Sheekamoo

I'm heading to Las Vegas with week to meet up with family. I'm wondering if any of you have some input on some of the better course at the lower end in pricing $40-$60 per player. Either 9 hole or 18 hole courses work for me. I'd prefer an 18 hole with carts, but a 9 hole walking course that's fun to play is fine with me too. Anyone have any recomendations?

My current sand wedge has 15* of bounce and I really dislike using that club. I absolutely love my gap wedge which has, I think 8* of bounce. With the sand wedge, I end up skulling the ball at times (especially if I open up the club (which adds even more bounce)). This got me thinking... is 15* too much bounce for a SW at the courses I play at? I'm located in Southern California and the rough's around here are nothing like I see on the PGA or in teaching videos. Sand, at the courses I've been playing at, has been pretty firm for the most part as well. I'm thinking that for the most part, I'd be happier with a SW with less bounce since the rough's aren't too bad and sand is usually firm. I'm thinking about picking up a SW with 12* of bounce instead of the 15* I already have. Anyone have any thoughts/opinions? Should I just practice even more with my SW and learn to hit it better? I absolutely love my GW though and use that for most shots around and near the green... but I have a heck of a time hitting my SW consistently. I'm sitting here thinking that less bounce will help me hit the ball more consistently.

I've been working lately ok getting better with my hybrid and I'm getting better every day. I know you're supposed to hit a hybrid like an iron... but I find I'm positioning the ball like I would my 3 wood (directly off the inside of my left heal). If I were to position this like I would a 3 iron, the ball position would be about 2 inches off the inside of my left heal. If I position the ball like I would when hitting a 3 iron, I almost always push the ball. But if I move the ball further up in my stance it goes straight. The problem with putting the ball that far forward in my stance is that I'm no longer hitting down on the ball (I'm hitting it more like a wood/driver). So... is moving the ball up to the inside of my leading foot okay? Or do I need to change something in my swing? If it's my swing, I can only assume that I'm not releasing my wrist's soon enough in my downswing (thereby leaving the face of the club open on impact).

My girlfriend is going to buy a set of golf clubs and we're wondering if we should get a petite set (if available) or regular. I know we can always cut down the shaft, but I'm wondering what height most womens clubs are built for? My girlfriend is 5'2" and I think when she does get a set of clubs over the next couple of weeks, we may need to cut them down 1/4 to 1/2".

Thanks. I just submitted a WTB thread and I'll see if anyone has anything to sell :)

Thanks for the link. That set meets our needs and our price. Question though... are those even decent? We're looking at a used set of Adams A2 OS clubs on eBay right now and I feel like the ADAMS would be better quality. She may not continue to play this game, so we don't want to blow a bunch of money on clubs she may never use again, but if she does keep playing I don't want her being stuck with really low quality clubs. I think I've seen that set before, but the Wilson name keeps throwing me off :).

My girlfriend has been getting more into golf lately and we've made Saturday day our day of golfing. She's currently using my old set up clubs which are my grandfathers old clubs from the 70's. Needless to say, they're too long and too heavy for her to even begin swinging correctly. She bought a new putter and a new bag recently, and now she's looking to buy some irons/hybrids to replace the old hand-me-down clubs. Her limit is $300 and she'd prefer to spend about $250. She's happy to buy a used set if she can find some good clubs at a good price. She's looking to buy all the clubs needed for under $300. We're thinking 3-5 hybrid, 6-9 irons, PW, SW, and a driver. We don't care if they come in a complete set, we just need to total for all those clubs coming in under $300. Are there any new sets out there we should look at? Or perhaps there's some good set on eBay right now we should take a look at? She's been checking craigslist but she said she hasn't found anything yet.

Depending on the distance to the hole, either SW or LW. I've been practicing at my local course hitting out of the sand and the pin is between 8-16 feet (depending on where you stand in the sand). With my 56.15 wedge, I'm hitting most of my shots past the hole. I'm finding it very difficult to get any loft on the ball and it rolls too far once it lands. My SW is great for 15-20 foot greenside bunker shots. But those really close ones I'm having a tough time with using my SW.

Thanks for the replies guys. After reading your suggestions I have a lot of clubs to start testing. The Ping G10 and G15's seem like a favorite in this thread so I'll definitely spend some time with both of those. I've been spending the last few months hitting bothing but irons 2-3 days a week working on my swing and my iron game has greatly improved. Almost all my shots go about where I want them and it's made this game so much more fun. Now that I've got my iron swing down, I've just started to work on hitting with my 3 wood. This week has been great though because now that I put an emphisis on swinging more in to out (instead of chopping out to in like I used to), my slice is gone. I actually started to play around with trying to fade and draw the ball yesterday at the range. Now that my swing is finally started to come together I feel more confident in trying out a driver and actually getting to use in on the course. Thanks again for the suggestions everyone. I'm excited to test out some drivers later on today :).

