Amazing New Golf Products for 2012
Drivers & Fairway Woods
Part 1

I have always said that “Contentment is not a fulfillment of a want, but the realization of what one has”.
However, golfers seem to overlook or ignore this tenet when it comes to their golf game, aka, golf addiction. The clubs below were all the cause celebre at the 2012 PGA Show in Orlando.
This year, more than in past years, there are reasons that will make you consider a switch:
The new Callaway Razor Fit driver certainly leads the way in the driver category, followed by the updated R11s and Adam Fast 12 drivers. Any one of these three drivers will definitely bring a smile to your face.
After the drivers, the new TaylorMade Rocketballz fairway woods and the new Adams Fast 12 fairway woods are just waiting to find a home in your bag.
Callaway RAZR Fit Driver
Finally, Callaway has entered the adjustable driver domain after many years, and they definitely have a sure fire winner on their hands. Golfers like these adjustable drivers because they allow you to tweak things like the loft, face angle, lie angle, and weight distribution.
Callaway’s RAZR Fit has taken all the existing adjustable driver knowledge from the marketplace and developed their driver which conceivably is their best product since the Big Bertha!
If you don’t like white or grey heads, this distance demon is the club to consider. Els, Mickelson, Quiros, Allenby, Immelman and many Callaway staff players have the RAZR Fit in their bag.
In addition to being Callaway’s first adjustable driver, the RAZR Fit is also the first driver to feature Callaway’s newest face, which is dubbed “Speed Frame.” It’s an optimization of the hyperbolic face pattern that Callaway has been using for several years, but the company says it should help golfers maintain more ball speed when they hit outside of the sweet spot.
The crown of the RAZR Fit is made from Forged Composite, a unique carbon material that first appeared in last season’s RAZR Hawk and Diablo Octane drivers. By melting millions of carbon fibers, Callaway engineers can press and mold the carbon material into very precise shapes and designs; in the case of the RAZR Fit, Forged Composite has been used in the crown to make it thinner and lighter. This allowed Callaway designers to add weight to the bottom and back sections of the club to lower the center of gravity.
The RAZR Fit has a neutral face angle, but it’s OptiFit Hosel allows you to open the face 2.5° or close the face 1.5°, using a torque wrench to unscrew the head from the shaft and re-attach it in either the Open, Square or closed position. The OptiFit Weights (2 grams and 12 grams) shift the club head’s center of gravity to promote either Draw or Neutral ball flight.
The driver ‘s shaft is the ever popular Aldila RIP’D NV.
Lofts of 8.5°, 9.5 °,10.5 ° and 11.5 ° are available.
MSRP: $399.00    www.callawaygolf.com
TaylorMade R11s Driver
After selling over 1,000,000 White Head drivers, TaylorMade has tweaked and updated the R11 with the R11s.

The new R11s is 20cc  bigger, it is faster, it is more tunable and  4 to 10 yards longer than the original R11 driver. The 460cc matte-white finish head is powered by a new 5-sided ASP (Adjustable Sole Plate), new 1.5º FCT sleeve and movable weights.

With 3D Tuning, you can independently tune loft, face angle and flight path your swing.

The white 460cc head features a ±3° FCT (Flight Control Technology) sleeve,  a new 5-way Adjustable Sole Plate and TaylorMade’s MVT (Movable Weight Technology), allowing the R11S Driver to be tuned for 80 different  launch settings.

It is now possible to tune loft up or down by 1.5° with (FCT) and to tune the face to one of five angles  with Adjustable Sole Plate Technology.

The R11s includes two Movable Weight Technology cartridges weighing  1gram and 10grams. They can be interchanged to create a draw bias or neutral  ball flight. Changing the weights alters the centre of gravity by 4mm from heel to toe promoting up to 20 yards of side-to-side bias.

The TaylorMade R11s Driver is further enhanced by TaylorMade’s  Inverted Cone Technology that expands the COR zone, or the portion of  the club that delivers faster ball speeds.

Lofts of 8.5°, 9.5 °,10.5 ° and 11.5 ° are available.
The R11S measures 45.75″  and comes equipped with an Aldila RIP Phenom 60g shaft.

