Golf Digest's 2014 Drivers Hot List

Golf Digest experts tested and retested over 200 lines of equipment to identify the best of the best for their readers. Out of those testings the 2014 Hot List of Drivers was born. Are you looking for the ultimate driver to add to your golf bag? Check out these top 12 drivers and swing your game in the right direction.

Our 11th annual uncensored guide to the best golf equipment features 106 of the more than 250 clubs evaluated by our team of equipment editors, with input from scientists, teaching professionals, retailers and amateurs. We evaluated drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges and putters in four areas: performance, innovation, look/sound/feel and demand. "It's not just tour players who are benefitting in this era of game-improving psyche-enhancing clubs," Senior Equipment Editor Mike Stachura writes.

— Golf Digest

Putting Like Palmer

It's time for a little Putting 101. Putting is one of the most important skills necessary in the game of golf. This article lends a few tips to golfers for stepping up their putting game. Take some notes, grab your gear and get to the green. These tips will have you putting like Arnold Palmer in no time.

Arnold Palmer used to take putting advice from only one person, a virtuoso putter and fellow player named George Low. "He'd watch me putt for hours, and every once in a while he'd come over and say ... — Arnie leans in to reveal the great secret — "'Man, you're a great putter.' " It's our goal, in this special report on the art and science of putting, to have people saying that about you. For most golfers, putting is an afterthought. "Let me just roll a few on the practice green before we go" is the common refrain. But think about it: Putting is nearly half the game. If you want to play better, there's no getting around it: You must become a better putter.

— Why You Can't Putt

Don't Forget Your Sunglasses

We agree sunglasses can be intrusive when playing golf. Many golfers think that it makes the game harder and more difficult to read. There may be some truth to those opinions but the facts are that the UV rays from the sun can be harmful.This potential risk to golfers is reason enough to wear sunglasses on the green. This article shares a few more reasons for you to bring along your sunglasses.

Many golfers feel that wearing sunglasses makes it more difficult to play golf, particularly when it comes to reading greens. I can sympathize. I don’t like to wear them, either. But I do. And the reason goes beyond unnecessary exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Protection from UV rays is the biggest reason to wear sunglasses, but here are some other reasons you might not have considered.

— Why Sunglasses Matter

J.B. Holmes is Undoubtedly a Champion

J.B. Holmes has endured some pretty tough circumstances this season and he did an amazing job at keeping up with the curb while battling the side effects of a brain injury to say the least. He was diagnosed with Chiara malformations, described by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as structural defects in the cerebellum. Read more of J.B.'s heroic story...

The strength to flatten dimples on a golf ball might be an advantage in arm wrestling, but not in grappling with the challenges J.B. Holmes faced in recent years. Suffice it to say that a clubhead speed in excess of 120 miles per hour is incompatible with balance issues. Something was wrong with Holmes, and it was more formidable than a devilish par 3. Or even Tiger Woods.

— J.B. Holmes Took a Beating

Fallon on the Green?

Jimmy Fallon has many talents and from the looks of it golf can't be added to that roster just yet. He does however take excellent pictures in golf attire. Check out these sneak peeks from Fallon's shoot for the June cover of Golf Digest.

On whether he considers himself a golfer, or a guy who plays golf: Jimmy Fallon is trying to be a golfer, but right now he's a guy who plays golf. I'm trying my hardest, and I love to play, but if I'm in front of a crowd, I just want to make them laugh.

— Jimmy Fallon Cover Shoot

Best Golf Balls for 2014

Golf Digest knows that the equipment you use on the green makes a world of difference in your game results. That's why they've compiled the HotList for the best 2014 golf balls you can find. Click through the Hot List and take inventory of what's in your golf bag but more importantly what's not.

We all crave distance, but how a golf ball performs on approach shots and around the green is what saves the most strokes. Maybe that's why manufacturers are focusing on feel—by lowering compression and reformulating softer covers to make chips and pitches check up quicker. It's what we saw in our review of 59 balls for the 2014 Hot List.Both in robot testing and player comments, the meaningful differences clearly came off the short wedge shots, not from the driver.

— 2014 HotList Golf Balls