Mizuno expands its line of M.Craft forged/milled putters with the new OMOI lineup of three models. The OMOI line features heavier heads (as much as 28 grams depending on the model) for better stability, feel and sound, but keeps the overall weight of the club similar to standard models with lighter shafts and grips for better control.

PRICE: $350, three models: 01 and 02 blades, 03 mallet.

THE DEEP DIVE: When Mizuno’s David Llewellyn, director of research and development, and Chris Voshall, head of product, were struggling to come up with a name for the new heavier version of the M.Craft lineup of putters, they turned to the company’s Japanese heritage.

“I’m not exactly fluent in Japanese, but I know enough that when we asked What’s ‘heavy’ in Japanese?, I kind of knew it was ‘omoi,’” he said. “When we found out the secondary meaning was ‘passionate thought’ or ‘willpower’ and that kind of imagery, well, we were like, We’re definitely using ‘omoi.’ That’s just too good for a putter, especially when your main theme is what you did with some additional mass.”

Of course, it also helps that the last three letters are m-o-i, as in the golf technology term “moment of inertia.” MOI is a measurement of the stability of an object and its resistance to twisting on an off-center hit. By making the heads on the OMOI line as much as 28 grams heavier than standard, the new putters automatically improved their stability on off-center hits compared to the standard M.Craft models introduced in the prior two years.

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The heavier heads are paired with a lighter shaft and a lighter grip to change the balance point of the entire club. The idea is to further stabilize the entire system so the club is easier to swing.

“Our testing showed that locating more of the overall club weight in the head provided more consistent face rotation through impact,” Llewellyn said.

The extra mass in the head allowed for tweaks to the designs, specifically thickening the sole, that in addition to improving stability produced better sound and feel measurements through the company’s acoustic profiling known as “harmonic impact technology.”

The OMOI lineup includes two blades, the slant-neck 01 and the heel-toe weighted plumber’s neck 02, as well as a rounded mallet design, the 03. The 01 features a three-quarter hosel offset and 60 degrees of toe hang; the 02 features a full-shaft offset and 40 degrees of toe hang; and the 03 uses a double bend shaft and is face-balanced. The 01 and 02 feature 370-gram heads, while the 03 is 383 grams. Each model features 8-gram heel and toe weight screws, and a kit with extra 3-gram and 13-gram weights is included at no additional charge.

Like the original M.Craft line, the heads are forged from 1025 carbon steel, and they feature deep face milling for furthering that softer feel. They are offered in three finishes: double nickel, blue ION or Black ION.

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The OMOI putters will be at retail in March ($350).

This article originally appeared on Golf Digest.

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Every year at the start of the year, two of the biggest names in the driver category go head to head with their respective product launches in an attempt to capture the attention of golfers before the product hits the shelves. The year 2022 was no exception, with Callaway announcing its Rogue ST driver early on January 4th, followed by TaylorMade’s Stealth line-up just a few hours later on the same day.

Although it remains to be seen whether one performs demonstrably better than the other, and this will be player dependent, is there a case to be made that one generated more excitement and anticipation than the other, and if so, what might have been the reason for this?

Today’s best TaylorMade Stealth Driver and Callaway Rogue ST Max Driver deals

Our initial assessment is that TaylorMade was the company that generated the most excitement and generated the greatest amount of interest when the Stealth driver was introduced, which is perhaps unsurprising for a company known for its aggressive marketing. The number of page views on the website reflects this, and the number of responses on the Twitter feed corroborates this.

Which of today’s new driver releases do you most like the look of? ? pic.twitter.com/ahRUx0PfJH— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) January 4, 2022

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For starters, it has a brand-new name and an eye-catching feature in the form of a brilliant red carbon fibre face. Tiger Woods put the driver and fairway woods in the bag for his return to golf at the PNC Championship, giving us a sneak peek. He and his son came close to winning the competition, whetting the public’s hunger for more information when it became available.’

