2025 will go down as another bumper year of golf club releases.
The start of the year is always a buzz, where the major manufacturers officially unveil their latest lines. January saw TaylorMade, Callaway, Cobra, and Ping make the headlines with new products.
Summer releases are also becoming more of a thing with Mizuno, TaylorMade, and Callaway bringing fresh wedges to the market. At the same time, Callaway and Mizuno also gave us new iron releases to relish over.
The bottom line is that when you look across the spectrum, the quality of products available to all levels of golfers continues to improve.
Within Nine By Nine Golf, we can look back on another busy year, fitting golfers of all levels with custom golf clubs from some of 2025’s biggest releases.
However, when we look back and analyse golf trends of 2025, have we mainly been fitting golfers to the big brands?
Have there been any golf surprises in 2025, where a manufacturer of a club or shaft has come out left-field with surprising results?
To answer that question, we decided to ask Mark Ostrom, our lead fitter at Nine By Nine Golf, for his top five golf equipment surprises of 2025.
Mark’s list offers up some tangible proof that custom-fitting isn’t just about the driver; in fact, his featured five has only one driver, which in itself might be a surprise.
There is no particular order or ranking to what Mark believes have been the most successful or surprising golf clubs of 2025, so we’ll work on alphabetical order, starting with the Callaway Elyte X Iron.
Callaway Elyte X Iron
The Elyte range was launched to much fanfare at the start of the year. The Elyte name was a play on Callaway’s founder, Ely Callaway, demonstrating that the Elyte range epitomised all of Callaway’s technical know-how, which would have made its founder proud.
The Elyte X iron is designed for the higher handicap player who is looking for forgiveness and confidence-inspiring looks at address.
The Elyte X is a hollow-body construction head that has an improved space frame design to strengthen the body and increase flex in the face to help deliver faster ball speeds across the face.
Callaway updated its AI-enhanced face with the Elyte range, introducing the Ai 10X Face, delivering more “control points” across the face to increase ball speed, tighten dispersion, and optimise launch angles regardless of the strike location.
The performance of the Elyte X iron is the main reason why it makes Mark’s top five.
“We’ve found in fittings that the launch and spin numbers were exceptional, producing a high ball flight with consistently high ball speeds”, was Mark’s assessment of the Elyte X iron.
High ball speed, high launch, and high trajectories allow golfers to feel more confident that approach shots will hold greens more effectively, regardless of the iron they are hitting.
The Elyte X offers offset and a thicker top line, which many higher-handicap golfers like, but Callaway has also crafted a new tri-sole design, which helps ball/turf interaction, giving golfers confidence from a variety of lies.
The Elyte X iron making Mark’s top five also indicates that custom-fitting isn’t just the preserve of better players, who are looking for bladed-style irons.
Cobra DS-Adapt Max D
The success of the Cobra driver, and in particular, the Cobra Max D model, also highlights the fact that custom fitting is for all levels of golfer.
The Max D is designed to help golfers who fight a slice off the tee by placing a weight in the heel section of the head to help the toe close quicker and square up the clubface.
Straightening the ball flight is enhanced by Cobra’s FutureFit 33 hosel, which made its debut this year.
Providing 33 different combinations of loft and lie angle might seem like overkill, but for an experienced fitter like Mark, it actually works very well.
“We’ve really been able to dial in exactly what combination on the hosel will work the best for the player based on the GC Quad data. The golfer goes away knowing that they don’t need to tinker with the hosel, and even if their game drastically changes, they know they can always come back to us to alter the hosel to suit their game again.”
Another reason why the Cobra has done so well this year is its performance on heel strikes.
Many golfers strike the ball towards the heel when they have a swing path that’s slightly out to in. Heel strikes can rob players of distance and accuracy, but the Cobra showed consistently good ball speeds from heel strikes with no major loss of accuracy.
“Knowing you have a driver that can perform well when you are having an off day is really important for a golfer’s confidence”, Mark added.
Ping iDi Driving Iron
The Ping iDi driving iron has been a surprising instant hit. The fact that the iDi was only launched in early summer shows how well it's done compared to the Callaway and Cobra clubs, which had been out since January.
Early summer is always a good time to consider driving irons, as courses firm up and golfers are looking for something that keeps the ball in play and offers a lower trajectory for windy conditions compared to lofted fairway woods.
The iDi proved an instant hit with better players thanks to its forged face and smaller profile behind the ball.
The iDi is a hollow-body construction, with the saved weight being positioned lower in the head to improve stability and increase MOI. Performance comes from a thinner face coupled with Ping’s i-Beam technology, which strengthens the face and increases ball speeds.
