Jordan Hale
Covers clubs and the tech arms race. Spends more time on launch monitors than the course, and isn't sorry.
Latest by Jordan
TaylorMade R7 Quad Mini vs Callaway Ai Smoke Ti 340: which club are you actually replacing?
Mini drivers have gone from curiosity to a permanent slot in the range. These are the two most credible ways in, and they solve two completely different problems.
By Jordan Hale
The 200-yard 7-iron just landed, and it's the most overrated number in golf
Across 81 irons tested this year, one 7-iron carried 202.2 yards and finished about 10 yards clear of the field. That is a marketing triumph and a scoring problem, and the reason is stamped on the sole.
By Jordan Hale
The 7-wood takeover: how to replace the long iron you can't hit
Tour bags and better amateur bags have quietly deleted the 3- and 4-iron. The hard part isn't the deletion, it's choosing between the three very different clubs fighting over the empty slot.
By Jordan Hale
New drivers, wedges and putters just dropped for 2026 — should you actually upgrade?
Titleist's GTS drivers, Ping's S259 wedges, TaylorMade's Qi Max HL irons and fresh Scotty Cameron mallets have all landed. The answer-first truth: for most golfers the honest answer is 'not yet' — here's the short list of when it's genuinely worth it.
By Jordan Hale
Your launch monitor has a second price tag — and the box won't show it
More golf tech now ships with its real cost hidden in an app: simulator rounds behind memberships, stats behind annual plans, features that switch off when you stop paying. Here's the honest map of who charges what — and the brands quietly winning by charging nothing.
By Jordan Hale
Nikon Coolshot Pro II vs Precision Pro NX10: how much rangefinder do you need?
One buys you the best optics and a gyro-stabilised picture; the other gives you most of the experience for a little over half the outlay. Which is the smarter buy?
By Jordan Hale
GoGoGo Vpro vs Bushnell Tour V7 Shift: do you really need to spend 5x?
A budget-laser icon against the tour-caddie standard — one costs roughly five times the other, and only one specific golfer actually needs the expensive one.
By Jordan Hale
Garmin Approach S50 vs Shot Scope V5: slick watch or free game data?
Two very different GPS watches at two very different prices — one is the polished all-rounder, the other quietly tells you where you actually lose shots.
By Jordan Hale
Bushnell Phantom 3 review: the no-faff GPS that costs less than a wedge
No watch on your wrist, no laser to aim, no subscription — just big, glanceable yardages and slope in your pocket. For a lot of golfers that's the whole job, done, for the price of a decent round.
By Jordan Hale
Shot Scope V5 review: the golf watch that tracks your whole game for free
Most game-tracking systems hand you tour-level stats and then charge you monthly to keep them. The V5 gives you strokes gained and 100-plus stats on your own game with no subscription, ever — and that changes the maths entirely.
By Jordan Hale
Rapsodo MLM2 Pro vs Shot Scope LM1: measured spin and sim golf, or just the number?
Two launch monitors golfers cross-shop constantly, sitting either side of the same question — how much do you actually need? One films your swing, measures spin and plays sim courses all winter. The other strips the whole idea down to a carry number on a screen.
By Jordan Hale
TaylorMade Qi4D vs PING G440 Max: the 2026 driver decision most golfers get backwards
Two of the year's biggest drivers, cross-shopped in every fitting bay — and most players walk in chasing the wrong thing. One wins the robot test outright; the other quietly saves more rounds. Here's which head actually belongs in your bag, and why the answer probably isn't the one you'd guess.
By Jordan Hale
Radar vs camera launch monitors: the home-sim decision nobody explains
Two completely different technologies hide behind the words launch monitor, and picking the wrong one for your room is the most expensive mistake in home golf.
By Jordan Hale
A scarf in July: golf's majors have become merch drops
At least 10 limited-edition products landed around Open week from four brands — a polo dearer than most wedges, a winter beanie in a heatwave, a headcover styled after the venue. Golf marketing has gone full drop culture. Here's what's actually being sold, and the only two buyers it makes sense for.
By Jordan Hale
Garmin built a GPS watch just for juniors — and it's smarter than it sounds
The Approach J1 is the first golf GPS watch designed specifically for kids. It sounds like a gimmick — it isn't. Here's what it actually does, who it's really for, and where it fits.
By Jordan Hale
You learned golf on a simulator. Here's where the grass disagrees
Roughly half the people swinging in sim bays have never played a hole outdoors. If you're about to change that, your numbers, your ball and your feet are in for some news.
