Release

$25 for an old Bronze putter is a good price. Damage free without modification. Be better if the putter has the original shaft and grip ( std 35'/36' ). The grip won't matter much if you're going to change the grip and play it. Sweeter if you don't have to pay shipping for the putter. I would call up Ping to confirm on the putter model and year of production before heading over.,

You should go see your health provider to get a referral to see a Specialist for Sports related injury. Let's hope you had only sprang a muscle strand , nothing more serious. I would not wait too long even if you starting to feel better. Lower back pain could be caused by many reasons, and it's a very common ailment among the golfers. Without a good back, you'll not only suffer with your golf game but also many other daily routines. The reason to see a specialist is to not self diagnose illness. I had the golfer's back in the Middle and Lower trap of the scapular muscle ( the two large loin next to the spinal core below the neck ) off and on for years. It got better and it got worse.... so I didn't pay attention to it. Until I had a mini stroke and lost a small area of my peripheral vision. Long story short, the spinal core injury was not the main culprit but contributed in my condition with other factors. Bad posture for decades ( reading and sitting in front of the computer) plus aging......only discovered this after the discomfort in my shoulders and the back resulted in seeing a sports spine specialist. After several weeks of adjusting my posture and exercise, I had not only relieved the discomfort, improved my posture but also improved on my vision. Strange isn't it ? How did the compressed spinal disc damage my health in other parts ? Go see a specialist, you'll be glade you did.

You don't have an issue, you'll have to accept the concept that you don't need a golf club for every 10-15 yards. I know a lot of golfers don't like to practice the short pitch shot on the driving range , thinking this is a waste of range balls. In fact, the short game is as important as the long game in golf. If the range ball gets expensive, find a place of 200-300 feet long with privacy to practice your pitch and chip and run shots. When the driving range is having the 2 for 1 sale, we used to play a game of name your target with friends. We'll take one golf club, say a 7 iron, and rotate the target from 170 yards to 45 yards. After buying a couple of rounds of pitcher of local micro-brew, one learns really fast how to use the tools. A whole tool box of the tools might not be necessary to finish a simple job. If we learn to use fewer tools to do the job, the same job will be easier if additional tools are available. Up until Tom Kite won the Open at the Pebble Beach with 3 wedges that year in 1992, most every golfer carried only 2 wedges; the PW and the SW. Now I'd see golfers carrying 3,4 wedges in the bag. I'd tell myself that these golfers carrying 4 wedges must have a helluva long game that they would carry more short sticks. Learn to use the tools you already have. If your full-out PW gets you 130 yards, learn to take it off to 120, 110, 100, 90...… By either grip down on the club or 3/4 swing..... or both. It'll start as feeling odd and lack of confidence if you have used to full swing only. But you'll get the idea and the confidence after you learned that you can do these yardage. Plus it's fun. Many of the legions in the golf history started with just one golf club. Try to hit golf shots on the sandy beach with 3 iron. That's how Seve started. Ouimet and Hogan all started with just a few old golf clubs given to them by the members of the golf club where they caddied at. Travino and Rodriquez ( Chi-Chi) learned by hitting pebbles with a wooden stick. The tools you'll need for 100 yards shot are already in your bag, and the golfer has the skill to use the tools , just not self-discovered, yet. When you learn to use the 8 iron , or the 6 iron to make the 100 yard shot, the PW will seems like a perfect club. And, it's a lot of fun discovering just where your limit is. Let me put it in a simple way, if you know how to drive a car with manual transmission ( what's that ?), driving the automatic transmission will be a piece of cake. If you know how to multiply , add/subtract by heart, a calculator will even work faster and you can spot the error easier...... Sometimes, the shortest route to Rome might not be the best way to go.

