What Golfdigest says:
CALLAWAY BIG BERTHA 2006
GOLD GOLF DIGEST 2007 RATING

• Key Technology: The venerable design received a face-lift in the form of a constant-width sole designed to reduce digging on fat sHots and a deeper 360-degree undercut channel around the back of the clubface for better perimeter weighting.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "Callaway took a tired design and made it fresh again. I could go 3-iron through PW in this set and not feel I was giving up anything."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: A comfortable design at an affordable price. It does a great job of absolving you from the sins of your swing.

CALLAWAY X-20
What Golfdigest says:
GOLD GOLF DIGEST 2007 RATING

• Key Technology: This club is like a bride with something old (variable face thickness), something new (a center of gravity 6 percent lower than the X-18), something borrowed (True Temper's Uniflex steel shaft) and something blue (the coloring in the cavity).
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "Almost has a forged feel. . . . These could improve anybody's game. It exudes confidence at address, and the ball takes off so cleanly you barely know you've hit it."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: This is where Callaway excels. It looks friendly to hit, provides extra pow at impact and is very forgiving. In short, everything a game-improvement iron should be.
  
  

MIZUNOMX-25
What Golfdigest says:
SILVER GOLF DIGEST 2007 RATING

• Key Technology: The specially developed 1025E mild carbon steel used in the forging process allows for a thinner face and a larger cavity than in the MX-23.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "The sole on this is tremendous. You can come into the ball steep and still get a good result. . . . It feels nice even though it doesn't have a huge sweet spot."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: This high-tech iron with its forged feel is a worthy heir to the MX-23-and that was Mizuno's best-selling iron ever.
  

NIKE CCi
What Golfdigest says:
SILVER GOLF DIGEST 2007 RATING

• Key Technology: The clubhead is made from 431 stainless steel, which is 25-percent softer than 17-4 stainless. A tungsten insert helps the long irons launch the ball at a higher angle. Its polymer-filled sole ports are designed to improve feel.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "The smaller head is a pleasing look when matched against the other behemoths, and it encourages crisper hits. The downside is that when you miss it, you feel it."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: A clean look (lower-handicappers will love the reduced offset) that packs power and is easy to get used to.
  

NIKE SLINGSHot OSS
What Golfdigest says
GOLD GOLF DIGEST SELECTION

• Key Technology: Twenty-nine grams is placed in an oversize slingback and in the club's wide sole to enhance perimeter weighting and increase stability.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "You might have to get used to the wider body, but it's a reassuring look at address. The impact is so soft it feels like you're hitting cotton balls. . . . These have an essence of quality about them."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: A club so easy to hit that it feels like it hits by itself. Our Editors' Choice from 2006 still holds up against this year's competition.
  

TAYLORMADE r7 DRAW
What Golfdigest says:
GOLD GOLF DIGEST SELECTION

• Key Technology: A thin, unsupported clubface with inverted-cone technology is designed for optimum distance on mis-hits. Weight removed from the cavity near the toe places the CG closer to the heel to promote a draw.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "Solid feel. Good putter. Instead of yanking 'em left, I put them all within kick-in range. . . . It looks like all the rest, but this face design really works for roll."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: The club has a nicely cambered sole. High-handicappers tend to hit sHots fat, and this sole design will help save sHots when they do.
  

TAYLORMADE R7 CGB MAX
What Golfdigest says:
SILVER GOLF DIGEST SELECTION

• Key Technology: The triangular shape is designed to move the CG away from the face to help launch sHots higher. The three movable weights (one 16-gram weight and two one-gram weights) are intended to produce three ball flights that range from extreme fade correction to slight draw correction. A 45-gram shaft is the lightest stock offering in the TaylorMade line.
  
  
• Player Comments: "Kooky rear doesn't bother me because the face is traditional. That's what matters. . . . Good shape to it, and good-balanced weight. . . . It's blinged out, but this is another 'wow' club. The ball just leaps off the clubface."
  
  
• Hot: TaylorMade might have decided against square, but it didn't decide against smart use of geometry. We like the superlight shaft with relatively normal length, too.

• Key Technology: The 3- and 4-hybrids in this set combine with oversize, hollow-back middle irons and cavity-back short irons. The result is a low, deep CG in all irons.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "The 3-hybrid is so easy to hit it's like you can just drop the club on the ball and it goes. . . . The irons have a firm impact with a traditional look."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: Few companies the size of Adams can match its technology. Integrating hybrids into the set is pure genius, albeit not for all players.
  
  
• Hot: Cavity-back short irons forgive without looking obnoxious.

• Key Technology: The forged stainless-steel clubheads feature oversize, multimaterial channel-back long irons and midsize short irons.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "It's not terribly forgiving, but it has enough, plus it's workable. If you hit it dead center, there's nothing better in this group."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: A sweet iron for 15-handicappers who want to be a single-digit within a year, or for the has-been scratch player who finally realizes the low 70s are a once-a-year occurrence.
  
  
• Hot: Company continues to get better at non-scratch player irons.
  

• Key Technology: The urethane insert in the rear sole of the stainless-steel irons is designed to increase the moment of inertia and provide a soft feel. Its medium-width sole helps prevent digging.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "I put a bunch of different swings on this one, and the ball ended up pretty much in the same place every time. You could bring your B-game and still win the nassau with these irons."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: Cobra irons have always offered substance, and now they have style to match. These clubs look as good as they play. And boy, do they play.
  