By Jordan Hale
You're playing the wrong driver loft — and it's costing you the easiest distance in golf
Most amateurs play too little loft, chasing tour spin numbers they physically can't produce, and leave yards on the tee for it. The launch data says the opposite of the range-buddy wisdom: the average golfer needs more loft than they think — and firm summer fairways move the target again.
By Jordan Hale
HackMotion Core review: the wrist sensor that shows you why you slice
Clubface control is the hidden cause of most slices, and until now it was invisible. HackMotion straps a sensor to your lead wrist, measures what your hands are doing 800 times a second, and beeps when you square the face. For the improver obsessed with ball-striking, it's genuinely revealing tech.
By Jordan Hale
The guy grooving 60 straight 7-irons is wasting his afternoon
Most range time never touches your scorecard — it's mindless bucket-bashing that feels like practice and transfers to nothing. The fix is counterintuitive and cheap: practise what you can measure, then practise the way you actually play.
By Jordan Hale
Beyond 'shrink it and pink it': what's actually engineered for women golfers now
For decades 'women's' golf gear meant a smaller men's product in a pastel colourway. That's finally changing — and the difference between real engineering and a marketing paint job is now worth knowing.
By Jordan Hale
Garmin Approach S50 review: the golf watch most people should actually buy
The S50 takes nearly everything that made Garmin's flagship special — the gorgeous AMOLED screen, slope-adjusted distances, shot tracking, wrist heart rate and Garmin Pay — and sells it for a lot less than double. For most golfers, this is the sweet spot.
By Jordan Hale
You'll spend five hours under peak UV today. Your kit is treating it as a rounding error.
The cost of playing golf in a baking sun isn't a red neck at the halfway house — it's cumulative skin damage over a lifetime of Saturdays, and a back nine played by a golfer whose head has been cooking since the turn. Here's what actually helps, and what's just fabric with a marketing tag.
By Jordan Hale
Titleist Players 4 Plus vs Sun Mountain 2.5+: the tour default takes on the walking specialist
The walking revival has made the ultralight stand bag the most competitive category in golf, and this is its classic head-to-head: Titleist's do-everything carry bag against the featherweight from the company that invented the modern stand bag. One wins on storage and looks, the other on your shoulders after ten thousand steps.
By Jordan Hale
The best putters on Earth practise with cheap plastic — and you keep buying putters
Walk any tour practice green and it's covered in mirrors, gates, string lines and chalk — a full putting station for less than a dozen premium balls. Meanwhile amateurs respond to missed putts by buying a new putter. Here's how to decode the tour putting station, and which pieces actually move your handicap.
By Jordan Hale
FlightScope Mevo+ review: the launch monitor home simulators are actually built around
While the internet argues about budget camera units and the Garmin R10, the Mevo+ quietly became the default brain of the serious home sim — tour-grade radar heritage, full ball and club data, and out-of-the-box simulator connectivity. It needs room to breathe, and the add-ons push the real cost up.
By Jordan Hale
Bushnell Tour V6 Shift vs Shot Scope Pro L2: do you really need the badge?
Two of the best value lasers in golf, from opposite ends of the value argument. The Shot Scope is the giant-killer on pure accuracy-per-pound; the Bushnell sells trust, optics and that famous pin-lock. Here's which one actually deserves your money.
By Jordan Hale
Precision Pro NX10 review: the laser that makes Bushnell money hard to justify
The NX10 is the first sub-flagship laser in years that genuinely rivals a top Bushnell — perfect-scoring accuracy, fast pin-lock and switchable slope for roughly half the money. Here's what you give up, and who should still spend more.
By Jordan Hale
Golf's smartest gadget doesn't measure your swing — it fixes the thing swinging the club
Massage guns, heat-and-vibration patches and guided mobility work went from tour physio trucks to mainstream in five years, and July is when they earn it: heat, 36-hole trips, back-to-back weekend rounds. Our position: a recovery routine adds more playable golf per season than any club purchase — because you can't turn through what you can't stretch.
By Jordan Hale
Your polo has a spec sheet now: inside golf's cooling arms race
A January 2026 LifeLabs study found 84 percent of golfers now put cooling technology first when they buy apparel — cooling is the new waterproofing. Here's how to decode the fabric weights, ventilation zones and wicking claims, and why the cheapest tricks in the bag still beat any polo at 95 degrees.
