Paddy Gilmore

Or as some put, the sky ball...can anyone give a range of possibilities that cause those types of shots...especially off the tee?

I like my lob wedge and I'll be leaving it in the bag...however I don't tell anyone to get one. How could I advise someone getting a 60 degree lob when I am trying to get my swing back in tune? The best advise I can give is, if you are thinking about getting a 14th club, get one that suits your game to shoot better rounds. If you play within 60 yards quite a bit, maybe get one. If you play with people and are out practicing say on the driving range, why not ask him/her to borrow it and hit a few balls with it? That way you don't have to dish out the money for no reason. If you are not playing around the 60 yard mark that much...why get it? Wouldn't it be more prudent to get a club that fits your strong points in your game and work on your swing that will give you better scores(being repetitious on purpose)? If you struggle with your 3 and 4 irons why not maybe get a hybrid? If you struggle putting, why not look for a new putter? If you aren't playing in the 60 yard range much and if you work on your swing..do you need a 14th club? I use it a fair amount simply because I don't get to the green in regulation more times than not and I am too far out to do a little chip and I am not good with the flop shot yet to use with my sand wedge. I have practiced with the 60 degree a lot and I feel comfortable with it. Sure I have my few bad shots with it, but it is one of my important clubs in my bag for me. One of my golfing buddies tried to destroy his lob wedge on the 18th hole of a round we played because he could not or wasn't use to hitting it well. Like you, he played golf for years and never had one and wanted to try it. He is golfs in the 80's and his short game is pretty good. It is a gamble.

I know it is impossible to get an exact answer when I am asking this question via an internet forum cause no one was there watching me swing etc. but I am just curious as to theories why this seem to be the case for me as of late. After only golfing 3x in 3 years when 5 years prior to that I was golfing pretty regularly, I am back to golfing again and I am also getting the kinks out of a swing that has gotten severely rusty. So as I have been out on the course and at the driving range, I am noticing something either simply coincidence or something that I do not understand. The 3 drivers that I have had quite some time are these lofts: 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5. No reason to get into brands because I honestly don't believe brands really impact that much, especially someone like me right now whom is getting the kinks out. All three have stiff shafts. All three are 460 cc. I have been really struggling with my 10.5 degree. I took the 8.5 degree out to the driving range because I figured, take the hardest driver to hit with so I can practice increasing my club head speed and getting the club back to square. I figured if I could hit that driver decent, I for sure could hit the 10.5 degree decent. However, to my surprise, I was coming around with that 8.5 degree on the driving range really well and the 10.5 I could barely save over a few good drives with it. Then this past weekend, I took the 9.5 degree out and drove considerable better. My question is, is it merely coincidence that day I was swinging decent at the driving that I was hitting the 8.5 degree decent on the driving range and not hitting what is supposedly a more forgiving degree worse? If it isn't, then what are other theories as to why? All I can think is swing speed would need to hit a lower loft driver, but I wouldn't think that say if my swing speed is high(I have never had it measured), I wouldn't think that would affect performance as much as just affect maybe distance or maybe I am not understanding how swing speed works with lofts. Thanks for anything that would give food for thought. Also, if I put this in the wrong forum, I apologize. I thought it would be more fitting for equipment cause of the loft on certain equipment , so hopefully it fits here. If not, mods please move it as best as you see fit. Paddy