Find another place to golf ? Locally, we have cases of 5-some, however, they are required to have golf carts ( minimum 3, sometimes 5 carts ) and these are seasoned golfers whom would not slow down the pace of play. I guess they used to have more golfers in their group but a few passed on and the remaining group members like to golf together. Golf shop knows them and knowing that they were not going to slow down the play, thus allowing the 5-some. If your golf club allow the 5-some walking and they had been slowing down the playing pace, bring this up to the management, if the golf club is a private venue, bring this up to the board of directors and gather support for the annual meeting to ban this practice. On the other hands, if they have not been slowing down the pace of play, personally I'll have no issue with a 5-some on the golf course. I had seen a 2 or 3-some slowing down the pace of play.

We used to learn using one wedge to hit different shots and distance. Only two wedges in the bag. PW & SW

Think in reverse. Instead of thinking the length of the golf clubs, think what you want to golf clubs to do. The standard distance gap for the set of irons used to be 10 yards between the irons, these days could be 15 yards depending on the set up. Think also the golfers are not cut from the same mold, we all have different physical frame and different physical ability, eye-hand coordination...…… etc. etc. For creating the ball trajectory and the distance we want, combining the loft angle and the length of the golf club to make necessary adjustment for the purpose of having the gap between each of the golf clubs. Why do some of us find shortening the driver or the fairway woods work "better" for us ? One, the driver does not need to be precise in distance ( I've heard, the longer the distance the better), and the longer the shaft , the more effort to keep it under control to put the tee shot in the targeted area. Shorter length typically = easier to control, hence some of us shorten the drivers. Regarding the set of irons, recently there been popular practice of MOI matched iron set, and the traditional 1/2" slope in the length between the individual irons in the same set does not work as well as 3/8" slope in the length differential. Why ? because It works on the spread sheet. A lot of the golfers swear that they felt the difference, and some said there is not a noticeable benefit. " Feel" is a very individual issue and in itself has no continuant through the change of time for a person. How we feel about substance or non-substance will change over time. a custom fitted set of golf club is good for the moment of fitting. A strong golfer whom keeps his physical condition in check will benefit from the current fitted set longer, Most of us will enjoy this fitted spec. for several years at the most. A simple answer to your friend's question of why shorten the golf clubs if they were at different length to start with, is that we're trying to find solutions to achieve the endless search for the perfect golf club for the individual golfer. An even better answer is, the off the shelve golf club is not the best for everyone. I can tell you this, a good golfer with above athletic ability can play any set of golf clubs, may not play his very best of golf. It's a great game for anyone to enjoy, most of us will never play at the level we see on the broadcasting Tournaments. I heard sometime ago that one does not have to be good at golfing to enjoy playing it. True, if the expectation is not unrealistic.

So you got fit for the best weaponry but never mentioned the guidance system. The mumbo jumbo of the equipment and the delivery system ( putting stroke ) means nothing if the aim is off. The best equipment and the best putting stroke will not improve your putting if your aim is off. What you think you';re aiming and lined up oftentimes is quite different than the actual line. I think someone had done a study on this issue and proven that many of us have vision distorted when we looked down and sideways to the putting line. Ernie Els had help to regain his putting mojo. https://www.sbnation.com/golf/2012/7/23/3176784/ernie-els-2012-british-open-winner-putting-eye-lady

Demaret was partner with Burke, owns of the Champions Golf Club in Texas. Maybe this set of iron was a custom set from that golf club ? Be interest if any marking for the grinder of the set of irons. Some will have more value if grind by notable club grinders ( builders ). Set itself looked similar to some old McGreggor irons.

That's just what it's called. Push is just referring to the start line. If you want to hit a draw you should have the face aimed right of the target. failure to complete the golf swing and hung back will result in a push to the right no matter where the club face is pointing and whether the arms rotate or not. All the motion with the torso and the arm/hand should happen without being mindful if the motion of a golf swing is complete.

Were you closing the stance at address position ? Were the ball flight mostly fading with occasional pulled hook ? Check the fundamental of grip, alignment, and posture. Remain balanced throughout the golf swing and stick to the correct alignment. I would try one more thing, when practicing have someone else stand behind the target line when you hit the driver. I had a guy always address the golf ball toward the heel without realizing. I had him address the tee shot then I held the club in place for him to come around the back of the target line to see for himself that he was addressing the tee shot toward the heel. Same mistake often happens when golfers lining up for putts.

