What's the buzz around the Costco Kirkland Signature Irons?

Costco's Kirkland Signature brand has become synonymous with high-quality products at unbeatable prices, and the golf world is no exception. Their latest release, the Kirkland Signature 7-piece Players Iron Set, has generated serious buzz amongst golfers of all skill levels. But what's behind the hype? Let's take a closer look at these irons, manufactured by Indi Golf, and see if they live up to the Kirkland Signature legacy.

First Impressions: Premium Performance, Budget-Friendly Price

Right off the bat, the Kirkland Signature irons impress with their sleek, modern design. The cavity-back construction inspires confidence at address, while the clean lines and minimal branding exude a touch of sophistication. But don't be fooled by the understated aesthetic – these irons pack a serious performance punch.

Forged for Feel and Forgiveness

Made from premium 431 stainless steel, the irons are surprisingly soft for their price point. This translates to a buttery feel at impact, even on mishits. Indi Golf's proprietary forging process ensures consistent density throughout the clubhead, maximizing both feel and forgiveness. So, whether you're a scratch golfer or a weekend warrior, you can expect a satisfying connection and optimal distance control.

Progressive Design for Every Shot

The Kirkland Signature irons feature a progressive design that caters to different distances and trajectories throughout the set. The longer irons boast larger heads and wider soles for increased forgiveness and launch, while the shorter irons prioritize precision and control. This thoughtful design ensures versatility and playability for every shot on the course.

Technology that Makes a Difference

Beyond the sleek design and premium materials, the Kirkland Signature irons are packed with technology that elevates your game. The True Temper Elevate 115 steel shafts provide a smooth, mid-launch trajectory, ideal for both distance and accuracy. Additionally, the Lamkin Crossline 360 grips offer exceptional comfort and control, further enhancing your feel and swing mechanics.

Performance Meets Value: The Kirkland Signature Advantage

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the Kirkland Signature irons is their unbeatable price point. At just $499.99 for the 7-piece set (4-9 irons and pitching wedge), these irons offer incredible value compared to similarly specced clubs from major brands, which can easily cost upwards of $1,000 or more. This makes them an attractive option for both budget-conscious beginners and experienced players looking for a high-performance upgrade without breaking the bank.

Early Reviews are Favorable

While the Kirkland Signature irons are still relatively new, early reviews from golfers at all levels have been overwhelmingly positive. Praises include the irons' excellent feel, forgiveness, and distance control, all at a price point that's simply unheard of in the golf world.

The Verdict: A (POSSIBLE) Game-Changer for Golfers of All Levels

Whether you're a seasoned golfer seeking a performance upgrade or a newcomer looking for a quality starter set, the Kirkland Signature irons by Indi Golf deserve serious consideration. They offer exceptional value, premium materials and technology, and a design that caters to a wide range of skill levels. If you're looking to elevate your game without breaking the bank, the Kirkland Signature irons are a game-changer you won't want to miss.

Callaway Paradym Fairway Wood Review

The Callaway Paradym fairway woods are the most forgiving and longest fairway woods that Callaway has ever made. They feature a number of innovative technologies that work together to deliver incredible performance.

These woods are offered in two different varieties: Callaway Paradym and Paradym Triple Diamond. Depending on your spin rate and clubhead preference, you may choose one variant over the other.

Key Features

The Paradym fairway woods feature three key technologies:

• Jailbreak AI Technology: This technology uses two internal bars to stiffen the crown and sole of the clubhead, which increases ball speed and forgiveness on off-center hits.

• Forged Carbon Face: This lightweight face material provides a more responsive feel and increased ball speed.

• Tungsten Weighting: A tungsten weight is positioned in the sole of the clubhead to improve launch and forgiveness.

Benefits

The combination of these technologies results in a number of benefits, including:

• Increased distance: The Paradym fairway woods are designed to deliver more distance than previous Callaway fairway woods. In independent testing, they were found to be up to 10 yards longer than the Rogue ST MAX fairway woods.

• Forgiveness: The Jailbreak AI Technology and Tungsten Weighting make the Paradym fairway woods incredibly forgiving on off-center hits. This means that you can still get a good result even if you don't make a perfect swing.

• High launch: The tungsten weight in the sole of the clubhead helps to promote a high launch angle, which is ideal for golfers who struggle to get the ball in the air.

