And what a fantastic product it was. The looks sound and feel were all right on the money. It was the best Ping driver I had ever hit.
I was fitted into the SFT model which has tungsten weighting in the heel. In testing it was giving me fantastic results but on the course it was going a bit left for me. I’m used to aiming left and playing with a fade so it just needs a bit of practice and a change of alignment for me to make it work.
[skylab_video id=”134320″]Best drivers YT[/skylab_video]
A little bird has told me Ping might be launching a new driver in January and by the sounds of it, it’ll be right in my wheelhouse.
My personal awards would be:
Gold: TaylorMade M2
Silver: Callaway GBB Epic Sub Zero
Bronze: Ping G400 SFT
Best golf equipment 2017: Players irons
What a year it has been for stylish bladed irons. Blades made a real comeback in 2017 after a few years with more focus on distance irons.
The first to launch were the Mizuno MP-18 which we first saw at Royal Birkdale ahead of The Open.
We had a clean muscleback, a split cavity and a multi-material MMC model. As far as looks and feel go, Mizuno are in a class of their own.
TaylorMade brought the P730 to market which were what Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Dustin Johnson effectively put into play in 2017.
Each player had their own ‘proto’ version of the P730 but it was Dustin Johnson’s irons which are closest to what the public can buy.
The Titleist 718 irons launch saw the introduction of a new MB model which Justin Thomas used to win the PGA Championship with.
And finally we had the new Apex MB blades from Callaway towards the end of the year which Sergio Garcia has been playing since his move from TaylorMade.
As a mid-handicapper, I’m not about to comment on which performs best but I’ll give my awards based on looks alone:
Gold: Mizuno MP-18
Silver: Callaway Apex MB/Titleist 718 MB
Bronze: TaylorMade P730
[skylab_video id=”134320″]Best drivers YT[/skylab_video]
Best golf equipment 2017: Distance irons
This the area which causes me the most trouble as I’ve been chopping and changing my irons far too regularly this year.
I started 2017 with the Mizuno JPX900 Hot Metal in the bag but they were launched in 2016 so are disqualified.
The Ping G400 then went straight into play after they were introduced at the back end of the summer – the best Ping irons I’d ever played with. Not overly chunky and a great sound and feel.
I was then fitted into the Titleist 718 AP1 at the brand’s launch up at Archerfield. Having played the 714 and 716 versions of AP1 I was truly impressed with how the aesthetics had got better each year.
So I’ll be practising over the winter to see which model I’ll put in play for 2018.
My awards:
Gold: Ping G400/Titleist 718 AP1
Silver: TaylorMade M2
Bronze: Callaway Steelhead XR
[skylab_video id=”134408″]BEst irons you tube[/skylab_video]
Best golf equipment 2017: ‘Super premium’ irons
We tested out the PXG 0311 irons at the brand’s launch event in the summer and were hugely impressed.
And it seems the other major manufacturers have attempted to get a piece of this super premium market where sets of irons are well over £1,000.
The Callaway Epic irons performed really well but were maybe a little bit too premium from a price point of view.
We were extremely impressed with the TaylorMade P790 as they seemed to be ticking all the boxes for looks, sound, feel and power.
We feel they cover a really wide range of handicaps as they aren’t intimidating at all and won’t put off ‘better’ players.
We weren’t really expecting the Titleist 718 T-MB to be available as a full set but like the P790s they offered golfers superb ball speed and distance but all in a package that looked great at address and in the bag.
Gold: TaylorMade P790
Silver: PXG 0311
Bronze: Titleist 718 T-MB/Callaway Epic
Post us a comment below if we’ve missed out any of your favourites.
