msd3075

A shop won't be able to determine what shaft is best jsut by looking at your swing. You'll need to either tinker around with shafts are the driving range to get a feel for with shaft gives you your desired trajectory/spin, but most people are best served by hitting on a launch monitor so see which shaft/head combination works best. I guess to answer your question, yes a pro shop should be able to help you out but no they won't be able to just by looking at your swing.

I think the point that you are missing is that "overall ball compression" is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to how a ball will perform. What people like iacas are trying to get at is that, compared to 15 or 20 years ago, ball compression doesn't play as big of a roll is how a ball performs. Yes, it is still a factor (I don't think anyone on here is going to argue that), but it's how the compression interacts with all the other design variables that determines how a ball will perform. Simply because a ball has a higher compression doesn't not mean it will be better for a higher SS than a lower compression ball. Your posts here so far seem to ignore any other design characteristics and just focus solely on compression. A perfect analogy would be that a ball's "compression" is like the power output of a car. Yes, a more powerful engine might allow you to go faster, but I guarantee you that a 190HP Lotus Elise will beat the absolute crap out of my 300HP Ford Expedition. Back 30 years ago when all cars were brick-shaped tanks, power was king. Nowadays we have brought into the car's design many much more important factors; weight reduction, better aerodynamics, computer-controlled engine management, stickier tires, more-efficiently shifting automated gearboxes, and so forth. Now apply all that to golf balls and you'll get what we are trying to say.

I play a 3 iron. I think it all comes down to how much clubhead speed you can generate; if you have enough, you shouldn't have any issues playing a 3 iron but if you can't muster up much of a swing a hybrid will help you get the ball up in the air easier. The only hybrid I have is 15*, and I swap it out with my 3 wood depending on the course I'm playing. One of the reasons I will never take my 3 iron out of my bag is because I use it for all my punch shots. If I try to punch with my 4 iron, it goes up into the branches of the trees.

There isn't a driver head that will be longer than another; it's all about the combination of the head and the shaft and how they both work together best for you and your swing. Some people will hit an FT-9 Tour further. Some will hit an R9 further. Yeah, a robot test might show one driver hits the ball further than the other, but those type of tests mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING seeing as they don't replicate YOUR swing. The ONLY way you are going to be able to figure out what the best head/shaft combo is for you is by getting fit. You can try to fit yourself like you are doing now, but 99% of the time you won't get it correct.

First off, do not trust any of the online recommendations for lie angle based upon height and wrist-to-floor measurements. I'm 6'2" and have a 37ish" wrist-to-floor, and most of the online "fittings" say I should be playing 2-3* upright. When I hit off of the lie board (ie. reality), I need 2* flat. NEVER trust the "spec sheets" you find online. As for the cost of lie adjustments, it costs next to nothing compared to the other things that club fitters will charge for. To bend all you irons/wedges (assuming 10 clubs), I can't see it costing more than $30-40 at the very most.

The guy there said that was a ratio of your ball speed to your clubhead speed and that it was a way of judging how well you struck the ball.

Lenghtening a shaft to gain distance/SS is a complete gimmick. As others have said, distance comes from hitting the ball properly on the sweet spot. A longer shaft makes it noticably more difficult to hit the ball solid, and any slight SS gain from a longer length will be more than offset by ball stirking inconsistency. There is a huge obsession for most golfers to hit the ball further, but most golfers need to focus on accuracy/consistency and not all out distance. they'd see their scores/handicaps dwon dramatically if they just focused on hitting fairways and not bombs.

A local shop just opened up here in town (Golf Etc. franchise), and I went in to get all my clubs looked at on the launch monitor to see how they stacked up to my swing. My irons were fitted to me about year or so ago so I knew they were what they should be, but I kinda fit myself for my driver seeing as I had a vague idea of what I needed (it's the Titleist listed below). I didn't get a print out of the stats, but here are the main numbers I got form my driver: Avg. SS = 119 mph Avg smash factor = 1.43 Avg. launch angle = 9.8* Avg spin = 2800rpm I wasn't swing all that well that day and had a few swings where I blatantly came over the top, but I think it was a fair representation of what I could see out on the course. Are these numbers even remotely optimal? The session I had was more of a "look at what's in your bag" and not a true fitting where we tinker with specs.

To me it's not so much about being easy/hard but more about the course being fair to the players. You should be rewarded for a good shot and penalized for a bad shot. In golf there are too many variables (changing wind, grass differences, etc.) to force a player to have to hit an absolutely perfect shot just to be "safe". In my opinion, the US Open is too far over the top when it comes to difficulty. I agree that you need to test the players, but to me their set-ups don't reward the best player and instead reward the lucky player in too many instances. How many times did you see balls hit on #14 exactly like McDowell (final round) and Johnson (3rd round) did and instead of stopping they rolled back down 40 yards in front of the green? Is it "fair" for one player to be penalized because his shot was 6 inches off of a mark in the middle of the green? Some say yes, I say no. I agree with the rough that the US Open typically has since it does penalize you for a bad tee shot, but the speed of the greens is just out of hand. It's just far too severe to truely show who is playing their best in the tournament. In the end, isn't the player that's playing the best supposed to be the one that wins?

