Aging Boomer

I think building tour length courses for even tour players is a big waste of real estate. I'd love to see what tour players would do on 6400 yard recreational player courses. My club started life as a fitness and racquet sports facility without golf. It abutted a muni which was built as a WPA project in the 1930s. The place was in terrible disrepair and losing money for the town, but in the 70s, our club, which is not a member-equity club, bought and beautifully restored it. It plays about 6200 yards at par 71, and that's just right for me. If the town had been able to fix it up, and it were still open to the public, I think it would be next to impossibe to get onto. It's actually fun, and also sufficiently challenging, for the average recreational player like myself to play.

Stealing a club and getting caught would likely get somebody expelled from the club. In may experience, everybody turns lost clubs in. All bets are off on road trips, but in that case, I probably wouldn't see the club again to know who stole it.

I am blessed with good patience for slow players ahead of me, and I get sick of playing partners who whine about it. Most people who play slowly are doing so because they're playing badly. They'd love to be playing quicker. I try not to play slowly. In fact, I don't. But if somebody hits into me, I've been known to get furious enough to wait for them near the 18th green. Not to physically fight, of course, but to tell them to smarten up.

When our golf league leaves for our late winter Florida golf outing, most of the guys fly; but two of us drive the van with the sixteen golf bags. I just helped load the van, and in the process, did a little survey of the gear. Now honestly, I know most of our guys aren’t the type of club ho s that we meet on the internet golf forums and message boards. Nevertheless, while loading the van, I literally saw stuff from the 1970s. Hogan Directors. Lynx Predators. Spalding Executives. I was somewhat disappointed that I couldn’t find any Browning 440s! A set of Titleist DCI 962s seemed like state of the art. I’m absolutely sure that my three-year-old set of Miura MC-102s were the newest irons in the van. We did have some Callaway and TaylorMades in there, but I’m still talking X-12s and Burner LCGs. But it reminded me of the days when Callaway and TaylorMade were unheard of. MacGregor, Spalding, and Wilson--- then giants in the general sporting goods arena-- were the big three, while H&B; Citation, Hogan, Ram, First Flight, PGA, Dunlop, and similar brands all had a significant piece of the pie. Who knew it was such a jungle out there?

No help from me, I'm afraid. I haven't had a steel shaft on anything but a putter for over a decade, and one of my favorite putters has a hickory shaft. Nothing against them, but graphite is so much easier on old hands!

Missing to the right is a problem when it's a dead push, but when it's an unintentional slice, it's merely the product of a very unathletic swing. If one continually casts the club over the top, one is making no effort whatever to correct it. It's not rocket science, honest. Controlling a natural hook is much harder. Another problem is that OEMs act as if everybody with a slower swing speed is a slicer. If a driver has high loft, it also has a closed face and an upright lie angle. Apparently, there's no such thing as somebody with a good swing who's merely lost swing speed to age or reduced flexibility. Fortunately, there are a few manufacturers who'll custom grind irons and wedges. Drivers and fairways woods are harder. I'm getting by with some Henry-Griffitts custom clubs, but even they don't compare to my Louisville custom wooden woods as far an accurate fit goes. Right now, nobody is making, and apparently except for me, nobody is even asking for, metalwoods with loft, lie, and face angle specs similar to the old wooden clubs. The original TaylorMade metalwood line from the early 1980s had such specs, but just about nothing since. It's not going to change, but it would be nice if just one manufacturer went after that niche market. I should consider reshafting and regripping those thirty year oldTaylorMade fairway woods. The drivers are just too small.

Does anybody else thing that the OEMs overcompensate for shaft droop with graphite shafts and make the drivers and fairway woods too upright? I do. If you're old enough to have played with real wooden woods, you know that solid persimmon or laminated maple drivers used to come standard with a 43 or 43½" shaft, and even with the shorter shaft, the standard lie angle was 55°. Now driver shafts are at least 45" long, and instead of having flatter lies, or even just keeping the lies the same for graphite shaft droop, they actually make the lie angles much stronger. I wish titanium came with the same options as real wood. You used to be able to custom order woods and actually specify the lie angles, face angles, and loft you wanted, and sometimes even the amount of bulge and roll. You sure can't do that with metal, no matter how many trick hosels they give you. In fact, for those few who would still play real wood, Louisville Golf still does take those custom orders. I just don't imagine that it's a very big demographic.

