tigerwoo

I always make sure that the wedge in my hand is the one with the least amount of bounce on the sole. Play it back in my stance to promote a steeper angle of attack and chip it out or if I've shortsided myself, back in my stance, slight open face with a low bounce wedge. I've skulled too many shots in my past playing in recently rained on courses. I live in a wet climate (Vancouver, British Columbia) so I have lots of experience with this.

I find that the bounce of a particular wedge plays a HUGE factor in how and where it can be hit. My experiences/opinions: Low bounce wedge (8* or less) for tight lies, short rough to allow you to open the face of the club and get under the ball with relative ease. Mid to High bounce wedge (10* or higher) for med-high rough and sand areas to prevent the club from digging. If you have more bounce than you need then hitting open face shots on tight lies can be hazardous (literally) as you risk skulling the ball because the bounce of the club will prevent the digging but will skip the club into the ball and thus skull it to the other side of the green. If this happens alot to you, you likely have a lob wedge that isn't configured for the shots you are trying to make.

I'm thinking about reshafting my current driver as I am launching it quite high and thus potentially losing distance with the current spin rate being generated by my driver. I have a stock R580XD in 10.5* loft stiff. I'm now trying to figure out whether or not investing $150 in a new shaft, grip and install would be worth my time/money in order to lower trajectory and spin rate. Anyone have any positive experiences with reshafting their drivers to produce this same end result? What brand of shaft did this for you? Should I just buy a new driver with the proper shaft for my swing? Thanks all.

Teeing the ball up high will help you build confidence in hitting the ball, but if you want to get better and increase your iron distances, you'll want to start hitting down on the ball rather than sweeping it off a tee. Teeing it low is really the only way to be able to hit down on the ball with precision at least from my experience.

right off the bat with your 6 iron distance i can see that the uniflex shaft will likley not work for you unless you step off your irons a little. your driver swing speed is a little odd as i thought it would be higher if you are hitting your 6 iron 190 plus yards. i hit my 6 iron 180-185 or perhaps 190 if i step on it. i have true temper actionlite stiff shafts in my irons. i have a uniflex shafted callaway 5 wood and find it just right. i'll hit that about 230 yards with a slight draw at about 85-90% swing.

I agree with all the previous posts on teeing it up for reasons of giving yourself a better lie. In addition to that a tee'd up ball will also give you a chance when your swing was not perfect... i.e. you didn't quite get down enough on the shot and thus might have hit it thin if the was ball tee-less. That fraction of lift off the ground can help an imperfect swing produce an almost perfect result. Yes, play the shot as per normal with an iron. Hitting down on the ball will allow you to make more solid contact

Winter/Wet Conditions (I live in a wet climate): Driver: 245 yards (Carry) 4 iron: 200 yards (don't carry a 3 iron) 7 iron: 165 yards PW: 135 yards Summer/Dry Conditions: Driver: 275 yards (Carry) 4 iron: 205 yards 7 iron: 170 yards PW: 140 yards My iron distances have increased on average 10 yards per club after putting the CG4's in my bag compared to when I use to have Mizuno MP29 blades the last 8 years.

Probably one of my most impressive performances in a while considering the conditions. Played in torrential rainfall from holes 11 through 18 and yet scored even par on the back nine at Riverway Golf course in Burnaby, British Columbia. 4 over on the front so that makes a 4 over 76. It was a bit unbelievable but also a quiet 4 over par round likely because the rain was quite loud!!?? Great driving and ball striking and only one 3 putt which was from about 60 feet.

Congrats on the new handicap! That's always great to hear. I totally agree with you that too much information could be detrimental to your game. I think you definitely have to be selective and wise when it comes to advice being given by those of us in the forum with varying handicaps who are no where near being a professional nor have we ever taught anyone with some measurement of success? What works for me may not work for others so take everything you read here with side of caution. Experimenting can be fun but can also lead to bad habits that may be hard to correct.

But that's part of the whole learning process. Figuring out a few things on your own is a great way to learn how your body works with this game. That's how I learned and I don't discourage going to a pro for a lesson, just that sometimes you can get some benefit of doing things your way. Plus, why else would this forum exist? If everyone told each other to go and get lessons, what fun would that be!??

