With four Editors' Choice Award winners and 17 products honored overall, Callaway Golf equipment made its presence felt on the pages of Golf Digest’s 2007 Hot List, which debuts this month.

The Hot List is compiled by Golf Digest Publications' team of equipment editors from Golf Digest, Golf World, and Golf For Women—the industry's largest collection of journalists devoted exclusively to covering equipment. Together, the panel has more than 80 years of experience covering the equipment industry.

More than 1,500 clubs and balls were tested for the Hot List, which features profiles on the hottest golf equipment in the game. Callaway Golf products were named Editors' Choice in four of the 11 categories—the FT-5 Driver, the Big Bertha Fairway Woods, the X-20 Irons for best game-improvement irons and the HX Hot Golf Ball for best value performance golf ball.

“This recognition is testament to the superiority of our technology and the extraordinary abilities of our product development teams and to our relentless dedication to making every golfer a better golfer,” said George Fellows, President and CEO of Callaway Golf.

The FT-5 Driver is an evolution of the FT-3 Driver, which won eight major championships on the PGA, LPGA and Champions Tours in the 2005 and 2006 seasons. The FT-5 features a wider profile from heel to toe, helping to increase ball speed and produce longer drives on off-center hits. Callaway Golf Staff Professional Phil Mickelson used the FT-5 Driver to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by five shots in mid-February. Mickelson missed just one fairway and averaged 285 yards off the tee in the final round.

In his first tournament of the 2007 PGA season, Callaway Golf Staff Professional Charles Howell III used the FT-5 Driver to finish second at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He also used the new X-Forged Irons, which were awarded a Gold Medal on the Hot List. Fellow Callaway Golf Staff Professional Annika Sorenstam put the X-Forged Irons in play at the end of the 2006 LPGA season. 

The Editors' Choice-winning  Big Bertha Fairway Woods are oversized and designed to offer maximum forgiveness. They also feature the Correct Alignment Stripe, which makes it easier to point the club in the right direction.

The X-20 Irons are the latest in a long line of successful X Series Irons built to offer performance and forgiveness. They build on the legacy of the X-18 Irons, which have been used consistently by Sorenstam and fellow Callaway Golf Professional Rocco Mediate over the last two seasons.  

The HX Hot Golf Ball was also honored as the Best Value Performance Golf Ball. The HX Hot is designed to offer unmatched distance off the tee across a variety of swing speeds.

Callaway Golf Staff Professional Gary Player used the new FT-i Driver on the Champions Tour at the end of the 2006 season. Player called it the “the best driver I’ve ever played.” Howell was also wowed by the FT-i, which was awarded Hot List Gold Medal status.  

“I’m excited about it. I like it a lot,” Howell told designers when he first saw and hit the FT-i. “The face angle looks awesome. It seems really easy to hit this driver in the middle of the face. It just feels so easy to hit straight. I don’t feel like I have to work to keep the ball from going right. Boy, I just love it. You guys in R&D are just geniuses.” 

In addition, the Odyssey White Hot XG 2-Ball SRT Putter received the Editors' Choice Award as the best mallet putter. That means a golfer could assemble an entire bag of Editors' Choice Award-winning equipment from Callaway Golf and Odyssey.

In addition to the four Editors' Choice Award Winners, the following Callaway Golf products were also honored: