IN THE
BAG
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PRODUCT REVIEWS and equipment news you can use
BY TONY DEAR • CG EDITOR
Roll it and hole it with these perfect holiday gift ideas
C
hristmas is coming so it’s time to start thinking about what the golfer(s) in your family wants or put your order in with loved ones. And if you’re not in the habit of specifying exactly what you want, then it’s time to drop a few hints by leaving this magazine, open at this page, on the kitchen island or dining room table with a big, fat, red circle around the items that take your fancy. You’ve spent the year making new(ish) clubs old, wearing out your golf wardrobe, not looking after your golf shoes (possibly), being ill-prepared for changes in the weather, missing greens or putts, and losing golf balls (again, possibly) so now you need to rethink and restock. As we say in every issue, there’s no better place for your family members to purchase your holiday golf stuff — or for you to buy golf gifts for others, of course — than Puetz Golf where you’ll always find what you need. The gifted golfer, or rather the golfer with gifts, is a happier golfer and one that will stride confidently into the new year eager to lower his/her handicap, shoot a course record perhaps, or make their first hole-in-one. So, we wish you a very happy golf gift-buying/receiving season, and hope that whatever you purchase for your family or friends, or whatever Santa leaves under the tree for you, will help you all play more, and better, golf in 2024.
26
DECEMBER 2023
CALLAWAY
Paradym STAR Driver1 PUETZ GOLF PRICE
$699.99 driver • $399.99 fairway • $349.99 hybrids $249.99 per Iron
W
hile ‘speed’, ‘low-spin’, ‘dispersion’, ‘multi-material’, ‘AI’, and a few other well-worn buzzwords continue to pepper club reviews, it’s better players and equipment geeks that tend to air them in public. The most important term for the new golfer or higher handicapper, though, is ‘lightweight’. ‘Forgiveness’, ‘stability’, and ‘Moment of Inertia’ are significant too, certainly, but it’s the influx of ‘lightweight’ clubs that is having a marked effect on the industry with premium lightweight components — head, shaft, grip — being used to create clubs that are considerably easier to swing than standard clubs. The reason, of course, is that lighter clubs make it possible for golfers with moderate swingspeeds to get the ball off the ground and carry it farther down the fairway. That allows those players to hit shots that resemble those of better players which makes the game a lot more fun. A few companies are making ultra-lightweight clubs now (not too light though — there’s a point at which too light a club gets diminishing returns, failing to generate speed and power) though it’s a couple of Japanese brands — XXIO and Beres (a Honma model) — that have been leading the way. Callaway joined in a couple of months ago with the release of their Paradym Star family of clubs led by the Star driver (10.5-degree, 12-degree lofts with a UST Mamiya Attas Speed Series shaft) which is 38 grams lighter than the standard Paradym driver. Star fairway woods, hybrids and irons (33 grams lighter than the Paradym iron) are also available.
Order online at puetzgolf.com • Call Toll Free (866) 362-2441 cascadegolfer.com
