I’ll say this up front, my golf game is in serious decline. No sense in trying to play it up. It’s a train wreck.
The cause isn’t hard to identify: I’m 48, father of two young boys, travel 120-plus days a year and a living proof that people in my line of work — brace yourselves! — actually don’t play a lot of golf. If I get in 20 rounds a year with maybe three or four range visits, I feel like I’ve hit the lotto. Keep in mind that testing equipment and creating content around equipment is not playing golf. They are short bursts of energy that are a blast and also fundamental to educating the masses about the nuances of golf clubs, but those creation sessions are not a recipe for playing great golf.
The last six years have been grim: ball-striking, speed, you name it, all going the wrong way. Making matters worse, I have developed a ton of bad habits over the years that have led me down this path . (Also…golf is hard.) The cool thing is this, though, even despite the dumpster fire that is my game, sometimes (maybe four or fives times per year) the old Johnny magically reappears and my sticks, my ball and I become a happy family again.
My 2025 journey to building the best brand-agnostic bag for my game was an interesting one. But first an important disclosure: For those who don’t know my background, until recently I was a Callaway staffer. In my new position as GOLF’s director of gear, it’s, of course, essential that I remain impartial and unbiased, so for the purposes of this bag-building exercise I excluded Callaway from the mix (with the exception of my 3-wood; sorry, couldn’t be avoided!).
This wasn’t easy, given I’ve grown to absolutely love Callaway’s clubs, but this this year I decided to wean myself off of their gear to make room for new information. Also, please none of what you’ll read below or watch above is an endorsement for what should go in your bag; these are simply choices that worked for my game.
Here are my 4 biggest takeaways:
1. With age comes wisdom: My handicap is 0.8, but I cannot play to that day in and day out. I don’t have my fastball anymore, and that’s perfectly fine. No use pretending I’m something I’m not. I used to be a great long-iron player; I’m not anymore. That’s why you see a 4-hybrid, 5-hybrid and more forgiving driver. I used to have great hands around the greens, meaning low bounce wedges were a no brainer — not anymore. Now, bounce is my friend. You see where I’m going here?
2.Loft is good for me: I learned this from Lucas Bro, a fitter at the Titleist Performance Institute. My path to consistency demands that I lean more into control and miss mitigation than trying to hit my 7-iron 180 yards. This is why the lofts on my irons live closer to my 1998 specs than ever before.
3. I’m not as fast as I was, not even close: I was never modern fast, never a 175-mph guy, maybe never even clipping the 170 mark. But I was always in the 165+ range and cruising with killer launch conditions: 13 degrees at 2,100 RPM of spin slightly right-to-left. . .all day long. I played that way for years and could always rely on my driver as a weapon. Over the past few years, however, my swing has slowed down and occasionally gets crooked. The first piece of gear that I felt could get me back to where I was: the Titleist GT2 driver, which offers an attractive combination of a neutral CG, fast face and cleverly designed chassis. I now feel that slowly but surely this setup can get me back to a place where the driver is a stroke-gainer and not a decliner.
4.There’s a reason Pro V1X is on top: Of all my learnings, this was by far the biggest surprise. Yes, I know Titleist balls reign supreme by every metric, but I was convinced for years that the Callaway ball I was married to was the greatest thing since the John Wick franchise. I wasn’t wrong. I tested every major brand’s balls over the years, and in the air my old ball stacked up as one of the best I’ve ever played. It did everything I needed and then some. But Pro V1x 2025 was an eye-opener. It wasn’t the speed, spin, launch, etc., that caught my attention — all the top-shelf balls I tested deliver across those categories.
It was the feel that grabbed me. The feel off of a wedge with Pro V1x is unique to that ball; there is nothing like it. It’s that sensation that the ball is sticking to the face just a hair longer, providing an extra millisecond of control that other balls don’t match. The upside? Well, for me, it inspires greenside confidence and, most important, recreates that feel I had chipping balatas around Rainier G&CC in Seattle when I was a teenager: that click followed by a rip of spin that you get from that first bounce. Hard to articulate in written form but for any Pro V1x player out there, you know what I’m talking about. Typically balls that provide that kind of feeling make you sacrifice something else. This ball does not. It’s special.
The goal now is to take this new bag of goodies and start to rebuild my game. I want to play the best golf of my life in my 50s, and step 1 was accepting that I’m not a kid anymore and, yes, there will and always be limitations, be they physical or logistical. I can get there, though. My biggest priority now is raising my floor to where my worst golf is still pretty damn good. The good days will show up sometimes, but trying to guess when those days might come is a futile tactic.
I have logged 12 rounds in 2025: a 71, two 74s, a 75, a 76, three 77s, two 78s, an 81 and an 83. Truth be told, the sub-75 rounds were blind luck; I just happened to roll outta the right side of bed those mornings. There was no evidence to suggest those kind of scores were possible, considering how bad my ball-striking has been. But that’s golf.
But, what the hell…let’s give it another shot, shall we?
OK, here we go. My own personal WITB bag for 2025:
GT2 — Speed & Forgiveness Across The Face
For players who don’t always find the center of the face and need the stability of a high-MOI driver without sacrificing speed.
