Ready or not, Launch Season starts today. For the next month-and-a-half, MyGolfSpy (and the rest of the golf media world) will hit you with a veritable tsunami of product launch stories.
I considered calling it a “tidal wave”, but tsunami sounds more ominous.
Every OEM you can imagine, plus a few you’ve never heard of, will announce their 2026 lineup over the next month and a half or so. The whole experience is not unlike Christmas: most find it magical but some find it debilitatingly stressful.
(There are even a few oddballs who couldn’t care less. What are you even doing here?)
Either way, we’ve been through this many, many times over the years. As Launch Season veterans, we’ve put together these rules to help you actually enjoy the next 45 days.
We call them “rules” but they’re not enforceable by any official national, international or intergalactic golf enforcement agency. Strictly speaking, they’re really just suggestions.
No matter what you call them, we think they’ll help you get the most out of this year’s Launch Season and maybe even have some fun along the way.
Rule 1: Don’t be unnecessarily cynical – no one is promising you 10 more yards
We can, with 1,000-percent certainty, expect someone, somewhere, to say this about somebody’s new driver:
Let me guess? 10 more yards …
Rule No. 1 is simple and will keep you sane: Leave the knee-jerk cynicism at the door – no one is promising you 10 more yards this year. No one promised it last year, either. The truth is that no OEM of note has promised anything remotely resembling 10 more yards for at least 15 years.
Yet it’s a go-to lament from wannabe cynics. It’s a lazy hot take, usually followed by the equally inane “We should all be hitting it 400 by now.
Look, OEMs are in the business of selling golf clubs, and distance sells. Nothing coming out this year is going to turn you into prime John Daly. That said, it’s foolish to presume that driver tech is maxed out. You’ll hear a lot of stories about “longer, straighter and faster” this month. The gains they’ll talk about aren’t huge (perhaps negligible for us mere mortals), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t real. Most of the real improvement will be in maintaining ball speed on off-center strikes, which is not so negligible for us mere mortals. Whether those gains are consequential to you as a consumer is entirely up to you.
Oh, yeah, while we’re at it, let’s retire the Just wait: there’ll be another one in six weeks nonsense, too.
2011 called. It wants its Hot Take back.
Rule 2: You don’t have to buy a damn thing if you don’t want to
Here’s another reality check. You and you alone decide whether it’s worth pulling out the credit card and buying new sticks. If you’re ready, buy. If you’re not, don’t. OEMs don’t expect you to buy a new driver every year (they wouldn’t mind it, but they don’t expect it).
If it helps, think of it this way: OEMs are selling to a parade. This year’s driver isn’t aimed at the parade float with all the golfers who just bought a new one last year. It’s aimed at the next float, the one with golfers who bought a driver five or six years ago. This year’s latest and greatest might be marginally better than last year’s but it very well may be a lot better than something from the pre-COVID era.
And, yes, we know someone out there might hit their 2017 Epic Whatever just as far as any of the new stuff. Congrats. We’re happy for you. You don’t need to upgrade.
That said, there are dozens of reasons to buy a new driver. In the final analysis, however, the only one that matters is that you want one.
It’s your money, so it’s your decision.
Rule 3: Be curious, not judgmental
The annual moaning, wailing and gnashing of teeth over product launches is predictable. It can also be tiresome. This year, however, promises to be fascinating. You’re going to read a lot about some pretty golf-nerdy stuff but the overarching theme will be one of playability.
You can be judgmental and dismiss everything as marketing bullshit, and some of it no doubt will be. Most of it, however, won’t be. Therefore, may we suggest approaching Launch Season with an open mind and curiosity? See how much you can learn about golf equipment design. Hell, you can even play “Marketing Verb Bingo” and keep track of how many times OEMs use words like optimize, maximize or customize.
If you lead with curiosity, we can say with some certainty that you’ll read about some pretty fascinating, albeit golf wonky, developments and innovations. Can a blade be as forgiving as a game-improvement iron? We’ll look into it. What’s that mysterious new Mizuno “World’s First _____ Driver” all about? That’s a pretty cool story. And are we seeing the birth of a new category of irons that are more forgiving than forged cavity-backs but with more playability and workability (not to mention weaker lofts) than player’s distance? (Spoiler alert: It sure looks that way.)
It’s going to be fun, as long as you heed the words of legendary philosopher Frank Vincent Zappa:
A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’s not open.
Rule 4: Consumer fatigue – and its accompanying cynicism – is a real danger
On the other hand, Chairman Zappa also told us that “being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization. You can’t just swallow it whole.”
The Launch Season drumbeat of longer, faster, straighter comes every January so we can be excused for exercising a little cynicism. Everyone, after all, needs a defense mechanism now and again.
Perhaps the best way to guard against misplaced cynicism is to be an informed consumer. Even if you’re not in the market for new clubs, read everything you can while making sure to apply Rule 3 above. You don’t have to swallow it whole but also understand that no one out there is simply repackaging last year’s tech in a new wrapper and charging more for it.
If you really want to get a keen insight into just how OEMs can squeeze extra juice out of a driver, and how USGA limits do not mean gear is maxed out, give a listen to the most recent No Putts Given. Kudos to Tony and Chris for making the nerdy tech stuff understandable.
Finally, Rule 5: Don’t get your undies in a wad – it’s just golf equipment
In the grand scheme of importance on this little round ball of mostly water we call home, golf equipment ranks well behind things like famine, drought and pestilence. Unless you play on TV for your paycheck, these are tools we use to play a game for fun.
Lighten up. It’s just golf.
We’ve said it before on these pages but there has never been a better time to be a golf consumer. We have more truly exceptional equipment available to us than ever before. With the growth of direct-to-consumer brands, much of it is available at a relative bargain.
You can’t or won’t pay $650 for a new driver? You don’t have to. There are scads of excellent DTC drivers available for less than $400. You can also hunt down a bargain on a 2025 model or find something used. You can even choose not to spend anything and keep playing what you have. No one’s going to call a cop on you.
When it comes to purchasing, you hold the ultimate power. In this world, you can choose to be either the dog or the fire hydrant. There’s no reason to choose the fire hydrant.
Or, as ol’ Frank so aptly, and metaphorically, put it:
Don’t you eat that yellow snow.
The post Follow These Five Rules And You’ll Actually Enjoy Launch Season appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