I can't say enough about my new Cleveland CG4's I just picked up off of eBay for $299 US. All in with shipping, currency conversion, duty (I'm in Canada too) and taxes it was just over $400. Golf Digest rated these clubs a Silver on their 2007 hotlist. If you have a Golftown in your neighbourhood they are selling them for $598 CAD which I still think is a bargain. I use to use blades (Mizuno MP29's) that I thought I'd use forever. I had them in my bag for 8 years but improved very little (Handicap 14 to 9). Once I put these Clevelands in my bag I dropped a full point in my handicap now down to an 8 after 4 good rounds. The clubs essentially saved me about 3 to 4 strokes per round when I know I hit some shots a little fat or off centre. Those scores would have thus been in the low 80's rather than the mid to high 70's I posted. I can see using these clubs for a very long time as I'm only getting older now. Don't get all caught up in having to evolve into blades... there are some very good cavity back game improvement irons available that will help your game immensely and allow you to have fun at the same time. These CG4's with the help of technology feel very good as they have some extra carbon injected into to the clubhead. Good luck!

1) Try putting the ball further back in your stance as this will promote a steeper swing path as you come down on the ball to hit it. I.e. just right of middle (right handed player). Use this drill only at the range as it is to help promote a steeper angle of descent to the ball. Otherwise, use the regular ball position for your irons (just left of middle). 2) Hands forward (i.e. ahead of the club head) at impact... if your hands are back and behind the clubhead upon impact you will tend to sweep and/or worst case hit it thin. 3) Keep your left wrist (right handed player) FIRM upon impact to allow the back of the hand/palm be parallel with your forearms. You should be able to draw a straight line from your forearm down to your knuckles. Breaking this angle will add loft to the club as well as allowing it to pass your hands and thus leading to once again a sweep or thin shot. 4) Most of your weight should be shifting onto the left leg at time of impact or just after

I am not sure why you are thinking of going to 'older' clubs? I've had Mizuno MP29's for 8 years and have just recently replaced them with Clevelands that are a bit more forgiving. I have lost the 'feel' that the MP29's had but I have gained in forgiveness and I will accept that tradeoff for now. In terms of feel though I have yet to hit a club that was better than my MP29's. Though I have not hit either the 14's or 33's.

I understand where you are going with your statement completely. In fact, because I had my blades for so long I think what they did for me was refine my swing and make it a little tighter. I had no choice! I could not afford to be 'loose' with my swing hitting my blade long irons that looked like a pea pod at the end of the shaft. But my main reason I decided to go 'more forgiving' was because I lack the practice/playing time I use to get before I married and had a child (I've averaged 20 rounds/year for the past 3 years as opposed to my 40-50/year pre-marriage/kids). Hopefully these cavity back sticks will help me post some good scores regularly. I only hope I don't regress and go back to a more loose swing which would then fuel the purchase of 'Maximum Game Improvement Irons'!

My 2 cents on this subject as I've been there and this is what works for me these days: 1) Slow and controlled backswing trying to keep your right right elbow as close to your right side as possible and pointing to the ground. As you swing back further your right elbow will detach from your body but try keeping the elbow pointed to the ground. 2) On the downswing make your first move be closing of that gap between your right elbow and your body and make sure you increase the acceleration of your swing through the ball. Note how your left hip releases naturally with the swing rather than openning up prematurely which often aligns your shoulders open as well and thus you 'cast' out your club at the top of the downswing and a slice is the only result (if not a pull hook) that can happen. Try this and let me know how it works for you. It is the only thing I think about when I swing these days (with all my clubs). With my driver, I'm hitting at least 8 or 9 FIR's per round and the odd double digit FIR.

