A good day at Play-It-Again Sports

[zeg]

I've been alternating between being sure I absolutely need to add a 52° wedge and a long club (either a hybrid or a real 3W since my 5W is pretty unreliable) and being convinced I have everything I need except for practice... The problem has been that I'm on a grad student's budget, so it's kind of important to make the most of my equipment dollar.

On a whim today, I wandered by Play-It-Again Sports, mostly to get a soccer ball for my son and just to peek at their clubs. It turned out to be a really good move! I walked out with the soccer ball, plus a Mizuno T-Zoid "utility fairway wood," a Wilson 52° gap wedge ("Harmonized," for your protection I guess) and for the heck of it a Titleist DCI 60° lob wedge. Total outlay: $60 and change, including tax, and $10 of that was for the soccer ball.

After a couple hours of practicing, I really like the wedges, both for full swings and for chipping. The 52° in particular seems very consistent for moderate-length chips in a way that my old 56° never was. With that one, I tended to pull up short on everything. But the real win is the 3W. I was a bit worried because it has a stiff shaft, but waggles in the store felt good, and my swing speed has been increasing a bit since I was last measured to be in the low 90s with my driver, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Heck, for $20 it would have to be pretty far off not to be worth it... and my goodness, it was worth it. Both off the tee and off the turf, I think I hit one bad shot, the rest were lasers, long and straight. Intentional draws drew, and low stingers stung. I seriously love this club in a way that should be (and probably is) illegal in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

So... if you're on a budget and in need of a couple of clubs, and you don't particularly care about specific models or being up-to-date with your technology, pop by your Play-It-Again if you haven't lately!

[Dad-2-3]

Lets see...I count three wedges in my possession I picked up @ Play-it again-sports. Two of them oil can Vokeys that were very rusty, but barely hit and still have lovely mill marks not to mention very good grooves ayear after heavy use by me. The other is a 56 degree cleveland cg12 that may have been hit a handfull of times as well. Total cost was around $90. There is a lot of worn out clubs there as well, but @ times you can find great stuff. Check back in the late fall when everyone is getting rid of their "old" equipment.

[Shanks A Million]

I got my Cleveland 588 there for $20. I need to get a new wedge, this one's grooves are worn down, but I really do like it. You can get a lot of good clubs there for next to nothing.

[zeg]

I got my Cleveland 588 there for $20. I need to get a new wedge, this one's grooves are worn down, but I really do like it. You can get a lot of good clubs there for next to nothing.

Yep, they had quite a few wedges in particular. There were a lot of very old ones, but quite a few Vokeys and Clevelands. I decided to pass on those because they were either used so heavily that there's no grooves left (thereby defeating some of the purpose of a high-end wedge) or asking $45-$80 for them. Cheaper than new, but not enough that it seemed worth the wear and losing the "new car smell."

I was hoping to find some interesting old singleton irons, but no such luck. They had some old woods, but other than a random 6-iron in the wedge barrel, the irons were all setted. I'm kicking myself for not grabbing a $5 1-iron that was in the barrel at my golf shop... silly me.