Reflecting on the Hottest Golf Trends of the Year

Where has this year gone?

It really doesn’t seem like long ago that we explored everything new in the world of golf for 2024 in January and February.

We were anticipating the first major of the year and building plans for staging our own Scottie Scheffler-like dominance in club or regional competitions during the spring and summer months ahead.

And yet here we are, Christmas and another new year just days away, and our golfing exploits fading into memory.

We’ll take the opportunity to reflect on the golf trends of 2024 and see what pointers this gives us for 2025.

We’ll also help your planning for the assault on the 2025 golf season by looking at the following:

• The Growth In Custom Golf Clubs
• The Key Golf Technology Stories Of 2024
• How Keeping Your Golf Bag Light In 2025 Will Help You
• The Push For Sustainability in Golf: How The Major Manufacturers Are Changing Business Practices

The Growth In Custom Golf Clubs

The demand for equipment shows no sign of letting up. In 2023, UK golfers collectively spent £1.3 billion on golf equipment.

Sales are fuelled by the lure of new releases mixed with golfers updating ageing equipment and the rise of participation in people playing golf.

We see evidence of similar healthy growth in the custom-fitting space. According to a report by Golf Business Technology, fitting sessions increased by 20% this year.

Why are we seeing the demand for custom-fitted golf clubs increasing?

We can offer the following explanations for why we are seeing an increase in golfers being custom-fitted:

• Cost of Modern Golf Clubs
• Improved Knowledge
• Manufacturers Promoting Custom-Fitting

Cost of Modern Golf Clubs

Titleist launched its new GT Series drivers in the summer. They are some of the best-performing drivers in the current market and some of the best-looking clubs. However, some would argue that the looks and performance don’t justify the recommended retail price of £580 ($730, €695.)

Titleist isn’t the only company with drivers at this price point. Callaway’s AI Smoke and TaylorMade’s Qi10 Series drivers were over £500 ($630, €600).

If you want to spend that money, how do you know you’ll hit longer and straighter drives?

The same issue arises with irons. A good set of irons will cost at least £1000 ($1260, €1200.) Would you trust that buying a set of irons off the rack for this price at your local wholesale retailer will make you a better iron player?

Golfers increasingly don’t want to take the risk that if they are going to spend a good amount of money on golf equipment, the equipment has to perform.

Improved Knowledge

Custom fitting has more exposure now than ever. Major retailers will have a custom-fitting bay available, mobile fitting units are visiting golf clubs, and more independent fitters are setting up studios.

Some caveats must be mentioned to ensure you get the best advice. Major retailers can be incentivised to promote certain products over others. This could lead to an incorrect recommendation for the golfer and a club that doesn’t benefit their game. However, the retailer will be happy to make the sale as they push to compete against other retailers in the region who are also part of a manufacturer’s promotion efforts.

Mobile units that visit golf clubs are great because they will have a captive audience as players come and go from the host course during the day.

Problems can arise if the weather is unpredictable during the fitting session, impacting ball flights, spin and launch rates, and carry distances. If the fitter is using a good quality launch monitor, they can make reasonable dispensations for the weather to give more accurate readings.

If you have a short practice ground, it can limit or prevent mobile fitters from visiting the golf club unless they can set up temporary nets to accommodate longer shots.

Independent fitters will give you an unbiased view of what will help you improve your game. They’ll carry a large selection from a number of brands to build head and shaft combinations to hone in on what’s best for your game.

Working with an independent fitter is also likely to lead to a less transactional approach. As your game improves, you can visit the same fitter any number of times, and the fitter will have details on file they can call on to see where the potential is for development.

Social media also promotes the benefits of custom-fitting. For example, some of the major YouTube stars have content on their channels where they review equipment and always make a point of saying that golfers would benefit from experiencing a custom-fitting session to determine what clubs are best for their game.

We also get curious when one of our regular playing partners suddenly adds fifteen yards off the tee after purchasing a new driver. When the explanation comes that they went for a custom-fitting session to help them choose their next driver, it becomes natural that we enquire where they went for their fitting and make some enquiries with the fitter about booking our own fitting session.

Manufacturers Promoting Custom-Fitting

While manufacturers still service major retail outlets with their latest off-the-shelf products, manufacturers are doing more to promote the benefits of being custom-fitted for their products.

We see this in the form of blended iron sets. Limited blended sets are available in general retail; however, the real benefit of a blended iron set comes from working with a fitter who can help determine the composition's makeup to ensure consistent distance gapping, spin rates, and trajectories.

Shaft manufacturers are also creating products designed to be integrated into a custom-fitting program.

A great example is the Fujikura Ventus Blue with VeloCore + and TR models. These shafts aren’t just available in regular, stiff, and extra-stiff variants. They are offered in different weights and flexes; the 2024 Ventus Blue with VeloCore+ has nineteen variants in the range.

The increased plethora of options makes it easier for an experienced fitter to dial in the exact flex and weight for any golfer.

Fujikura also created the Ventus Red and Black with VeloCore+, which are designed for different player profiles with a number of weight and flex options to optimise launch and spin numbers with tighter shot dispersion.

