Tat14

Hopefully I can share this opinion if or when I get down from 14. I still have a club or two that I try to avoid. Oddly enough it's the 6 and 7 iron.

Before this chart on page one, I never saw height measured in yards before. "Do we have Liter Cola?"

How do I adjust to longer courses? Avoidance. I like to play it forward because Driver / short iron is a fun way to play. Not the only way to play, but... IMHO, you have to be able to get off the tee well before anything over 6200 will be fun. If this chosen course you mentioned in the OP is that long, I imagine the selected players probably drive the ball well enough.

Every so often I do this too; such as very thick greenside rough. Call it the "toe-down" chip. Same can work for pitching, but I call it the chicken-wing because it feels like the right elbow sticks out as it shouldn't. Both of these work for me as emergency fixes if the regular short game swing motion is suffering yips, etc.

I believe Eric was that kid to first jump off the roof into the pool. The first to try the new BMX ramp. The first to... ya get it. I always laugh when he gets into one of these crazy demos or rants while the other two fellows just kind of stare at him.

You may not remember a shank, but I would bet you hit a few with these clubs before they broke. That damage is from hosel hits at high speed. I suffered from this a long time ago; when the Callaway drivers were S2H2 with essentially no hosel. Shank a Big Bertha Warbird once or twice and then see the steel shaft pinched at the point of connection with the club head. Back then, I went back to a (any) model with a normal hosel and ferrule set up and that helped clear my mental picture. Then I learned a little more about the driver, but I digress. My suggestion is to find a good "stop the shanks" drill or try adopting the 5SK approach early in your golfing career. It's going to be an expensive thing regardless, but this could alleviate the shame of returning clubs on a regular basis. Good Luck!

When I lived in San Diego (read year-round golf weather), we had two places that tried this concept, or something akin to it. The first one was smack dab in the middle of downtown, targeting the lunch crowd and after work market. This was a very nice facility - two sided with two decks, plenty of stations. Putting green, bar and grill, full pro-shop... my friends and I really enjoyed it. Alas, it never made enough to stay open for very long. New ownership would cycle through and reopen with most of the "extras" stripped away. I imagine it's closed and razed over by now. The other place was out in the burbs near Qualcomm - Stadium Golf & _____. Run of the mill range and a little pro shop. It sold beer and snacks. It also had a large batting cage facility which added a second target market. I believe this place is still open. (Current S.D. residents could chime in as my info is a few years stale. Downtown was near A Street and the train station. Stadium was off of I-15 just north of the 8 junction.) Point being is that the difference between the two was customer potential. Unless you're a destination golf operation, you're depending on the same group of people coming back over and over. That's hard in golf from what I have seen. If you can appeal to others, then maybe...

Was this bought new? I can't help but lock onto those scuffs and skids on the sole of that club, to include a nice swath of range mat "skin" on the heel. I would not be surprised if OP hits down with his driver, and perhaps ran into some shallow mats and the subsequent concrete. Who knows? Regardless, no company is going to turn away a request over a crack like that. Bad PR, goodwill, etc. Especially Adams and its parent TaylorMade. I would try through your local store and perhaps they do the return and replace from their inventory. Or you're mailing and waiting. Good luck! Do you have another D for the tee?

You'll be tweaking your golf swing for as long as you play. It's part of the love/curse of the game. IMHO, as long as you can hit a ball somewhat consistently, you can be fitted to a club that's better for your game than others would be. I'm sure a fitter or instructor will weigh in on this thread sooner or later. Google club fitting. NY must have a ton of locations. Sidenote: when replying to a specific comment such as in our conversation here, click the quote button. You can edit the text inside to shorten the overall post length. This makes it easier to follow along when more people contribute.

I play them now. They're designed to fly the ball high. I already hit a high ball, so I can't really tell you that they are any better in that regard. Stock steel shafts are light at 85g. Most iron steel shafts are ~105g. I have found them quite playable over the past two seasons. For their current price you could do worse. My plan is to change soon though because I've decided to drink a different kool-aide when it comes to lofts and gaps. The Speedblade 6 iron is 26.5* of loft which is quite strong. Sounds really cool, but regardless of iron #, that loft or less starts one into "harder to hit" territory. If you want a solid set of modern irons with some of the newer design concepts, get the Speedblades and pocket your savings. Now as far as becoming amateur, you're already there! Congrats and good luck.

