2004: The Year In Equipment

Golfweb has given out “awards” for the best of 2004 in golf equipment.

For me, the big story was the hybrid and the utility club.  Todd Hamilton put on a clinic with his
Sonartec at the Open Championship and for the rest of the summer, I saw more and more guys at the club with those not-quite-woods. It is, quite frankly, far too expensive for me. But it is pretty:

Several manufacturers (both component and OEM) have put out interesting-looking hollow-body hybrid irons, such as the Snake Eyes Quick Strikes shown below. Most of my clubs are homemade from Golfsmith Snake Eyes components and I don’t think you can go wrong with that brand.

From a clubmaker’s point of view, what interested me was the continued experimentation with materials. With clubheads, it was graphite and titanium combinations, new alloys and forging methods. Golfsmith had the Powerlink, which combined titanium and a graphite composite in the head. The lighter top allowed them to move more weight down and back.

There was also experimentation with combinations of graphite and metals in shafts.

Continuing the dominance of the hybrids theme, several manufacturers created shafts specifically for the new heads. UST had the Hybrid Long Iron Shaft and Fujikura had the Banzai Utility Shaft

Finally, it was the year of the big putter. You can check my earlier posts on this subject here and here.