26 and 31 degrees of loft there was only about a 1.5-yard difference.
“Strong lofts just don’t get the ball in the air,” said Bovee. “We found the optimal launch with a 7-iron was with a 30-degree 7-iron. It made us look at the loft progression throughout the set. We also found that this player really didn’t need an iron lower than the 5-iron so we start the set there and use sole slots in the 5- through 8-irons to create speed and launch in the clubs where these players need the most help.”

3. Sole searching. This player tends to make contact with more turf than they need to, so creating a sole design that helps the club exit the ground easier is almost a necessity. For the Stealth HD (HD stands for “high draw,” by the way), that not only meant a wide sole, but one precisely shaped.
Specifically, the sole features a “step-down” feature in the rear of the sole that helps prevent digging while still being able to maintain a wide sole. But the design doesn’t stop there. There is a noticeable curvature of the sole from heel to toe that not only prevents heel and toe digs in certain lies, but promotes contact slightly higher on the face, which enhances launch and spin.

The post Meet the new TaylorMade Stealth 2 range: What you need to know appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There has been monumental growth in golf club technology that has shaped the modern game. Three golfers try three different eras of clubs and see how their performances compare.

Watch to see how they got on:

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The post WATCH — Generation game: Three golfers try three clubs from different eras to see how technology has changed the game appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Srixon brings multiple colours (red and yellow) to its new Q-Star Tour Divide golf balls, but unlike other companies, they’re bringing those two colours to each share a hemisphere on every ball. With half the ball red and half yellow, the intent is to create a heightened awareness of spin, while the dividing line serves as an aiming line. The ball boasts the same three-piece construction as the regular Q-Star Tour, including an average-golfer friendly lower compression core and the short-shot spin properties of a urethane cover.

THE DEEP DIVE: While sales of and interest in non-white golf balls continue to surge—some models that offer coloured versions see more than half those sales going to to the non-white options in the lineup—it’s hard to predict which colour might be the next hot thing.

Srixon is banking on the idea that two colours in one ball are the next hot thing with its new Q-Star Tour Divide. The ball takes on the same inside technology as the Q-Star Tour, the three-piece design introduced last year aimed at providing average swing speeds with distance but also the same greenside spin benefits of a thermoplastic urethane cover.

On the outside, though, one hemisphere is fully red and the other is fully yellow. The matte colouration comes not from a paint job but from injecting the pigment into the urethane formulation. In effect, the Q-Star Tour Divide combines the recent golf ball trends of colours, matte finishes and alignment features in one package.

The enthusiasm for coloured golf balls remains high among avid golfers. A recent survey from Golf Datatech showed that 56 percent of serious golfers are interested in playing a coloured golf ball. In 2012, that interest level was only at 37 percent.

Srixon’s team believes the design provides greater visual cues of how the ball is spinning, while the line where the two halves meet provides an alignment feature.

The idea of balls with contrasting colours in their two halves has been seen before as a training tool and even as a standard golf ball that Ping developed and marketed in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Today, some of those Ping balls like the dual-coloured Eye1 and Eye2 are being auctioned for thousands of dollars by collectors, including one unique dozen posting a price tag of $14,000.

But while the Q-Star Tour Divide may have the look of a novelty, it adds the performance of a urethane cover for better grab on wedge grooves for those shorter shots. Its larger lower compression core works with the mantle layer beneath the cover to provide speed and low spin off the driver for better distance. The core also provides better resiliency and energy transfer through a gradually increasing firmness in the soft central core to the firmer section of the core’s outer edge.

The post Srixon brings more colours to the Q-Star Tour Divide—combining two in one ball appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A Sharpie to mark your ball
You step on the first tee and announce the name and number of the ball you’re playing. That’s a veteran move—until one of your playing companions says they have the same ball. Most golfers struggle to find a scoring pencil in their bag, let alone a Sharpie to mark their ball, but the Sharpie is an integral part of the bag. Purchase one of the small ones (and if you’re really creative, two of them in different colours in case that playing companion also has blue). Not sure how you want to mark your ball? Put a simple dot above the number and then a dot below the number on the next ball. If you have to hit a provisional you can then identify which was which.

