chicagogolf

sgi wont help.

That club was an exception. Before the 975D, the average rack price on a driver was less than $199. Then all companies followed the 975D and jumped to $399. This is about the time when all the clubs started getting manufactured in china, lowering production cost. Then the high performance shafts started taking off raising the prices yet again. Only now with the economy in the tank, prices are coming back down to earth. But not only did equipment cost go up, green fees went through the roof because courses were getting bigger increasing maintenance costs and some had to do with market demand. but usually, bigger, longer fairways, more tee boxes, more real estate equals higher green fee.

you can have ball flight software and everything else TV brings to the game. but if golf equipment keeps moving forward in this fashion, there seems to be 2 directions for it to go: 1, golf courses continue to grow bigger to accommodate the pros adding more cost and difficulty to the game for amateurs or 2, pros will be carrying a driver, 3 wood, hybrid, 10 wedges, and a putter in their bag. in the eyes of a big OEM, there's only one way to move forward and that's with distance. companies will continue to play within the rules to increase distance. once those options run out, they will lobby the USGA to increase the limits yet again. seriously people, this is insane. it shouldn't cost this much money to play golf. all we have done in the last 20 years is considerably raise the price on ourselves because we are so obsessed with distance.

Watching golf is far less interesting today. Its target golf. The creativity has been erased. Its dumbed down. Techology should make the game more affordable, not necessarily easier. Hickory shafts aren't that much different than steel. Steel by and large is cheaper to produce. And its easier to produce a uniform set. Same with metal heads. But performance only improved fractionally with these 2 advancements. We can see were the game is headed. If you can't, you're blind. But we have the power to look back and ask ourselves, "when was the best time for golf? When was it the most fun?". We don't have to throw away all technology, but this game is headed for self destruction.

Technology is ruining the game. Its making the game too easy for Pros and harder for amateurs. You may think I'm crazy for saying technology is making it harder for amateurs, but it is. Clubs are becoming too long and too lite all in the name of making money when the truth is people are spraying the ball everywhere. And its really hard, not to mention expensive, for beginners. Do people realize the stupidity of all this... we produce clubs that increase distance, and then we redesign golf courses to make them longer, and in most cases, harder for amateurs. This in turn produces 5 hour rounds. So we are paying more money for 10-30 extra yards and we are paying higher green fees. Someone please explain the difference between hitting a 250 tee shot on a course that tops out at 6600 yards versus a 300 yard tee shot on a course that tops out at 7200. Or how about this situation: you hit the ball 275. your buddy hits to 290. you get a new shaft. now you hit it 300. then he gets a new shaft. now he's hitting 330. so now you are right back where you started only each person is less $400. Its so stupid. golf has become too much of a business.

RAM tour grinds

Swung the Mizuno shaft optimizer. 88 mph and 9 tempo. I liked the results: DG x100 soft step (130g), PX 6.0 (120g), KBS C-taper stiff (120g). Now, can anyone make a recommendation for a driver shaft based on the recommended iron shafts. If so, I would also like to mention I will be playing a 44.5 - 44 inch driver. Most heads are weighted to accommodate an overall length of 45" or more, so i would likely have to add a little weight. I would like to avoid paying to get fit for a driver if possible.

I'm a big fan of companies that don't produce clubs for the masses.

Rip 60 has good stuff for your golf swing and body. Every piece of equipment sold comes with a 60 workout program. And most of it focuses on core and rotation.

sounds like people are starting to realize they're being had by the big OEMs and the golf industry in general. is the new equipment really helping your game that much? OMG, taylormade put a racing stripe on their new driver, i gotta have it. so dumb. is it really worth the price? i find it hard to beleive that all this new equipment is lowering your handicap that much. i would be happy with persimmon drivers and balata balls. seriosly, all this new equipment is just driving up the cost of the game. you are making yourself pay more. it's so stupid. this is why people are quitting or not taking up the game. its not that its difficult. its really effing expensive. you're into it for $1500 before you step on the first tee. why don't we just get it over with and build machines to hit the ball for us.

man or woman, power is power, and she has power. not only does she have power, the power she wields is useful to many members at Augusta.

practice with the driver, wedge, putter in that order. i don't care how great of a putter you are, if you can't stay in-bounds or out of the trees, you aren't going to score well. and if you can't get the ball with-in 3 feet from around the green with regular consistency, you are putting a lot of pressure on your putter.

here's the biggest problem with this playoff; the top guy can't get knocked out...and that pretty much takes away all the excitement. in fact, there's very little risk for all the top guys. second problem, the points are too difficult to follow. 3rd problem, the PGA Tour and TV need to stop showing these playoff events as golf tournaments. if a playoff is the main focus, don't constantly show us the tournament leader board, show us the playoff leader board. 4th, a first place finish shouldn't have that much more value than a 2nd place finish, same with 2nd to third and so on. 5th, reset the points at the beginning of the playoffs (not at the tour championship) starting the top guy with the most points and the bottom guy with the least points. The points need to be set up so the top guy can mathematically get knocked out in the 2nd event. last thing, players need to be paired by their playoff standing, not their individual tournament standing, even in the final round. again, we need to look at each tournament as one part of a playoff. i also don't agree with using a match play format. stroke play will give you a more deserving champion. and to answer your original question, the winner of the fedex cup will likely have the most money for the year, so by that standard, he had the best season.

