In the season of retiring the old and welcoming the new, can the high fans keep their money bags?
The answer is: it's hard!
From yesterday to today, Beijing time, in less than 24 hours, the world's two major golf club brands - Callaway and TaylorMade, have launched a series of the latest club products represented by the serve wood.
First, on January 4, Callaway unveiled the new Rogue ST Max series of tees for 2022. According to the news exposed by foreign media, this series has designed a total of 4 different rod heads: Rogue ST Max, Rogue ST Max D, Rogue ST Max LS and Rogue Max LS Triple Diamond.
At first glance, "Rogue" is a little familiar, and yes, it's the name of Callaway's 2018 "Jailbreak" series of serves. However, in terms of appearance, rogue ST Max is very different from the blue and black color scheme of Rogue four years ago, and the addition of a touch of golden yellow at the bottom reveals a low-key luxury charm that is different from the previous Callaway clubs.
It is said that the Max model is the best sold in the series of Epic tee logs on Callaway, so the 2022 model is directly named after Max. As for "ST", it is an abbreviation for Speed Tuned. In the early years, you could see speed Tuned in the clubs of Cobra, Honma and Yonex, but last year, Callaway officially registered this group of words as a trademark. With the launch of Rogue ST Max this year, it marks the birth of the company's "fastest and most stable No. 1 wood" in its history.
It seems to be like "fighting in the ring", just one day later, on January 5, Taylor May also launched the latest serve wood of the 2022 model - Stealth. The series is divided into 3 models: Stealth, Stealth Plus+, Stealth HD.
The name Stealth may mark the birth of a new product line after the R series (2002-2013), the M series (2016-2019), and the previous two generations of SIM and SIM2. Stealth literally means "covert operations", and the official translation is "shadow". The previous SIM 2 has been favored by many "appearance association" golfers due to its cool color matching, but the new Salth focuses on red and black colors, plus dark lines, which at first glance looks a bit of "Spider-Man" and "Venom" visual sense.
The biggest change in stealth clubs is to announce that Taylor May has officially bid farewell to the titanium alloy club head, but uses carbon face! In particular, the film on the rod surface with a clear texture and full of plastic texture is indeed a bit of black technology. Since we didn't get the actual thing, we still don't know how the carbon rod surface – to be exact, the 60-layer carbon fiber hyperboloid surface – the No. 1 wood punch, and how it sounded...
You read that right, carbon pole surface no. 1 wood
In fact, as early as the end of last year, stealth clubs have been exposed in advance. At the much-anticipated PNC Parent-Child Championship, Tiger Woods made a miraculous comeback from a car accident after 9 months, and the number one wood and a number three wood in the bag were Steel Plus+.
And at this week's PGA Tour New Year's Opener Sentinel Championship, will several Taylemella column stars Colin Morikawa and Dustin Johnson use the Steam series? Including Joan Ram, Zander Sheophile, Sam Burns and other Callaway spokespeople, how many kick off with rogue ST Max? Presumably, it is also a major attraction in early 2022.
However, unlike the time when Ram moved from Taylemy to Callaway a full year ago, and Fleetwood joined Taylemy and other stars flocked to "transfer", at the beginning of this year, the major clubs "poached" much less. Only Callaway has quietly announced the signing of U.S. Women's Open champion Yuhan Saso and Mexican brother Abraham Anser — when in fact, the two have been using Callaway One for a long time. The most recent explosive transfer in the club world dates back to last November when Koepka signed a contract with Japanese club SRIXON.
Of course, Taylor May and Callaway are not only the club owners who launched new products – Titleist also produced a new Vokey Design SM9 digging rod this week; SRIXON launched xxio X-eks and XXIO 12 at the end of last year, two eye-catching no. 1 logs (Hideki Matsuyama may use it in this year's masters defense); including the high-end club brand HONMA, which was acquired Chinese, and also rushed to launch BERES at the end of 2021 AIZU Aizu-e series and New MG460RF serves.
Garrick Higg has swapped out the SM9 digging rod
However, like Taylor May and Callaway, "one change a year", and even an "arms race" that releases an updated model every six months, there are only two in the eye-catching world! According to our incomplete statistics, in the past decade alone, Taylor May and Callaway have launched more than 30 no.1 woods (just no.1 wood)!
As can be seen from the table below, from 2012 to 2022, the update frequency of the two major brands No. 1 Wood "Horror". Golfers can also press Tu SuoJi, presumably many people will "chop their hands" for one of them, or several...
Why do these big manufacturers frequently introduce new rods? For ordinary golfers, is changing to the latest No. 1 wood that much help to improve your skills?
Different people may have different answers to both questions. Even a few years ago, someone posted a review on the Internet showing that the difference in batting distance between the five-year taylor me no. 1 wood was often less than 7 yards. But it does not prevent the launch of every new club, which will trigger robbery or even "sell out of the market"...
A few years ago, someone tested that the distance of different TaylorMe I woods was not much different
For some ordinary golfers, buying a shiny new No. 1 wood can at least make yourself look "very professional". Although many professional players often do not use the latest clubs - such as Koepka and Forno, there is still a long-discontinued Nike Vapor Pro No. 3 iron in the bag; such as the Xinke Federal Cup champion Cantley, using the No. 3 wooden Titleist 915F is counted as the middle club of eight years ago; and Colin Morikawa, who has been using the original SIM No. 1 wood to win the British Open and European Tour championships; and Li Haotong of the Volvo China Open last month. The M2 fairway wood in the bag was quite conspicuous.
However, the new clubs do represent new scientific and technological progress. The newer No. 1 wood helps increase ball speed and has a thinner club face, resulting in longer batting distances. Especially since 2011, the No. 1 wood on the market has become an adjustable model, which can freely adjust the firing angle, ball backswitch and ball trajectory, bringing higher ball speed and distance output to your shot.
Cantelli is typical of old clubs
And the new No. 1 wood does have a bigger sweet spot than the old No. 1 wood. Especially if you compare the No. 1 wood of 2005-2010 with the No. 1 of 2016-2022. Having a bigger sweet spot gives the golfer more fault tolerance when hitting the ball, and even serious deviations seem to be able to "make big things small".
At the end of the day, in the face of the "new pole" launched by the double rattling, should we "buy, buy, buy"? Ultimately, it depends on everyone's preferences. If you want to try out new technologies and want to upgrade, or if you belong to the "Appearance Association", there is nothing wrong with pursuing new rods. If you're still unsure, buying a "used pole" may also be a good choice, after all, with the launch of Rogue ST Max and Steel, the previous generation of Epic Speed and SIM2 seem to be facing a wave of price cuts...
If you are very confident in your current No. 1 wood, and play straight and far, it may not be necessary to pursue a No. 1 wood, after all, changing the rod is not necessarily equivalent to "lowering the bar".
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