Set make-up doesn’t match the shots on your course
You can’t just go with a typical set of make-up and think you’re good to go. You get 14 clubs and you should figure out the course you play most often and if every single one of those clubs serves a purpose. Do you really need that 4-iron that you can’t lift above table height? Maybe you have a lot of dogleg lefts and you fight a slice (a draw-biased driver would help here). Perhaps you have a pitching wedge and sand wedge but you face a lot of shots between 70 and 105 yards (consider going four wedges). If you don’t use a club very often it’s entirely possible something else in place of it would be more useful.

A bag that’s too heavy if you walk

Mike Ehrmann

Golf is almost always better when you walk. Unless, of course, your bag is so heavy that it might not make the weight restrictions at the airport. Sometimes the culprit is the bag itself and if yours weighs more than five pounds when empty, that can make for a difficult hoof. However many players walk and carry with a bag loaded with non-essential items. Keep to a minimum the number of tees (10 tops), ball markers (two tops), towels (one) and golf balls (six, max). Also, get rid of the umbrella and rain gear if it is clearly a good-weather day and all of a sudden that steamer trunk you were lugging around seems incredibly lightweight.

MORE: 15 upgrades you can make to your golf bag right now

A bag with your name on it
Stop. Just stop. Here’s the rule on this: Unless you have a reserved parking spot at the next PGA or LPGA Tour event or are the head professional at a golf facility, this is absolutely forbidden. You don’t look cool. You look like ridiculous.

Excessive bag tags
You get to have one. If you’re lucky enough to be a member of a private club, proudly display the one from your home course and maybe one other—provided it’s from Pebble Beach, Pinehurst or some similar high-octane course that you have actually played (having your buddy bring you one is beyond weak). If you have a bag tag from the local scholarship association’s annual scramble event, rip it off immediately.

Clubs that are more than five years old (putters excepted)

We’ve heard it before: “These clubs are fine for me. The new stuff isn’t really all that much better.” If your clubs are more than five years old that is wrong and wrong, especially if you haven’t been fit. But don’t trust us. Go to one of your buddies who either recently got fit or bought a new driver after not having splurged since the Trump administration. See what kind of improvement they’ve seen and you’ll be headed for the nearest pro shop or eGolf Megastore with a credit card in hand.

No rain glove (or basically nothing to prepare you for rain)
It’s misting or just a light drizzle and your buddies insist on going out. Good for them. After all, you’re not going to melt like the Wicked Witch of the West if you get a tad wet. Your golf game, however, can suffer greatly if you’re not prepared and you can be in for a miserable day. Make sure you have a pair of rain gloves, a water-repellent rain jacket (we’ve found the short-sleeve versions to be quite useful), rain pants and an umbrella. If riding in a cart, carry towels as well. Being prepared for poor weather puts you two up on the first tee. By the way, that rain glove can come in pretty handy on a steamy, humid day as well when you’re sweating through leather gloves and finding it difficult to get a grip.

You have 14-way dividers
Bag companies tout these abominations by stating how much wear and tear they’ll save your clubs. We’re sorry, but we don’t need to coddle implements that we strike into the ground and into a hardball at close to 100 miles per hour with regularity. Plus, how can you slam your club back into your bag after a poor shot when you have to put it back in just so?

You need a rangefinder/GPS

If you don’t have a rangefinder or golf course GPS app, do the rest of us a favour and get one. Now. All you’re doing by guessing at distances, pacing off yardages or looking for that 150 markers is holding up the rest of us and hurting your game. Don’t worry if your GPS watch is off by a fraction of a yard. You’re not that good to be dialling in your distances to that degree.

