I'm sure most of you have heard this claim from the now famous GX-7 X-Metal commercial, "what if there was a club that combined the distance of your driver, the accuracy of your fairway metal, and the consistency of your 7-iron?"

Golf club infomercials have made a massive comeback in the last few years. Anyone who watches The Golf Channel regularly has likely seen the same ads over and over again. Each club promises to fix whatever ails your golf swing magically.

I decided to put some of the most popular ones on the market to the test, so I bought all of them.

In this post, I'll dive into a little more detail on the GX-7 X-Metal Driver. Dennis Paulson exclaims, "this just might be the most important addition to your golf bag" in the commercial - my goal was to find out if this could be true.

The Bold Claims

Golfers are used to equipment companies making bold promises about their products, but the GX-7 commercials take it to new heights. Here are their claims (verbatim) from the website:

• Boost your driving distance consistency vs. your current driver (no more feast or famine fluctuations from hole to hole)
• Improve your accuracy by leaps and bounds (making the fairway's center your personal domain)
• Turn even your worst miss-hits into decent shots (cutting down on those dreaded blow-up holes)
• Eliminate the need for separate swings (you can hit the GX-7 just like an iron)
• Help you keep up with (if not blow past) players who can swing faster than you (raising your confidence and lowering your scores)

If you're in the minority and haven't seen the commercial yet - here it is:

Not a Great Start

Granted, I am not the target market for the GX-7, but I wanted to try out the club to see what kind of results I got. I've tested a ton of equipment over the last several years and learned a lot about clubs from some of the best in the industry. I can tell you that many of the claims they make are very suspicious (before even trying the club).

So I ordered a GX-7 in a stiff flex to accommodate my swing speed of about 105 mph with my driver.

The GX-7 driver is not particularly impressive when you see it in person; it looks like a budget golf club. The face is huge at address, which does give it the impression that it is very forgiving. After my first swing, I felt my eardrums were going to burst. This thing is LOUD at impact.

After five swings, something started to rattle inside of the clubhead. I know the club was designed for golfers with slower swing speeds, but something popping loose almost immediately is probably not a good sign.

GX-7 Launch Monitor Data

I put the 14-degree GX-7 up against my Callaway Epic Flash Driver (12.5 degrees) using tees. Despite the commercial's claims, I had very little hope it would outperform on any meaningful statistics. Here is the comparison that I saw:

You could see that the GX-7 was no match for my driver on pretty much any statistic. I will say that the dispersion was a little tighter, but that's to be expected since there was a significant difference in total distance. Surprisingly, I thought the club performed well for what it is, which is a 3-wood. These are pretty good launch numbers, and not far off from my current 3-wood (a Callaway XR Pro).

Using the club off the ground was a little less successful. The commercial claims that the GX-7 is as easy to hit off the turf as your 7-iron. I did not find that to be the case. It's about as easy to hit off the ground as a 3-wood, which can be hard for many golfers. I don't think there are any magical qualities in the GX-7 that will allow you to hit this better off the ground than any of the 3-woods from popular manufacturers.

The GX-7 is Not Garbage, But Certainly Nothing Special

In my eyes, the GX-7 is not an entire disaster. But the rattling piece inside the head after several swings did give me pause about the quality of materials used.

I don't believe you'll find it as easy to hit as your 7-iron because it's a metal wood with a 43" shaft. I also don't think it will eliminate 4-5 bad drives a round; no club can promise that.

Based on what I saw, I think the company has manufactured a relatively forgiving 3-wood. Is it better than similar models from companies like Ping, Titleist, and Callaway? Probably not. But it's not terrible.

Because the commercial makes such outrageous claims, I do think a lot of golfers will be disappointed after purchasing this club and realizing it's not doing anything that special for them. If they had marketed this for what it is, then they likely would not have sold as many as they have over the last several years. Let's face it; if they keep running the commercials, they must be making money. Running ads for a run-of-the-mill 3-wood would likely not generate too much revenue.

If you are interested in trying out the GX-7 X-Metal, you can purchase it on their site here. For what it's worth, they do offer a money-back guarantee.

You can read about other golf infomercial products in this article I wrote.