If any of you guys have never been to a PGA event and there isn't one close to where you live, one thing you might want to look into is going to a Nationwide Tour event instead. We have a Nationwide tournament here in Fort Smith every year (it's at the course I play out of), and seeing these guys up close is the same as seeing the PGA guys up close; the only differnet is the "star power" and name recognition you'll get at a PGA event. The Nationwide guys are 99.999% as good as almost all the PGA guys. Not only that but most Nationwide event have only a fraction of the crowd that a PGA event has so you can get up close to every group on every hole (ie. there are no 5-deep crowds around each green).

Found it... http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...h-Rory-McIlroy

There's another topic on here that I made right after I played with him. I was on 4/1/09 if you want to search for it (I remember it being on April Fool's Day because no one believed me and thought it all was a joke). This pro-am was nothing like the big deal ones you see on TV (AT&T;/"Clam Bake" or the Bob Hope). It's just an 18 hole best ball round played the Wednesday of tournament week. You just kinda sign up, pay your money and you're in. My dad has played in the pro-am every year since before I was born. Whenever I was old enough and still living back at home, I would caddie for him. For whatever reason, two years ago he decided he wanted me to play in his spot and he'd caddie for me. I played in '08 with Charley Hoffman, and last year I played with Rory McIlroy. I've moved out of state now so I'm not back to play in it anymore so I didn't get to go this year. As for choosing your pro, they have a "Pairings Party" the Monday night before where each foursome gets together and is given a number. The numbers are then chosen at random, and when your number is called you get to choose your pro. Out of the 50 or so groups there, we were chosen sixth or seventh if I remember correctly. The other guys in my group wanted to play with Boo Weekely of Bubba Watson, but I was dead set on Rory. The lady put the microphone in front of my mouth, and I blurted out Rory's name before my teammates could really do anything. Seeing as they didn't even know who he was I understood them not quite getting it, but I'm hoping nowadays they are thanking me.

I had the pleasure of playing with Rory McIlroy last year in the pro-am for the Shell Houston Open. Everything that's been said about his swing is true; in person it just seems so fluid and controlled yet extremely powerfu. It completely defies what you'd expect him to be able to dol. The only thing I kinda disagree with is his height; I'd put him more at 5'9", maybe 5'10" on a good day. Here are a few pictures. The first if of me (middle) next to him; I'm 6'2". The second is a picture next to my wife (she's 5'7"):

Yes, yes I am......

What you need to understand first is what a handicap represents, how it's calculated, and how it should be used. It is NOT an average of all your scores. It is NOT meant to mean how many over par you should shoot. It is meant to serve two major purposes; to compare your scores between different courses with different degrees of difficulty and to allow you to compete against someone of a different playing ability on an "even" playing field. Yeah, you can research slope and course rating and how the actual number is calculated, but the only thing you really need to know about the calculation is that you take the best 10 "differentials" out of your most recent 20 rounds. It's not always your lowest scores because with slope/CR factored in your 85 on a hard course might have a lower differential than the 78 you shot on an easy course form the senior tees. The reason for taking your best scores is because your handicap is set up to represent your potential , not you average . Seeing as the purpose of the handicap is to allow you to play someone else better/worse than you, the system needs to be set up to reward the player that plays his/her best that day. It wouldn't be fair for Mr Consistent to play Mr. Streaky is the latter get 3-4 more strokes simply because his bad days are really bad, especially if he's capable of shooting a good round on a good day. Saying all of this, ESC serves a few functions. First, it prevents someone from claiming a higher handicap (and thus getting extra strokes) simply because they had a few blow-up holes despite the fact they are perfectly capable of not having those holes during a good (handicap-counting) round. Since your handicap is meant to show your potential , it should not include these blow-up holes. Second, if you are playing in a match play round in which you are getting handicap strokes, a player that doesn't follow ESC and includes his blow-up scores would be given additional strokes he spreads out during the round on different holes even though those multiple strokes are based upon the score on a single hole; he'd be getting strokes where he doesn't deserve them. This topic can go on and on, but hopefully that helps you out a bit.

What I've found is that it's not always the type of grip that determines how long it lasts but also how you store your clubs. If you keep your clubs indoors in a climate-controlled room (your closet or in an extra bedroom), your grips will last a lot longer than if you store them in your garage or in your car's trunk.

I recently switched my 58* wedge out from a Vokey TVD58 to a Scratch 1018 w/ EGG grind. Both have somwhat of a similar grind with the Scratch having a bit more bounce. Between the two, I'd take the Scratch any day over the Vokey. It has a smooth, buttery feel to it whereas the Vokey had more of a thud/dead feel to it. The Scratch also seems to spin just as well as the Vokey without shredding the covers off my golf balls.