Clubs that don’t match your ability
Don’t take it from us. Take it from 2012 U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, who told Golf Digest: “A lot of amateurs use clubs that are too heavy. It’s not that they are weak, but they don’t have the proper golf muscles to swing the clubs they’re swinging. They also should use more forgiving irons. I see a lot of 10- to 12-handicappers using very small irons and they need to realize they’re going to miss a lot more shots than hit those solid. … I’ve always thought club fitting is super important for guys like that.”

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Pitching, Gap, Lob & Sand Wedge Lofts: Everything you need to know

The post 10 things wrong with your golf bag appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

1. Count how many clubs you want in your bag up to and including the 9-iron. Starting with your putter, if the number of clubs you’re carrying up to your 9-iron is 11, then you only have room for three wedges. If it’s 10, then you have room for four wedges. In our experience, if you only have three clubs to carry you past your 40-degree 9-iron, you’re going to be playing a lot of in-between and half shots in the scoring zone when you should be making full swings. Finding a way to make space in your bag for one extra wedge is going to give you the ability to have more specific clubs for certain shots. Instead of trying to hit a shot with a 3/4 swing, you’ll be able to take a full swing.

2. Know your pitching wedge loft. If it’s 45 degrees or less, add three more wedges that are spaced apart by no more than 4-5 degrees each. So generally think about putting in a gap wedge that’s 48 or 50 degrees, a sand wedge that’s between 54 and 56 degrees, and a lob wedge that’s between 58 and 60 degrees. These are general guidelines, make sure you’re working with your fitter to get the gapping that works best for you.

3. You must have a wedge between your pitching wedge loft and your sand wedge loft. The gap wedge (usually around 50 degrees) provides vital yardage between those two clubs. Our recommendation is that you endeavour to match the gap wedge to the short irons and pitching wedge in your set because this gap wedge will also likely be a full-swing club. Your sand wedge and lob wedge will be used more around the green than in full swings.

4. Remember wedges can easily be bent a degree or two, strong or weak, to achieve the desired loft spacing. That means a 50-degree wedge can easily be a 51- or 49-degree club, But be aware that as you start strengthening or weakening the lofts of your high-lofted wedges, you’re also affecting the bounce angle. Every degree strong reduces bounce by a degree, and vice versa.

5. Ultra-high lofted wedges may help the ball get in the air quicker, but we think a maximum loft of 58 degrees provides the best versatility for your highest-lofted wedge and a more solid contact for an optimized greenside spin. An ideal progression is for the pitching wedge to be 45 degrees, followed by a 50-degree gap wedge and complemented by 54- and 58-degree sand and lob wedges.

6. As always, get with your fitter to gain a better understanding of how your irons and wedges should work together. In fact, if you’re being fit for irons, it’s an excellent idea to add on a wedge fitting to properly fill out the rest of your bag. You can find certified club fitters at eGolf Megastore here.

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By E. Michael Johnson
Consider these thoughts for ways to freshen up and upgrade your equipment.

Re-grip your clubs
What’s that you say? You don’t know how to do this? Come on, man. We’re in the age of do-it-yourself tasks. All you need is some two-way tape, solvent and grips. Remove your old grips and the tape underneath and clean the area with solvent. Place two-way tape on each side of the shaft. Pour some solvent in the grip (with your thumb covering the hole on the butt end) then put the solvent over the two-way tape then slide the grip on. Adjust it so it is on straight, then cut away any excess tape that is exposed. See, we knew you could do it.

Do a club fitting
Through eGolf Megastore’s proprietary AccuFit club fitting system, their team of certified club fitters and PGA Professionals deploy a step by step fitting process to improve the accuracy of your game. After each AccuFit session, you are just a few steps away from playing your best on the course.

Clean your grooves
You’ve just hit a shot with one of your wedges and some of the dirt from impact is in the grooves. But instead of cleaning the dirt out, you just give the face a quick wipe with your freshly cleaned towel (see the main image above) and leave it at that. That’s what we call an unforced error. Now, if you’re playing from the fairway, it won’t make much difference. But if you’re in the rough, the grooves are designed to channel away water and debris and assist spin. But that’s difficult to do if the groove is filled with dirt. And seriously, it’s not like you’re ripping the ball back on shots out of the rough. You need all the help you can get.

