RichF

Thing is, this tournament is meant to be 'The Big Four'. This is the 2nd year running one of the winners of the Majors has not turned up - Mickelson missed last year.

Fair point. I've been using Mizuno MX-19 s for the last gew months now and my ball striking quality from 5-iron to PW is, IMO, spot-on...that is, I can hit straight and pretty much the same distances with a full, controlled swing off a flat lie every time. 3 and 4-iron tend to be a bit, wayward....shanking out of the heel. However, I've tried to fade/draw shots with these irons and it's hard. I can't go around a tree with a 5-iron...I have to go over-the-top and bust it with maybe a 7 or 8.... Anyway, I digress. The more I play, and I play a lot now (I have time on my hands) the more I'm leaning toward getting myself a set of muscle-back clubs. Even when I do have a bad day with my CB irons and start spraying the ball everywhere, I don't let it get me down, ever or destroy my confidence in what I can and can't do with a golf-club. I immediately ignore the fact that in one hole, some poor shots have ruined my scorecard. Maybe I'm a traditionalist, maybe I'm elitist....but I'm the same with tennis: I play an old 80s/90s Wilson Prostaff Original (arguably the greatest racquet in the sport's history) and I play fine with it - I can keep up with these topspin-bangers who use 100" sq frames.

iacas , can you post what your club-distances are? (if you know them, that is.....I'm not being nosey or anything - just curious!). I know a lot of people post their driving distances, but I'm just curious to see what other folks hit with there irons, wedges, woods, rescues, etc

I watched every day apart from Thursday. Wentworth is a fantastic golf-course and Ernie Els did play pretty flawlessly throughout, but it was a pretty depleted field: Woods, Singh, Mickelson, Scott, Johnson....all missing.

Can't he do that during November and December?

Seems to be the 'buzzword' nowadays todescribe of the feel of golf ball on the face of a club (even though it's not struck in the centre of the clubface) and every club-maker appears to be investing in it. It looks like fewer and fewer manufacturers are including 3-iron and even 4-irons in their sets - the traditional forged 'blade' clubs with small heads and longer shafts that are difficult to hit consistently well for most golfers. Callaway, have recently exhibited their FTi-Brid irons with the longer irons replaced by the 3i, 4i and 5i utility-style clubs with large heads, tunite weighting in the club sole and a black TPU SenSert in the back of the head to help get the ball airborne quickly and deliver that solid strike we all desire. Their new FT irons with a new head shape and thinner top line are also set to extend the boundaries of forgiveness and already former US Open winner Michael Campbell is using them. The downside? $1800 (£950) for a steel set. My query to the folks here on The SandTrap forum is how much does 'forgiveness' mean to you in your golf game? Or are you willing to sacrifice the occasional miss-hit for power and distance over your friends?

Starting today, in Bermuda, looks good...we have the 4 Majors winners from this year: Zach Johnson - Masters Angel Cabrera - US Open Padraig Harrington - The Open Jim Furyk - USPGA. Errrr....hang on! Eh???? What's he doing here? 1 - Where is Tiger Woods ? And, 2 - Doesn't his omission kind take the gloss off this event?

I'm going for a custom-fit at my local club/shop next week. I have my sights set on the Callaway FT-i as I've been demo-ing that quite positively this week. As my Burner is 'like-new', I can trade this in so I won't lose too much money.

Well, I had a full-test with the FT-i tonight on the driving range and when I nailed it clean, I was hitting 230-240. Ones I didn't connect with clean, maybe 20 yards less. (now I must point out, this range isn't very accurate in it's yardage markers due to the balls being fairly soft and to even the distances out, i.e. 200 yards is more like 175-185yards, etc), So, theoretically, I would be getting 255-265 on the fairway given my current swing, using proper golf-balls. The version was a stock, off-the shelf job: Draw model, Fujikura 568 Speeder regular flex shaft, 10° loft. Compared with my off-the-shelf TM Burner, I was more than impressed: don't get me wrong, this driver feels great when I nail it.....but nailing it straight is something like 3 in every 5 attempts. Anyway, bottom-line: I'm sold. I'm trading in my TM Burner and going for custom-fitting next week.

The FT-i that I sed was an off-the-shelf job, regular flex, draw....but then so was my Burner. However, the longer drives that I did hit with the FT-i impressed me some, so I'm going to be further demo-ing that driver. At the end of the day, I've only been playing golf a matter of months and the fact that I can hit a golf-ball 250+ at this stage is encouraging to say the least....my swing can only get better.

