Shambles

The OP reminds me of the tourists who travel to the other side of the world and look for a McDonald's. Shambles

The general rule is to always use the sweet for all shots. I try to follow that rule as much as I am able, though there are some strange lies in the rough or between the roots of a tree or nestled on the wrong side of a tree or bush that just won't give you the space and you have to create a shot. There are people, some of them very well respected, who over the years have advised the use of different parts of the face for the sake of controlling the shot but I've long felt that was an extra complication that I would rather do without. There is enough to learn and remember as it is. I believe that bit of advice which I first ran across in the mid 80's is not very popular and might even have been written by some golf writer. Regardless, I'll stay with always striking the ball with the sweet. Shambles

It's the first recourse of new guys and very much encouraged or at least not too often discouraged. You can sometimes buy a bit of extra distance by exerting the supreme effort and luckily also being able to execute all the most important elements of a good swing. However that distance is not going to belong to you until you can repeat it comfortably and most of the time. It does not require new clubs to manage this. Shambles

Depends on how quickly you learn to accept what the new clubs give you rather than trying to demand performance you never had. If you were fitted properly, and had a repeatable and comfortable swing, plus have confidence, there should be no or very little time involved. The confidence part of the equation is the most volatile. Of course, if you were silly enough to think new clubs would lead to new and better performance, it will take a bit of time for reality to make it's inevitable appearance. New clubs give you the joy of exploration for the small differences and will not be dramatic unless either the new set or the old set were very badly assembled or a very poor fit. New clubs can make you more eager to practice or play more often and that can give you the improvement you seek. Shambles

Swing and play badly and you can end up consuming more calories. The worse your game, the more the weight loss and physical strength build up. I'm in pretty bad shape, so from this day on I shall try very hard to play very badly. :) Shambles

It's very rare that the difference between an R and an S in off the shelf OEM shafts is significant to a normal golfer. I'm pretty sure you have a swing problem not an equipment problem, and the slice is one of the most common results for a swing problem. I'm guessing you are striking the ball with an open face or an opening face. That is not difficult to find but the cause can be a whole lot of things I cannot even begin to list. I suggest you have a short session with a very good swing guru, listen very carefully, and spend a lot of time practicing what he is trying to teach you. It's very important you understand his solution and why before you spend a lot of time trying to apply it. Your time is precious and learning comes a lot faster and easier if you understand the proposed solution. Shambles

Your post reminded me of the early days of square grooves wherein some small manufacturers produced genuine square grooves with sharp edges. Those clubs scuffed the ball with every club, while Ping's did not because the edges of the eye 2 were slightly rounded to prevent the ball damage but still give sufficient backspin. I no longer remember the name of those horrible clubs but they made the ball into a hairball within the first nine, depending on how often you used the irons, any iron. Shambles

I'm still playing my original Eye 2 S wedge which still stops the ball. The flange has some significant wear because some heel relief was applied to make opening the face a bit easier but the grooves are still very much intact. I actually have some older wedges that are forged but they were not used as much as the Eye 2. I also lucked into a set of Eye 2+ at a garage sale and the set was essentially unused other than the 5 and 7 irons they were still in their original wrappers. I had them bent to my specs and put them in play. The old set and the new, separated by more than two decades of use, performed very similarly in every way I could see. Shambles

Forged clubs lose some of their plating with use, and they get dirty. Stainless clubs just get dirty. Even with regular cleaning, all clubs acquire dirt and change in appearance at least at the finish level. Players change even more, or possibly revert to old bad habits. They either make bad swing changes, good swing changes or revert to old swing habits. Along with these is the business of bad assessments of the conditions that confront the shot, or simply bad decisions as to the needed shot. We are not machines and do not actually repeat our swings but rather adjust to whatever we think a situation calls for. We also change from day to day. There are times we wake up stiff and slow, other times we wake up fresh and eager. These all have an effect on performance, be it favorable or unfavorable. Just a couple of weeks ago I was trying out a new Vokey that belonged to a friend and was admiring how well it stopped. I was actually thinking I needed a change but not for the stopping power of the new wedge. My old wedge stopped the ball as easily at pretty much the same places. I needed a change because I wanted a change. We can be very creative about finding reasons to change. For me, change maintains interest and I indulge only as far as I can afford the cost. The need to change is real, but it's mental. Shambles