Players have been impressed with the feel at impact of the iDi, which comes from Ping’s R-Air concept, which is an air pocket situated behind the face, and helps dampen unwanted vibrations and enhances the acoustics, which normally are a weak point for hollow-body irons.
“The iDi not only stands out in terms of ball speed numbers, which are consistently high compared to some other driving irons, but Ping has also shortened the blade length, which allows better players to shape the ball more effectively,” Mark observed.
The iDi is offered in three distinct models, with three distinctive playing characteristics. The two iron model is designed to deliver low spin and low launch for piercing tee shots, the three iron offers mid launch and mid spin, while the four iron equivalent offers high launch and high spin, which is reflective of the fact that it could be used for long approach shots into greens.
TaylorMade Qi35 Fairway Woods
“The Qi10 fairway woods were phenomenally successful last year. With the release of the Qi35s and, in particular, the fairway woods, we’ve seen TaylorMade move the game on even more,” was how Mark assessed the success of the Qi35 fairway woods this year.
The Qi35 introduced a new composite material into the construction of the crown and sole of the golf club, which made it lighter and stronger than the previous Qi10 model.
Further weight savings allowed TaylorMade’s engineers to position the saved weight more strategically, depending on the head model.
TaylorMade also made a bigger deal of its Trajectory Adjustment System (TAS), which allows fitters to create the ideal launch and spin conditions through TAS’s moveable weights.
When you add in the adjustable hosel, which can alter the loft by a total of four degrees up or down, you are creating a lot of opportunities to dial in the head exactly to each player’s needs, creating the perfect launch and spin for effective use from the tee and the fairway.
Having three different head profiles means there’s a Qi35 fairway for every level of golfer: a smaller-headed low spin version for better players, a larger profile max version, and the standard base model.
The Qi35 fairways also carry tried and tested TaylorMade technology in the form of Twist Face and Thru-Slot Speed Pocket to enhance speed off the face and create straighter ball flights, regardless of strike location.
“The Qi10 was so popular last year, we weren’t sure if the Qi35 would move the needle far enough this year, but it has proven to be equally if not more popular”, was Mark’s observation, before adding:
“The success of the Qi35 isn’t just down to creating a good three wood option; it’s equally as popular as five or seven woods.”
As far as custom golf clubs go, the Qi35 offers a multitude of head configurations, which can be dialled in and then married to a wide range of customised shaft options to create the perfect fairway wood for any level of golfer.
Star Grips
The biggest surprise we’ve seen this year is not a golf club or customisable shaft that makes our top five, but a grip, and in this instance, a new grip we’ve had available this year: Star Grips.
We have several options available from the Star Grips range, but the bottom line is that the feedback we’ve received from golfers who have chosen them is that they are nice and tacky, which provides a level of comfort for golfers who play and practice a lot.
The grips offer a high level of durability, which is ideal for golfers who often play in changeable weather, ensuring the grip provides consistent performance in the dry or wet.
“It shows how important the grip is when building clubs for customers. We offer many options from established brands like Golf Pride and Lamkin with different textures and feels, but golfers have opted for the Star Grip because they feel it is the best for them.” That was how Mark summarised the surprise success of this year.
The Continuing Rise Of Personal Fitting
This year has seen a sizeable change in how golfers are choosing their golf equipment. We are seeing more and more players booking custom fitting sessions instead of rushing down to their favourite retailer to purchase the latest equipment.
Golf equipment isn’t getting any cheaper, and the frustration of buying something off the shelf and not finding any meaningful improvement is turning golfers towards custom fitting.
Any player can still get the latest equipment through a custom fitting process. The difference is that they know the golf club or golf clubs they end up with have been built specifically for their needs and will perform regardless of the state of their game.
Early Thoughts on How 2026 Will Look
Through things like social media or blogs like ours, golfers are becoming better educated on the importance of getting the correct lie angle or understanding the differences in shaft profiles.
Having some additional knowledge only goes to enhance the fitting experience further because a fitting is also a consultation on what elements of your game can be improved through the right golf equipment.
It’s also important to emphasise the fact that custom fitting isn’t the preserve of the elite level player; it’s for every level of golfer, as witnessed in our top five surprises, with arguably three of the clubs listed being designed for higher handicap golfers (TaylorMade Qi35 Max fairway woods).
If you are ready to change your clubs, take the time to think about the areas that need the most improvement.
The Nine By Nine Golf website is a great place to start by browsing the latest releases, which are fully customisable for shafts and grips.
If you know exactly what you want, you can go ahead and order directly from the site, and our highly-trained in-house engineers will process your order exactly as requested.
If you want to unlock the potential of your game, you can also book your custom-fitting experience and work with Mark to uncover the golf clubs that are right for your game.