Wash your golf towel
You’ve spent the last month wiping down everything known to mankind, but still that towel adorning your bag hasn’t seen the inside of a washing machine since the first term of the Obama administration. In the meantime, you’ve wiped off many a filthy clubface and—come on, admit it—probably blown your nose in there once or twice. When we’re busy cleaning everything else, it’s time to throw the towel in as well.

Empty your bag of unnecessary items
Never has there been a better time to get rid of dead weight in your bag. Walking or pushing a cart is likely to be the norm for some time, so take everything (and we mean everything) out of your bag and only put back in what you absolutely have to. That means six balls max; two gloves, a scorer’s pencil (because it might be a while before those are distributed) and maybe 10 tees, a ball marker and a rangefinder along with your 14 clubs. This will lighten the load considerably. Trust us, your back will thank you.

Throw out last year’s gloves
Parting is difficult, but gloves that have holes in them, have the cuff unravelling or are all crusted up are of zero value—even if they’re the only gloves you own. Toss those puppies out and start anew, buying two or three gloves that you can use in a rotation.

Upend your bag
As part of that bag purge, let’s not forget about all the crap that gets into the bottom of your bag. Take the clubs out and turn that sucker over and give it a shake. Along with dirt and grass, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of tees, maybe a bag tag or scorecard and possibly a coin or two. You don’t want all that mingling with your grips and it takes seconds to do. Hint: Do this in your driveway unless you want to add vacuuming to your chores for the day.

MORE: 10 things wrong with your golf bag

Buy a small carry bag or pushcart
Walking is now almost mandatory. That makes that steamer-trunk of a bag you have a liability. Now is probably the time to get online and purchase a lightweight carry bag and/or a pushcart to help get you around the course without undue fatigue. Walking is more enjoyable with the right equipment.

Take a hard look at your set makeup
Can’t play golf right now (or as much as you would like)? Take some time and play some imaginary rounds in your head. But instead of holing out on the 18th at Pebble Beach to snatch the U.S. Open from Tiger Woods, play your home course and be realistic. What shots are preventing you from scoring better? Maybe you’re flaring those long irons every time. Maybe you have wedge shots that you don’t have a wedge for? Perhaps you can’t turn your driver over off the tee, but a majority of holes have trouble on the right. What we’re talking about is set makeup. Maybe you need hybrids in place of long irons or another wedge. Whatever it is, now is a good time to do some set makeup soul searching.

Change out the cleats in your shoes
Now’s a great time to get a grip. That includes your golf shoes. If they’re worn-down, they’re easy enough to replace yourself. In fact, most online golf retailers offer a cleat pack that also comes with a cleat wrench. In other words, no excuses. By the way, don’t wait for all the cleats to go. Cleats in certain parts of a shoe tend to wear out faster than others.

Getty Images

Clean your shoes
We know. Along with having the locker room attendant change your cleats, you also usually have them clean your shoes, too. But we live in a different time than we did a month or two ago. While easy to ignore doing these, some liquid soap and warm water along with a soft towel or soft bristle brush will get the job done. You’ll be so proud of yourself you’ll be tempted to drop yourself a few bucks as a tip.

Fiddle around with adjustability
If you’re playing, you’re not playing competitively. As such, it’s the perfect opportunity to tinker around with different settings on your adjustable clubs. Charles Howell III tries out his clubs in all the possible settings just to see what it does. There’s a lesson there. The settings might end up back where they were originally, but you might find something that’s a better option.

Trade-in clubs
Now’s a great time to take inventory of all the clubs you will never use again and do a little research. eGolf Megastore lists some 60 brands and more than 6,000 models that will be accepted as trade-ins, even online. And who doesn’t like free money?

