Acer CB6 Putter - Custom Assembled

Advertised as a cross between a blade and a mallet, Acer has designed this club to pull the weight to the out on two wings for additional moment of intertia (resistance to twisting).

It caught my eye because at first glance it looks like one of those Starship Enterprise Star Trek putters GolfSmith was selling a few years ago. The principle’s certainly the same.

Nike VR S Iron Set 4-PW, GW with Graphite Shafts

Here’s Nike’s latest:

Cleveland Classic 290 Driver

Lots of drivers in recent years have claimed to have a “classic look,” but none have gone to the lengths of the Cleveland Classic Driver, which not only has the pear shape, but also molding and color to imitate a persimmon head.

Of course, it’s not a persimmon club, but a modern 460cc titanium beast, with all the weighting, coefficient of restitution and moment of inertia that modern engineering can provide.

I wonder about the target audience of these clubs, though. Persimmon heads have been out of style—if not out of production—for a couple of decades now. And many of those who do remember playing with wood don’t remember it terribly fondly. Compared to today’s metal monsters, they were hard to hit. I honestly haven’t met anyone who was nostalgic in a positive way about persimmon heads.

But then maybe its that I play with the wrong crowd.

Avatar Evoluton Driver

Avatar Evolution Three Wood

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Great Bang for the Buck

You get a lot of bang for the buck from the Avatar Evolution Driver and Three Wood. Coming in at a third of the price of big name clubs, they nonetheless offer quality design, construction and materials. They both performed quite well during several rounds of testing

The Avatar Evolution driver has perhaps the largest base I’ve seen. The designers at Hireko say that based on the footprint alone, the club normally would come in at 512cc, but the design keeps it at the 460cc limit. That shape, along with redistributing weight from the crown, is supposed to generate an impressive amount of forgiveness. The body is 100% titanium.

In practice, the driver works well. I hit it as far as most, with good ball flight. My notes from the fall say I was getting more roll but less carry with a slighly lower ball flight than my Nike driver. That was good news for me. I like a lower ball flight. I also liked the “feel” of the club. I was told that it’s loud, but being deaf, I have no idea if that’s true or not.

My primary criticism of the club is not so much a pan as a matter of taste. I don’t think that the silvery white color is going to be for everyone. I personally prefer a darker color: makes the club seem more substantial.

The three wood incorporates the same design philosophy as the driver. It’s got a wide sole and a super thin crown that lets Hireko move the weight down and back. I like its relatively shallow face. As I’ve noted elsewhere in the blog, my preference is for shallow faced, wide bottomed fairway clubs. With taller faces, I lack the confidence that the hot spot will hit the equator of the ball. The clubhead is 431 stainless steel.

In terms of performance, the Avatar fairway performed well. I noted that I swept it easily off the fairway and put myself in good position to score with short irons on the par 5s. (That’s the sad state of my distance game: a good drive, a mighty wack with a three wood, and I’m still a short iron away from the green. No reaching the green in two for me.)

However, as with the driver, my main concern is the color. Some will like it; others, not so much. Purely a matter of taste.

Here’s the bottom line: I think these are great clubs for the money. The driver will set you back a hundred dollars; the wood, just fifty in the basic configurations. For a little more, you also can customize the clubs with a variety of shafts, grips, length and even ferrule colors.

Cobra Long Tom Driver

When most club manufacturers brag about length, they’re talking about the distance the ball flies. For Cobra golf, that boast goes in an entirely different direction: the Long Tom’s shaft is an heroic forty eight inches! A “normal” driver, such as the new TaylorMade RocketBallz, clocks in at 46.

The idea is that the extra length translates to extra clubhead speed, which in turns results in greater distance. The theoretical downside is that the club may be more difficult to control. I say theoretical, because I build an extra long club a few years ago, and I’m not convinced I was any more wild with that than the extra short shaft GolfWorks Hero driver I put together at about the same time. For me, the main problem with the extra long shaft was that I popped it up way too much. I think the longer shaft somehow made me come in too steeply.

Still, this might be worth a look if you’re looking for a few more yards.

Cobra Baffler T-Rail Fairway Wood

New from Cobra golf is the Baffler T Rail. As the name suggest, its got a T-shaped rail on the bottom that’s supposed to improve the play from all sorts of lies, while filling the typical design principle of moving the weight down and to the rear.

But that’s not what attracts me. I like a low profile on a fairway wood, and this one fits the bill. For whatever reason, it makes me feel more positive about being able to hit the sweet spot and send the ball soaring. With the taller faced fairway clubs, I always have this thought in the back of my mind that the sweet spot is above the equator of the ball.

One of the big thrills each year at the Detroit Auto Show (this week!) is the unveiling of various concept cars: state of the art vehicles that likely will never see the showroom floor but some of whose ideas probably will make it into production models.

Nike’s Method Concept putter, on the other hand, will soon make it to a pro shop near you. “Inspired by the notion of the Concept car,” Nike says, it “blends art with science without sacrificing the game-changing performance that Nike Method technology delivers – a smoother stroke and a truer roll with far less skid.”

It’s certainly original looking. The idea is to to give the impression of a blade, while offering the stability of a mallet. The red, contrasted with the black, certainly seems to give the desired impression.

It’ll be available February 17, and you no doubt will be able to buy it at You can get it at Golfsmith Golf & Tennis

The complete press release follows