Overrated/Underrated (Golf) Topic

[chicub15]

On 2/21/2019 at 8:09 AM, klineka said:

Overrated/Underrated #18: The importance (or lack of importance) of leaving yourself "below the hole" on approach shots/chips.

Overrated. Every time I get my yardage to the pin I also ask myself would a miss long or short (of the green entirely) leave an easier chip. If a green has a severe tier I will err on the side of the shorter club as putting up those ridges is always easier than putting down them for me. I am fine with being above or below the hole if it means I was playing away from the greenside trouble and leaving myself the best chance for par. 

Edited February 24, 2019 by chicub15
fixed non-quoted stuff

[iacas]

1 minute ago, chicub15 said:

Overrated. Every time I get my yardage to the pin I also ask myself would a miss long or short (of the green entirely) leave an easier chip. If a green has a severe tier I will err on the side of the shorter club as putting up those ridges is always easier than putting down them for me. I am fine with being above or below the hole if it means I was playing away from the greenside trouble and leaving myself the best chance for par. 

Please make sure you quote the specific red text you're responding to so people know what you're talking about.

[sjduffers]

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

Sounds like the ball would have to be on the fringe or embedded for this to occur. If the slope is severe enough that a tap would roll it by that much ...then pretty unusual to have the ball land there or roll there and hold its position.

True, I know!

It's not on the fringe and not embedded either, and it's almost like a tier like @iacas mentioned, but not with a clearly visible ridge. For some reason I have seen the ball stop rolling and it just hangs there. Not every time mind you, so yes, it's a bit of an extreme case, but there are 3 greens like that at the place I am talking about: I have seen it happen on all 3 over time.  When you see the ball stop there, it's like: "how in the world did the ball stop there and not roll below the hole?" Could be grain of sands or green imperfections (or change in water content in various grass areas of the green) holding it up? I don't know...

Anyway, I qualified this as an exception and made clear in my first post on the subject that closer but above the hole is much better than below the hole, in general. No argument there.

[mvmac]

5 hours ago, iacas said:

I can think of one green I've played in my life where that's true.

Same here.

[Pretzel]

21 hours ago, iacas said:

Right. In other words, should virtually never be the case that above the hole five feet is worse than ten feet below.

I can think of one green I've played in my life where that's true.

I can think of multiple greens I've played where this would be true, but they're all on only 2 courses I know of that have tiered greens with at least 2 feet of difference between the tiers and a very steep slope between the tiers. One of them I played during the state championship in high school, and when the greens were rolling 12's and 13's it meant that hitting the ball a tier above the pin would result in a putt that couldn't stay on the putting surface. I tested it by placing a ball at the edge of the tier and it would still roll all the way off, but that was pretty extreme (ended up chipping off the green once during the tournament because it was the only possible way to stay on the green itself while moving to a lower tier). 

 It's an incredibly uncommon scenario though, and the general rule will always be that unless there's something extreme like I described above you're better off being closer and above the hole than further and below it.

[bkuehn1952]

On 2/21/2019 at 9:09 AM, klineka said:

Overrated/Underrated #18: The importance (or lack of importance) of leaving yourself "below the hole" on approach shots/chips.

 

On 2/21/2019 at 9:55 AM, DaveP043 said:

In my opinion, it is overrated.  Very few of us ever play greens that are so fast that a downhill putt is excessively difficult.  That doesn't hold true in every circumstance, particularly on multi-tier greens with sharp slopes separating the tiers, but those greens are relatively rare.

I couldn't say it better than @DaveP043.  Over-rated in most situations.

[ChetlovesMer]

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

Of course we aren't talking about "The Hammer". Because we all know that's legit! BOOM! POW! BAM!

[phillyk]

33 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

Overrated, for sure.  Ok, sure some of them help, but they help because of bad mechanics and marketing.  I crack up when I watch the c3i wedge one, because they go from bad swings to good swings out of the bunker.  How'd the swing completely change because of a club? Sure it helps stop a dig, but learning how to hit a bunker shot is still the best way. The GX7 stuff is basically the idea that people with slower swing speeds tend to hit their 3 woods or 5 woods just as far or further than the driver, because they can't get the driver in the air.  It's nothing new, they are just marketing a 3/5wood with a slightly longer shaft.

[Vinsk]

3 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

 

Absolutely overrated as far as success stories with them. I’d say the vast majority of those products are bogus. Unfortunately I know this from my own experience. I can say their marketing is quite underrated as far as luring in people who have been (still are) desperate for that ‘magic club/device.’ I’ve at least come to only give something a chance if it’s given good marks on TST. 

[Buckeyebowman]

4 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

 

Overrated. A friend bought the GX-7 (he also owned a Hammer and a Warrior hybrid, see a pattern?) , and that thing makes the oddest sound when he hits a ball with it! I don't think the club is right, but he hits it OK. He has maintained for a while that he doesn't like the modern "canteloupe on a broomstick" driver. Yet, toward the end of last season, he was flat killing it with an older Ping driver he got from a friend. 460cc head, 45.5" length. 

[gbogey]

16 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

 

I would generally say overrated.  I did some looking into the "tee less driver" as I had a buddy who loved to try to hit driver off the deck - great shot about 25% of the time and disaster the other 75% - thought it would be good gag gift but too expensive. Anyway, from the specs it seems to me to really me a 3W with a larger than normal 3W head.  Since some people hit 3W better than driver, the design kind of made sense. 

That said, I did pair up one round with someone who swore by his GX metal wood.  Question - is there anything out there about what the plastic insert on the Square Strike is supposed to do?

[iacas]

17 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

Over-rated, but barely.

Here's the thing: only fringe golfers or relatives of fringe golfers tend to buy those things. Most "golfers" know that they're just basically crap.

[billchao]

18 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

Overrated, but as @iacas wrote above, by only a small percentage of golfers. They function as golf clubs but they're not transformative like they claim to be.

I played with a guy who made a big deal about his C3i wedge and his short game wasn't exactly memorable.

[NJpatbee]

18 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

Somewhat overrated.  I did purchase an "Alien" sand wedge years ago and it did help prevent me from grabbing too much sand and staying in the bunker.  I found it useless on any other shot and with the help of a pro learned to make a proper sand swing with a traditional sand wedge and also how to use it for scoring around the green.  I am a 16 handicap but none of the clubs listed above or currently advertised have any appeal to me.  

[TRUCKER]

On 3/12/2019 at 1:18 PM, ChetlovesMer said:

Overrated/Underrated #19: Any of the "as seen on tv" golf clubs which shave strokes from your game. example: Square Strike Wedge, C3i wedge, GX-7 metal wood, etc.

 

Underrated. If you haven't tried any of those types of clubs how could all you guys possibly know what they should be rated at...SMH.

[Double Mocha Man]

9 minutes ago, TRUCKER said:

Underrated. If you haven't tried any of those types of clubs how could all you guys possibly know what they should be rated at...SMH.

Good point. Would you be so kind to send me a box full of those clubs, I will try them out.

[TRUCKER]

You broke the rules.

[iacas]

34 minutes ago, TRUCKER said:

Underrated. If you haven't tried any of those types of clubs how could all you guys possibly know what they should be rated at...SMH.

I've tried some of the clubs.

SMH at your assumptions.

8 minutes ago, TRUCKER said:

You broke the rules.

He did not.