Not really a 'what-is-the-better-driver' type of thread, but I notice that when I rip my stock TaylorMade Burner , I can reach 260-270, but it's 50-50 whether I stay on the fairway or not. (last week on a deserted Par5, me and my partner measured one particularly cracking drive!). So, as a test to try and iron-out some wayward driving, last night I went to my local club and the shop guys let me demo the, Callway FT-i (regular Fujikura Speeder shaft, 10° loft and the Draw-face version). Anyway, after 15-20mins, I was really surprised..... at the lack of distance I got. I found it easy to swing and pretty much everything went straight, but noticed that my drives either maxed-out at around 210-220 or even worse, some just dipped and died before the 200yard mark. Thing is, I found it as easy to swing than my stock Taylor-Made Burner. Is it my swing or the club, that's impacting on my performance here? I actually liked the FT-i - didnt mind it's looks or the sound it makes, either.

Well, I had about 20mins using the Callway FT-i on the driving range and I was surprised.....at the lack of distance I got. Using a regular Fujikura Speeder shaft, 10° loft and the Draw-face version, I found it easy to swing and pretty much everything went straight, but noticed that my drives either maxed-out at around 210-220 or even worse, some just died before the 200yard mark. Thing is, I found it as easy, if not easier to swing than my stock Taylor-Made Burner.

That's what I always thought....

I wear a glove for every club except the putter. And as I play 2-3x a week, and hit the driving range 2x a week I usually get a new glove every month.

Thing is, I know now that I have that bug in my head about the TM Burner that I know I'm not gonna get rid of. Of all the drivers I tried, I didnt demo either Callaway.

Are they cavity-backs though? The official site states: ' A forged, Notch-back blade iron designed for elite golfers' They have thin tops, narrow sole and are designed for working the ball.

I'm looking to replace my existing driver with either of these: Callway FT-5 or FT-i . Obviously, I'm going to be demo-ing for a bit before I decide....as a heads-up, have any of the forum either use or own either club? Also, didn't Els use both before going for the FT-i model? Thoughts, opinions, etc?

Yep - according to his official website: Driver: NIKE SasQuatch Sumo 460 3-Wood: NIKE SasQuatch 2 15° Hybrid: Adams Idea a2 18° Irons: NIKE Ignite Wedges: NIKE SV 55° sand wedge and 60° lob wedge Putter: Odyssey White Hot Ball: NIKE One Platinum So, given that he's world #7 or #8 or whatever, what does that tell you?

Most of the PGA top20 pros do play blades: Muscle-backs Woods - Nike blades Mickelson - Callaway X-Forged Els - Callaway X-Forged Donald - Mizuno MP32 blades Baddeley - MacGregor V-Foil M675 Forged Singh - Cleveland CG1 Black Pearl Rose - TaylorMade rac TP Goosen - TaylorMade rac TP Scott - Titleist Forged 695MB Choi - Nike Blades Garcia - TaylorMade rac TP Ogilvy - King Cobra Forged MB Cavity-Backs Furyk - Srixon I-506 Stricker - Titleist 755 Harrington - Wilson Staff Pi5 Sabbatini - Nike Ignite Irons Johnson - Titleist 735.CM / 695CB

I got myself a TaylorMade Burner driver (non-TP version) back in July and have been using with varying degrees since. Of course, on the driving-range, it''s great and I'd say 7/10 stay straight and I'm maxing-out at about 250-260 (carry and roll). However, one thing I've noticed (as have my playing partners) is that my swing has gotten a lot better since the purchase and has also increased in speed. Now given that when I was custom-fit for it, my swing-speed was borderline between regular and stiff, I went with the stock-shaft - Fujikura RE*AX SuperFast 50, at 46" long. My query: will my increase in club-head speed and technique counteract such a light, long shaft? I'm finding that I need to slow my swing down in order to keep the ball on the fairway, hence a loss in distance.

Amazing - Els looks like he's hardly putting any effort in at all.

Question: Ernie Els and Tiger Woods both consistently drive the ball maybe 290-300+, yet Els' swing looks so languid and a lot slower when compared to Woods, who has (or appear to have) a really fast, whippy swing?? Howcome?

Ok - I don't have a good enough photo-editing tool on this PC but I'm not convinced. However, go to GettysImages and look up the following images: 75580451 - The Open 76003248, 76782727, 76066868 - USPGA 76484443 - Deutsche Bank 77066847 - President's Cup (yesterday) and the clinchers for me: 76062067 - PGA 75974943 - Bridgestone Invitational Definately not a 460 Tour. Maybe he uses both??

See if you can find a photo of Woods using a Sasquatch 460 Tour driver during any tournament in 2007: http://www.gettyimages.com/Editorial/Sports.aspx

100% correct - and you have set the record straight. He gets to play whatever he feels is best considering he has one of the master club builders in his corner, Tom Stites, and he has the staff to build anything to his exact specifications, he continues to play an all Nike bag with the exception of his putter. I'd say he will eventually make the switch to something newer. He was recently spotted on the practice greens using the new Nike IC putters. For those who don't know or haven't seen them, there is an interesting concept behind the green color used on these putters - the concept is that, if the putter is the same color as the putting green, then the player can focus on the alignment marker and the ball rather than worrying about the putter. BTW, iacas - who's that in your avatar?