Golf Equipment: 2013 Hot List - Golf Equipment Guide: Golf Digest

What Clubs Should You Buy?

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't be. Your search for your favorite new club has never been easier. With the debut of our revamped Hot List section, you can review all the clubs our judges deemed the best in 2013. But you can also look the way you want to look: by type of club, by price, by manufacturer—you name it. Want to look up clubs from past Hot Lists? You can do that, too. And once you've identified the clubs you want, a click of a button will give you a chance to purchase them through our retail partners—all in the name of making your search for the right equipment as simple as possible. Go to the Hot List ⇒

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the 2013 Hot List: your guide to the latest and best clubs, as reviewed by scientists, retailers, teachers and Golf Digest's team of equipment editors.

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Our evaluation of the most important balls in the game and the ones we believe provide the answers most golfers seek. We considered balls in three price categories: $20 a dozen and under; $21-$36 a dozen; and over $36 a dozen.

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How hot are adjustable drivers? Eleven of the 12 drivers on the Hot List are adjustable, and more than 60 percent of the winners on the PGA Tour last year used one.

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Why are fairway woods hot right now? The springlike effect on some new models is the same as today's titanium drivers.

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Hybrids have become universal. On the PGA Tour, nearly two-thirds of the winners used a hybrid in 2012. On the LPGA and Champions tours, that number was 90 percent.

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Game-improvement irons are borrowing ideas from drivers to increase ball speed. Users of super game-improvement irons benefit from graphite shafts. Players irons have game-improvement benefits in shapes that still say low-handicapper. More than half the irons on this list won a PGA Tour event in '12.

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It's all about options. Of the wedges on this year's Hot List there are 132 loft/bounce combinations, or 70 percent more than there were on the Hot List five years ago.

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Mallet putters are big for a reason. With more than double the MOI of blade putters, that means mis-hits are more likely to get close to the hole. Mallets might have more technology for average players, but 66‰ of the PGA Tour events in '12 were won by players using blade putters.