 MORE: Pitching, Gap, Lob & Sand Wedge Lofts: Everything you need to know

Mark all your golf balls
We’re all guilty of it. We wait until we get to the first tee and then we mark our ball. If you still have those four dozen balls from the holidays, use your extra time to mark them as you normally would, leave them out for a few minutes, then put them back in their sleeves. Not only won’t you have to rush to mark your ball, but the marking won’t smudge on your first couple of shots.

Change the battery in your rangefinder
You know what sucks? Grabbing your rangefinder on the second hole and getting that flashing light that your battery is dead. Even if your battery isn’t at that level yet, unless you’ve changed the battery recently do so now. It beats the heck out of guessing at distances, pacing off yardages or looking for that 150 markers and holding up the groups behind you. —with Mike Stachura

The post 15 upgrades you can make to your golf bag right now appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
KPS Capital Partners is in the process of selling TaylorMade, according to a New York Times report. KPS, which purchased the golf brand in 2017, has hired Morgan Stanley to run the sale.

When reached by Golf Digest for comment, a TaylorMade spokesperson replied, “As a privately held company, we don’t comment on our ownership structure. We will continue to build on our track record of manufacturing industry-leading products, servicing our customers, and helping golfers of all skill levels play better golf. As the season begins to ramp, we are excited about the launch of our new 2021 golf equipment and balls.”

KPS originally acquired TaylorMade from Adidas AG in May of 2017 for $425 million, for what in reality amounted to a little more than $200 million in cash. The purchase could prove to be a steal; the NYT reports a “deal could value [TaylorMade] at more than $2 billion,” which is in line with other popular golf equipment manufacturers like Callaway (whose current market cap is $2.71 billion) and Acushnet, which owns Titleist. ($3.15 billion). The prospective move comes after golf equipment sales boomed in 2020, with sales for the 2021 golf season also projected to be strong.

The report is not unexpected. KPS has a history of taking manufacturing companies and reviving their processes, their organization, their attitude and the brand. That includes bolstering a company with meaningful acquisitions, with the sole purpose to increase the value of what it owns so it can sell it. Just last April the company was awarded Buyouts’ 2020 “Turnaround of the Year” award for its dealings with Chassis Brakes International Investment.

TaylorMade recently re-upped reigning Masters champ Dustin Johnson, and employs an attractive PGA Tour staff highlighted by Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood and Tiger Woods.

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By Joel Beall
The end of November is supposed to be a time to give thanks…unless you’re a golfer residing above the Mason-Dixon line. For this spot on the calendar often signals the end of the golf year, and any season that welcomes such hell is no cause for celebration.

However, though it seems so far in the future, golf will come again. Which is why you need to keep these 12 tips in mind before putting your clubs away for the winter.

The trunk is not your friend
Constant exposure to cold temperatures can sear and dry your grips, causing them to crack. Moreover, according to Titleist, storing balls in any extreme condition will have an adverse effect on performance. Understand that storage space can be an issue, but the back of your car is a graveyard for your equipment.

Say “sayonara” to scorecards
The purpose is threefold: 1) Clear room in your bag compartments 2) A scorecard from a memorable round or course makes for a great keepsake 3) Destroy all known evidence of that 93 at the Member-Guest.

One man’s trash, another’s treasure
Yes, sometimes a club just needs to die, and the offseason makes a perfect parting time for that driver you keep slicing or putter that can’t find the cup. But while the thought of throwing that troubled tool in a fire warms your heart, give it a second life in the hands of someone else. The First Tee and Bunkers in Baghdad are great organizations that take equipment donations, funnelling them to parties that don’t have the same resources we take for granted. Small gestures like this play a big part in growing the sport.

Check your grooves
Are your shots around the green not producing enough spin? It’s not your fault! Well, it’s probably your fault, but your wedges might not be helping. A wedge with 40 rounds of use losses an average of 2,300 rpm compared to a brand-new club. That number gets worse if you spend time at the practice green. If your grooves look worn out, it’s time to pull the trigger on some new wedges.

