Warik

to a duel

Thanks all... some really good recommendations. I'm going to check out the x20s, and r7s - maybe one of the Nike sets as well. Edwin Watts says I can hit their demo irons and when I decide whichever one seems to work best for me / whichever one feels best, they'll run me through each club and see if any adjustments need to be made. $50 if they go through the whole process and I decide not to buy. Free if I buy the clubs from them. Hopefully I will have new irons soon. Thank you all for your recommendations.

... anybody?

The first few sites on Google say those clubs are from 1999. Even the clubs I have now are newer. Not trying to knock your recommendation or anything, but why buy used clubs with 9 year-old technology when I can afford to buy brand new ones with the latest technology?

I've been using a set of PowerBilt TPS 7.0 irons that I bought about 5 years ago. My average round is in the 105-110 range. My short game is not spectacular, but it isn't the disastrous sight I've seen with other golfers at my handicap (that is, I don't blade the ball over the green on a pitch shot, I don't hit the ground 3 inches before the ball on a chip shot and carry it 3 feet, I don't put the ball 5 feet past the hole on a 4 foot putt, etc...). That leaves my mid/long game, which is fairly terrible. I'm thinking that upgrading my iron set might help me improve my game a bit, but don't really know which clubs I should look at (and I don't trust salesmen at Edwin Watts / Golf Galaxy / whatever to not just sell me the most expensive thing I'm willing to pay for after they get a feel for my budget). Does anyone have some recommendations for a good iron set for a golfer who is a 30ish handicapper despite having a decent short game (i.e. he has a terrible long game)? I'd like to keep it under $1,000, but expect that I'll probably have to spend more than $500 for a good set. I'd also like to know that I won't have to upgrade again in a few years if I happen to stop being a terrible golfer. Before anyone suggests lessons, I've already had over $1,000 worth of lessons (yes, video too) with 2 different instructors. I don't want to spend/invest any more money into lessons right now. I'm hoping that a properly fitted set of modern technology golf clubs will save me 5-10 strokes a round and help me keep a state of mind that will facilitate improvement. Thanks!

From golfonline.com I don't know if anyone has beaten that lately. It's the first result on Google (so it must be right! )

I have only played three rounds of golf alone in a cart with no one in front of me. I completed them in 2 hours 45 min, 3 hours, and 2 hours and 30 min. The 2 hours and 30 min round was pretty funny because the cart had a GPS system that also tracked your pace of play. I was SO FAR AHEAD of pace that it said: "TIME AHEAD --:--" on the readout. My average with my normal golf buddy using 1 cart and first off the tee is about 3 hours and 15 min.

Your problem sounds *exactly* like the issue I've been having lately. I've ALWAYS been a slicer/fatter/topper/thinner and the concept of hitting the ball left was totally foreign to me, but after reading Hogan's 5 lessons and changing my grip, my consistent mishit has been a straight-to-left hook. One point Hogan makes in his book is to keep the grip from being too tight in the right hand, which activates the muscles in the arms and up to the shoulders, which is bad for your swing... so what I tried doing was completely relaxing my right arm/shoulder prior to my backswing. More often than not, this resulted in me seemingly effortlessly hitting the ball straight and taking tour-quality divots. What I did to accomplish this was the following: I'd go through my normal setup routine and stand over the ball ready to hit it. Before initiating my backswing, I would death-grip the club with my right hand letting me feel the muscles tense up in my forearms, biceps, and shoulder. When I knew I was gripping the club so hard that there's no way I'd be able to pull off a correct swing with so much pressure, I would let the whole right side relax. The instant I felt the right side relaxed, I'd start the backswing and would generally not have enough time to put any tension back in there before the club was already on its way down the correct path. Hoping to try this out again tomorrow and see if it really did fix my issues.

Tiger, and it won't even be close .

I'm about a 32. 100-105 is a decent, though disappointing day for me. 90anything and I'm on top of the world for the rest of the day.

He'd better - I have a ticket for Sunday and am going exclusively to follow him from #1 to #18. Will be nice to see what kind of shape the Blue Monster is in March for a professional tournament vs. the kind of shape it was in back in June of last year when I played there, too. For the record, it was in pretty darn good shape back when I played there.

Wow - I've never used *both* hands to throw a club before. I'll have to try this next time I'm out on the course. Thank you for posting this valuable instructional video.

