Ed Rooney

That's not as bad as the foursomes who hit 8 balls. It's not a driving range.

I think small heads just make me focus. A good player will just say "focus like that on every shot", but it just doesn't happen.

We are all optimists. We could all go to ten golf shops and hit in ten simulators, hitting a 180-yard 7-iron on only one, and that's the fitting we will order.

Some places will have a 9-hole men's league one night a week after work. That's a good way to get lined up for weekend golf. Guys are always looking for a reliable 4th.

Congrats, and welcome to the club.

I select golf balls by short game and putting performance. From the tee I might as well hit a pinnacle. On the green the prov1x is the best for me.

I use the blade PW from my Titleist set with every set of irons I have. I had my ace with that club, so it gets lots of love.

Every time I went to a golf shop between 1998 and 2003 I found a 975D with an x100 shaft in like new condition sitting in the used bin. The typical story from the salesman was that some guy ordered it and then traded it in after a week or two.

A few years ago I had a Ping G15 driver finally kick my 975j out of my bag. Since then I've been steadily losing distance on my drives and all of my other clubs. I use to be fairly long with the driver. Maybe not "Internet" long, but I was swinging about 107 and getting 250-260 on average and some bombs out to 275+. I attributed my distance loss to being 44 years old and lack of flexibility. I've also had some back trouble. My distance loss came to a head when I joined up with a 68 year old man on the course one day and he was 25 yards longer than me. On my home course, I can no longer reach spots with my driver from the white tees that I used to hit with my 4-wood from the blues. The odd thing is that I can still register 105-110 on the speed stik at the local golf shoppe. So I got into the gym last summer. My company is a dot com and has probably the best corporate gym you've ever seen. My back is great, my core is stronger, and I'm still hitting the ball like a grandpa. I have enough game to still make it work and shoot in the low to mid 80's from 6100 yards or so. I have a history if being intolerant to club changes. I learned to swing with old blades and laminated wood heads. When I picked up golf again at age 32, I didn't make any progress or improvement until I dumped the oversize stuff and starting playing MP-33's and a 975D (that's a story for another post). Any time I try to change to GI irons, I have a good round or two then my entire game goes to garbage. I switch back and get my game going again. I always knew this was a problem with irons, but I never imagined it would be with the driver. Last week I went out and played my G-15 and R1 for 9 holes each, shot 88, but really tried to feel what I was doing with the club head. I came to the conclusion that I was somehow adjusting my swing to the big shoe box on the end of the shaft. Today I went to the range with my old 975J, a pristine 975D that I found for a few bucks in a used bin, and my old blade 6-iron. I warmed up with the 6-iron, them spent some time with the D. I felt more connected to the club, and was hitting it about 20 yards longer than my average shot now. I'm going to play the D for a month or so and see how it goes, as well as have an instructor look at my swing. Anyone else experience problems moving to forgiving, oversized clubs?

Any local golf shoppe should have a used bin with a good assortment of clubs. Today at my local, I saw a set of RAC LT's for $130, an R7 460 for $70, plenty of good, cheap FW's, hybrids and wedges. I picked up a $29 Ping putter.

I guess it depends on where you will play that day. I used to carry 16 or so clubs in the car and adjust depending on the course. At my home course I can go a season without hitting my 3-iron. On some other courses I didn't need any fairway woods.

RBZ Stage 2 looks like my old 975j from address. Mucho confidence.

Kettle bells. Check on YouTube for kettle bell workouts for golf.

This. When I was a beginner, I would occasionally tag one with my driver, but more often than not it got me in trouble. I couldn't really hit the 3 much better, but I could stripe a 5-wood 220 yards and in play nearly every time. Until you can hit the driver and 3-wood consistently, I would recommend not carrying any club with a number lower than 5, whether irons or woods. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Golf club sales dood probably tells everyone that because he wants to get back to his smoke break.

I count on finding 2 or 3 nice prov1's on the course every time I go out, so I recommend everyone buy those instead of the golf course logo slazengers.

TM has always jacked up lofts and made shafts softer than advertised. When I started playing, I had a set of Supersteels that were long as snot. Probably a club and a half through the set.

I game a set of those. They are great irons, but you should be hitting the center I the clubface to make them work. Put some impact tape on your irons and hit 10-20 balls. If you see more blue than white, they probably aren't for you.

I use to find tour issued stuff in the used section at 2nd Swing and Golf Galaxy in the Twin Cities. Same price as retail and I would flip them for an easy profit.

In Virginia and MD, the course are open unless there is snow in the ground. Compass Pointe in Pasadena, MD is a really good winter golf experience. It's in good shape and they don't do winter tees.

Anyone else loved the used bin? I still buy every decent 975J I find.

Year over year irons do not get "better". X-14's are jut as good as x-26's or whatever. If you can hit your irons, and they have grooves, keep them.

When I was just beginning to play golf I borrowed a club from a partner, and without knowing it was forged, or even what a forged club was, I knew the club was different when I hit it.

I couldn't hit long irons at all until I bought MP-33's. Once I get them, the 220 yard 3-iron tee shot became a weapon.

10-15 minutes around the chipping green before the round, and maybe 10 mid to short iron swings on the range.