Which shaft was the one which you hit "normal" distance ? One other thing, Were you using the same set of iron with different shaft for distance comparison. I had done soft stepping and hard stepping with different set of irons in the past and the result is more with ball flight and shot pattern, never was much different in distance change. I'm thinking, if you were comparing different set of iron heads, check the loft numbers first., there moght be discrepancy between the sets. If you had never used the TTDG S300 in the past, it's an old school steel shaft which is quite a bit heavier than the modern day light weight shaft. It also produced higher ball flight for my golf swing. You could, just reshaft one iron to see if you like the result before change the shafts for the whole set of irons. 7 irons was mentioned in your post which you "know the distance ", so why not reshaft the 7 iron without soft stepping and see if you like the result, then soft step it if you need to do that. I won't even waste a ferrule for testing the steel shaft.

Sorry, if the action of pushing the golf ball to the right, recovery take no less than a very fast swing by a very strong golfer. I know you might believe that I'm confuse of the old ball flight rules but I'm not. A draw is a draw, not the same as a push. One might AIM to the right then draw the trajectory, not exactly the same as a pushed shot. I do know and understand the old ball flight rules. Could never get all of them right at the same time. Then you will be aligned to the right to play a draw shot. Not a condition for push to the right.

Unless there was an alignment issue ( body or the club face , for that matter, a faulty swing path ), I had never seen a "pushed" draw, a golfer would break his arms or his back before a pushed draw could be produced. I did see many of the pulled slice, which is too easy for human anatomy to produce. Even an amazing recovery shot in the 2012 the Masters by Bubba Watson was a draw.

It has nothing to do with the alignment. Failure to shift weight to the right accounts for most of the blocked shots. There is no push draw,. either a pushed fade or a pulled hook would happen from improper weight shift. But, I had also seen a lot of other cause for the pushed or pulled shots in golf from all different types of golfers. A nightmare of images all cause by minor issues.

A common practice of our local public golf courses during the weekend and peak hours of play. There will be one to several blocked tee times for the walk-in golfers. Single or double..... to get them out within 30-60 min. Because if any walked on golfers had to wait more than an hour or two, most likely they will not return in the near future. Usually there will be no issue of filling up the blocked tee time with a 4-some. I'd done it often. Sometimes I had last minutes chance to play golf, and the walked on would be the only choice.

So, this will be your second season and you're holding a 30 for hdcp index. Do you , have a favorite club in the bag ? Is there a club that you hit well most of the time and have more confidence in it ? I started my lessen with a 7 iron but my favorite club back then was the 8 iron. Continue to hit the favorite club and learn to hit different distance with that favorite golf club, then expand to the next club to it and later the next .......many golfers stated that they could not hit the long irons .... simply because they stopped the practicing and learning process when they reached the 6 iron. A quote from my first instructor, after I had learned to hit the short and the mid irons decent, he asked " so.... how do you hit the 4 irons ?" I answered 50/50, then he asked how did I hit the 2 iron ? I answered "lousy" ....... Then he asked how often did I practice the 2 iron and how many times did I use the 2 iron on the golf course ? Of course, my answer was, not very often did I practiced the long iron and only used the long irons a few times if any on the golf course. There is your answer.... there is no magic stick to hyper leap your golf game. If anyone whom does not find practicing their golf swing to be fun and interesting then , they will probably not going to be a good golfer. Truth in what Ben Hogan said, "find it in the dirt", By practicing and trying out different stuff you picked up from lessons and from friendly advice, you will be able to find out what works and what does not work for you. 5'7" does not automatically put you in a standard to flat lie . You don't hit the golf ball with your addressing posture, nor would the shaft of your golf club stay straight during the golf swing. It matters how the sole interact with the turf when the club face meets the golf ball with your golf swing, Believe it or not, there are head droop of the golf club with decent swing speed. Hit some shots from a lie board or tape a piece of black electrical tap on the sole and observe the brush mark when you hit off the mat. The brush mark will tell the story of whether the sole of the irons have good contact with the turf at impact. In your stage, either find an instructor to put you on the right track ( much harder to try to correct the grooved in habits later ), or practice a lot to groove in your own way ( anything produce distance and consistency is the goal ). Solid contact at impact should be your current goal, and later on distance and directional control should follow.