As if my play isn't bad enough, hitting absolutely horrendous shots coupled with having insanely slow players ahead of me takes enjoyment to frustration to anger to rage in short order. Naturally, that affects what little game I have even more negatively and sooner or later I go from "I'm enjoying my round of golf" to "I can't wait to finish and go home." I've played with people who have hit worse shots than I've ever have, and they just laugh about it or make a joke. After the 5th or 6th bad shot I can't laugh at myself anymore and I just start getting mad and slamming my clubs back into the bag or cursing to myself. I can also shamefully admit that I've helicopter'd a club or two (or three) in the past. How do you guys keep negative emotions from affecting your enjoyment of your round? I'm particularly interested in higher handicap players like me who are more likely to have a reason to spend an entire round in frustration (3-4 consecutive snowmen on the scorecard) than a lower handicap player (getting a NASTY par to upset your string of 3-4 consecutive birdies... oh no boo hoo )

My playing partner and I arrive for our 1:52 PM Sunday tee time and play the first hole. I'm most pleased with my starting performance. 400-yd slight dog right par 4. I drive it 250-yd drive so close to the 150 marker than I had to pull it out of the ground to address the ball for my next shot. My 7-iron drops the ball on the left side of the green leaving a beautiful pitchmark in its wake. I putt to within 2 feet and tap in for par. What a great round this is going to be. The round proceeds pretty slowly, but I'm playing better than I've ever played. Course is PAINFULLY slow, but I'm having a great time. We're on #7, which is a 405-yd sharp dogleg left. I've never hit a draw in my life, much less with a driver, so I hit a 3-iron and hope to put myself in decent position for a second shot, which I do. We drive up to my ball and wait for the green to clear... and wait... and wait... and wait... I hear someone whistle from behind me and look over to the tee. One guy's got both arms up in the air and is yelling "COME ON." I don't know where exactly he expects me to go, so I ignore him and turn back around. About a minute later I see a ball land 20 yards in front and to the left of us. I look over to the right figuring that someone sliced into us from #8. Then another ball lands. My playing partner says that the group behind us is teeing off. I turn around in time to see the 3rd one hit his tee shot. I follow his ball in the air and have to move myself and my partner over for fear that we'd be hit - the ball landed no more than 10 feet from where we were standing. I was BEYOND PISSED. I stomped over to his ball, grabbed it, and threw it back at the tee. I yelled "FORE" for good measure while the ball was still in the air. It landed way short of the tee (obviously), but I felt I got my point across. I'm still waiting to hit my approach shot, so I kill time by calling the pro shop and asking them to send a ranger out. I hit my approach shot and land a few yards left of the green. As my partner's getting ready to hit his shot, the last jerk who hit into us drives up to me. He's by himself. Him: "Why'd you pick up and throw my ball?" Me: "Because you hit into us intentionally and almost hit us." Him: "Oh come on! I was watching it! It was nowhere near you! You need to keep up with the pace of play. You're slowing down the game!" Me: "WHAT? That ball was 10 feet from us and we're NOT slowing down the game. It's the threesome in front of us." Him: "GIVE ME A BREAK! You could have hit 5 minutes ago! Are you going to hit the green from here?!?!" Me: "YES, I AM! IT'S ONLY 200 YARDS. GET LOST AND DON'T HIT INTO US AGAIN!" We turn, get in our cart, and drive off. While we're on the green, the ranger arrives and parks on the path next to the green. We finish putting and I walk over. I say good afternoon, shake his hand, and explain the problem... we're patiently waiting behind a slow group in front and the four jerks behind us hit into us. I ask him to please say/do whatever he needs to do to insure that I don't have to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of the round. He says OK and leaves. We tee off on #8 and he comes back after talking to the group behind. He says he explained to them that we're not the slow group and we can't do anything about the group in front of us, but tells me that they said we skipped ahead of them. I tell him that they're mistaken and that's not true. He said "well, that's what they said." I point to the strip of paper stapled to our cart which says our tee time, 1:52 and ask him to check theirs. I then show him our scorecard showing that we have a score on all 7 previous holes. "How did we skip them and still manage to play every hole?" He says "OK I believe you" and drives back to the other group. We're headed for the green and hear one of them yelling "that's a bunch of bull crap" when the ranger tells them we didn't skip them. I don't really care anymore at that point, so we keep playing and don't hear from them for the rest of the round. The group in front of us left the course after the 14th hole (I guess they were headed to a Superbowl party or something) and we finish the 4.5 hour round at least a hole and a half ahead of the group behind us. Who's playing slow now?

I've heard that tip before and I agree it's stupid. The reason I come up short from 130-yd with my 9-iron is NOT because of poor club selection - it's because of poor swing selection. I'd rather leave a bad shot with the right club in the rough or in a bunker short of the green than leave a good shot with the wrong club 30 yards over the green and never to be found again.