• Responsive feel: The Forged Carbon Face provides a more responsive feel than traditional titanium faces. This means that you can feel the ball compress on impact, which gives you more confidence in your swing.

Performance

I had the opportunity to test the Callaway Paradym fairway woods on the golf course and I was very impressed with their performance. They were incredibly long and forgiving, and I was able to get a good result even on off-center hits. I also liked the responsive feel of the Forged Carbon Face.

This was especially true off the turf, which is a shot I do not usually hit that often during my round. Because of this rarity, I need a fairway wood to perform right away. The Callaway Paradym fairway wood delivered right away and offered optimal launch and control immediately.

Target Audience

The Callaway Paradym fairway woods are a great option for golfers of all skill levels who are looking for a forgiving and long-hitting fairway wood. They are particularly well-suited for golfers who struggle to get the ball in the air or who want a club that they can rely on to perform even on off-center hits.

Availability and Pricing

The Callaway Paradym fairway woods are available at most golf retailers. They are priced at $399 per club.

Overall Impression

The Callaway Paradym fairway woods are a major step forward for Callaway. They are the most forgiving and longest fairway woods that Callaway has ever made, and they offer a number of performance benefits that will appeal to golfers of all skill levels. If you are looking for a new fairway wood that will help you hit longer and straighter shots, the Callaway Paradym is a great option.

How to Know Which Golf Club to Use

The average golfer has more than a dozen clubs in their golf bag. Someone starting and heading out onto a golf course for the first time may not yet understand which golf club to use. How far you want to hit the ball or where you are near the hole will dictate the type of golf club you take out. 

Until a player develops the instinct to know which golf club is best, here are some basics for learning what a situation calls for.

Golf Clubs

Golf clubs are numbered from low to high. The lower numbers will let you hit the ball further, whereas the higher numbers are meant to help you with shorter distances. Though not all golf club types are numbered, several are. The number refers to the loft, aka the angle the golf club faces. As you change the loft, so will the golf ball's height and distance.

Golf Putters

Most non-golfers think of putters when thinking of a golf club. A putter is used to carefully roll the ball along the green and sink it into the hole. New and used putters range in size from 34 to 35 inches tall. There are also putters with a flat or mallet and different subcategories for those above average height.

Golf Drivers

A golf driver is all about driving for a distance. It has the lowest loft angle of any golf club. That said, it's pretty easy to use. For beginners, they may not get the control and consistency with a driver as they could with a slightly smaller club.

Golf Wedges

Wedges are your go-to when lifting your ball above tall grass and getting up and off a sand trap. They're available in several types, ranging from 45 degrees of loft which is a pitching wedge, or 64 degrees with a lob wedge.

Hybrid Clubs

Many golfers favour hybrid clubs. They are a combination club, blending a fairway wood head with an iron-length shaft design. As we mentioned, drivers being more difficult to handle for accuracy, a hybrid would be what most would grab instead. 

A hybrid club is more likely to give you the spin and soft landing you want. It will also help guide your ball exactly where it needs to be.

Golf Irons

Irons have the power to help you out of almost any situation. Grab your irons if you need a club with the most power possible. They find their best use within 200 yards of the green. The closer you are to the green, the higher the number you want. As a general guideline, irons range from a 2-iron for 105 to 210 yards up to a 9-iron for 55 to 135 yards.

Fairway Woods

Fairway woods are pulled for use on the fairway. If you're not sure what to grab for a given shot, fairway wood is a solid choice most of the time. If you aren't sure which fairway product is most suitable, some general distance guidelines are a 3-wood for 125 to 240 yards, a 4-wood for 110 to 220 yards, a 5-wood for 105 to 215 yards, or a 7-wood for 90 to 170 yards. 

Golf Club Length

Before collecting each golf club for your game, ensure they are properly fitted to your height. A golfer using clubs not appropriate for their height will notice that the clubs feel heavy, their posture is too upright, it will feel like you're standing too far away from the ball, and your angle may be difficult to judge.

Golf Practice

Even if you have all the right clubs, you won't get the performance you expect if you don't know how to use them. Every club hits a little differently. A driver should be swung slightly upwards to launch the ball upward. Iron should be driven down into the ball so that the loft puts in the work to launch it off the ground. The saying, "Practice makes perfect." is truer than with one's golf game.

