Golf Digest
February 2007

It's your hard-earned cash. Spending as much of it on a set of golf clubs as some of us spent for our first car requires careful consideration. Maybe even a little trepidation. In fact, entering a golf shop these days is like taking a walk along the yellow-brick road through the Haunted Forest. Only instead of lions and tigers and bears lurking around every corner, you face more inscrutable foes with indecipherable attributes like high moment of inertia, computer-milled grooves and pentangular di-pyramid dimples. Oh. My.

Fear not. The Golf Digest Hot List is here. The mission of the Hot List is simple and has gone unchanged from the day we began this enterprise: We are your first step, your friendly guide, your informed resource in the difficult search for new golf equipment. Read the entire package and learn about the equipment that is most intriguing and, we think, most significant for 2007. Even better, get inspired by the technology paradise laid before you. The 140 products we have selected are innovative and special, and they advance the game in important ways. Continued>>

>> YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE TO 2007 EQUIPMENT

The Process: The Hot List, to crudely paraphrase Vince Lombardi, is not a sometime thing. It's an all-the-time thing. Find out how more than 2,000 scores were tabulated in naming 140 products to the Hot List. • Hot List Criteria | The Rating System • The 2007 Hot List nominees • VIDEO: How the Hot List is created • VIDEO: How to use the Hot List • VIDEO: Addition of the value category • VIDEO: Reader feedback is key

Meet the Judges and Panelists: Our group of panelists include scientists, retailers, teachers and players. Meet the 25 minds that made our Hot List judges that much smarter. • VIDEO: The passion of our panelists • BLOG: What Bomb & Gouge have to say

2007 Hot List Summit: At the 10-day Hot List Summit, our panelists hit nearly 30,000 balls as they evaluated products on the range and on the course.The editors, retailers and scientists met for four days, and the judges deliberated during more than 60 hours of meetings. • See more photos of the Hot List Summit • VIDEO: Equipment trends

Win your Dream Bag: Enter the Golf Digest Dream Bag sweepstakes for your chance to win a gift card for $3,500, enough to compile a dream bag filled with the hottest new golf gear. Ten runners-up will take home a dozen Titleist Pro V1 golf balls. Enter now>>

>>THE CLUBS AND BALLS YOU SHOULD PLAY

Drivers: Looking for a little boost to your self-esteem? Try one of these monsters. Expect better service at the bar, too. • No bad choices: A technological cornucopia • Switching drivers: Test before you play • The great MOI race: Departing from traditional shapes. • Women's clubs: Red-tee diaries • VIDEO: What moment of inertia means for your driver

Fairway woods: Once reserved as an attack weapon solely for the warrior class, today's fairway woods offer improved stability, new heat off the face and even the occasional creative space-age material. In these bottom-line times, that means they're easier to hit than ever. Fairway woods just need a better PR campaign. Here are 13 new models to help the cause.

Irons: We recommend you go on a few dates to try some of the 36 clubs on the following pages in Game Improvement, Super Game Improvement and Player's irons. We're sure you'll find the ones that you'll want to settle down with. • VIDEO: Which irons you shouldn't play

Wedges: Golf reveals character, and you reveal yours by not giving up. You save the hole. You grind. Exhausting, dirty work, but too often there's no choice. Here, we've put the approval stamp on 12 applicants for Best New Co-worker, the one who helps you get the dirty job done. • VIDEO: What's new with wedges

Hybrids: On the PGA Tour, there are upward of 100 hybrids in play every week. Eventually (and thankfully), hybrids will be as ubiquitous as drivers and putters. Here are some choice examples for you (and Tiger) to mull.

Putters: Be it showy New Age mallet or trusted, rakish blade, the putter is the definitive statement in the game, the wordless full stop to every hole, the fatigued sigh of relief that is the quiet, simple acknowledgment of a job well done. Your search for your next instrument of calm, peace and tranquility begins here.

Golf balls: We've divided balls into two categories. The first is Tour Performance, the high-end multilayer balls played by the best in the world. The second is Value Performance, the balls that offer the latest technology without injuring the wallet. What are you going to tee up on the first hole? • VIDEO: The value ball's new value