TierMarks

Best Golf Clubs of 2012

Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.

The golf clubs of 2012, ranked by critic grade: two drivers, two putters, a hybrid, a wedge and a set of irons. The year split over adjustability. The Ping G20 Driver has no sleeve, no track and no wrench, while the Callaway RAZR Fit was Callaway's first properly adjustable driver. The rest is about the face: True Roll milling on the Ping Scottsdale TR Anser 2, a sole slot on the Adams Idea Pro a12 Hybrid, and conforming grooves on the Titleist Vokey SM4 that still bite.

Six of the seven entries are graded A, and the Ping G20 Driver leads. Our critic's verdict is that Ping spent the entire budget on a head that simply refuses to twist: a 460cc titanium head with deep perimeter weighting and no adjustability, at $349. Behind it, the Ping Scottsdale TR Anser 2 sends a heel strike the same distance as a pure one for $180, and the Titleist 712 AP2 is the tour standard for a decade, the generation that made a forged players iron genuinely stable.

The one B is the Odyssey Metal-X #7, a metal skin pressed over an elastomer core so the softest insert in golf finally sounded like a putter again, at $150. Against the Ping Scottsdale TR Anser 2, the choice is a blade with grooves milled to even out off centre speed or a mallet with a soft insert, thirty dollars apart.

  1. Ping G20 DriverPing G20 Driver2012No sleeve, no track, no wrench. Ping spent the entire budget on a head that simply refuses to twist.Read the review
  2. Ping Scottsdale TR Anser 2Ping Scottsdale TR Anser 22012Variable depth grooves that send a heel strike the same distance as a pure one, in the shape everyone already trusts.
  3. Adams Idea Pro a12 HybridAdams Idea Pro a12 Hybrid2012The compact hybrid tour players actually put in the bag, with a slot in the sole doing the quiet work.
  4. Callaway RAZR FitCallaway RAZR Fit2012Callaway's first properly adjustable driver, and the forged composite crown put the mass where the marketing said it was.
  5. Titleist Vokey SM4Titleist Vokey SM42012The generation where Vokey finished adapting to the groove rule, and still the wedge everything else gets measured against.
  6. Titleist 712 AP2Titleist 712 AP22012The tour standard for a decade, and the generation that made a forged players iron genuinely stable.
  7. Odyssey Metal-X #7Odyssey Metal-X #72012A metal skin pressed over an elastomer core, so the softest insert in golf finally sounded like a putter again.