timberland50

I started the game playing a slight natural draw, but as I became a better player, I had a slight fade. Irons were never really a problem, but tee shots became a nightmare for me after a while, slicing all over the planet. Some adjustments helped for short periods of time, but ultimately led to snap hooks...which I didn't care for either. Ultimately, what worked and has continued to work for many years was simply making sure my shoulders were square to the line at address, stopping my arm swing when my body stopped turning back, and thinking "slow and smooth" with the arms in the transition from the top. That last point, for me, probably has been the most effective. When I start seeing more left to right in my ball flight than I desire, I know I'm getting too quick with the hands and arms at the top. A few practice swings keeping things smooth and flowing from the top with arms following the body's lead seems to help.

Sorry to join in conversation so late, but as a long-time player of Hogan Apex irons (since '71), I feel that golfers everywhere lost a little something special when the brand ended. I've tried and played every major manufacturer's forged blades over the years and nothing, including premier Japanese brands, comes close to the feel and playability of those old Apex irons. My game today doesn't justify or warrant a forged blade, so I'm not personally destraught at Callaway's decision to resurrect a name into an iron with no real linkage to the past product. I agree with some others here that it would be nice if Callaway did produce something that was a legitimate heir to the Apex line, but I also feel it wouldn't matter....it wouldn't work. Callaway doesn't really make a forged iron worth very much today, so just making another forged iron and putting the Apex name to it, wouldn't serve the player hoping to capture, or re-capture, the quality of the Hogan Apex irons. When the Hogan Company lost direct input and feedback from Mr. Hogan, it lost the soul of what made a Hogan Apex iron a Hogan Apex iron. Today's top quality forged blades are very good...I didn't mean to imply earlier that they are not. It's just that I've never found anything that felt as good in my hands or gave me the "ball off face" feel and control as my old Apex irons (although the MP32's were pretty close). I'm sure there's a little bit of nostalgia in there somewhere, but I don't believe its totally that. They were just great clubs, and I always felt more connected to the shot than just merely making a swing. Regarding the statement that it's the Callaway company and not the Hogan company, that is indeed true. But I don't recall seeing Mr. Callaway's name on the US Open trophy either.