I won a Scotty Cameron Select Newport 2 in a scramble. It's 34". Re-gripped with an Oversize Winn AVS grip, tried one round and didn't like it. I prefer my J-blade. This putter retails for 349.99 plus tax. You can have it for $300, shipping included. Shipping not included to the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii as well as International.

first, with limited practice time, there are 3 clubs you should be practicing with...the driver, pitching wedge and putter. no one scores well hitting the ball OB or in the water off the tee. master one distance with the pitching wedge and that's your go to lay up spot on all par 5s. create a shot to go along with it, meaning you know in your head that you are either going to pull it or push it or cut off your finish. whatever it is...dial it in. from 115 to 130 yards, i always aim 5 yards right of the pin and pull it. works more times than not. master chipping and pitching with the pitching wedge as well. and with the putter, alignment is critical...more so that with full swings. you can curve the ball and get away with improper alignment to a degree when hitting a driver, but with putting you need to be dead on. it took me 15 years but i finally realized i was always aimed too far to the left. as far as fundamentals go... they are not grip, stance, posture, whatever you've heard. a "good" grip doesn't work with a poor stance. these are variable elements of the set up. everything works in relation to one another. the most important thing is to make everything work to together so you can do 2 things: 1, consistently find the bottom of the swing arc and 2, hit the ball in a consistent direction. that's your goal. that's it. done. getting the bottom of your arc is easy--maintain your spine angle throughout the entire swing. if you have poor flexibility and you can only take it half way back, take it half way back. and for direction, all you can do is tinker until you find something. play with your grip and alignment and feet position.

yes, i broke a shaft (which i have never done unless i intended to do it...over my knee) but in the process of repairing it, i found out the shafts are not operating on a "flat line frequency". go to surestix.com to see what i'm talking about. so in 6 months i played over 50 rounds of golf with clubs that weren't as advertised. had i not bent one of the shafts, i would have never found out. @monsas, i never got refitted and paid 50$ more for the same thing. @mr3wiggle, i found out the butt end of the shaft is cut down so much, they have to add 6 layers of build-up tape before they add the tape to accommodate you actual grip size. Listen folks... i play a lot of golf. i grew up in the industry. i have been playing 30 years. i've played maybe 5000 rounds of golf. i have never in my life encountered a situation like this. this was actually the first time i ever paid full retail price for something golf related. have i broken clubs? yes. do i make a habit of breaking clubs? no. i have thrown 2 putters in a pond, each one after the western open qualifier. first try i shot 76 with 38 putts and second try i shot 74 with 32 putts. that was 14 years ago. i've broken 1 driver when i was drunk trying to do a trick shot...10 years ago. i also broke another driver over my knee after i hit one OB in a critical match...17 years ago. lastly, i broke an entire set against a tree when i thought i was done playing golf...9 years ago. these were all cases where i intentionally broke clubs. in all that time i have slammed a lot of clubs on the ground out of frustration never breaking or bending a single one until i got this set in which case 2 have broken doing something i have done my entire life...again, with out breaking a club. so i am saying unequivocally, without a doubt, the shafts this company uses are not up to the standard of the less expensive project X or KBS or dynamic gold. i will also add i am very happy with my new aerotech steelfiber shafts. but the breaking is not what matters here..it's the fact that a company advertised and promised one thing and i found out 6 months later that i was not playing with the correct product. what would you do if you went to a club fitter and you were fitted for 5.5 PX shafts, but on accident they put in 6.5, and you didn't find out until a few months later after you played 20 lousy rounds of golf and maybe hit 40 crappy buckets of balls....? and maybe in those 20 rounds you lost a couple thousand dollars on top of the greens fee. the whole time you're thinking this is what i was fitted with so it must be my swing that is not working or something else. you might be pretty pissed when you find out the wrong shafts are in your irons. was i stupid for trusting a friend and paying $1850 for a full set of shafts? yes. in the long run, the shafts i bought will not benefit your game enough to justify the outrageous cost. but again, stupidity aside, i didn't get what was advertised. that's the problem.

after 6 months playing with a set of shafts that are advertised as "one number" meaning the frequency is the same from club to club through the entire set, i found out my set is not as advertised. i have requested a refund and the company that assembled the clubs refused my request. they offered to fix the clubs but i have already played with them for 6 months and they would literally have to redo every club. i paid $1850. how do i get my money back? any lawyers out there in the chicago area? i can get you and 2 others on kemper, olympia, bob o link, maybe medina, no charge at the glen.

depends on your stroke and there's really no difference from brand to brand. you want something that matches your stroke: strong arc, med arc, very little arc.

Tony Kukoc (former NBA player) get's 3" added to his clubs and he's pretty much a scratch golfer.

and let's not forget about Erik Compton; he has a more life threatening disease than Casey Martin, and i don't see him petitioning for a cart... he walks like everyone else.

sorry but this topic is kind of dumb. there is no way in hell a Professional Golfer should be allowed to use a cart in competition. we are trying to make an exception for a guy because he has talent. i wish i had the talent to play on tour but i don't. sorry casey but if you can't walk, you shouldn't be allowed to compete on the PGA tour or in USGA event, but thankfully you can still enjoy the game with the rest of us average folks. and because golf is a "leisurely" sport, people think we should make exceptions. no other sports do this. no other sports provide assistance to handicap people. golf carts were introduced to the game to increase public play; they were not meant to be used in competition...simple as that. it's too bad he has this disease but he should respect the spirit of the game and just rebel in the fact that he can still play it, just not in competition riding a cart. and stop using the champions tour as an argument to let casey use a cart. the champions tour is a professional EXHIBITION tour. these guys earned the right to use carts if they so choose.

the PGA tour does have fines for swearing and excessive club throwing...

best offer my friend but definitely less than retail also keep in mind its 4-pw...no 3 iron. should mentioned that

would anyone like to purchase a brand new set of Wilson FG Tour V2 irons with KBS C-taper S shafts? Wilson standard length and lie. Tour velvet grips. Let me know