The guys at Bob Burns sent us this “No Bananas 460cc Driver” for testing, and guess what? It was really incredible. At first we thought that it might just be another cheap nock off of the Taylor Made Movable Weight Technology, but we couldnt have been more wrong. Bob Burns truly delivers a high quality and original product when it comes to the No Bananas Driver. We tested it on some of our worst local slicers, and the results were beyond impressive. They were all able to see instant improvements. Their slices turned into fades and straight shots right before our eyes.

Normally we focus on high end equipment, and this driver is no exception. It comes with a new decade style grip, and nice quality shaft, and an awesome monkey head cover. On top of all that, it really will improve your ball flight if you repeatedly slice or fade the ball. Don’t let the funny name mislead you. It’s an awesome club, and you have to try it to believe it!

Eighty to 90% of golfers tend to fade, push, or slice the ball off the tee. Primarily, two factors cause a slice. The clubface remains open at impact, or the swing path is outside-in. The anti-slice technology of the Bob Burns No Bananas Driver can eliminate the slice from your game forever. The design elements center-of-gravity location, face angle, shaft flex, lie, and hosel offset are geared to help you square the face through impact and provide the additional weighting, placed inside the toe and heel areas, expands the sweet spot and reduces clubhead twisting. The amount of left-to-right spin imparted on the ball decreases dramatically, and the result is straighter, more accurate shots. The two-inch deep, incredibly thin face achieves maximum trampoline effect, while conforming to the USGA legal COR limit. Available in both offset and non-offset 310-cc forged head models, the exclusive No Bananas Driver is guaranteed to help you hit longer and straighter. It comes with a Magilla Gorilla head cover, and No Bananas fairway woods and irons also are available with oversized heads and anti-slice technology.

Testimonial

Richard Warnke from Greensboro, Ga US

It works!! My slice has been corrected and I have much more confidence off the tee. I seem to have given up a little distance but it is worth it to be in the short grass rather than in the trees. I would recommend this driver to anyone who has struggled with a sweeping slice.

Check out their site at BobBurnsGolf.com

Pings first ever production forged iron is here! The 2010 Ping Anser Irons are expected to be released to the public next fall. They are made of 8620 carbon steel with a partial tungsten sole.  They also have a larger then average sole width and offset. Really excited about these clubs. Can’t wait to hit them!

The IDEA Pro Black CB1 Irons will be available April 1, 2010. The sole grinds are supposedly really nice. We will update with more information as it becomes available.

[pics via golfwrx.com]

Behold, the TaylorMade R9 SuperDeep! Were extremely excited about this new driver. It’s the successor of the R9 510 TP and comes in a sweet black finish. At address the SuperDeep looks like a 410cc-420cc driver, when in fact it stands tall at a beefy 460cc’s. The sheer depth of the face is what makes this club look smaller than it actually is. It’s also the deepest face TaylorMade has ever produced, but were not exactly sure how many millimeters yet.

The new Taylormade Super Deep driver is setup to provide a medium trajectory, but it’s new MWT and FCT technology will allow for a total of 448 setup combinations. These combinations will allow you to alter the variable spin and variable launch. It’s also got 8WMT weights that will provide a total of 56 different center of gravity positions.

The Super Deep will come standard with the new Aldila R.I.P shaft that was selected and adjusted to feature a more tip stiff design, which helps maintain the launch angle through impact. It will be released to the public in March and available in 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 lofts. Can’t wait to hit one! And we’ll let ya know when we do!

[Pics Via golftoimpress.com]

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Srixon recently launched the new Z-STAR and Z-STAR X Tour Yellow golf balls. According to Srixon, numerous studies have concluded that yellow is the most visible color to the eye. They also claim that green is psychologically calming to the brain. So at address these balls are supposedly helping before you even make a swing.

PGA TOUR professionals Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk, as well as a worldwide contingent of professional golfers are currently playing the Z-STAR and Z-STAR X series of golf balls. Tour victories for the Z-STAR ball series include Henrik Stenson’s victories at the 2008 Nedbank Golf Challenge and the 2008 Omega Mission Hills World Cup, as well as Tim Clark’s win at the 2008 Australian Open, John Rollins victory at the 2009 Reno-Tahoe Open and Jim Furyk’s win at the 2009 Chevron World Challenge.

The Z-STAR and Z-STAR X Tour are Srixon’s new premium golf balls, and will cater to all types of players looking to improve distance, spin, and feel. They have the ever popular ultra-thin urethane cover that is easily destroyed by a wedge, but provides great feel. They start shipping to retailers on April 1, 2010 with a MSRP of $39.99.

Becuase of the success of the Victory Red irons and wedges, Nike has decided to extend the line into hybrids, woods, and drivers.

Nike worked closely with it’s sponsored professionals to develop the new VR line up, which is considered to be much more traditional looking than what Nike currently offers in their Summo models.

