Liko81

Of course they have ridiculous markups. It's golf; the people who have to care how they look on the course are the people who can afford to drop $80 on a polo. It doesn't need to be a golf shirt. Any polo shirt that fits slightly loose to allow free range of motion will be perfectly fine for a round. Down here in Texas, color is more important than material; a white cotton polo will beat the starch out of any advanced moisture-wicking synthetic in a dark color. Even in the same color, I have fellow golfers who prefer cotton, because even though it holds moisture, it insulates against solar gain better. The poly fabrics may be breezier, but with no breeze, the heat from the sun goes right through the material onto your back and shoulders. Most of the shirts I wear to the golf course were bought for some other purpose (usually work), and I pair them with casual khaki slacks (No shorts; cooler or not, they just don't work on me unless I'm poolside). I do have a couple of moisture-wicking, outdoor activity shirts purpose-bought for the course, but my only true golf shirt is black.

+1 to this. I like the V1x but I lose too many to justify buying them, even recycled. I typically favor NXTs as the best "value ball", and that judgement is based almost solely on short-game feel.

While I can't say I haven't done the same, there is a reason the M&Ps; are going out of business, and that the big-box stores have stopped caring about having product experts on their store floor, and it's that people do exactly what you have just recommended. Best Buy, Golfsmith, Barnes & Noble, REI, BB&B;, they're all just de facto showrooms for Amazon.com. When you walk into a GS, take their floor staff's time, try their demo clubs in their computerized indoor range, decide on a club, then walk out and buy it on Amazon, you are helping to ensure that all those resources will not be there for you the next time you need a new club. It's an untenable situation for the store; Amazon isn't paying them any money for all the demoing the store does of the products that end up being bought online. One of two things will happen; you'll find yourself being charged in hour blocks to rent the range bay and charged upfront for fittings, or these services will go away and you'll be just as blind as to what works for you in the store as online. Throw the store a bone. If you use their facilities to make your decision, buy the club from them. Even if you don't do that, you should make an effort to spend money regularly at that store, such as on consumables like balls/gloves/tees. If you don't, sooner or later you'll find yourself with no other recourse than the one or two manufacturer demo days per year at the driving range, or simple "buy-and-try", which for a $1000 iron set becomes untenable for *you* very quickly.

Hello all, Been lurking here for a while, finally decided to join to ask this: At my FLGS, which deals in preowned and trade-ins, sits a set of Ping G10 irons with steel shafts, 4-PW. They've obviously been used but are in very good shape; they don't even need regripping. $240. I took the 6 to the indoor range and hit a few; very easy to swing, gave me just under the 150 yards I'd expect from a 6, and just a slight push (which is all player, and I was able to straighten it out with some ball address changes). Every review I can find says that these irons were a very good choice... in 2009. Newer than my current "Sunday bag" of Callaway Big Bertha knockoffs, but I wonder if maybe I'm leaving some genuinely helpful tech on the table by buying nearly 5 years old. The reason I started looking again is that Golfsmith posted their e-mail ad for slashed prices on older model years of the TM Burner series GI irons, specifically the Burner Plus ($300) and Burner 2.0 ($400). I didn't get to demo either of these, but I did take an R11 6-iron for a spin... and *hated* it. I realize that's not an accurate comparison; the R11's a high-end "workable" set intended for people with actual ball-striking skill, while the Burners are GIs intended for... well, players like me, but it's still a bit of a stigma for the lower-end iron sets to overcome. I do have a Burner driver, 3w and "Heated" 4h (Burner knockoff), so I think TaylorMade makes some good stuff for me in this line, but I just dunno... So, I guess the question for the gallery is, would the Ping G10 iron set be a good buy today for a high handicapper? Or, have there been any quantum leaps in GI club design between 2009 and now, and I should keep looking for a new set (or at least a newer used set)? I'm aware of the 2010 regulation changes that will *eventually* make these G10s non-conforming for the casual golfer, but that's 10 years down the road, and I don't plan on playing any elite tournaments in the meantime.