The best golf club to use depends on your ability to know how much you can hit the ball with each club. So practice. Hit roughly 50 balls with each club. Take away the five longest shots and the five shortest shots, and figure out your middle of those 40 remaining shots. This can be a chore, but you will have your average yardage at the end of this practice, reinforcing the best golf club for any given shot.

Cleveland Golf RTX ZipCore Wedge Review

Cleveland RTX ZipCore wedge.

The new Cleveland Golf RTX ZipCore wedges are an intriguing upgrade from their incredibly popular RTX4 wedges from last year. Featuring a new weighting profile and technology in their clubhead, ZipCore promises to be a major player in the market this season.

What’s New in the Cleveland RTX Zipcore?

You’ve heard this story before: Cleveland Golf is known for their short game innovation. As a brand, you find a niche and make that your main focal point for months — or in this case, YEARS — to fine-tune and perfect your offerings every year. With any luck, you can become the pace car which all other brands follow.

Cleveland has long been a staple in the short game category. Offering wedges for any level of player (most recently the outstanding CBX2 wedges notwithstanding) in a wide range of customization options reinforces the sentiment that they want you to improve. This is especially true with the new features in the ZipCore wedges.

Believe it or not: better players need help in their short game, too. They’d prefer that help to come in a familiar look.

"Cleveland wedges are always just beautiful looking clubs, and this one is no different,” said 2019 Open Champion Shane Lowry. “They're very traditional and I just love them. You need to be able to trust what your wedges are going to do, and RTX ZipCore does everything I need it to do. I couldn't ask for anything else in a wedge."

Trust and performance go hand-in-hand with ZipCore thanks to the combination of a new low-density core in the heart of the clubhead and Cleveland’s new UltiZip grooves. (Don’t you just love these names?)

Cleveland RTX ZipCore wedge grooves.

New Low-Density Core

When it comes to consistency in a wedge, you need to consider where the center-of-gravity (COG) is located. Too high, and the ball goes too low. Too low, and the ball flies too high. While easily adjusted in your driver, you can’t do that with a wedge (yet). Things get even more unpredictable depending on where you make contact on the face.

The wicked smart R&D folks made ZipCore with this as a focus, shifting the COG while also boosting High-Low MOI for more stability high and low on the wedge face. The result is a slightly “heavier” wedge that you can feel in your swing, promoting more impacts on the sweet spot. Consistency in distance and feel are pretty important with wedge-play, wouldn’t you agree?

UltiZip Grooves

What’s better than a properly weighted wedge that helps you find the sweet spot? One that has new groove technology to help with spin, DUH!

RTX ZipCore features Cleveland’s new UltiZip Grooves. What’s new about them? Let’s go to the ridiculously precise measurements on the press release.

Compared to previous generations, UltiZip Grooves are 11% sharper and 7.3% deeper, while also being 7.4% closer together for more groove contact area. The combination and optimization of these factors ensure that RTX ZipCore generates increased spin and consistent spin performance from any condition on the course.

Hey Jeff Brunksi, what does that mean?

“The new RTX ZipCore is a technological leap forward for Cleveland wedges,” said Jeff Brunski, Vice President of Research and Development. “We’ve inserted a low-density core inside the clubhead, allowing us to create a wedge with unprecedented consistency and exceptional feel. They also feature our tour-proven grinds and most aggressive groove technology to date–all packaged in a sleek yet traditional design.”

RTX ZipCore wedges.

So Do they Work?

I’ve played the RTX ZipCore wedges for about a month now. Admittedly I was a little hesitant to veer away from the game-improvement-esque CBX2 wedges I’d fallen in love with, so I assumed there would be an adjustment period. I was pleased to learn that wasn’t the case.

These wedges look, feel, and perform great. I need a wedge that’s a little heavier due to my swing tendencies, which sometimes cause me to hit my wedges thin. RTX ZipCore addresses this perfectly, providing the right amount of “heft” to promote solid strikes and turf interaction on every swing.

Spin was also an eye-opener for me, even in comparison to previous wedge models from Cleveland. Shots around the green or from farther out spun more than what I was accustomed to, in a good way. I love to see a full shot bounce once, stop, and maybe even back up. RTX ZipCore provided this to me from almost every lie, including shots from the rough.

There’s nothing negative I have to say about these wedges, and that’s not because the brand is a sponsor. This is an incredibly well built tool to help your game. Anyone would agree, and I’m sure you will, too.