By Jordan Hale
America turns 250 on Saturday — and golf owns the long weekend
The semiquincentennial lands on a Saturday, the tee sheets are already carnage, and the smart play is a two-act day: the dawn round before the heat, then the backyard 19th hole for the barbecue-and-fireworks hours. Here's the full battle plan.
By Jordan Hale
The mid-handicapper's gear guide: what actually helps, and what's a waste
For the 10-to-20 handicap improver, here is where new equipment genuinely lowers scores and where the money quietly disappears.
By Jordan Hale
Shot Scope LM1 review: has the launch monitor finally got cheap enough?
The LM1 drags personal launch-monitor pricing down to impulse-buy territory, and for most golfers chasing a real carry number, that is the whole story.
By Jordan Hale
Five gear trends that defined golf in 2026 (and which deserve your money)
Mini drivers, zero-torque putters, sub-grand launch monitors — the shifts that actually reached your bag this year, ranked by whether they're worth it.
By Jordan Hale
Why golf is quietly happening indoors now
Simulators, bays and bright-lit ranges have pulled millions into the game without a tee time in sight. Here's what the off-course boom means for the gear you buy.
By Jordan Hale
How long do golf clubs actually last? Longer than the marketing wants you to think
Drivers and irons stay competitive for years. Wedge grooves are the real wear item, and grips are the cheap refresh almost everyone neglects. Here's the honest timeline.
By Jordan Hale
Bushnell Tour V7 Shift review: the rangefinder most golfers should buy
Fast, confident lock-on, switchable slope and Bushnell's reliability — the all-rounder that tops the lists, and the one we recommend by default.
By Jordan Hale
Galvin Green GORE-TEX jacket review: the waterproof that ends the search
Expensive, yes — but it keeps you genuinely dry, lets you swing freely, and lasts the decade. For golfers who play through real weather, it's the one.
By Jordan Hale
Odyssey Ai-ONE Jailbird review: the value pick of the zero-torque boom
Reviewers keep calling it the most stable zero-torque putter they have tested — at roughly half the price of the big names. Is it the smart buy?
By Jordan Hale
What shaft flex do you actually need? Most golfers play too stiff
If your driver swing is under about 95 mph, you almost certainly want regular, not stiff — and playing stiff is quietly costing you distance and height.
By Jordan Hale
A fitting won't add 20 yards — and that's exactly why it's worth it
The marketing sells fittings as free distance. The honest case is better: it's the one golf spend that reliably pays for itself by stopping you buying the wrong club. Here's who gains, and who's wasting their money.
By Jordan Hale
Is a slope rangefinder worth it? (And is it legal?)
Yes for practice and casual rounds — it makes you a smarter club-picker. No for competition, where it's illegal unless you can switch it off.
By Jordan Hale
Your 60-degree wedge is costing you shots
The club you grab to look like a tour pro is quietly wrecking your short game. For most golfers it should rarely leave the bag.
By Jordan Hale
Steel vs graphite iron shafts: which one is actually for you
The old 'steel for good players, graphite for everyone else' rule is dead. Here's the honest way to choose.
By Jordan Hale
Bushnell Pro X3+ vs Garmin Z82: which premium rangefinder wins?
Two flagship lasers, two philosophies — the purist's tool versus the do-everything device. Here's who should buy which.
By Jordan Hale
PING i240 review: forgiveness you can feel, feedback you can trust
A compact cavity-back that flatters mishits without numbing the good ones — the set most mid-handicaps should actually be playing.
By Jordan Hale
GPS watch vs laser rangefinder: which should you buy first?
They solve the distance problem in opposite ways. Most golfers only need one to start — here's how to choose.
By Jordan Hale
Spikeless won. Stop arguing about it.
The 'spikes for grip' line is a decade out of date. For the golf most of us play, spikeless is simply the better shoe — and it's not close.
By Jordan Hale
Bushnell Pro X3+ review: the laser other lasers are measured against
It's the rangefinder you see in more tour bags than any other. Here's whether the premium price holds up.
By Jordan Hale
Push vs electric trolley: which is actually worth it?
One saves your back for not much money; the other saves your legs for rather more. How to spend wisely on carrying nothing.
By Jordan Hale
Slope is the most overhyped feature on your rangefinder
It's the headline selling point on every laser — and the one feature you legally can't use when it matters most. Here's the honest take.
By Jordan Hale
Garmin Approach S70 review: the GPS watch that does almost everything
A gorgeous AMOLED screen, full course maps and a battery that lasts. Is this the only piece of distance tech most golfers need?