Speed & Forgiveness Across The Face
Delivering impressive distance from any impact point, GT2 extracts maximum performance through forgiving design. Get the stability and added confidence of a high-MOI driver without sacrificing speed.
Seamless Thermoform Crown
A reimagined ultra-lightweight design, born from a new Proprietary Matrix Polymer. The tunable acoustic properties of this unique composite allow Titleist engineers to realize new material gains while maintaining our signature sound and feel. All wrapped in a clean look that inspires total confidence.
Split Mass Construction
GT2 delivers a powerful balance of forgiveness and speed thanks to a breakthrough in internal weighting. Mass is shifted to the back of the clubhead to increase MOI for better stability, while also pushing weight low and forward to optimize speed and spin. The result is a driver that frees you to swing with confidence.
The Fujikura Ventus Red utilizes a Tour-inspired profile and the first to include Fujikura’s all new VeloCore Technology in an accelerated taper, ultra stiff tip profile. Maximum energy transfer from the tip section boosts the clubhead’s performance and a straight taper design enhances loading and feel. You can purchase the Fujikura Ventus Red in the following models: 6, 7, and 8. You can buy the Fujikura Ventus Red with the adaptor sleeve of choice built to your required specifications.
JOCKEY TIP: The Fujikura Ventus Red is ideal for the player looking for a mid launch, mid spin shaft that was designed to significantly tighten shot dispersion and maximize ball speed especially on off-center shots. This is the hightest launching shaft in the Ventus shaft family.
Hybrids:Ping G440 4H, 5H (D4) Shafts: Graphite Design AD DI HY 95X Lofts: 22/25 Carry (stock 80%): 4H (215) 5H (200)
PING G440 Custom Hybrid
The G440 hybrids appeal to a variety of skill levels, each engineered to deliver different ball- flight characteristics – from the slightly fade-biased 2 hybrid for off-the-tee performance to the draw-inducing 5, 6 and 7 hybrids that help optimize gapping. They all share a new, shallower and thinner face design, which improves face contact for more ball speed and higher-launching shots that hit and hold the green.
FLIES HIGH LANDS SOFT
Optimized launch and spin ensure distance with stopping power.
FREE-HOSEL DESIGN
Saves weight to lower CG, optimize launch/spin and increase forgiveness.
ROUNDED SOLE
Ensures pleasing face angle in all hosel settings
CARBONFLY WRAP
Lightweight carbon crown saves weight to increase MOI, lower CG.
Unmatched precision meets unrivaled feel with T100 Irons. Fully forged with more aggressive grooves in the mid/short irons, T100 offers pure player’s feel with improved consistency in variable conditions. Now with higher long-iron launch for optimal trajectory control in every club.
Forged Player’s Design
Masterfully forged into a pure player’s design that offers precision control and buttery feel.
Superior Flight and Stability
Split High-Density Tungsten produces optimal CG with remarkable stability for precise shotmaking.
Consistent Speed & Spin
New VFT technology and progressive groove design for consistent spin and speed across the face in variable conditions.
Elevated Long-Iron Launch
Lower CG and a new muscle channel help improve peak height and carry.
For every shot, every lie, every course, there’s a grind fit for your swing. Finding the right grind to match your swing and playing conditions will give you the best turf interaction, contact and shot performance. Master Craftsman Bob Vokey has spent decades crafting, developing and improving his tour proven grinds to fit players of all levels.Anyone can manufacture a wedge, but it takes a master to turn a piece of high-performance technology into an instrument of creative control. Bob’s six tour-proven grinds are designed to offer maximum creativity, versatility and consistency, all meticulously developed through years of working with the best players in the world.
PROGRESSIVE CENTER OF GRAVITY
SM9 features a progressive center of gravity (CG) throughout the lofts, which optimizes ball flight, accuracy and forgiveness. Using tapered top lines and varied hosel lengths, the Vokey R&D team has raised the height of the CG in the higher lofts, which promotes a lower, more controlled flight.The CG is also forward of the face, resulting in increased MOI, exceptional feel and a club face that simply wants to square up at impact.
SPIN MILLED GROOVES
SM9’s patented Spin Milled grooves are meticulously engineered through a new cutting process to maximize spin and durability. The process starts by cutting the face perfectly flat with a high-speed saw. Then every groove is individually cut based on loft and finish; low lofts (46°-54°) are designed with narrower, deeper grooves, while higher lofts (56°-62°) have wider, shallower grooves.Micro-grooves are individually cut in between grooves, which maximize spin on partial shots. A proprietary heat treatment is applied to the impact area which doubles the durability of the groove without impacting feel, making it the most durable groove in golf. The process is only complete when every Vokey wedge is 100% inspected for utmost quality and performance.
Johnny currently serves as the Director of Equipment at Golf.com, contributing to platforms like Fully Equipped Golf. Prior to this role, he was the Content Marketing Manager at Callaway Golf, where he led “Callaway Golf’s World of Wunder,” a platform dedicated to in-depth golf equipment content. Before joining Callaway, he was the Director of Original Content and host of “The Gear Dive” podcast at GolfWRX.com. Beyond his professional endeavors, Johnny is an avid golfer with a deep passion for the game, having played since his youth in Seattle, Washington.