One word of caution: the clubhead is a little smaller than other wedges, which lends itself possibly to a better player category. However, because of the weighting and tech discussed above, I believe you will find the RTX ZipCore wedges to fit nicely in your game, and therefore your golf bag.

The Cleveland Golf RTX ZipCore wedges will retail for $149.99 and are available everywhere on August 14, 2020.

Are there too many golf club options?

Have golf equipment manufacturers unknowingly confused customers because of providing too many choices? Earlier today Callaway Golf announced the release of two new iron series upgrades to their popular Apex and X-Forged models. This brings their total current iron offerings to double digits, which caused a bit of a ruckus among equipment junkies on social.

On one hand, having too many options from which to choose could paralyze the potential buyer. On the other, having too few options limits the versatility of a brand. It's a wonder how marketing departments and R&D balance this dynamic.

So where is the middle ground? Is there one?

Limiting choice is not the answer

Believe it or not folks: the golf OEMs know what they're doing in this case.

While I do not agree with the way rapid release cycles are handled by some, offering a menu of golf clubs allows us, the consumers, a sense of control. We aren't pigeonholed into buckets or a corner of binary options. Instead, we are shown opportunities of being better without taking a giant leap into the unknown. We crave familiarity.

Golf is a sport that excells not on greens but in areas of grey.

This is why custom fitting is so important

Yeah, I'm still beating this dead horse.

Chances are out of the 10 iron models offered by Callaway, you are able to successfully play two or three. Some will be too "game improvementy" for you. Others will be geared toward players better than you.

Throw in shaft combinations and iron spec adjustments and you're facing dozens, if not hundreds, of club options among those two or three models.

Having more options available increases the chances of a custom fitter finding you the best club combination possible. The alternative is choosing among unleaded, premium, or that weird corn stuff.

That may seem like an easy choice to make, but there is a difference between choosing and settling.

PREVIEW: Ping i200 Irons

The new Ping i200 irons are designed for the better player, but with enough forgiveness to appeal to low-to-mid handicappers who prefer the look of a blade. Ping incorporates a number of tech advancements and fine-tuning in their latest offering to give players bigger distances and more accuracy over last year's model.

What Ping Says

“The i200 iron is engineered for golfers who want an iron with a clean look that delivers exceptional feel, distance and forgiveness while providing the trajectory control they need to play with precision,” said John A. Solheim, PING Chairman & CEO. “Bringing all these benefits into one iron required our teams to re-think how the face and cavity structure can work together to improve overall performance. The feel is amazing and the gains in forgiveness are significant for an iron this size. It’s a shot-maker’s iron by design, but it will fit a lot of golfers because it’s so easy to play. This iron will exceed their expectations in every way, especially the feel.”

First Impression

Based purely on what Ping has told me, there is certainly a target demographic of golfers for these new irons: better players. Most Tour players on Ping's roster play an i-Series iron of some sort, and as MyGolfSpy.com suggests, those remaining will transition to the Ping i200 irons sooner or later.

I was a fan of the s-Series irons Ping offered a couple years ago, as well as the Ping i25 irons I gamed for about a year. Both featured the matte-finish and rounded profiles that fans of the brand love, and the i200 irons appear to stick with that look.

The problem for me? I don't love the look of Ping irons. I prefer chrome finishes and sharper lines at address, which is a stark contrast from what Ping offers.

Performance-wise, however, Ping is a name you can trust. Iron technology hasn't changed drastically over the last decade, but if any company is going to keep their loyalists happy in terms of tech, it's going to be Ping.

What This Means for You

I'm going to guess that the Ping i200 irons aren't substantially better than last year's model, despite what the PR language suggests. Consumers who purchased any i-Series club over within the last two years can probably look the other way for now and not miss much.

Of course, there are a small group of golfers who always need the newest stuff in their bags no matter what. Let those kids have their fun; the rest of us should be more stringent on how we spend our dollars.

As always, try these clubs out and formulate your own opinion. Go in looking for how the Ping i200 irons can improve a specific aspect of your game. I will be sure to do the same when testing these irons in the next few weeks.

The Ping i200 irons are available for pre-order now.