I played 3 rounds last week on a semi-golf trip/family vacation. First round was a 77 which I was ecstatic about considering it was my first round in the 70's this year. Then 3 days later I posted a 78 in a most peculiar fashion. I started double, double and posted a third double on the front 9 but had a birdie to diminish one of them a bit. Anyways a 9 over 45 on the front due to some nasty putting and missed greens. The back was a whole different story... if not a little DR Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde. I shot a 3 under 33 which is my best 9 holes ever. Third round played another 3 days later... posted a solid 79 with three 3 putts and 3 holes within a PW second shot that I missed due to premature birdie thinking and not focussing!!! Anyways, that's three straight rounds in the 70's after having gone the entire year without breaking 80. I have to attribute some saved strokes to my new irons that I got about a month ago. In those 3 rounds I know I mishit about a half a dozen shots without being penalized.

I just came back from a golf trip where I played 3 rounds of golf in 7 days. All I can say is that I shot 77, 78, 79 using my new Cleveland CG4 'cavity back' irons. Just a month ago I was golfing with my Mizuno MP29's that I have had for the past 8 years. I have NEVER shot 3 straight rounds in the 70's EVER. I know that I had mishit at least a half a dozen shots during those 3 rounds and these irons just didn't miss as much as my Mizuno's. In fact, I don't think I lost more than 5 yards of distance on those mishits and I certainly didn't miss much of the green thereby allowing me a 'chance' to save par. With the Mizuno's those misses would have translated to at least 10 yards and more dispersion from the green. The three rounds have helped lower my handicap index by 1.5. I was a 9.5 a week ago and now I am an 8. Anyways, I am a firm believer of playing with the 'right' cavity backs. Research and choose wisely and you will be rewarded. Without the help on those half a dozen shots... my score would have likely been in the 80's. Not that scoring in the 80's is bad... I was just tired of not improving for so long.

I love my Cleveland CG4's. With their help I shot a 77 yesterday. 38/39. My first score in the 70's this year. About time... coincidentally enough right after I 'retired' my Mizuno MP29's. I think I have been 'game-improved'! Though I did hit a couple of very poor 9 irons from the middle of the fairway that cost me an unsuccessful up and down. Regardless, very happy... Yeehaa!

Shot an 8 under 64 last night! Ok, it was a texas scramble format. Regardless, it was an absolute hoot and we all had a great time. 3 of us are golfers and the 4th was the girlfriend who has never golfed. Because the format asked that we take a minimum of 3 drives per golfer in each group we had a bit of a challenge on 3 holes when we had to use her drives. We used her tee shots on a par 5 where she spanked one 120 yards allowing us to power our 3 woods another 260 yards up to leave us a chip shot onto the green and 4 chances to make birdie. Successful. We used her second tee shot on a hard par 4 where we knew par would be a great score regardless of a good tee shot. We had to cut our 3 wood second shots around a tree and disect two trees 100 yards from the green. Got to the 85 yard mark and I stiffed a sand wedge to 2 feet for a tap in par saver! That felt good. Her last tee shot came on a short par 4 where even with her 110 yard drive we only had 160 yards left... got our second on the green and 2 putted for par. So all in all... we were 1 under using her drives that averaged about 110 yards. Not bad! Another highlight of the scramble was an eagle putt we made from 10 feet on a 500 yard par 5. We won the tournament and got our cheap little trophies... a good time regardless.

Talk about a steal... I got my CG4's for under $300 on eBay. Brand new and shrink wrapped! I cannot say enough about them right now... perhaps they are more popular now after the Golf Digest Hotlist gave them a Silver medal. That's how I decided on purchasing them. With so many clubs out there... I can see how many good clubs go unnoticed.