Both drivers have had a terrific response on tour. Collin Morikawa of TaylorMade put Stealth in play at the Sentry tournament of champions, which admittedly had a small field. This is interesting because he didn’t make the conversion from SIM to SIM2 last year. Other members of the team, such as Lucas Herbert and even free agent Daniel Berger, also contributed to Stealth’s victory. Callaway’s poster boy Jon Rahm, as well as Phil Mickelson, Xander Schaufelle, new signing Abraham Ancer, Marc Leishman, and Talor Gooch, all put the Rogue ST in the bag.

Callaway’s goal was to create something more cosmetically attractive, and while Rogue ST does this, it lacks the wow impact of Stealth. While I believe the A.I. technology story is completely accurate, I believe it will be tough to sell to a golfer who can see and touch the new Stealth face and leaves nothing behind closed doors.

Rick Shiels, who now has over two million YouTube subscribers, is a pretty decent barometer of golfer interest, and his assessment of the Stealth drivers has had over twice as many views as his evaluation of the Rogue ST drivers. Nonetheless, our Callaway Rogue ST review video has so far outdone our Stealth drivers video.

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A little #ThrowbackThursday to a carbon-faced driver we released 20 years ago. Our face technology has moved on quite a bit since then… ⚡️ #FlashFace #Callaway | #TBT pic.twitter.com/AQv1HAqjEj— Callaway Golf Europe (@CallawayGolfEU) January 13, 2022

Callaway recently fired shots on Twitter by uploading an image of a Big Bertha C4 driver with a carbon face from nearly 20 years ago. This was definitely a dig at TaylorMade’s ostensibly revolutionary technology, and while it’s worth noting that Callaway has done similar work in the past, you can’t help but wonder if this low blow simply plays into TaylorMade’s hands.

Without a doubt, both of these drivers appear to be among the best ever created, but the Stealth appears to have gotten the audience’s passions running a little more vigorously.

Read the original article on Golf Monthly.

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Tom Hoge rebounded from a seemingly disastrous double-bogey 5 on the par-3 fifth hole to overtake Jordan Spieth at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a one-two punch of birdies at the 16th and 17th—the latter a 22-footer—Sunday.

The win made Hoge the second player in two weeks to earn his first career PGA Tour title after having gone winless for 200-plus starts, with Luke List achieving that feat the week prior at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Those birdies added to Hoge’s tournament-leading total of 27. Hoge used a normally successful combination of solid iron play and strong putting to earn the win. Hoge ranked fourth in strokes gained/approach-the-green with a split set of Titleist irons—he uses Titleist 620 CBs for his 4-iron and 620 MB blades for the rest of his set. The clubs have Project X 6.5 shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips. Among the many key shots Hoge hit down the stretch was a 9-iron from 140 yards on the par-4 16th hole that stopped mere inches from the cup, allowing him to tie for the lead.

That was followed by a 7-iron to 22 feet on the par-3 17th that Hoge rolled in to take a two-shot lead as Spieth, playing in the group ahead, bogeyed the hole. Hoge ranked fourth for the week in strokes gained/putting for the two rounds they tracked the stat, picking up more than four shots on the field with an Odyssey White Hot OG 2-Ball putter he put into play just this week.

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“I switched putters this week,” Hoge told the media after his opening-round 63 at Pebble Beach. “To see one go in right off the bat [a 20-footer] on the first hole was huge for me. I felt like I made a lot of good putts out there today.

He made a lot of good ones on Sunday, too.

What Tom Hoge had in the bag at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x Left Dot

Driver: Titleist TSi3 (Fujikura Ventus Black 6x), 9 degrees

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3-wood: Titleist TS2, 13.5 degrees

Hybrid: Titleist 913Hd, 18 degrees

Irons (4): Titleist 620 CB; (5-PW): Titleist 620 MB

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM8 (52, 56 degrees); Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks (60 degrees)

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG 2-Ball

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This article originally appeared on Golf Digest.