Any difference in torque? Tip stiffness? These factor into loading and basically how the shaft performs in your swing. Considering all of that, there is no industry standard so even shafts with the same numbers could differ. Either you'll adjust to it, or perhaps you'll want to trade back for the Project X shaft you had first. Before anyone else feels compelled, the best answer is a driver fitting.

I imagine those shafts are quite different even if they are both labeled the same (stiff, regular, etc.). Cobra has shaft specs on their site, or you could compare after a little Googling. Good luck!

"I found a relatively unknown kid on Tatooine once upon a time. He turned out to be really special" - O.B. Kenobi.

You could try FW's with smaller heads. I am fond of the TM R11 series which won't cost that much today. I imagine at least 100cc smaller than your Burner(s). I find these much easier to play from tee or turf. Not much of a hybrid fan, so I'll suggest 7W. Perhaps a 3W for the tee and a 22* 7W for the fairway, rescue shots, and the like. I carried this set-up until deciding on a single 5W that I could play more than a few shots with - choke down, stingers, etc. I see mention of the 230yd scenario. I'm thinking having 230 yards to go probably equates to having two more shots to get there...

A driver with the proper shaft in it made a huge difference for me. Most everything else is nuance. Playing the game more often is more of a factor in scoring and index.

I've carried less than 14 clubs for most of my playing history. Having said that, I care much less about the long end of the bag then I do about scoring clubs. Currently, Driver and 5W then 6I on down. The 5W gives me a shorter alternative for the tee box as well as a club I can hit from 200+ Inside 150 my attitude is less cavalier. So, if you are struggling with the longer clubs, why carry a lot of them? There's gotta be an option among FW, Hybrids, and long irons for that missing piece you're looking for. Sounds like the 3H today... Hard to weigh in on this because the golf bag is quite personal. You seem to have the same Virgo-esque OCD that I do.

I love lamp.

I find that when I take too long in between rounds that this situation (and the short game in general) is the first piece of my game to slip. It pays to have a few alternative approaches. In this 30-50 yd scenario, I'll hit a half or less 50* - fly it half way, let it roll the rest. If I can't get this going, I'll start looking at short irons with shorter swings to get the same effect. IMHO, it helps to get the swing as small and simple as possible when things "feel" lousy. Success breeds confidence and then your game improves, perhaps even in the course of a round.

OP, go to PING.com and look at the static fitting chart. Today's yellow dot is 1.5* upright lie. If you're ~ 6' tall with normal length arms you're probably ok, but check out their site - I am not a fitter. Or, because you're just starting out and whacking balls at the range, the club nuances aren't much of a factor. Save all that for later on.

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You can get a tee time as an out of SD county player, but you are going to pay a high fee. I dropped over 400 on the Friday after Thanksgiving last year; two players at 10:00 and the cart cost extra. I don't recall how far out those arrangements were made. Twilight would be considerably cheaper. Here's the current info: http://www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/golf/torreypines/reservations/fees.shtml It was worth every penny though.

I may start a new thread with the title "Should..." and keep this trend going. Topic at hand, I don't believe in too far or too fast. Golf is still hard and technology has helped me over the years. If the side effect is pros hitting it longer, so what? They still three putt and lose majors too. If it were a question of player safety, i.e. aluminum baseball bats at higher levels, perhaps. But it isn't.

Do you have a pre-shot routine? One may assume that every player does, but I have plenty of friends who don't really adhere to one and they're erratic off the tee.

I echo this sentiment. I am a much happier player now that I don't always try for a full swing option to the green. Some extra club, choked down and flight-ed is a more controllable way to go.

Only 6 of 12; some reading to do when there's time to kill at work (like now). Oddly I am in the majority according to poll responses though (SSS however).