Power Play System Q Dual Iron

The Power Play System Q Dual Irons offer customized weighting in an iron. The heel and toe ports accept 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 gram weight screws to enable you to customize your ball flight. The irons also feature an oversized face and a wide sole with reduced bounce to enhance forgiveness.

This isn’t a bad idea. I tend to hook my short irons and slice the long ones. A set like this could help to straighten them all out.

Heavy Putter D3-DF Putter

I love my Heavy Putter. It’s a B-1 model from a couple of years ago and is the best I’ve every played. It’s astonishingly heavy (as the name implies), and as such encourages a smooth, wristless putting motion. It’s deadly from ten feet in, and once you get used to it, pretty good on the lag, too.

The D3-DF model shown here is the latest from the company. It’s humpback design raises the center of gravity which, together with the deep face, is supposed to encourage better contact with the sweet spot. The rails on the bottom of the club are supposed to make it sit perfectly on the green, eliminiating stubbing.

But here’s the main feature: the head weights 465 grams, and there is a 250 gram weight in the grip end of the shaft that creates a balance point that is 75% higher up the shaft than a conventional putter.

He ain’t heavy ... he’s my putter.

Sorry. I couldn’t resist.

TaylorMade Tour Burner 2008 Men’s Driver

I’ve been somewhat dissatisfied lately with the driver that I’m playing. I hit it high, hard and straight, but the ball tends to hit the apex of its flight quickly, and then drop out of the sky. My playing partners always make comments like “I thought it was going to go a lot farther than that.” Not exactly what you want to hear.

So when TaylorMade held a demo day at a local pro shop over the weekend, I spent some time trying out the various drivers. Thinking that the issue was too much loft, I asked the rep for a 9.5 degree, stiff.

The R7 Quad he gave me drove the ball much lower, but still without much distance.

“It’s not high enough,” he said. When I told him that I thought I needed to keep it down for less carry and more roll, he shook his head.

“This is the midwest,” he said. “That might be true in Arizona, but here you need all the carry you can get.”

He watched me hit some more balls with different drivers. “Too much spin,” he concluded. Then he handed me a Tour Burner, 10.5 degrees, regular flex. “This will cut the spin,” he said.

I hit it, and immediately noticed a difference. With the Tour Burner, the ball still caught a lot of air, but it stayed up, and kept going. I hit ball after ball, watching them fly straight and far into the distance. He pointed out that even my mishits were pretty good.

It’s $399, though. And that, frankly, is more than this teacher can afford to spend on a golf club.

GigaGolf P2 Hybrid

New for 2008 is GigaGolf’s P2 Hybrid. These easy to hit clubs come in 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 iron configurations. The clubs are constructed of 17-4 stainless steel, and can be built to your specifications for shaft type, length and grip.

Plus, they come with GigaGolf’s playability guarantee. At just $33, these are a great way to try a hybrid.

Odyssey Sabertooth Putter

I think that Odyssey’s new Sabertooth Putter takes the award for coolest looking putter of the year.

Those weighted fangs contain 37% of the putter’s weight, increasing the Moment of Intertia, and thus the putter’s stability. The body of the putter, it seems, is constructed somewhat like a golf ball, with an elastomer core, and a urethane outer striking surface.