Get a Grip
Stands to reason the grip – you know, the area where you hold and control the club – should be in good condition, yes? Yet, many amateurs don’t pay heed to the state of these wraps. Golf is hard enough as is; a shoddy grip will only add to these woes. If you play twice a week, you should get your grips changed every offseason.

Why you need to upend your bag
A shocking amount of dirt and grass finds its way to the bottom of your bag. In and of itself, not a huge problem, but buildup could funk up your bag and do a number on your grips. View this exercise as taking out the trash: slightly annoying, but a necessary evil that doesn’t take THAT much time to do.

Pull the flat stick
Keep your short game sharp this winter by practising putting on your carpet or floor. It’s a great way to improve your stroke while simultaneously driving your family crazy. (Amazingly, wives don’t see the utility of using a table leg as a flagstick.)

Wash your towel
Guessing you didn’t give it a scrub once this entire season, you filthy animal. Golf courses are treated with hundreds of chemicals, substances that are likely baked into those fibres thanks to all those mud chunks you had to wipe off the clubface. Don’t let that slime cake throughout the offseason.

Glove love
It’s easy to want to throw an old glove in the garbage, especially if it’s hardened and crusty. But most are more durable than their predecessors, able to withstand a tremendous amount of wear-n-tear. Though we recommend playing with new gloves, old ones are still serviceable to wear at the range. Moreover, always good to have an extra glove just in case you lose one in the course of your round. In short, if they’re not falling apart, don’t heave those experienced gloves in the can.

Unscrew your heads
Most drivers and an increasing amount of fairway woods are adjustable. Though storage closets or basements seem like save havens, they’re anything but: my old roommate accidentally broke a few sticks when attempting to unpack Christmas decorations went awry.

Speaking of which…

Holiday inventory
No matter the observance, chances are its an opportunity to replenish your golf arsenal. (Which, I believe, is the true meaning of the holidays). Balls, tees and gloves are easy asks for stocking stuffers, so let your loved ones know what you need.

And finally…

Clean your clubs
If you think cleaning the dirt from the grooves is the pain in the ass now, try it after its congealed for three months.

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But in a way, the experimental ball that was the EXP·01 yielded a new ball that typifies what Titleist balls seem to always have been: a product engineered for a specific type of player’s needs. That product is the new Tour Speed, the first Titleist ball ever to feature a thermoplastic urethane [TPU] cover. It’s aimed at golfers looking for distance with a healthy dose of the tour ball greenside spin that ionomer [Surlyn] balls just can’t produce. Tour Speed also is targeting a price point a notch closer to affordability compared to the balls the best players in the world have been using.

Titleist’s urethane cover balls, the dominant Pro V1 family and the AVX, utilize a thermoset cast urethane cover. Over the years, Titleist engineers have strongly made the case that cast urethane, and specifically its own version of cast urethane, offers the best combination of playability, spin and feel for short game shots. Thermoplastic urethane is a more affordable alternative, but developing it for the Tour Speed wasn’t simply a cost-cutting exercise. According to Titleist golf ball product manager Michael Fish, “Our R&D and Ops team tested hundreds of TPU formulations and additive combinations to make sure this was the right one for our standards. The reason it took as many years for us to get to a place where we felt comfortable bringing it to market is because they did find quality issues with a lot of TPUs, whether it was the performance or even just the appearance.

“But it’s not just the TPU, it’s the entire construction of the golf ball.”

That deep digging [the company says it has 42 percent of all golf ball patents issued since 2012 and it added a special wing to its ball-making operations in New Bedford, Mass. just to produce the TPU cover on the Tour Speed] was focused on finding a way to make a ball that answered multiple performance attributes, starting with distance but with spin a close second.

“We spent a lot of time talking with golfers that played products in this space,” Fish said. “We look at this golfer as kind of the savvy selector. They know they want the performance of a golf ball that’s really good, they just want to spend say ten dollars less.”