Why is there no flat out negative in this poll ? If your purpose is to populate the HOF with slightly above average players sure, let him in. However a career that spans in the area of 12 or 15 years and only produces 18 wins is only a little bit above average and if not for the media fame, I doubt we would even be very aware of him except in passing. He is more famous as another gifted player who failed to live up to his talent. Shambles

If clubface were the creators of spin, then a club could not be worn out from use, unless you can show a club that actually became concave. In reality, the proof is not necessarily needed from you as we should be able to find them in the experienced bins the world over, or the garage sales. If anything were to wear down a club it would need to be some harder, in the sense of more brittle, material like a stone, pebbles or sand. Even the hardest golf ball has to lose the battle of wear against even the softest steel. It does not even begin to approach the nature of a contest. Further, even if a wedge is used exclusively and constantly in a sand trap, the wear would be at flange and eventually, the leading edge. Think of a shovel used on a construction site. When newly purchased, the leading edge of the shovel resembles the back of a single hump camel. Towards the end of the job the leading edge of the shovel will more closely resemble the back of a two hump camel. The objection holds true for the argument that grooves wear out from use. If that were true, we would find clubs that showed the grooves bowling out around the sweet spot and that too is simply not the case. What does wear out is the plating on forged irons and that is because the plating is just very tiny bits of metal that have been made to adhere to the surface of the club electrically. Use has a way of breaking up the adhesion from repeated impact at the point of most use, i.e., the sweet spot and the flange. The ball, soft or hard, is very capable of knocking off plating where it most often contacts the club. All good clubs are capable of serving long after their owners have passed on, be they stainless or forged. They just show their age and use, at which point we create reasons for needing new clubs. Shambles

I find a very short putter the easiest thing to putt with but cannot cut the shaft because the putter gets lost in the bag. I always choke. Shambles

The square grooves of Ping, when they first came out were producing hair balls, cutting out slivers of skin, with every stroke of the iron, making the balls useless after about 3 holes. It became necessary for Karsten to reduce the aggressiveness of his grooves by rounding off the edges, as shown in the Eye 2 or his clubs would not have sold. This can be looked up if there is doubt. However you can also see the evidence of the groove's activity in modern day wedges that are produced with very aggressive grooves. They scratch the balls excessively when new and some, far longer after than their owners like. A lot of those overly aggressive groove clubs find their way to the second hand racks quickly. Until the edges of the grooves are softened, they take too much of a grip on the ball skin and produce backspin but at too high a cost. I believe this supports the grooves/spin argument. The idea of the surface producing friction and therefore backspin, is seemingly also valid when coupled with compression. However you can see how little that surface adhesion contributes by shaving a tennis ball and trying to play with that resultant smooth ball. You're not going to get a lot of reaction from it and will probably become tired more quickly. You might also surmise that the dimples on a golf ball help the ball grip the air a little better and therefore fly a bit farther. Smooth golf balls don't fly very well. Shambles

I would not use a scotchbrite. I suppose it's mild enough, but I find an overnight soak in denture cleanser works very well letting the dirt fall off and a stiff nylon brush and rinse the next morning brings the heads to near new condition without losing the tumble effect. Mostly, you just end up with very clean irons. Shambles

I have a set 3 - SW of Eye 2+ and my original set of Eye2 1 - L missing the 2 iron. I found the Eye 2+ in old/brand new condition in a garage sale and bought it. The original owner bought it about 20+ years ago, tried the 5 and 7 in the range, and decided he did not want to take up Golf. I'm bagging it now and it feels like old home week. Fresh grooves really have a flavor that's attractive. My foges and blades are now in storage. Shambles