REVIEW: Cobra KING LTD Pro Driver

I've been singing the praises of Cobra Golf's evident progress in their metalwoods for a couple years now, and the Cobra KING LTD Pro driver continues that trend. Since I already game the KING LTD version offered by the company, I was interested to see how it's smaller-headed cousin compares. I was not disappointed.

Specifications

Overall, the Cobra KING LTD Pro driver has all the same bells and whistles as the KING LTD, with lower loft and fade settings (all the way down to 7-degrees!) that will appeal to the cool kids at your country club.

Equipped with Cobra's MyFly technology and adjustability features, the Cobra KING LTD Pro promotes a penetrating ball flight when coupled with the lowest possible COG available in their product line. Throw in an ultra-lightweight crown and speed channel face and you've got a recipe for extreme ball speeds.

Long story short: if you have a high swing speed (100+) you may benefit more from the KING LTD Pro than what the KING LTD can offer.

Performance

First and foremost, I should not be playing this driver. My max swing speed touches 100 mph on a confident day while hovering more around 90-95 as the norm. I won't be switching from my current driver, which is just fine by me.

Even still, the benefits that the Cobra KING LTD Pro driver offers to the right type of player are clear and impressive. But just to make sure I got a good opinion on its performance, I had a low single-digit handicap test the driver along with using my driver -- the non-pro Cobra KING LTD -- as a control.

On average, the tester carried the non-pro version 268.3 yards with a slight draw (10.5 degrees). Of the 10 balls he hit on the range, most would have landed "in the fairway" and rolled a good distance. Not too shabby.

Comparatively, the tester averaged a 270.8 carry with the KING LTD Pro set at the same loft and no fade bias. Not a substantial boost in distance by any means, but extrapolated over the course of a round and you could see a significant difference.

Overall Takeaway

Our tester loved the Cobra KING LTD Pro driver overall and was impressed with how "easy" the club was to hit. While he didn't experience huge distance gains compared to the non-pro KING LTD, he very much preferred the pro version when compared to his current driver (about 10 yards further). Choosing which KING LTD offering boils down to personal preference for the pro player.

8 Wastes in Golf: Inventory

A few weeks ago I started our discussion on each of the eight types of waste seen in the golf industry, beginning with a commentary on the waste of Transport. I will dive deeper into each of the 8 wastes -- Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-Production, Over-Processing, Defects and Skills -- in a series of posts on this blog. Where appropriate, I will also offer my suggestions to reduce and/or eliminate excessive waste in each category. I hope you will join the conversation by posting your thoughts in the comment section below.

This week we continue our discussion with perhaps the most obvious waste seen in the golf equipment industry today: the waste of Inventory.

What is the waste of inventory?

The waste of Inventory describes any excess of raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP) or finished goods stock that is held for far longer than what the customer demands (commonly referred to as the Just-In-Time principle). Simply put, the waste of inventory is simply having too much "stuff" on store shelves and not enough customers to buy it.

How does this relate to the Golf Equipment Industry?

I think we can all agree that the current state of the golf equipment industry exemplifies this type of waste.

Think of any Golfsmith, Golf Galaxy, or Dick's Sporting Goods store you've ever been to. Traditionally, you will see new products along the outer perimeter most likely displayed on a wall or in small club racks (especially in the case of drivers and woods). For new inventory, this is actually a very lean method to display a product. After all, you don't see mountains of new irons stacked on top of one another. There is usually only one -- maybe two -- display model of a new set of irons for you to try.

The same cannot be said for the clearance rack. These sections of the store are usually much more muddled and disorganized, featuring a cornucopia of different brands and club types waiting for a customer to buy them.

Second-hand stores are even worse in this regard. Play-It-Again Sports -- a popular used sporting good retail chain -- could very well have been named Golf Club Graveyard. Layers upon layers of golf clubs from years past litter these stores' shelves, often going months or years without being purchased. Before too long storeowners must unload this excessive inventory by either donating the equipment or simply throwing it away. Either way, you're dealing with a form of waste.

How is this wasteful?

Every piece of inventory you hold comes with a physical cost to store it. It doesn't matter if we are talking about pharmaceuticals, car parts, kitchen utensils or golf clubs. If you are a business owner, you are paying someone for the space to store all of your inventory. Every penny that you tie up in inventory is one penny less that can be used elsewhere in your company. This is simple business economics.