MSRP:$399.99     www.taylormadegolf.com
TaylorMade RocketBallz Fairway Wood
This fairway wood has the Tour pros, especially the staff players, clamoring to get at least the #3 wood into their bags as quickly as possible. Rory Sabbatini, Dustin Johnson, Sean O’Hair and Vaughn Taylor, smile from ear to ear after every shot. Who wouldn’t after seeing distances of 280- 330 yards with a fairway wood. In my humble opinion, this is the one club that can and will reinvigorate the fairway wood category long surpassed by the Rescue club.
The coefficient of restitution (“COR” or “trampoline effect”) of TaylorMade RocketBallz woods is at the “legal limit” imposed by USGA and R & A rules. According to the company, these are the first and only steel-faced fairway woods to achieve that status. As a result, TaylorMade RocketBallz woods are some of the hottest clubs in golf.
Somewhat similar to Nike’s “Compression Channel” (used in its VR Pro woods) and the “Velocity Slot” (used in Adams Speedline Fast 12 fairway wood described below), the RocketBallz features a carved-out channel called a “Speed Pocket”,  which is on the sole of all TaylorMade RocketBallz woods. The Speed Pocket, located directly behind the face, increases ball velocity and yardage by promoting more flex in the club’s face and sole at impact.
According to TaylorMade’s research, most golfers hit woods and hybrids low on the face, so it decided to position the weight plug low and forward, where it would help players hit a higher, faster ball with less spin and more carry. This non-adjustable weight plug is located just behind the Speed Pocket.
Bucking the current trend of moving a club’s center of gravity down and back to encourage a high ball flight, the weight plug on the sole of TayorMade RocketBallz woods moves the center of gravity forward toward the face. Different, but it works great according to our testing group. Every golfer who tried this club would have bought a 3, 5 and 7 wood on the spot, myself included!
There are both the Standard and Tour versions available and in multiple lofts. The Tour version comes with a Matrix Ozik RUL 70, 75-gram graphite shaft and has a slightly smaller head with a fade bias. The standard version is fitted with a Matrix Ozik Xcon 5, 50-gram shaft.
MSRP: Tour Fairway  $229.99  Tour TP $329.99   www.taylorMadegolf.com

Adams Golf Speedline Fast 12 LS Driver
This is the fastest, longest and most forgiving Speedline driver ever manufactured by Adams. In the age of White headed drivers, the Speedline’s colors are just as visible and another option for those golfers who do not like a white head.
The Speedline Fast 12 LS (Low Spin)  LS 460 cc driver is powered by industry-leading aerodynamics with adjustability that features new airfoil design elements on the crown and sole that result in 14% less drag and up to 3 MPH faster club head speed.
This is Adams Golf’s lowest spinning aerodynamic driver ever, and is the only driver in the industry with length adjustability. Better players can optimize this driver by adjusting loft/face attitude, lie angle and length, quickly and easily. It can be dialed in to deliver the player’s preferred distance, ball flight and performance.
Lofts of 8.5°, 9.5 ° and 10.5 ° are available.
A Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki Alpha Shaft With  MD Technlogy is featured as standard with both Grafalloy ProLaunch Blue and Matrix Ozik 6m3.1 Black Tie also being available.

The new grip being used in driver and fairway woods, the Lamkin Elite Tour Symmetrical, is probably the best grip I have seen in the market, period.
MSRP: $349.00  Street Price: $299.00
Adams Golf Speedline Fast 12 Fairway Wood
 What an awesome fairway wood! This fairway wood features Adam’s Second‑Generation VST (Velocity Slot Technology).
With an improved slot design along with a larger sweet spot and better launch conditions, the FAST 12 Fairway Wood delivers unsurpassed forgiveness across the entire face, along with more ball speed for increased distance. It’s a superior fairway wood with unmatched performance.
This club , in my opinion and those of our testing group, is comparable both in distance, feel, aesthetics and performance to TaylorMade’s RocketBallz fairway wood.
Lofts of 13.5°, 15 ° and 17 ° are available in standard lofts. Draw lofts of 15°,
17 ° and 20 ° are available.
The Graffaloy ProLaunch shaft  with SpeedCoat technology is standard and it too has the exceptional Lamkin Elite Tour Symmetrical grip.
MSRP:  $249.00 Street Price:$199.00    www.adamsgolf.com
In Part 2, I will cover the new irons from TaylorMade, PING and Bridgestone, plus the new putters from See-More and Bobby Bettinardi. All of these clubs are definitely game changers that should reside in your bag for at least 2 – 3 years.

Barry Lotz, J.D., Ph.D. is the director of the Professional Golf Teachers Association of America. He is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, the California Golf Writers Association, and serves both as a Consultant and Mediator to the golf industry. He is also the author of numerous books, including “333 Best Web Sites for Golfers”, “How to Build Business Relationships through Golf” which is in the Top Ten Golf Business Book’s bestseller list. His latest book,” The Right Mind for Golf” released in December 2011, has drawn rave reviews from Tour player and their caddies and even resulted in players winning Tour  and climbing in world rankings.