clayton62

Thanks for everybody's input. I hadn't understood that GI irons were typically less consistent for distance, and that pros give up some overall distance for more distance consistency. That makes sense. I'll see if I warm up to the J36s, and if not, I'll park them in the basement for the theoretical day that my swing goes to the next level. On a tangential subject: to be honest (and I can really only speak for myself here) I don't understand how folks that don't shoot in the 70's or lower can really evaluate golf equipment, whether that's a ball or a club. I know that my swing is not consistent enough to dependably evaluate shaft trajectory, workability, how well a ball grabs the green, etc. Again - this is not to take a shot at those here with high indexes who CAN evaluate equipment. But unless I'm hitting a quality shot better than 50% of the time (I'm not) - I'm going to have to depend on others here for input - and I really appreciate it.

What prompted you to make the move? Have you also found a difference in the sound and sense of snappiness between the two? Perhaps - as suggested by xmanhockey7 above- GI clubs allow higher smash factor. If this is the case, I can't imagine why anybody would go to a so called players club unless they had a tremendously repeatable swing and could really take advantage of the supposed control and feel advantages. I'm going to work with my J36s more, but if they remain a less rewarding club to hit, I will swallow my ego and go back to the GC Mids.

dak4n6 has hit the nail on the head - as far as I'm concerned. High handicappers almost never make ball first contact - and if you hit off of mats that problem gets hidden. I'm 49 and started playing at 43. I spent the first 4 years making ground-first contact. That is no fun. I had my breakthrough by goofing around with Stack and Tilt. I'm not necessarily a fan of that swing school, but one thing it does do is require the majority of your weight to start forward at address and STAY forward through the swing. By not swaying off of the ball I got my first taste of ball-first contact, and it was sweet. Bobby Clampet focuses on this in The Impact Zone as the number one issue, and I think he's correct. For the hell of it - here is the current state of my short list of range reminders. Mind you - this is for MY swing, so no guarantee it will be useful to others. 1) Get the tension out of your arms. Shake out your hands and wrists and think "loose" and "whip-like". Staying loose through the swing is a real challenge for me, but on the 10 to 15% of swings where I can do it, the contact, ball flight, and power are COMPLETELY transformed. 2) FINISH YOUR BACKSWING. Many folks (like me) are so jacked up to smack the ball that they short-change the backswing and rush the transition, and that leads to a lot of bad stuff. 3) Swing at 80% speed. We've all heard this a million times - easier said than done - but if you can slow down just a little, breathe through it, your contact will improve. 4) Don't sway off the ball. Pros can get away with it. I can't. 5) Take the clubhead a little outside your hands. Taking it back too far inside is another common amateur habit that leads to getting stuck and coming over the top. A pro had me take it WAY outside - sort of like Fowler - not as a permanent change but just to get away from getting stuck. It helped tremendously and I have kept the slightly outside the hands takeback in my swing. 6) Think "low line drive down the first base line". Most high handicappers come across from outside to in. Visualizing hitting it towards the first baseman is a great tool for me. And thinking hitting a low line drive helps me stay through the ball and in the shot. That's all I got!

Would love a little wisdom from anybody who has made this transition. I'm a high handicapper with a relatively good/athletic swing. Inconsistency and lack of playing time keeps me shooting in the high 80's rather than lower scores. I'm really not obsessive about gear -- I'm a "It's your swing, stupid" kind of guy. That said, I've been playing Bridgestone GC Mids with Nippon NS Pro 1050GH shafts for the last 4 or 5 years. They have felt great to me, but are getting pretty beat up. I just picked up a set of Bridgestone J36 cavity backs with Project X 5.0 flighted shafts. I don't know what my swing speed is, but I wanted to err on the side of not getting too stiff of a shaft. I read that the J36s are not the most forgiving CBs, and after two range sessions, I think this is indeed the case - at least compared to the GC Mids. But the other thing that really stands out is that even on pretty well struck balls, I don't feel like I get the same CRACK - both in terms of audio feedback and snappy/compressed feel - as I got with the GCs. The J36s just feel a little dead by comparison, and it might be a little too early to tell, but I think the ball flight might be a little softer and higher. Anyhow - I'm just a little disappointed, and I wouldn't take any offense if people were to suggest that I'm probably just not a consistent enough ball striker to take advantage of what the J36s offer. I will happily go back to a more "forgiving" club if that makes the most sense. Thanks!

Howdy all - new to this group and interested in this thread. Perhaps the thread is too old to see any more activity. I picked up golf 5 years ago (I'm 48 but still a good athlete), and spent the first 4 seasons hitting mostly off of range mats, and unfortunately, hitting it pretty fat. I went at it like a maniac and ended up with tennis elbow, golfer's elbow, and a type 2 SLAP tear of the left labrum. I wanted to hear more about whether it was the LEFT shoulder (for right handed golfers) that some posters here injured. It being my leading arm, I was just bashing away at it like an idiot, with a chicken wing of course - wish to god somebody had corrected me. There's no way to prove definitively that it was hitting balls that did it (I play basketball too) - but it seems likely. I want to thank RandomRaiderTTU above for the comment about expecting setbacks, because that's my story right now. I am 7 weeks out and mobility is still very restricted . Surgeon called my injury "par for the course" (2 anchors, 4 sutures) and that I was a "great candidate" for the procedure to be very successful. PT guy is fantastic and very positive about my recovery, but I am struggling with the slow pace of progress. This week, the passive pendulum arm swings that were fine before now produce a significant click and almost impingement feeling, so I am just despondent. Am going to report this to my PT guy and just hope this is one of those hiccups. Anyhow - thanks for the informative posts, and please, if you know anybody just picking up the game, tell them to TAKE IT EASY on the mats and to learn asap to get the bottom of the swing arc FORWARD and hit the damn ball FIRST. You might save them from destroying their arm the way I did.