Nike Victory Red Hybrids

The new Victory Red hybrids were created with the mid to high handicapper in mind. They offer a substantial amount of workability and distance. Engineers at Nike decided to open the face slightly and move the center of gravity forward, allowing for this increase in forgiveness, distance, and workability.

“We have accomplished what we wanted to with these hybrids. We wanted to achieve a higher launch angle with significantly less spin. We’ve done that through altering the face angle and finding the proper center of gravity measurements.” – Tom Stites, Director of Club Creation for Nike

The new Nike VR hybrid also features a 455 Ultra Thin steel face with a Split Compression Channel, for more distance across the entire clubface.

Loft options range from 15° up to a 24°, with all but the 15° available for both right-handed and left-handed players.

The Nike Victory Red Hybrid will also come with a standard Aldila VooDoo graphite shaft, Nike Golf Crossline grip, and a suggested retail price of $203.99.

Nike Victory Red STR8-Fit Tour Fairway Woods

First, and maybe most importantly, the new VR fairway woods are much different than last years SQ Dymo fairway woods. The most noticeable difference is no square headed option, which is great because those were gross. However, if you’re looking for the forgiveness of a square head, Nike will be releasing it’s Machspeed lineup shortly.

Secondly you will find the added STR8-Fit adjustable(32 different options) technology that was only seen in previous 2009 SQ Dymo STR8-Fit drivers. The Nike Victory Red Fairway Woods will also feature the 455 ultra-thin steel face and Split Compression Channel for added distance, similar to the new VR Hybrid, and actually a variation of the new Victory Red Driver.

“Our athletes prefer a smooth sole design for optimized playability on tight fairway lies. In order to achieve that, we split the compression channel on the sole to provide improved performance from every lie.” -Tom Stites

Loft options range from 13° strong 3 wood (for righties only), 15° 3-wood, 17° 4-wood, and 19° 5 wood.

The Nike Victory Red Fairway Woods will also come standard with an Aldila Voodoo shafts(A, R, S, or X flex) and a suggested retail price of $299.

Victory Red Tour and Victory Red STR8-Fit Tour Drivers

As you can see in the pictures, Nike has created two versions of the new VR Driver – the 420cc VR Tour(right top two pics) and the 460cc VR STR8-Fit Tour(right bottom two pics). Again, the most noticeable difference from past drivers is that they look more traditional, and basically badass. No more crazy yellow or boxy heads. Just smooth clean lines, with a techie graphical look on the sole of the head. It’s seems as though Nike really did listen to the feedback from players, and as a result created some incredible new drivers.

Both drivers sport Nike’s new Compress Channel Technology, which can be seen in the form of a red channel that stretches across the sole of the club. And like we said before, this compression channel creates a more consistent compression across the entire face of the club,promoting more distance.

The other very noticeable difference between the two clubs is the lack of STR8-Fit(32 different options) Technology on the 420cc head. We can only assume that Nike wanted to create a model for two kinds of players. The ones that like the big head, latest technology, and adjustability – and the ones that prefer a smaller cleaner head. Brilliant in our opinion.

Nike will offer a few different size variations with the VR STR8-Fit Tour as well, as the 8.5° and 9.5° are a 440cc head, while the 10.5° and 11.5° are 20cc larger at 460cc.

The STR8-Fit comes standard with the Aldila VooDoo graphite shaft, while the VR Tour comes with the Project X graphite shaft. Both are available in Regular, Stiff, and X-Stiff flex profiles. Suggested retail price on both models is $479.99. Nike is also offering their “Signing Bonus” program, where upon the purchase of one of their new products, you’re given credit to purchase other products such as apparel or balls.

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Mizuno just recently released the MP-630 and MP-630 Fast Track Drivers, both of which are considered “Tour Ready.” The MP-630 Fast Track will have 45 adjustable trajectory settings through 16 grams of movable weight. And the standard MP-630 will be the same driver, just with neutral settings and no adjustability. In our opinion Mizuno did a great job with this tour performance driver. Whether you prefer a clean, super solid look, or a techy adjustable head, they’ve got you covered.

The MP-630 Fast Track driver allows for 45 different trajectory settings through its use of two adjustable 8-gram weights. These settings include the ability to adjust left and right properties, increase or decrease spin rates, and higher or lower launch angles. If thats not enough technology for you, they’ve also added a Hot Metal Ti-9 Titanium face with CNC CORTECH design provides maximum ball speed and an increased COR area for unbelievable distance. The MP-630 Fast Track also features a player preferred head shape and is frequency tuned to increase solid feel and optimal sound at impact.

The standard MP-630 driver is also “Tour Ready” and has a player preferred pear shaped head. It also has a low, shallow COG(center of gravity) for medium-low spin and penetrating yet workable ball flight. The Hot Metal face of MP-630 is sheet forged 6-4 Titanium with CORTECH design which provides explosive distance and maximum control off the tee. Mizuno also used Modal Analysis and wavelet transform, of recorded impact sound data to produce a pleasing powerful sound at impact.

