wingman

I use my 52* gap wedge for most anything inside of 100 yards, unless I have very little green to work with, or I'm in fluffy sand--in both cases I'll use my 58* sand/lob. Makes the choices easy.

Let's see. . . . Been playing for around 30 years. I don't remember the putters I used up until my mid teens, so we won't count those. So we'll start with: Acushnet bullseye (19 years--still have it) taylormade rossa lambeau 7 (2 weeks) byron dalehead (1 month) another taylormade lambeau 7 (2 weeks) ping pal 4 (6 months) taylormade rossa lambeau sport (1 month) cleveland '06 calamity jane (1 month) otey crisman blade (1 week--still have it, tho) byron x-11 (6 months) rife mr. beasley (current putter, 1 month) average it out, and it's 1 putter every 2 years. some overlap. if you don't count the first 19 years, it's 1.3 putters per month. but i'm tired of switching putters, trying to find one that suits me. I think I'll just adjust to this rife putter. it seems willing to work with me.

Had a chance to demo both the FT-5 and the FT-i side by side during a fitting session. Both were damned impressive drivers, but the FT-5 outperformed the FT-i. The FT-i generated more backspin due to the square shape, and flew a bit straighter as a result, but this also caused a very slight loss in distance when compared to the FT-i. i hit both in 10- and 9-degree with stiff shafts (swing speed 104 mph) and the FT-5 10 degree was comparable in ballflight and distance to the F-Ti 9 degree. The 9-degree FT-5 gave a bit more roll as a result of the lower ballflight, and ended up about 10 yards further than the FT-i. Your mileage may vary.

Driver: Wilson Deep Red II distance 10.5-degree. After frustrating rounds with a cleveland 460 launcher, which was long but inaccurate, and a hogan cs-3, i demo'd a bunch of used drivers for under $100 and settled on this. Don't get as much yardage out of it, but i'm in the fairway a lot more often. And I couldn't beat the bargain price of $30. regular graphite prolite shaft. 3 wood--hogan c455. Great club. my go-to stick. can do anything. off the deck, off the tee, out of the rough, whatever. Was looking for a three wood last year and this one was cheap. bought it and never really looked at anything else since. hybrids--19, 21,24-degree hogan cft. nice clubs. no real complaints. the 19-degree is a bit fussy, but of the hybrids i tried, it seemed to hit the ball the most pure. irons: Okay. i grew up playing blades from the age of 7. inherited my dad's old clubs when i was a teenager, and just went looking for new clubs last year, when i decided to get a bit more serious about golf. I'm 36, not new to the game, but i'm not really a low handicapper either. I tried the clubs i figured would help my game--a set of callaways--but after hating those for a while (they looked, felt, and sounded really clunky) and going through a couple different sets, i settled on hogan apex 50 blades. They're every bit as accurate as i can be, they let me know what i did wrong. And they look and feel fantastic. Irons have never been the problem part of my game, anyway. wedges: Yep. Hogan again. 52-degree colonial with 8 degrees of bounde and a hogan 5610 sand wedge. had a 60-degree lob wedge, but traded it. didn't use it enough to take up space in the bag. i could never figure it out, anyway. the 52-degree is my go-to club around the greens. putter: John Byron x-11 in stainless steel. Great anser-style putter. found it in a used bin at Roger Dunn's. before that, i used an acushnet bulls-eye for 20 years or so. still have it. bag: Sporttek or something like that. nice light stand bag. bought it at a tent sale for around 60 bucks.

sounds like you're describing a shank. This happens when the hosel hits the ball and shoots off to the right.

Just to delve into the abyss of banality, what do you think is the most beautiful iron ever made? You know--that sexy, pulchritudinous hunk of steel that makes your eyes dialate slightly and gets you making mental swings in your head, with visions of a buttery, well-struck 6-iron landing softly 4 feet from the cup? For me, it's the Hogan Apex redline. I don't own a set, but I'd like to.

Forget Lakewood on the weekends. You won't get out of there under 6 hours on weekends. Weekdays are only mildly better, maybe 5 hours. They jam up the course with fivesomes. Price is right, but it's so frustrating to play there . . .

I don't know if I'm really good enough to tell the difference, but I think I can in terms of wedge/low iron and putter feel. I don't buy top-of-the-line balls like the pro-v1 because I think 40 clams or more is ridiculous for a dozen balls, but that said, I've settled on a couple of three-piece balls for my game. Bridgestone e6 has great distance, good feel, and is needle-straight. Hogan "hawk" is a 3-piece with urethane cover that's not quite as long, I've found, but has just the right feel off of every club, and they last forever. both are around 25 bucks maximum. I don't like the top rocks because I feel like I'm hurting my hands and my irons whenever I hit them, and the noodle-style soft two-piece balls just don't feel right to me, either. I don't need to think about what balls to buy anymore. I just pick whichever one of the two is on sale that week.

I recently bought this club in a draw bias 9.5 degree with adila nv-h stiff shaft and it's a doozy. I can hit darts down the middle now. I made a couple of changes to my swing that made more of a difference than the club did, however. The club will hook if i'm not careful. just have to keep everything on line and it'll go far and straight. There are other longer drivers, but i care more about accuracy than distance. 250-270 yards is plenty for me. One more thing: There's less roll with this club. (i happen to think that's a good thing--makes driving from the tee more precise when i have to clear bunkers and such.)

spray a couple shots of simple green in a bucket and fill it 1/3 full of water. scrub with toothbrush. wipe with towel. cleans all the crud off, including range ball marks.