HarlDane

Titleist has a reputation of being a "players club", the majority of their equipment is designed for better players and they are popular on the PGA Tour. Therefore they are popular at the clubs, both with better players and those who want to be seen as better players.

Increased feel and reduced glare are the reasons given for the oil can/RTG finish (at least according to the Titleist and Cleveland websites). The exposed steel is softer and reflects less light than a chrome finish, the rust is merely another symptom of having no chrome on the club. The clubs will play just as well if you maintain them to keep the rust away and will most likely last longer because the rust won't be eating away at the face of the club.

I'm in in the other SJV near Fresno, so I'm a few hours north of you.

Theres a little 5400 yard par 69 course around here that I can play in about 2 hours. It's a little run down, but at $14 all you can golf it makes a great place for practice.

Be unique, collect 6 irons. It's just as pointless, but much cheaper.

We have a similar "4 clubs and a Putter" tourney. I use a 4 Wood, 4 iron, 7 Iron, 52* GW and a Putter.

I rarely if ever use the 4 wood off of the fairway, I generally hit my 4 wood in the 205-210 yard range off the tee and my 3 hybrid about 185 off the deck and 190ish off the tee, so it's about a 15-20 yard gap. I've also thought of adding a LW, but my short game is my big downfall right now and I think I should try to improve my play with the GW/SW before adding a LW. I hit my current hybrid pretty good, for some reason the bigger head of the fairway wood intimidates me off of the fairway or in the rough, which is why I was leaning towards another hybrid. I was trying to fit in a club that will give me +/- 200 yards off the fairway.

So this is my current setup. Putter SW, GW, PW 9-4 Irons 21* 3 Hybrid 17* 4 Wood 13* Driver I am a fairly new to golf, playing somewhat seriously for about 6 months. I generally shoot just over 100 and on a good day in the mid to high 90's. I've thought about either a 5 Wood or a 2 Hybrid. I'm also open to other suggestions.

I live in Central California and we get 12 months of golf. The coldest winter temps mean slightly latter tee times so the frost can melt off the greens.

I tried out my buddies Mizuno MX-23's and really liked them. You might want to check them out, I've had a few people suggest them as well as their replacements the MX-25's.

I love winter golf, no more teeing off at 10am with the temps already at 90.

From what I've read Tiger is well known for his off color jokes.

A handicap was never meant to determine your average round on an average day. You should play at your handicap 25% of the time or less. So yes, it's fair that Wild Bill have a 15 handicap.

Love it or hate it, ESC is a part of handicapping and as you know handicapping is a method of comparing golfers of different skill levels so that they can compete on a level playing field. When you choose to disregard the established rules everyone else is following for determining a handicap then there is no way of comparing yourself to the rest of the field as you have a different set of guidelines your following. You may be fine with this, but please do not enter net score tourneys as you would be cheating. I'd also like to point out the irony of you disregarding ESC when the formula for determining a handicap is already going to adjust your score based on other factors of the round.

If you post them, your inflating your handicap. The strokes still count, just not against your handicap and there are very valid reasons for this.