The TPU process allows that affordability but it also allows for a distinct distance proposition, Fish said. That comes from a three-piece construction that features a new mantle, or casing layer, that uses the company’s most resilient ionomer, and a core that works with the mantle to produce ball speed and lower spin for better distance with the longer clubs. That formulation grew from the EXP·01 but Tour Speed isn’t simply EXP·01 with a different sidestamp. Tour Speed reflects tweaks in all aspects, including the 346 quadrilateral dipyramid dimple design and of course the cover formulation.

“Those changes don’t happen without a ton of work, and much of that came out of the test market with EXP·01,” he said. Fish also said extensive short-game testing of unmarked balls at the company’s research facility with its 100-yard-long green and the supervision of Titleist’ veteran tour rep Fordie Pitts indicated how important that performance aspect was in the design.

Tour Speed is set to arrive in stores Aug. 7 [$40 a dozen].

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Like its predecessor, the G710 irons use a maraging steel face insert. That’s surrounded by a 431 stainless-steel body. The maraging steel face provides metalwood-like face flex that launches the ball higher, allowing for slightly stronger lofts for more distance without sacrificing the shot-stopping ability that comes with height on iron shots.

Tungsten weights in the toe and heel provide higher stability on off-centre (up to five per cent more moment of inertia compared to G700) hits to help mitigate the loss of ball speed on such shots, helping golfers have a tighter dispersion pattern. A wide sole makes it easier to get through the ground when taking more turf than desired.

The big differences in the G710 from the G700 (aside from a stealth black finish for the clubhead), however, are more nuanced. The company received feedback that the sound could be improved, and it set out to accomplish that without sacrificing the distance gain.

“We wanted to try and keep out a couple of unwanted frequencies,” said Dr. Paul Wood, Ping’s VP of engineering. “There were minimally invasive things we could do to achieve that without compromising the benefits of a hollow body golf club. It really came down to what could we do with the least amount of weight added?”

The answer turned out to be one they were familiar with. “The best solution turned out to be the use of hot melt, which we often use in drivers,” said Wood. “It’s a polymer that you can melt and place where you want and can get rid of a frequency in the club. A thin layer of that behind the face helped us get rid of undesirable frequencies that we were able to identify through modal analysis and our player testing showed the sound of the G710 was much preferred over that of the G700.”

Another leap forward is employing Arccos Caddie smart grips and a free trial of the Arccos Caddie app, something suggested by company president John K. Solheim after some first-hand experience with the product.

“I personally started using Arccos more than a year ago and have seen significant improvement across my entire game,” Solheim said. “It helps me during a round with club selection, and I really enjoy analyzing all the data after the round to uncover areas to help me play better.”

Each iron is built with an embedded sensor in the grip to automatically record and analyze every shot taken during a round when paired with the Arccos Caddie app. Golfers receive a 90-day free trial of the app and extra sensors to use on other clubs when purchasing six or more irons.

Another move to help golfers play better with the Ping G710 irons is the addition of a new ultra-lightweight shaft option for those needing to increase swing speed and height on their shots. The Alta Distanza Black 40 graphite shaft is a feathery 43-gram iron shaft with a more flexible tip section to help bring higher trajectories and more swing speed.

The G700 irons are available in 4-iron through sand wedge in 10 colour codes (lie angle) at $175 per club in steel (Ping AWT 2.0) and $190 per club in graphite (Alta CB Red). Several no-upcharge shafts are also available, including the True Temper Dynamic Gold, Dynamic Gold 105, Dynamic Gold 120, Project X LZ, True Temper XP95, Nippon NS Pro Modus 105 and KBS Tour in steel and UST Recoil in graphite. A “Power Spec” option featuring lofts that are a degree-and-a-half stronger on the long and mid-irons to two degrees stronger on the short irons also is available. The G710 irons can be pre-ordered immediately.

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