Many-perhaps most--recreational player fail to carry a wedge with little enough bounce, regardless of loft. You can't pop a ball gently without a wedge that, even when somewhat open, gets the leading edge all the way down to the ground. You can't bump and run everything. Sometimes youhave to hit a soft little cut lob, and too much bounce on the trailing edge of the sole takes that shot right out of the picture. You're not swinging hard enough to displace the ground with a bounce sole..

Examples of channel backs are Kenneth Smith Royal Signets, Hogan Directors, some older H&B; Citations, original Lynx Masters, and Palmer Deacons. These all go back a while, as most modern blades are either cavity back or muscle (actually, mussel) backs.

That's the thing. You're buying 5 or 6 individual clubs, not a set. The brand doesn't matter. Check the odd club bins at the shops and pick up what you like. You won't know what you really need until you play a little bit and maybe take a couple of lessons. If you don't want to spring for private lessons, which run into a little dough, group lessons are quite cheap and will get you started just fine. Check the papers and bulletin boerds, or ask you friends. I'm sure there are newspapers, bulletin boards, and friends in Isreal! If there are places to play, there are places to buy odd clubs, perhaps previously owned. If you buy online based on somebody else's opinion, you could end up with anything.

When I was your age, i played a Spalding Executive eleven iron set (1-SW), a Walter Hagen laminated 3-wood, a Ginty (can't blame you if you don't know what that is), and a Ram Zebra mallet putter. I'm not saying that that set was smart. it was actually pretty dumb! I think we're both on the right track now!

Nothing, thank God! Retirement was a very easy transition for me. I could have easily done it immediately after college if I'd been a person of means.

I don't carry long irons anymore, but in the seventies, I played a Spalding Executive 1-SW eleven iron set. I wasn't hitting a driver then. My other clubs were a Walter Hagen three-wood, a "Ginty," and a Ram Zebra mallet putter. (Soon afterward, I swapped the Spalding sand wedge for--get this!--a Northwestern Series 21. Oddball wedges have always seemed to find a place in my bag.) Now I don't carry either long irons or hybrids. I carry higher lofted fairway woods. It's obviously all a matter of what gear works best for the individual.

I play the higher lofted fairway woods instead of the hybrids, but the hybrids have certainly taken hold since the original Taylor Made Rescues were introduced. My set is configured thusly: Henry-Griffitts 12.5º driver Henry-Griffitts 18.5, 21.5, 24.5 fairway woods Miura MC-102 5-PW Scratch 52-9, 58-4° wedges NGC Condor dedicated sand iron Dandy Tour Blade putter Top Flite Gamer V2 ball Four woods is obviously old school, and none of my usual playing partners, even the ones my age, go that route. They all play at least one hybrid. How about you?

One problem with higher loft drivers is that they tend to have closed faces. The OEMS don't seem to realize that decent players who don't fight a slice get older and need higher lofts.

My Henry-Griffitts driver and fairway woods have Stripe-It shafts. I didn't ask for them. That's what the fitter gave me. My Miura irons have NV Pro 105s from Aldila, which I had to fight for because they weren't offered. I just hit them well in my old Kenneth Smith irons. I hit regular flex shafts in both my irons and woods. Senior flex shafts have that nice "hickory" feel but spray the ball around a bit too much.

Yes, the higher loft drivers do reduce sidespin. Also, for seniors like myself, they require less clubhead speed to attain optimum trajectory.

I like higher loft drivers because one doesn't have to play them so far forward in the stance. If you look at guys hitting 9 and 10 degree drivers, the ball is usually half way up the left foot, not opposite the inside of the left heel. They're teeing it high and striking the ball at the beginning of the upswing. This is not only different than any other shot, but it would seem to me that the force of the swing is already beginning to dissipate by then. It's also hard to hit the ball a little inside-out when it's that forward in the stance.

There's a huge difference in grips when. like myself, one doesn't wear a glove! I only use simulated leather wraps like the Excel RF.

For me, it's not the technology as much as the busy-looking appearance of modern gear. When I took up the game over fifty years ago, golf equipment was beautiful. Now it looks like Star Wars toys!.

I began (in 1960!) with five clubs--a 4-wood, a 5-iron, an 8-iron, a sand wedge, and a putter. On those occasions when I feel like walking, I still get by fine with just those five.

I hit Miura MC-102s and Scratch wedges, and only the check the lofts and lies in the spring when I re-grip.

58° is my limit for turf wedges. I also bag a dedicated sand iron, the loft of which I don't even know.