Can having the wrong clubs wreck your game?

[Mike74]

25 minutes ago, tinker said:

If you swing a 7 iron in the high 90’s you need stiff shaft, end of discussion. If you don’t use woods at all sounds like you swing so hard your swing is out of control. I’m a senior golfer and I can swing a 7 iron in the 90’s, I just couldn’t hit the ball decent no matter how hard I tried. 

Yes could be out of control but it does not feel that way. Just feels like the natural tempo for me. I have had some lessons and nobody is telling me I need to slow down. And when I do try to slow down thats when I really start spraying it all over because my hands and body get all out of whack. I think I need correct fitting with my irons to make sure I have no doubts when I’m standing over my shots.

cheers

[arturo28mx]

Let me say something I've said many times before. In my experience, I have observed many times that a "regular" flex in a heavy shaft can be much stiffer than a "stiff" flex in a light shaft. I've seen this in both graphite and steel shafts. For example,  Dynamic Gold R300 is much stiffer than XP95 S300.

When people tell me regular works better for them than stiff (or viceversa), I always ask "in what weight shaft???"

Hope this helps

[ii3e22]

Having an issues this year: I was fitted for clubs 4 years ago (1” longer/2 degrees upright). I am 6’3. Last season, I worked to change my swing. I used to hit a weak cut. I now, RARELY hit a ball left to right unless I am really trying to. I’m a 10 HC at this point. I have been hitting my driver and wedges fine. (Ping G25, SM7 both standard off rack). I am struggling pretty bad with my irons. My miss has been a hook or duck hook. Do you feel getting my clubs bent back down can fix this? I know it’s probably part of the swing but it’s pretty frustrating. Any feedback would be appreciated..

[Carl3]

On 4/16/2018 at 8:36 PM, tinker said:

If you swing a 7 iron in the high 90’s you need stiff shaft, end of discussion.

If he has a 7i SS in the high 90's he should probably look to get on tour. I think they would average less than 90 MPH. 7i SS is probably 80% of driver SS. His driver SS might be over 120 MPH.

[saevel25]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 8:36 PM, tinker said:

If you swing a 7 iron in the high 90’s you need stiff shaft, end of discussion. If you don’t use woods at all sounds like you swing so hard your swing is out of control. I’m a senior golfer and I can swing a 7 iron in the 90’s, I just couldn’t hit the ball decent no matter how hard I tried. 

What make and model? That matters a lot as well. Shaft flex is not a universal measurement. It's highly inconsistent between brands and even between models for the same brand.

[billchao]

3 hours ago, ii3e22 said:

Having an issues this year: I was fitted for clubs 4 years ago (1” longer/2 degrees upright). I am 6’3. Last season, I worked to change my swing. I used to hit a weak cut. I now, RARELY hit a ball left to right unless I am really trying to. I’m a 10 HC at this point. I have been hitting my driver and wedges fine. (Ping G25, SM7 both standard off rack). I am struggling pretty bad with my irons. My miss has been a hook or duck hook. Do you feel getting my clubs bent back down can fix this? I know it’s probably part of the swing but it’s pretty frustrating. Any feedback would be appreciated..

A flatter lie angle will generally cause you to start the ball more to the right (assuming you're a righty). It won't fix a hook but it might make it more playable.

You should do a lie test. Draw a line on a ball with a sharpie and line it up vertical, then hit it. If then line transferred to your face isn't vertical, you need your lie adjusted.

You might have taken your swing path too far the other way from fixing your cut. Been there myself.

[308 Ragin Cajun]

The thing is, IMO, you can't buy a golf swing. Most guys would be better off spending money on lessons from a good pro and developing a consistent swing that helps them make consistent solid contact with the ball, before getting into the weeds about shafts, and technical data.

[golfjedi777]

I cant see them wrecking your game. I myself use old irons from the 90's i think its just really knowing your sticks and be confident in them.

[DrMJG]

After a 20+ years layoff from golf I needed to re-examine my clubs which were in storage, 40 year old Wilson staff set, with persimmon woods, which I hit fairly consistently down to an 6 HC.  Not bad for a 3/month golfer.  Upon return I new it was time to upgrade.  To deal with all the changes in body and age, I went to a fitting, no brand or length or lie before hand.  I took a test with my 7i to get a base.  Let's start by saying it was not pretty as no serious muscle memory form was retained.  All of mu clubs had a very still True Temper.  My previous clubs were a bit long, especially the woods. Often week of restarting with my old clubs with mediocre results, I started rebuilding my set with 1" shorter shafts, senior flex, and a move to hybrids for my 2-5 old irons.  I felt as if a miracle occurred. In my case, as many years passed and I changed a lot, the equipment did a lot in making golf fun again, the fitting gave me a sense of what to look for as a base in rebuilding my current set of weapons.

To end this post let me say, while I now have a good set of clubs for me and my physical foibles, it has been instruction and a LOT of practice with those clubs that has allowed me to narrow the mis-hits, poor alignment, gripping the clubs, and line in hitting the ball.  The clubs have allowed me to eliminate them as a blame.  10+ strokes per round? Not ready to give the clubs that much credit; I am playing with more confidence and the clubs are a part of that.

Improving my. game is based on instruction and practice (with a good of clubs that work for me).

 

 

 

[Mike74]

Thanks for the responses 

I agree with nearly every comment to some degree. From what i read above it is about having confidence in your equipment. If that be an old set from the nineties or a brand new set of custom fit clubs from today. You simply can not expect good results if you don’t 100% trust what’s in your hands and for everybody that will require a different level of investment. I do get regular lesson and my swing in general is good but my coach has told me that until everything is where he wants it, he would not recommend spending a lot on new clubs because my game is still a work in progress and the clubs I require at the end of that journey will be different from what might be recommended at the start. 

