OUR EXPERTS Our scientists and fitters make the Hot List better. The scientists prod manufacturers to find true innovations, and our fitters from Golf Galaxy ensure that players hit the right clubs for their swings. Together, they’re crucial to our search for the clubs that matter.
OUR PROCESS Founded in research from our scientists and extensive testing by players like you
The Hot List is a huge effort by the Golf Digest editorial team, especially staffers Daria Delfino and Jared Goldstein. But the voting is fuelled by contributions from two groups that aren’t getting paid. Our team of scientists advises us on which technologies show the most promise, and our panel of 32 player-testers lets us know which clubs are working and how. Together, they make up the foundation for our three Hot List criteria:
PERFORMANCE 50%
INNOVATION 30% In consultation with our scientists and based on our interviews with company R&D teams and our review of company technical documents, this grade reflects how a particular technology advances the category. We also consider how that technology is explained and how much of a commitment to fitting a company has made. In short, the best clubs in Innovation are changing what’s possible.
LOOK / SOUND / FEEL 20% Using input from our testers, we rate the relative excellence of the visual, auditory and tactile experience of hitting a particular club. The more the club resonates with our understanding of what a golf club should be, the higher the grade it receives. In short, this is a measure of what the player discovers while testing each club.
SCIENTISTS
MARTIN BROUIL- LETTE, PHD
Based on interviews with our testers, we assess the utility of each club. In other words, this is a grade of what happens to the ball when a player hits it. Rapsodo MLM2Pro launch monitors are used at every hitting station, and during testing this time we recorded nearly 29 000 shots. Fitters work with players on-site so that they are evaluating clubs that are ideal for their individual specs. (For example, a tester most likely will hit only the driver model within a driver family that fits his or her game.) Also, our low-handicap players don’t evaluate super- game-improvement irons, just as our high-handicap players don’t hit players irons. All of the drivers are tested for conformance to the rules on spring-like effect before player evaluations begin.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sherbrooke TOM MASE, PHD Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Cal Poly- San Luis Obispo JOHN MCPHEE, PHD Professor of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo
GOLD Products earned a score of 93 to 100 . SILVER Products earned a score of 88 to 92.99 .
DICK RUGGE Senior Technical Director (retired), USGA
FITTERS
97-100 ★★★★★ 88-96 ★★★★ 70-87 ★★★ 51-69 ★★ ≤ 50 ★
CHRIS MARCHINI Director of Golf Experience, Golf Galaxy, Pennsylvania ANDREW FARLOW Golf Galaxy, Richmond, Virginia
HOT LIST TOP 5 AND VECTOR RATINGS
In addition to our overall star ratings for each club in Performance and Look/ Sound/Feel, we also ask our player-testers to provide their input in two other dimensions that you will see in the individual club writeups. First, we look at the collective average of each player’s score for the Look, Sound/Feel and Performance criteria for clubs that earned one of the Top 5 highest
average scores based on player handicap. So you will see in the writeups a mention of a club that earned a Top 5 average score for a particular handicap group in one of these criteria. Another area where you will see ratings are what we call “vectors.” These are meant to be descriptive ratings about a certain characteristic of a club, and in most cases
(exceptions are the vectors for “Forgiveness” and some wedge performance), these aren’t bad/good evaluations but characterisations across a spectrum where a rating of “1” is on the extreme left side of the graphic and a rating of “5” is on the extreme right side. These scores describe the appearance, feel and sound of a club in specific ways. We think you’ll find these features helpful. – MS
ALEX KENNEDY Golf Galaxy, Pittsburgh
DEVIN LOGUE Golf Galaxy, Richmond, Virginia
DANIEL MARTINEZ Golf Galaxy, Orlando
PAT SNYDER Golf Galaxy, Pittsburgh
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 5
HOT LIST 2025
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