  
• Hot: Snazzy graphics an upgrade from previous models.

PING G 10
What Golfdigest says:
GOLD GOLF DIGEST SELECTION

• Key Technology: Built on the platform of Ping's G2/G5 franchise, it features a taller, more stable face (for off-center-hit help) and a larger, weblike rear crown. The sloped crown and sole are designed to enhance energy transfer. Saved weight is moved to the sole to lower the CG.
  
  
• Player Comments: : "The copper color rocks. Near-perfect forgiveness. I heeled-and-toed them, and they still went straight. . . . Firm, but it doesn't feel like a rock. You will hit it high."
  
  
• What's Hot: This club is more subtly explosive than a handful of plastique in a can of Play-Doh. Bonus: The draw version is remedial without looking like it. A new computer-based fitting system is in development, too.
  

CALLAWAY FT-I
What Golfdigest says:
Golfdigest category leader

• Tech Story: The square shape helps improve heel-toe stability and crown-to-sole performance. A composite body and titanium cup-face provide design freedom for CG location. The LCG tour version is the latest addition (for lower spin), along with an interchangeable shaft-head system called I-Mix.
  
  
• Player Comments: : "This is on the smaller side, but it works as well as the bigger ones. More maneuverable. . . . When they say it will help you hit it straighter, they aren't lying."
  

NICKENT 3DX-D
What Golfreview says:

The same technology as the #1 most played hybrid on Tour, the 3DX Drivers features 3DX weight ports strategically placed to provide internal and exterior weighting that matches your swing. The weight ports also allow for the first and only 460 CC drivers that have the ability to feature directional control technology.

The entire 3DX driver and fairway wood line comes with the Hottest shaft on the PGA Tour and in the consumer market place, the ultra-popular Aldila NV shaft. "……really liked the forgiveness of the club. Even the miss hits come off the face clean and keep the distance. The sweet spot is almost the entire face of the club…"

TAYLORMADE R7 CGB MAX
What Golfdigest says:

• Tech Story: The triangular shape is designed to move the CG away from the face to help launch sHots higher. The three movable weights (one 16-gram weight and two one-gram weights) are intended to produce three ball flights that range from extreme fade correction to slight draw correction. A 45-gram shaft is the lightest stock offering in the TaylorMade line.
  
  
• Player Comments: "Kooky rear doesn't bother me because the face is traditional. That's what matters. . . . Good shape to it, and good-balanced weight. . . . It's blinged out, but this is another 'wow' club. The ball just leaps off the clubface."
  
  
• Hot: TaylorMade might have decided against square, but it didn't decide against smart use of geometry. We like the superlight shaft with relatively normal length, too.
  

CLEVELAND HIBORE XLS
What Golfdigest says:
GOLD GOLFDIGEST SELECTION

• Technology: The third generation of the scooped-crown design has a wider and larger face (17 percent bigger than the HiBore XL) and an MOI above 5,000. Helping to increase that number is a thinner wall (0.6 millimeters) and deeper indentations in the heel-and-toe sections of the scooped crown.
  
  
• Player Comments: "It's the farthest, most stable driver yet. The ball doesn't balloon. . . . This is like that country song, 'I got a brand-new girlfriend!' You just choose your loft and go. . . . I hit one clear on the heel, and it still went decent."
  
  
• Hot: The best way to make an unconventional-looking driver is to make it play like an old standby--on steroids. That's what we have here.
  

NIKE SQ SUMO² 5900
What Golfdigest says:
GOLD GOLFDIGEST SELECTION

• Tech Story: The extreme square shape is an attempt to reach the USGA's limit on MOI (5,900 gram-centimeters squared). How was this achieved? Engineers took weight saved from an updated (and lighter) multithickness face and moved it to the corners, giving the square-shape clubhead extreme stability on heel-and-toe hits.
  
  
• Player Comments: "It's ugly, but I can't believe how well you can bomb it. I was hurting the golf ball. . . . This looks, sounds and hits like a freight train. It's forgiving, and I can hit the ball long and down the middle. . . . Nice job of muting the sound of last year's model. It's clever how the design gives you the sense of a traditional driver."
  
  
• Hot: This year's version is an improvement. A new adjustable-shaft fitting component is a bonus.
  

• Tech Story: The triangle shape helps to improve stability (highest MOI of any Titleist driver) and move the CG farther from the face. The face has a beta-titanium insert that tapers from bottom to top to enhance speed and launch angle. A thin crown and a lightweight hosel allow mass to be redistributed to the rear of the clubhead.
  
  
• Player Comments: "It looks like a hammer coming into a nail. Effortless distance. . . . Not quite as forgiving, but it's explosive. . . . Better than I thought with that shape. Designed to hit the ball high. If you can create speed but need more height, this is for you."
  
  
• Hot: As user-friendly a Titleist driver as there is. Finding your local Titleist FittingWorks location should be a priority.
  

• Key Technology: A hidden web-like structure in the rear of the crown is an attempt to give the standard-issue, all-titanium head a performance boost by helping lower its CG. A plasma-welded insert in the face helps save weight. The clubface is machined to variable thicknesses to improve its flex.
  
  
• Panelist Comments: "The half-moon alignment device is elegant . . . Simply a perfect-looking driver . . . Nice, muted, heavy sound."
  
  
• Judge's Verdict: It's still very much an old-money club, but we really appreciate its eight loft options.
  
  
• Hot: The Ping Wrx fitting option is great for geeks.