2012 Golf Digest Hot List-Results

[Jmdmbike]

Too many of the Hot and Not comments either aren't helpful - too often have nothing to do with the performance of the club - or are not consistent across different brands. Last year they slagged off Cleveland's CG 16 for having too strong of lofts - "a 19 degree 3 iron? A 21 degree 4 iron? Come on, man!" Arent those the exact same specs of the TM Burner 2.0? In this years edition, the critique of the RocketBallz GI iron is the name. How is that helping anyone? Other times they seem to get it right, and give you decent information on only the things that matter when it comes to the performance of the club. The Hot List is a great idea, but would be better for all if they focussed on performance issues and left the other stuff out of the equation.

[Domenic]

yeah GD is so fickle, do you not want too much distraction on the RBZ, or not enough on the VS. The "Hot" in this, is  if GD ever made a line of clubs, it would be the all time most perfect set ever in the history and future of golf. They've got a pretty good handle on it.

[jamo]

FWIW, I don't hate the Hot List, but I think given GD's manpower, money, connects, and writing talent it could be so much better. [quote name="Jmdmbike" url="/t/54963/2012-golf-digest-hot-list-results/36#post_672011"]Too many of the Hot and Not comments either aren't helpful - too often have nothing to do with the performance of the club - or are not consistent across different brands. [/quote] That's the thing that gets me the most, and why I mentioned it earlier. The TaylorMade RBZ is not even close to the most crowded or gaudy crown, yet that's what they decide to nitpick? If there's really nothing terribly wrong with the club (or the only things you could perceive as bad are more personal preference), why not say that? I would like if they made some sort of "nitpick legend" of a bunch of abbreviations for little things, like "Gc' for "gaudy crown" or "48" for "really, really, way too long shaft." It has a few downsides (namely, having to flip pages over and over if you don't memorize the list, and space could be an issue), but that's the best idea I've come up. FWIW, Justin (AKA ControlJunkie) did some stuff on the Hot List last year: http://thesandtrap.com/b/bag_drop/the_hot_list_hot_or_not http://thesandtrap.com/b/bag_drop/the_hot_list_how_to_improve_it [quote name="B-Con" url="/t/54963/2012-golf-digest-hot-list-results/18#post_671935"] Meh, indeed. I saw something that illustrated this mindset wonderfully, what was it, last year or the year before? It was a wedge whose "not" listed consisted [i]entirely[/i] of "we'd like like to see more education for the consumers regarding the options". Really? The club is worse in my bag because they didn't spend enough time talking to me about it on their website? Isn't that part of your job, as the magazine, to show me the diamonds in the rough and fill in the gaps of my knowledge? Why are you dinging the club because the customer don't already know enough about it?[/quote] In a comment I made on the first article I linked to I mentioned the particular club I think you were thinking of: Jamieson Weiss says: January 20, 2011 at 12:52pm My favorite "Not" comment in this year's issue is for the Callaway X Series Jaws CC wedge (which got a gold award and 4, 5, 4, and 3.5 stars in the categories). It seems like GD couldn't think of anything to complain about, so they put "We'd like to see more of an effort to educate players on finding the right mix of bounce/loft." Okay, but how does that have anything to do with this wedge?

[B-Con]

In a comment I made on the first article I linked to I mentioned the particular club I think you were thinking of: Jamieson Weiss says: January 20, 2011 at 12:52pm My favorite "Not" comment in this year's issue is for the Callaway X Series Jaws CC wedge (which got a gold award and 4, 5, 4, and 3.5 stars in the categories). It seems like GD couldn't think of anything to complain about, so they put "We'd like to see more of an effort to educate players on finding the right mix of bounce/loft." Okay, but how does that have anything to do with this wedge?

Yep, that's it. (I even remembered it was a Callaway wedge.) It looks like they felt obliged to fill the blank in with [i]something[/i]...

[pdks]

When you step back and look at the way the big auto publications rate cars in their 'shootouts' vs what GD does in their Hotlist, it is night and day.  The car guys compare models that would likely be on someone's shopping list, come up with the criteria (just like GD does) but then they really dive in ...and rank them. Lots of objective, numbers based testing, in addition to qualitative analysis.  First to last.  And the funny thing is, the last place manufacturer doesn't stop advertising in the magazine.  It's their culture.  Golf as an industry is just too polite!

[Everardo]

On 1/8/2012 at 7:10 PM, LuciusWooding said:

I can't see how the hot list is worth listening to.

and 10 years later, still the same. Just got the issue in the mail and I just skip over that whole section, to me it's pointless.

[iacas]

8 hours ago, Everardo said:

and 10 years later, still the same. Just got the issue in the mail and I just skip over that whole section, to me it's pointless.

I do too, yeah.

[saevel25]

Every major brand gets a gold medal. All the off brands get silver. Its pretty typical. 

[Everardo]

14 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Every major brand gets a gold medal. All the off brands get silver. Its pretty typical. 

Basically the participation trophy of golf manufacturers. Like Oprah passing out swag, "you get a gold medal, you get a gold medal" 😹😹😹

[boogielicious]

7 hours ago, Everardo said:

Basically the participation trophy of golf manufacturers. Like Oprah passing out swag, "you get a gold medal, you get a gold medal" 😹😹😹

Or NCAA football teams going to bowl games with a 6-6 record!

[Bucki1968]

Seems like it's a marketing tool for Dick's and Golf Galaxy?

[imsys0042]

49 minutes ago, Bucki1968 said:

Seems like it's a marketing tool for Dick's and Golf Galaxy?

I can't stand golf.com for the same reason.   It's basically click-bait and tons of articles for stuff you can buy.  Hilariously, some of it is ludicrously over priced and part of endless "15 things you must have" articles.

[TourSpoon]

Although the Vokey SM4 is one of the best Vokeys of all time. But then again, Vokey is an automatic gold every year. I dare the powers to be to give them a silver!