If the trajectory is to the right and straight, you do not have an issue with the wrist, The problem should be a "blocked push". If alignment is correct, then, you were not able to shift weight to the left side , staying back on the right or neutral, will cause a blocked push. Finish transferring weight to the left.

Variables to be considered when answering your question. There is no industry standard for shaft flex, In honesty, there could not be an out of the box answer, because the weight , flex point, flex ( calculated by CPM at tip and butt, someone even measures the mid section frequency ).... all makes one shaft feels different than the other. Since there is no standard way to manufacture the golf shafts, there would not be a standardized way to measure the characters the shaft produces. Plus a big factor which will change with time - you. Your physical condition will change with time, and the frequency of changes increases with age. I played basically the same set up from my late 20's into my early 40's , but need to change the set up every several years after my 55th birthday. So there is no one set up that will last forever. If you are serious about the golf equipment and have the budget, find a reputable fitter whom will listen and take the time to fit you. More importantly, the fitting should come with one or several tune-up within 3 months after your initial fitting. A good fitter should understand the "fitting in the studio" is not entirely the same as on course experience. This will probably be the quickest and the most efficient way to find the equipment which will fit your current game. .

Just an observation. Your right elbow was bowing out and lifting at impact ( immediately after the impact ). This might be caused by over dominant right side. However, there were successful Tour players with similar golf swing so.... either correct it or , practice more and own the swing. This might also be the cause for your back pain issue, since your swing axis was forced to change. Perhaps it looked that way because of the speed you had generated from that swing.

Lofts are similar, but the length of clubs are different and the COG is different. Besides the mentioned difference in distance ( especially carried distance ), the trajectory would be quite differ from each other if the golfer has a decent swing speed. I would say, go hit them both, then make your verdict for yourself. Because what others experienced might not applied to you. Slower swing speed will produce similar results.

Give it a couple of years, the magic will wear off. The design is improved from decades ago but not enough to be called major improvement. The biggest issue of trajectory could not be fixed unless with new material or major fitting project. Not a cut and glue solution. No matter how others said this is supposed to be the new wonder of the golf game, I had yet to see a set being played in local golf courses.

I don't think his swing speed was ever measured. For a guy around 5'7" and less than 140 Ib. his controlled driver distance was 260-270 yards with a 43 1/4 " steel shafted persimmon driver, he could get it close to 300 yards if he wants to. I had read that Hogan had often out on exhibition show and many were to see him hit one over the back fence at 300 yards + . Hogan was one of the longer hitter in his time and age, but his accuracy and shot making was more known by others.

Open your stance just a tiny bit and take a divot ( not chuncking it ). The finish your follow through. As you had stated yourself, maybe a little practice with the wedge on the driving range wil help?

Borf, you're correct about metal fatigue, however, it's not true if you only bent the loft a few degrees. As long as you do it with the right equipment and temperature. As far as Ping fitting goes, you could send a set of 2* flat iron set back to them and Ping will bent it to any spec you want, refinish it and dot it with the new color coded dot. Good thing is, as all other OEM, they own the inventory which could easily replace a club or two in case they damaged it during the refitting process. Bounce on the sole could also be grounded out to each player's preference, just be careful if you take too much of the metal off the sole, the swing weight would change.

Yes, the bounce will change with the loft adjustment, I'd suggest to sell the one you don't need and buy another which will fill in the gap for your swing. I had monkey around with the loft in the past and half the time it did not come out to be the way I thought it would.