There are also hidden -- and sometimes more serious -- forms of waste within inventory. You have to pay employees to keep track of your inventory. You have to maintain the shelving, containers, security protocols and overall environment of the space used to store your stuff. Overproduction -- another type of waste -- goes hand-in-hand with inventory as store owners cushion their product volume with a 'comfort stock.' All of this costs money.

So what is the solution?

As always, this is not an easy question to answer. From a Lean Six Sigma perspective, the first step would be to compare actual product sales against inventory volume to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in dollars spent. It would be helpful to break this comparison down by quarter, especially around "busy times" immediately before a new product release.

While I do not have direct access to this type of information from OEMs, past experience suggests that most golf clubs rarely sell out, even within the first few months post-release. On one hand, this is exactly the scenario that companies want: inventory is high enough to prevent people from having to wait to buy their product. On the other hand, most of the new clubs will not be purchased, causing excessive inventory and the snowball effect explained above.

The best possible solution, in my opinion, would be to go to a direct-buy, Just-In-Time production model where golf clubs are made and sold on a 'made-to-order' basis. Allow customers the opportunity to demo a club at their nearest golf retailer, but then require them to purchase "their" club direct from the OEM.

REVIEW: Mizuno JPX 850 Driver

  The new Mizuno JPX 850 driver proves that the company is making a huge push in the metalwoods department, both in terms of technology and performance. We had the chance to test the new driver during a recent range session. These are the results.

Features

According to the company website, Mizuno introduced their Fast Track technology to the golf world in 2007. This tech makes a return in the JPX 850 driver, allowing you to adjust weight dispersion, center-of-gravity placement, spin rates and shot shape. In addition, you are also able to adjust the loft (8 settings ranging from 7.5- to 11.5 degrees) of the club thanks to an adjustable hosel.

Look and Feel

The Mizuno JPX 850 driver is absolutely gorgeous to look at. We particularly liked the bright blue club crown and white accent colors, which provided the club an ultra-modern appearance. The matte-gray clubface contrasted against the golf ball beautifully, adding to the club's allure.

At impact, the JPX 850 driver felt soft and crisp; two qualities that we prefer. The ball explodes off the clubface with a "professional" muted sound that will attract the attention and envy of your playing partners. When hit flush, I'm not sure there is a better feeling driver on the market.

The new JPX 850 driver by my friends at @Golf_Mizuno #golf

A video posted by Adam (@afonsecagolf) on Nov 11, 2014 at 4:32pm PST

Performance

We were very impressed with the Mizuno JPX 850 driver's overall performance. While it took a little experimenting to find the proper setting for our club tester, the results that followed were absolutely incredible. Even on a cold, windy Chicago afternoon, drives routinely carried 240+ yards on flush hits, running out well past 265 yards. There's no telling how this will translate during the summer months, but we're excited.

The Mizuno JPX 850 driver was also quite forgiving. We did notice a slight distance drop on drives off the toe and/or heel, but accuracy never seemed to be compromised. The club's gear effect corrected impact mistakes very nicely.

Overall

Believe it or not, but the new Mizuno JPX 850 driver will be in my bag to start next season. We haven't hit a driver that capitalized on all critical areas (distance, accuracy, adjustability) quite like the Mizuno JPX 850 driver. Mizuno simply got this right.

DUFF TEST: Scratch Golf Wedges

Scratch Golf is an independent club manufacturer located just outside of Detroit, Michigan that specializes in hand-crafted, customized golf equipment. While they might not be a household name in many parts of the United States just yet, Scratch Golf is by far one of the finest clubmakers I've ever worked with. I recently had the chance to test a pair of their incredible wedges, and was left with an overwhelming feeling that I've been missing out on something very, very special.

A first-hand look at these fancy Scratch wedges. Review coming up on ChicagoDuffer.com shortly. #golf

A video posted by Adam (@afonsecagolf) on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:38pm PST

Fitting Process

Scratch Golf has each of their customers go through an extensive fitting process to identify the proper wedge grind for your game. While the preferred process is for you to visit one of their professional fitting centers, you can also work with a Scratch Golf fitter via email. I have a tendency to hit fat shots with my wedges due to a steep attack angle, so it was recommended that I test wedges with a Digger/Driver Grind (DD).

Look and Feel

Every club that Scratch Golf builds looks like it should be kept in a classic golf club collection. The wedges I received we sleek, minimalist, and highly traditional without looking outdated. In other words, they are absolutely gorgeous.

