Driver & Iron Star of 2009
The PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando on Jan. 2009 was an avalanche of high-tech gears in all categories.
“It’s the single most important date of the year – apart from my wedding anniversary, of course,”quipped the Californian club pro in the next door bay as he put the new Mizuno MX-700 driver through its paces. He was no doubt speaking for most of the 5,000 industry guests at the essential Demo Day that kicks off the annual PGA Merchandise Show, held at the end of January in Orlando, in style.
The action unfolds on a vast driving range as club pros and media are invited to try out the latest golf clubs and balls from over 50 leading companies; and judge on what to stock in their pro shop (or write in their magazine) for the new season. It was only 10 amand already the latest offerings from Mizuno (their first evermatched range of golf drivers, fairway woods and hybrids) were on the shortlist on the basis of their sound, technology, looks and performance.
Mizuno R&DManager, David Llewellyn was on hand to explain the ‘hotmetal’ face construction “designed with a grain structure that allows flexibility in the sole-to-crown plane – traditionally themost rigid area that limits the scope formaximising ball speed.”
From there it was a quick sprint to Nike’s private tent where Trevor Immelman and LPGA star Suzann Pettersen were among the top tour pros representing their sponsors this week. “I was able to find a head I really like the look of and adjust the face angle by a degree to get the desired flight I was looking for,”said the Masters champion as he tested the elaborate Nike SQ Dymo STR8T-Fit driver.
Other top new drivers were tested included the reassuringly solid-feeling Wilson Smooth which Padraig Harrington paraded at the Buick recently.
Some other impressive models included the Adams Speedline, as endorsed by Tom Watson, with a rounded, aerodynamic body claimed to add an extra 3-4 mph of clubhead speed (equating to 3-9 yards of extra distance).
“Extreme geometry drivers continually test with higher drag and lower clubhead speed,” claimed Scott Burnett, Adams’ Director of Advanced Product Development. By changing the aerodynamic properties of the face and crown to keep the airflow attached, we were able to deliver a significant distance advantage for the average player and tour pro alike.”
The latest irons for 2009 have some interesting models for the new season. Among them are the much-heralded Nike Victory Red irons in three versions of blade, split-cavity and full-cavity to match your desired degree of forgiveness and workability.
Callaway refine their Notch Weighting principle in the X-22 while adding a vibration-dampening polycarbonate tip plug within the Thru’ Bore head design for a smoother feel. Mizuno has four new irons for ‘09, including the latest Grain Flow forged MP-52 and MP62, and the more game-improvement styled MX-100 and MX-200. The latter have a special YTune cavity pad which extends the hitting area more into the toe of the face to match the most common miss-hit patterns of amateurs.
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