The Key Golf Technology Stories Of 2024

In the driver world, increased use of carbon fibre has been the way forward. TaylorMade, Cobra, and Callaway used more carbon fibre in their 2024 releases.

Titleist introduced a variation of carbon fibre called Proprietary Matrix Polymer (PMP), which is similar to carbon fibre. However, Titleist found the material closely matched titanium for sound and feel, which Titleist believes will help golfers make the transition from older TS, TSi, and TSr models easier to cope with.

The increased use of carbon fibre helped with another of 2024’s trends, High Moment of Inertia (MOI) drivers.

The watermark for driver stability is 10,000 g-mc2. We won’t bore you with an explanation of the equation behind this number.

The most important thing to know is that the 10,000 g-mc2 number represents the peak value for resistance to twisting, which reduces how much the face opens and closes on off-centre hits in golf driver designs.

TaylorMade’s Qi10 model reflects the subtle switch in attitude. Where previous models, such as Stealth, used carbon fibre to increase clubhead speed, the additional use of the material in the Qi10 helps TaylorMade’s engineers reposition the internal weighting more effectively to increase the clubhead’s stability on off-centre contacts.

With the Qi10 Max driver, TaylorMade has created a driver that helps golfers find the fairway more often with less-than-perfect strikes by reaching the magical 10,000 g-mc2 figure.

We expect to see further developments in drivers in 2025 that will reach the 10k figure.

AI-assisted technology came into drivers and irons in 2024. Callaway’s Ai Smart Face debuted in the Paradym Ai Smoke range. Callaway recorded over 250,000 individual swings, which created over 1 million data points and over 50,000 face iterations that were assessed by AI.

The subsequent Ai Smart Face is a series of mini sweet spots around the face, which helps maintain ball speed across the face regardless of strike location.

Irons saw the modernisation of classics, such as TaylorMade’s latest rendition of the ever-popular P770 and P.7CB irons. Callaway took the Ai Smart Face principle further in the new Ai 200 and Ai300 models. Callaway successfully created a titanium-faced iron offering all the feel and feedback of a traditional forged iron with the performance that comes from titanium being stronger and lighter than steel.

Could we be witnessing the birth of a new trend in titanium-faced irons in 2025?

How Keeping Your Golf Bag Light In 2025 Will Help You

For many golfers, carrying their golf bags and walking is the only way to get around a golf course.

Buggies are great but can become inconvenient if you have to stick to one side of a hole and your ball is 30 yards wide of the fairway on the opposite side. We’ve all fallen victim to driving the buggy too close to a green and then struggling to get the thing to reverse back so you can find the pathway to get to the green.

There are no such problems when you walk and carry your clubs. However, what doesn’t make sense is when your golf bag isn’t weighed down with forgotten fruits, drink bottles, and pockets full of broken tees!

Carry golf bags are made of lighter materials, helping to reduce their overall weight. Straps are designed to spread the weight evenly, reducing the risk of back or shoulder problems.

Most carry bags also have stands, so you don’t have to bend down to pick your bag up, and if you are playing in the wet, prevent your clubs and anything else inside the bag from getting damp.

The comfort factor is increased immeasurably if you spend five minutes before you head to the golf course checking the contents of your golf bag and ensuring you carry only the essentials.

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to sustainable practices, using recycled materials, organic fabrics, and environmentally friendly production methods to produce golf bags.

The golf bags produced are still constructed to the highest standard and will perform for any golfer. The trend of being more conscious of the environment isn’t isolated to golf bag design and production. Manufacturers of golf equipment are following similar practices incorporated by manufacturers in other industries.

The Push For Sustainability in Golf: How The Major Manufacturers Are Changing Business Practices

Titleist's website has a page dedicated to outlining the steps it is taking to build more environmentally friendly workspaces.

Titleist outlines its programs for using solar energy, which powers one of its golf ball-making plants in Thailand. The company also has protocols in place regarding waste management and water and heat waste in its production facilities.

TaylorMade follows similar practices and has also incorporated recycled materials into the construction of its golf balls.

Callaway produces a report every year that outlines its commitment to sustainable practices, including the additional brands in the Topgolf Callaway group.

All manufacturers share the practice of using recycled materials for packaging and, where appropriate, reusable products.

It’s hard to believe that another year is nearly behind us. 2024 has continued to push the boundaries of golf club design, from aerodynamic carbon fibre drivers to laser etching micro-grooves on wedges.

We’ve had an exceptionally busy year at Nine By Nine Golf, which backs up the broader trend of golfers turning to custom-fitting for their next golf clubs. Our experienced fitters have helped everybody, from golfers who have been playing for less than a year to elite amateurs ready to break through into the professional ranks.

These golfers share the common objective of improving through equipment that is dialled in for their specific needs.

If you are looking to make changes to your equipment, you can book a fitting session via the Nine By Nine Golf website. You can choose from a fitting session dedicated to one department of your game, or you can opt for a full bag assessment.

Given the time of year, you can also purchase a fitting session gift voucher for a loved one.

If you want to treat yourself, you can browse the Nine By Nine Golf website to see the extensive range of customisable heads and shafts we have available. You can place your order online, and your club or clubs will be built in-house by one of our technicians.

From all the team at Nine By Nine Golf, thank you for your support. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a successful 2025.