From a feel standpoint, the Scratch Golf wedges cut through the turf like a hot knife through butter. The DD grind offered me a shallower divot, which helped me control my shots while feeling like the club was absorbing the golf ball. Each shot produced a crisp, pro-level sound that made me want to hit balls for hours.

Performance

As I've said in past reviews, I'm not quite the level of golfer that would be able to tell the difference in wedge spin rate without the help of a ball launch monitor. However, it was clear that the Scratch Golf wedges were built with a shot's end result in mind. Every single shot I hit into a green spun nicely, often checking and backing up on occasion. That's pretty neat for a 10-handicapper to see.

Distance was pretty consistent with my current wedges, if not slightly shorter. This wasn't a huge deal for me -- I just have to adjust to my new distances -- but there is definitely a "learning curve" with these wedges. Overall, I was very pleased with how well these scoring clubs performed.

Why you should buy these clubs

If you are a fan of wedges with a traditional look and a soft feel, Scratch Golf hits the nail on the head. If you are also looking for a wedge that can produce a high amount of spin and with a custom-fitting option, Scratch Golf should be your first stop to shop.

Why you might not buy these clubs

Scratch Golf is an independent brand with a very loyal, small following. If you prefer the "bigger brands," you might look elsewhere. Scratch Golf clubs are also priced slightly higher than more popular brands (wedges start at $179).

For more information on Scratch Golf, visit www.scratchgolf.com or email Patrick Boyd at patrick@scratchgolf.com.

REVIEW: Callaway Apex Irons

Everybody knows that Callaway Golf has been an industry leader in golf equipment for decades. While they are usually best known for making incredible drivers providing you more distance off the tee, their new Apex irons put Callaway squarely into the forefront of high quality iron sets. I’ll admit that I’m a little late to the party when it comes to testing the Callaway Apex irons (they were released back in December 2013), but sometimes good things come to those who wait. After just one driving range session testing these clubs, I can safely say the Callaway Apex irons are the best clubs I have ever tried. Period.

FIRST, The Boring Technical Stuff

Made with what Callaway is calling an “ultra hot face”, the Apex irons launch your golf ball in a penetrating ball flight that gets up into the air quickly without ballooning. These clubs were built for distance and forgiveness while packaged nicely into a forged clubhead that low-handicap players will appreciate. Each iron’s loft is also a tad stronger than standard, which again nods toward the “distance iron” category.

The Apex’s also feature a cavity back clubhead with a little extra meat directly behind and beneath the sweet spot. This aides in both forgiveness and getting the ball airborne. Me likey.

Feel and Appearance

The Callaway Apex irons look like a player’s club that isn’t afraid to show it’s forgiving qualities. The clubhead is slightly larger than what you see in most blades; however the top-line is still thinner than other game improvement irons. The black engraved Callaway logo looks great against the polished steel clubhead exterior. There is minimal (if any) offset in the irons, which should appeal to better players.

As far as feel, these irons cut through the turf like a hot knife through butter. The golf ball explodes off the face with a soft feel at impact and a sound that forged club-lovers will drool over.

Performance and Forgiveness

Did I mention these clubs were built for distance? I was amazed at how far I was hitting these clubs, especially when compared to my cast blades. The Callaway Apex 6-iron, for example, flew 175 yards on average, which is a huge distance for me with that club.

What was most impressive to me, however, were the clubs’ forgiveness. I literally could not hit a bad shot with these irons. I tried shots off the toe, the heel, and low on the clubface. No matter where I made contact, I saw minimal loss in distance. It was absolutely amazing.

Why you should but these clubs

To put it simply, the Callaway Apex irons will improve your game if you are a mid- to low-handicap golfer looking for more forgiveness and distance in your iron play. Higher-handicap players can also benefit from the distance boost they’ll experience from these irons

Why you should not buy these clubs

Honestly, I can’t think of a reason other than the price tag. At $1100 retail, the Callaway Apex’s are a bit on the pricey side. But if you are serious about your game and want a set of clubs to last you for a number of years, the Callaway Apex irons should be on your short list.

Not even kidding: these are the nicest irons I've ever hit. Period. @CallawayGolf #apex pic.twitter.com/tvAR5lMNy3

— Adam Fonseca (@ChicagoDuffer) April 20, 2014