I have played with blades for past 8 years with a model that has been copied by other golf brands out there because it was truly the benchmark club when it first came out. The Mizuno MP29 was what I had in my bag up until about a month ago. Tiger Woods used these clubs all throughout his Stanford days when he was not paid to play certain brand names. When he joined Nike after he turned pro he made Nike make a set of irons for him that was essentially a copy of the Mizuno MP29's he was so use to hitting. Anyways, I'm no Tiger Woods... though I do call myself 'Tigerwoo' (a joke on my ethnicity more than my golf game) and so I made the decision to go cavity back recently because technology has improved so much in recent times and has allowed companies to make cavity backs that are of forged nature or allow the use mixed metals soft enough to 'feel' forged. Add to that the forgiveness of the perimeter weighting and a larger sweet spot with cavity backs and all you have to do is swing without feeling like you have to be so dead on precise with a blade in your hand. I was also not posting scores in the 70's like I use to... and I was slowly replacing my 2, 3 and 4 irons with hybrids that were easier to hit but not necessarily easier to control. My accuracy with these hybrids weren't really what I liked over traditional irons. So there was definitely a compromise. So I wasn't losing any distance for missing the sweet spot but I was missing a little left or right of the green. So I did some research and found myself what I think is a very good blade replacement... Cleveland CG4's. Been out on the range a few times and just took them out for the real test drive yesterday on a course. I have to say that the feel of these clubs are almost blade-like to the point that I really can't notice the difference or perhaps I don't notice because I am so impressed with how the ball flies after being hit. I didn't miss once with these clubs distance wise... and accuracy was very good if not equal with my Mizuno's. Mind you this is only after 1 round on the course. But besides that, I have also gained 5 to 10 yards with these clubs most likely due to their stronger lofts and of course hitting them more on the sweet spot which is larger to begin with. I recall a shot that I hit yesterday from 195 yards out. A slight tail wind behind me that was maybe 5 yards... I hit my new CG4 6 iron on the green to within 15 feet for a very good birdie opp. Made the putt... Anyways, I could go on and on about these 'cavity back' clubs as I hit them solid all day yesterday. All I can say is that I am looking forward to hitting in the 70's again, real soon! My beloved Mizuno's served me well... but it's time to move on.

Question to Mhinderaker... Why the different shaft flexes? Regular for Driver/Hybrid... but stiff for others? Just curious...

Ah... that would be a big fat ZERO. As in I didn't play today! I am golfing vicariously through all your threads so keep it up. I just got a brand new set of Cleveland CG4's in my bag that I am DYING to try out on the course.... I have to wait until Wednesday when we have our annual company tournament... but darn weather appears to be changing and forecast is for 80% chance of rain!?! Anyways, enjoy reading other peoples' rounds today. I did lie a bit... I did play a 9 hole par 3 course today with my 2 and half year old son. I was so proud of him... hand-eye coordination - check. golf potential - check. cuteness factor... priceless. Cheers.

My opinion and ranking after having tried a few drivers of models that are considered older or out of date now but can be had for $200 or less are as follows: T1) Taylormade R580 XD Best feel/sound and 2nd only to Cleveland in forgiveness and distance. T1) Cleveland Launcher 460 Most forgiving with the best distance. 2) Taylormade R5 Neutral Feel/sound quite different than the R580. Forgiveness/distance was not quite as good as the two above it. 3) Titleist 905R For some reason could not hit the sweet spot as regularly with this club? therefore feel/distance suffered. 4) Callaway Big Bertha 454 I did not like the shaft in this club. feel was not impressive and i didn't like the high pitched ting on impact. Note: All clubs were tested with factory stiff shafts. So overall it was a toss up between the R580 XD and Launcher. I picked up the R580XD as it was the best value club out there at the time (year and a half ago). Been very happy with it ever since.

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences! I should have actually taken the extra time and gone into my local golf shop to hit some irons in their virtual driving range before I bought this set. I bought them 'impulsively' with research to back it up all over the web. I actually rented and hit some original Callaway irons on a trip recently and I was amazed at how good I could hit these huge clubs. I guess that's what sold me into looking for a new set. I hated the way they looked and felt but boy did they fly pretty far and straight... I couldn't miss! So when I got back from my trip, I did some research on the net and these CG4 clubs were on the Golf Digest Hotlist with a Silver rating. Did some preliminary eBay research and I found this set half the price that they are selling in my local golf shop here. So it was a 'no brainer' and I was the successful bidder. Got them shipped to my house within a week and I was off the the range with anxious excitement. Anyways, you know the story... But I may be jumping the gun a bit. I only hit them once now and I will be going back there again several times. I'm sure I'll find the swing to get the most out of the clubs as I can be pretty adaptive that way (I'm always tweaking my swing). I just polished my Mizuno's last night to take a few pictures of them to potentially sell and boy did they look good. Perhaps, I'll keep them around for a little while longer... just in case.