C-Groove Putter pioneers Yes! Golf have made it into the Golf Digest Hot List for the third year in succession.
The Abbie is perhaps no surprise, owing to its undoubted pretty lines and the traditional blade design that makes it an instinctive attraction for many traditional golfers. Added to the Yes! family only last year the 1025 carbon steel head makes the Abbie as easy around the greens as it is on the eye.
More of a surprise, perhaps, is the Hanna’s appearance on the List. Having made its first appearance on 2006, the centre-shafted, face-balanced mallet style putter failed to make it onto the 2007 Hot List, but its enduring qualities such as centre-shafting coupled with that clean and oh-so-prominent sight line has clearly won favour in the last 12 months.
The largest independent club-fitting lab in the USA, meanwhile, also had just adjudged the Hanna as the mallet with the highest MOI (Moment of Inertia) out of the 8 big-name brands they tested – meaning the Hanna is the least prone to twisting during the putting stroke and at impact (Hot Stix Golf carried out the independent testing for Golf magazine, November 2007 – see www.hotstixgolf.com ).
Yes! Golf CEO Francis Ricci is immensely proud of the double for 2008 and is very sanguine about the possible impact for Yes! Golf.
“Golf Digest is the largest circulating golf publication in the world, with a very authoritative voice wherever it’s read,” says Ricci. “The Hot List is renowned for having one of the most rigorous evaluation processes you’ll find anywhere. So if you fail to pass muster here everyone on the planet knows about it very quickly. For a brand like Yes! Golf the single biggest engine we have to drive us is our unique technological edge. That earns us genuine regard and affection from golfers at all levels everywhere, but this is different… It’s called the Hot List because it’s Baptism by Fire. It’s very special.”
The Hot List originally came about in the summer of 2003 and debuted in the February 2004 issue of Golf Digest. It arose from years of reader questions, seeking advice on what clubs and balls to buy. The goal from the beginning has been to provide a valued and trusted resource for readers as they navigate the confusing waters of golf equipment technology.
Historically, the Hot List has been at the very top of the most well-read single stories of the journal’s year. And that’s for a circulation of 1.65 million – not including the 30 international affiliates. In printed form the section has grown to a 61-page spread – up from 52 pages in 2006.
“It is the single most important piece of service journalism we do all year,” says senior equipment editor Mike Stachura. “It is an incredible undertaking, bringing literally thousands of clubs to our office each fall, evaluating clubs via robot testing, and meeting with dozens of manufacturers to get their explanations for their technology. Two of our judges, myself and Mike Johnson, even took a crash course in physics and engineering over the summer, just to be better prepared to understand the latest wave of technological advancements.”
Yes! Golf www.yesgolf.co.uk