What you need to know: A nine-piece set aimed at the beginning or launch-challenged golfer, the Wildcat set is comprised of a driver, 5-wood, 6-hybrid, 7-iron through pitching wedge, sand wedge and putter. Higher lofts, deeper centers of gravity and Lighter shafts and swing weights all are employed to increase ease of use.
Price/Availability: Clubs mya be purchased individually or as a nine-club set (with baeg, hat and a dozen golf balls). Driver: $299; fairway wood: $199; hybrid: $189; irons: $149 each; putter: $300; full set: $1,499. Available immediately.
3 Cool Things
1. Take it easyDesigning a set that makes the beginning golfer seem competent might be a taller task than helping the average weekend warrior play a little bit better. That’s because every swing is pretty much a random event, so where to begin? For PXG’s designers, the starting line was simply working on making it easier to get the ball in the air.
“One of the things I think we all can relate to in our journey in golf is that golf is a hard sport,” said Brad Schweigert, chief product officer for PXG. “It’s difficult for players of all abilities and one of the things that makes it much more difficult on beginners is most of the time they’re, they’re starting out with equipment that’s usually not very well fit for them and definitely not designed and optimized for kind of meeting them where they’re at in their journey of golf.”
That meant larger faces and increased offset to boost confidence. It meant creating clubs with an extremely low, rearward CG. That adds extra spin that aids lift. It also meant higher lofts to assist with launch. In short, anything to help get shots in the air.
2. Going with 9 instead of 14One thing beginning golfers often face is a bit of confusion as to what club to use. That confusion increases with more choices, leading PXG to a nine-piece set instead of 14.
“I think every piece that we provide the customer is going to be a useful tool for them,” said Schweigert. “We have a driver that’s shorter in length and higher in loft [44 inches and 16 degrees of loft] that’s going to be easier to use to get off the tee and have more consistent results and get it in a fairway. We have one fairway wood that’s going to be easy to hit off the turf. Then a hybrid and an iron set that starts at the 7-iron. It’s very intuitive.”
3. Still technologically advancedIt would be easy to think of such a set as scrimping on technology, but PXG doesn’t operate that way. There is plenty of horsepower, especially in the irons.
The irons are a hollow body filled with a polymer for feel and rebound. The outer cavity badge has a weight-saving insert with the mass saved redistributed to the perimeter for improved forgiveness. As with all PXG irons, the face insert is made from HT1770 maraging steel and is razor thin at just .050 of an inch. Add in channels around the perimeter of the face and you receive a significant trampoline effect
All of the irons are designed with a large amount of offset and a bigger overall profile—perfect for the beginner or occasional player looking for a club easy to hit. The soles are super wide with a moderate amount of bounce allowing for forgiveness on steeper angles of attack and the swingweight is a featherlight C6. Coupled with the weakest lofts, the combination leads to higher-flying shots with increased carry.
The putter is the new Black Hawk model—a traditional-looking mallet that can be fit with any of four different hosels. The milled “pyramid face” provides consistency across the face, while precision weighting in the sole allows for fine-tuning of headweight. The “pick up pocket,” similar to that found on the company’s Allan model, is designed to easily pick up a golf ball off the ground. The pocket also removes unwanted mass from the center of the putter further fostering forgiveness.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