 

[sofingaw]

It might seem pendantic, but the only issue I have with this thread is the word ‘wreck’ in the title. I would change it to ‘limit’, ‘restrict’, and/or ‘complicate’, to make it a more correct hypothesis. 

The swing obviously has to be there, but poorly fit or unforgiving clubs will keep you from reaching your max potential. By how much is a function of how poor or poorly fit the sticks are, I think. 

[70sSanO]

If your coach is fine with your irons, and you trust your coach, then just use them.  I really doubt he would want you to continue if the clubs were hurting your swing.

And since you are only talking irons, I'm not sure how bad the dispersion would be between regular and stiff (I realize R, S and XS are not consistent between mfgs) to be the cause of spraying the ball.

John

[Hamerhaai]

I think so. Or it limits your progress.

Started with a Spalding graphite length +1 "set with a soft flex. Have had (private) lessons and the swing was correct (in the basics, on film: like path and turn etc.) Tried to learn to play with this set, because I convinced myself that you can learn to play with every set and once you play well and hit fairways it might be time to buy something new.

I have been playing poor for more than a year now and my pro said try something else, this isn't your setup. So I bought a second-hand TaylorMade RSi2 set with stiff flex last week and without changing my swing (and no lessons) played much much better last 3 rounds. Balls going straight and hit the fairway. Also a gain in length of about 50 yards with my i5.

Guess the old set was wrecking my game. 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Hamerhaai

[1badbadger]

I remembered reading an in-depth Golf Digest interview with Payne Stewart in 1999.  This was shortly before he won his 2nd U.S. Open, and he was in the process of making a comeback after being in a slump for the previous few years.  They asked him about his equipment, and this is what he said"

G.D.  That long dry spell after the '91 Open wasn't so funny. What happened?

P.S.  The trouble started when I changed equipment companies back in 1992. I switched from playing a forged blade, which I had played my whole life, to an investment-cast club. At the same time, I switched from playing a wound ball to a solid ball. That was the big mistake, changing both clubs and ball at the same time. Neither one was right for me, but I didn't know that at the time. I thought maybe it was just the ball for a while, then thought it might just be the clubs. It messed me up good.

G.D.  Why change your equipment in the first place, at a time when you were one of the best players in the world?

P.S.  For one thing, when you're playing as well as I was at the time, you think you can play with anything. That isn't true, of course, but I didn't know it then. It also was a business decision. We were in the process of building a new home, and the contract was pretty lucrative. It gave me financial security, enough to be able to afford the house with no worries. But knowing what I know now, I would do it differently, because it cost me three years of my golf career. But there's still time. I'm 42 now, what I would consider prime time.

G.D.  What was wrong with the equipment?

P.S.  The two-piece ball I switched to spun too much. One shot would go the distance I thought it should, then the next one would fall short, and then the next one would go long. And they all felt the same when they came off the clubface. The ball just wasn't right for me.

The cast clubs were a big part of it, too. I found I wasn't getting that instant feedback I was used to with a forged blade. The sweet spot is a shade bigger, and when I didn't hit the ball dead center, I didn't know it, because it still felt great. So you start asking yourself, „What's wrong here? Is there too much offset? Is the sweet spot too big? Is it the ball? Is it my swing?'' It's enough to about drive you crazy.

For a while, I think in 1994, it got to where I didn't want to practice. I lost confidence and desire, because I didn't want to go out there and play poorly. I mean, at the time I would rather come here and sit on the lake than go practice and work on my golf game. Today I have a different philosophy.

Many of you may already know this, but in case you never heard the story, after his equipment contract expired at the end of '98, Payne actually did what most people do when they need new clubs...he drove to the local Edwin Watts store in Orlando and went shopping!  I'm not sure how many of the clubs that were in his bag were purchased there, but I know he bought a set of Mizuno irons, a bag and possibly a couple other clubs.  But I think this is an example of how having the wrong clubs (equipment) can wreck your game.

[boatboy]

On 4/12/2018 at 8:25 PM, Mike74 said:

Ok I’m am convinced that getting fit for the correct clubs can help your game but until now I never considered the possibility that playing the wrong clubs can hinder your performance to a point where it really damages your whole game. I recently went and had a driver fitting. Before starting I was given a 7 iron to warm up with. After a dozen hits I had an average swing speed of 98mph with the 7 iron. Now 12 months ago when I got serious about golf I brought a secondhand set of cobra baffled irons with regular flex shafts. They are nice and easy to hit but as the year has gone on my consistency on the course had not improved and I am still only hitting about 30% fairways even though I only use irons. So I realise and have also been told by a couple of pros that these irons are not designed for me but for much lower swing speeds but not until the last week have a started to think that they may be the cause of my inconsistency. Has anybody else who had similar experience to me I would be great to hear from. I am really starting to loose confidence in my game.

Hey Mike,

I also agree with just about everything stated here. If you don't take the time to get the right club with the right length, weight and material, you are completely hosed. Additionally, the grip you have on the club can make a huge difference. The right grip can make the right club "perfect". To get the right club, you really need to see a professional in-person to figure it out. If you are looking for grips you can try https://www.golfpride.com/fit/ to see which of their grips might be best for your play style. Here is a video you can watch that might also give you some knowledge about different types of clubs. 

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by boatboy
Added video link