Both the MP-630 and MP-630 Fast Track drivers will be offered in right hand with a 64 gram MRC Fubuki shaft, engineered exclusively for Mizuno, and the Golf Pride M-21 Round grip. The MP-630 will be available in 9.5º and 10.5º, and will retail for $299.99, and the MP-630 Fast Track will be available in 8.5º, 9.5º, and 10.5º, and retail for $499.99. Custom options are available through Mizuno’s Custom Club department. Mizuno will begin shipping the MP-630 drivers in February.

This is one of the few times we can absolutely say that you will get what you pay for if you purchase one of these drivers. Because of the extensive R and D and adjustability features of the Fast Track, Mizuno has created two products that players won’t have to worry about replacing for a very long time.

Srixon just recently announced their new Trispeed and Trispeed Tour Golf Balls.

As far as we can tell, Srixon is trying to mimic the successful strategy of the PROV1 and the PROV1x from Titleist. The new Trispeed ball is meant to be a premium distance ball that can meet the demands of many different types of players. It features a 3 piece design in which the outermost layer or the “core” will be a little thinner in comparison to past models. Again, this design sounds very similar the the PROV1 with the thin Urethane covers. They are really the best performing balls on the market, but the only downside is that the thin covers don’t last very long. At least Srixon seems to acknowledge this by referring to their new Trispeed balls as premium.

The Trispeed Tour will be very similar in design to the standard Trisbeed ball, but will feature a harder core that will only see it’s best performance from a player with a faster swing speed. The core uses Energetic Gradient Growth core technology to optimize driver distance and greenside spin control.

Like we said before, the new Trispeed and Trispeed Tour golf balls seem to directly target the PROV1 and PROV1x market share, and they might be worth a try for the slightly less expensive price tag. The new Trispeed and Trispeed Tour golf balls will begin shipping immediately to retailers and will carry a suggested price of $29.99. So slight discounts beyond that price are highly likely as well.

Cobra Golf was at the PGA Show this year in full force. One of their newest product line-ups showcased was the Baffler Woods. The Baffler Woods will be based on Cobra’s popular Baffler Hybrid model, which features a design called the Baffler Rail F. This rail surface is at the bottom of the club-head and is said to create less club to ground contact. Cobra claims that this promotes better contact, which ultimately increases distance.

The new Cobra Baffler Woods are also wieghted similarly to the Baffler line by having added wieght at the bottom of the club to create greater swing speed. It also features a slightly larger head size compared to most fairway woods to allow for a bigger sweet-spot and better ball contact. We will be sure to update as more information comes out.

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Williams Formula One sure added some flair to this year’s PGA Show. We’re not completely sure why the racing company decided to throw their hat into the ring, but at least they did it in style. Williams Formula One girls were there to promote a new limited set of golf clubs that they have priced at $50,000. The set is called the Black Diamond Series, and according to their press release, the set provides the “Ultimate Golf Experience.” In our opinion, it better be one hell of an experience for $50k! Might even need to throw in the girl and the car to seal the deal.

Understanding each individual golfers needs are unique, a Williams’s expert club maker will custom fit and tailor each piece of equipment to the specific needs of the player. Maximizing and utilizing all fitting aspects will ensure the highest level of success that the Black Diamond Series can offer. The player will also receive a personalized 100% Italian leather custom Williams golf bag handmade in Italy by Schedoni, and will be a VIP Guest of the team of any F1 event of his choosing. The Black Diamond Series package carries a price tag of $50,000.00.

Williams will also be selling two more moderately priced sets – the Golf Series and the Players Series. Both of which will come with the engineering and design experience of Williams Formula One. Again, not really sure how racing engineering is relavent to golf, but you gotta love the chutzpah.

If your into golf and electronics, then you may need to check this out. SkyGolf released the new SkyCaddie SGX at the 2010 PGA Show and it makes some great strides at being more than just a simple GPS. The SGX is now part caddie.

This rangefinder uses a new technology called SmartClub that you put on the top of your grips. It allows the machine to identify the clubs without the need to enter them in manually. After a few practice sessions it will automatically learn your game and make club recommendations according to the specific situation and distance. So when you want to pull out what you think should be a 6 iron, the SGX will quietly remind you that your either crazy or simply mistaken about your abilities. Reaching that back of the green pin placement will take at least a 5 iron you goof, and the SGX isn’t afraid to tell you.

Another cool added feature to the new SkyCaddie SGX is the social networking golf data. You will be able to share your game stats, including scores, shot distance, and even what’s in your bag with friends, an instructorm or anyone else you wish to share with.

And if you don’t have an instructor, or opinionated friends that think they can help, the SGX has you covered. The ClubSG that stores your information online can suggest a pro that will help you fix that ugly mess of swing.

One last perk… You don’t have to tip the SkyCaddie a Grant(50 dollar bill) at the end of your round.