As others on here have said, any type of correlation to glove size or hand measurement shouldn't lock you into a particular grip size. I wear a a men's large glove and play jumbo grips. I hate the feeling of skinny grips because it causes me to clench down on the grip too much, creating tension in my hands/arms/shoulders. At the end of the day, the only way to know what grip size you need is to try different grips and see what you like. The only person that can make that determination is you and only you.

Just watch out for the "blow up round" that you are inevitably going to have next time you head out. It's a golfing law; after you shoot the best round of you life you'll shoot three times your handicap the next time you play.

I also use a left-hand-low putting grip, but I use it for every putt and not just long putts like you say you do. I had a horrible tendancy to break my wrists through the stroke with a "normal" grip, and with the left-hand-low grip it forces me to maintain my wrist angle through the stroke. It felt really weird the first few times I'm used it, but now it feels more natural that any other grip.

Both of the links below have some good information on different shafts available. http://www.titleist.com/images/produ...haft_chart.pdf http://www.titleist.com/golfclubs/sh...ts/default.asp Granted they are only the shafts that Titleist offers and that there are many more out there, they still should give you a good feel on what different shafts will do and how different specs affect your ball flight. At the end of the day though your only good bet is to get on a launch monitor and see what is best for you.

I have four Scotty Cameron putters. Each one is unique in its specs and has a different purpose/feel to it. That being said, I also have a Ping and two Odyssey putters. I have absolutely no brand loyalty when it comes to putters and only use what fits my eye. The one thing that I do like about SC putters that no other putter has is the Teryllium (TeI3) insert that are on a few of the models. I have a TeI3 Newport that I bought new over a decade ago when I was in high school and a Button Back Newport I bought a few months ago. Both have the soft yet solid yet powerful feel that only the Teryllium insert seems to have.

This week the Nationwide Tour is in town and playing at the course I normally play out of (Hardscrabble CC in Fort Smith, AR). Seeing as he's not playing in the US Open and that he's trying to get attention for the tournament so that it can get better sponsorship, John Daly is playing in the tournament this year. He's actually playing really well. Anyway, I went to the tournament last year when there really wasn't anyone that well known playing in it, and there might have been 30 or 40 spectators tops out on the course. I want to say that there was a crowd 2 or 3 people deep around each teebox/green that John Daly was on at the time. I saw that he was teeing off on #5, so we waited on #6 teebox so I'd have a front row seat right next to the tee marker to watch his swing up close. The 6th hole is a dogleg left par 5 that you can cut the corner on (you hit over part of #5 fairway to do it) if you have enough distance. Both his playing partners cut a bit off of the corner, but John took aim almost directly down #5 fairway and hit one of the biggest bomb drives i've seen on that hole. His ball flight was so much higher than any of the other players I watched that I initially thought he had popped it up. His swing is just so powerful in person it's amazing. On a a different note, I was a bit disturbed by another player in the group in front of Daly's group. It was a guy named Matt Every. I don't know much about him, but I looked him up and it looks like he's playing on the PGA Tour this year after graduating form the Nationwide the last few years. Anyway, there was a huge backup on #6 teebox, and because it's a somewhat blind drive over the trees you can't see if it's clear or not. Matt Every hit his drive, and a few seconds after it hit the fairway, a caddie came running out from around the corner waving his arms frantically; he'd hit into the group in front of him. Given the situation, it really wasn't somethign that was that hard to do and I can understand makign the mistake, what got me a bit pissed off was, with several small children within hearing range of him, he says somewhat loudly, "F--- my a--, I f-----g see you a-----e!!!" After he said it, it wasn't like he looked ashamed or anything; he acted like all of us should have said it along with him.

I'd take pictures of it and post them if I could so you could see it, but I had the pro send it back to Titleist for me right away seeing as I was heading back up here to AR a few days later and didn't know anyone up here that could either send it in for me or replace the shaft. What gets to me is how it looked like the shaft had pulled out of the hosel before it broke. I had noticed a few weeks ago that there was a 1/8" gap between the hosel and the ferrule but didn't think anything of it. Maybe that had something to do with it. Either way, that shouldn't happen to a club that's only a year old.

I was back in Houston (where I used to live) this past weekend and was out playing golf with my dad. Ever since the first hole my driver had been acting funny. I had two or three drives that I know where good swings,but on each the ball "popped up" to the right and only wen about 200 yards (normal drive is 280-300 yards). When I got the the 13th hole, I teed up my ball and hit another pop up. I walked back to the cart, got another ball, and as I was bending over to tee up I put the slightest amount of weight on the butt-end of the club. Snap. My clubhead was just laying on the ground. The weird thing is that the part of the shaft that was still in the hosel was flush with the end of the hosel but the ferrel (the little black "cap") was a good inch and a half above where the break was on the shaft. It's almost as if the shaft had backed out of the club head and then snapped off. Either way, the club is on it's way back to Titleist to be repaired/replaced. It's a Titleist 909D2 with a Voodoo X-flex shaft, and it's only about a year old. Anyone ever have anything like this happen to them before?