By Jordan Hale
TaylorMade is ditching the annual driver — and that's good news for your wallet
The biggest name in drivers is moving to a two-year release cycle, with no new model in 2027. The end of the yearly upgrade treadmill is overdue.
By Jordan Hale
Stand bag vs cart bag: which one's right for you?
Buy the wrong one and you'll fight it every round. The choice is simpler than the wall of bags suggests — it's about how you get round.
By Jordan Hale
FootJoy Pro SL review: still the spikeless shoe to beat
The most-worn spikeless shoe on tour, and the one the rest of the field is measured against. Here's why it keeps winning — and the one golfer who should look elsewhere.
By Jordan Hale
TaylorMade Qi4D driver review: forgiveness you can feel, speed you have to earn
The driver TaylorMade is keeping in the bag through 2027 — the first time since 2001 they've skipped an annual release. Here's whether it's the one to settle on.
By Jordan Hale
Titleist takes the wraps off its GTS driver range
Three heads — GTS2, GTS3 and GTS4 — span from forgiving and high-launching to a low-spin head built for the fast-swing brigade.
By Jordan Hale
The rangefinder now talks to your watch
Garmin's new laser zaps a yardage straight to your wrist — the most genuinely new idea in distance gear this year.
By Jordan Hale
Garmin R10 vs Shot Scope LM1: the budget launch-monitor face-off
Two ways to get real numbers without remortgaging — which one fits how you'll actually use it.
By Jordan Hale
Spikeless vs spiked golf shoes: how to choose
Grip, comfort, versatility and weather — what actually matters in 2026, and which type fits your golf.
By Jordan Hale
What 'waterproof' actually means in golf kit
Water-resistant, waterproof, breathable, taped seams — the labels hide more than they reveal. Here's what to actually look for.
By Jordan Hale
How much should you spend on a rangefinder?
They all measure the same yardage. Here's what your money actually buys above the basics — and where it stops mattering.
By Jordan Hale
PING G440 Max review: the forgiveness benchmark, quietly brilliant
If you slice, spray it, or just want to stop losing balls off the tee, this is the 2026 driver to buy — the most forgiving big-stick going, and a genuine buy-once club.
By Jordan Hale
GPS watch vs phone app vs handheld: how should you get your distances?
Three ways to know how far it is, and they suit very different golfers. The honest pros and cons of each.
By Jordan Hale
Do golf gloves matter — and how many do you actually need?
It's the cheapest bit of kit you touch every swing, and most golfers treat it as an afterthought. Here's what actually matters.
By Jordan Hale
Takomo 101 MKII review: the irons quietly embarrassing the big brands
Half the price of a name-brand set, and good enough that you'll feel a bit silly for not trying them sooner. The direct-to-consumer irons reviewed.
By Jordan Hale
Blades vs cavity-back irons: which should you actually play?
One looks the part; the other saves your scores. The honest guide to picking the right iron for your game, not your ego.
By Jordan Hale
Titleist GT2 driver review: the easy-launching all-rounder most golfers should hit
The forgiving heart of Titleist's GT range. Here's who it's really for.
By Jordan Hale
Nikon Coolshot Pro II review: the mid-tier laser with premium glass
Nikon makes optics for a living, and it shows. The smart-money rangefinder that gives you most of the flagship for less.
By Jordan Hale
ECCO Biom C5 review: the comfort benchmark, with a price to match
ECCO makes the leather and the shoe, and walks the comfort everyone else chases. Is the premium worth it?
By Jordan Hale
How to dress for winter golf (and actually enjoy it)
The golfers who keep playing through winter aren't tougher — they're dressed better. The layering system that keeps you warm, dry and swinging freely.
By Jordan Hale
Takomo vs PING: are direct-to-consumer irons really as good?
A value upstart against an iron-making institution. The honest verdict on whether skipping the big brand costs you anything.
By Jordan Hale
Motocaddy M5 GPS review: the electric trolley that does the thinking
GPS course maps, downhill control and a battery that shrugs off 36 holes — the do-it-all electric trolley most walkers should buy first.
By Jordan Hale
Adjustable drivers: what all those settings actually do
Loft sleeves, movable weights, lie adjustments — most golfers never touch them, and the few who fiddle often make things worse. The plain guide.
By Jordan Hale
Spikeless face-off: adidas S2G SL vs FootJoy Pro SL
Two of the best spikeless shoes in golf, head to head. Both brilliant — here's which suits your feet and your wallet.
By Jordan Hale