I'm curious to see what sand wedge and lob wedge lofts and bounce angles you guys have in your bag. I currently have a 56* SW with a 15* bounce angle and I'm in the market for a lob wedge. But now that I think about it, I'm thinking of getting a new SW as well with a slightly lower bounce angle. I just want to see what you guys keep in your bag to judge what I should be looking at. I'm pretty sure I'll stick with 56* and 60* wedges because it keeps a nice degree spacing with my PW and GW. But I'm really interested to see what bounce angles you use and why.

I understand clubs are a personal preference thing... so I won't ask what the best driver out there is. But, I'd like to demo some drivers this week and I have no idea where to begin. I've actually never owned a driver and I've always gotten by with a 3-wood instead. I'm a high handicapper so I want something forgiving. I'd prefer to hit more shots straight and short rather then long and possibly off the course. I don't want a driver that corrects a bad swing (such as a draw). I typically slice a lot of shots with my 3 wood and I'm sure I'll do the same with a driver... but I'd rather learn to correct my swing then to get the club to do it for me. With that said, what 3 drivers would you recommend I demo? Price is not an issue and I'm only interested in purchasing new from a local shop (so no 07 drivers that I may not be able to find locally).

My set only came with a PW and SW. I bought an AW (or GW) to fill the gap in my current wedges. I don't have a LW yet so I'm curious if I should stick with getting a Callaway for a complete matching set, or going with the Titleist Vokey which seem to be one of the best wedges out there.

My current set of irons are Callaway X-22's (4-9 and a PW, AW, and SW). I've been under the impression that it's usually best to keep all your irons the same brand/model for more consistency. But viewing this board, it seems like a lot of people use a Titleist Vokey wedge (58* and 60*) even though it doesn't match their current iron set. The X-22 60* Wedge has a 11.0 bounce angle and the Vokey at 60.10* has a bounce of 10.0. From what I've been reading, a bounce of 10.0 is the most preferable for a 60* wedge. With that said... would you stick with the 60* X-22 to match all your other irons, or would you get a Titleist Vokey wedge instead?

I'm curious how my wrists should be involved in my swing. Is the correct wrist involvement: 1.) Wrists don't sway from side to side. If the club is in front of you and you move only your wrists, the club should only be moving straight up and straight down. 2.) Wrists sway from side to side. If the club is in front of you and you only move your wrists, the club head moves from right to left. 3.) A mix of both of the above. With #2 above you could hit the ball using only your wrists. No body or arm movement is needed. With #1, you could only chop down at the top of the ball. I've been swinging usually mixing both together, but after watching the Swing The Handle DVD it seems like my wrists shouldn't be swaying the club horizontally. That DVD made it sound like my wrists should only allow my club to go straight up or straight down (not side to side).

I've seen it mentioned and I see the pros hitting the ball on their downswing with their irons. I'm just curious how that happens. I know that with a 9 iron the ball should be placed between both your feet. As you move down to more distance irons the balls moves further up towards your leading foot. Without moving your hips you would always be hitting those balls on your upswing. I'm guessing then that to hit the balls on a downswing it would be due to both your hips moving forward and your hands moving in front of the ball before the club face makes impact? So while you may line up a shot with the ball 1" in front of your center line, after your hips swing into the shot and your hands move in front of the ball your swing will still be headed downwards instead of hitting the ball on the upswing? I was told by a few people not to move my hips at all... but watching different pros swing it appears their hips don't move on the back swing, but they do move forward on the down swing. Is that the correct way to swing? One of my many swing problems I've been trying to correct is not moving my body (hips especially) backwards on my back swing. I've been trying to only rotate my upper body on my backswing. But I guess it's only to move my hips forward during my downswing? And back to my iron question... if moving my hips is ok during my downswing I would need to move them more so for each greater distance iron right? So a 9 iron would see only a little forward movement from my hips. But a 4 irons would see a lot more since the ball is placed closer to my leading foot? At the same time, my sand wedge would see very little (if any at all) forward hip movement because the ball is placed behind my center line.

Thanks for the replies guys. I've checked out the perfect golf swing video a bunch of times and it has really helped me with my irons. But I wish there was a perfect golf swing for woods/drivers. I can't figure out what my back angle should be at and where my arms should hang. If I bend over like I do with my irons the base of the club isn't sitting correctly on the grass (it's sitting mostly on the heel). If I stand up straighter this gets corrected... but it feels like I'm nearly standing 100% upright (I'm still bent slightly forwarded... but since I'm used to bending over with the irons it feels awkward to only be bending slightly with my wood. I guess that's the correct setup though? Woods and drivers get less bending of the back? Arms should still try to hand down as vertical as possible (not pushed further away from my body)? I'm going to call an instructor tomorrow to setup a lesson... but I'd like to correct as much as possible with the basics before I see him so he can help fine tune the smaller details of my swing.

I've been watching a bunch of videos (SwingVision) of pro's and they have such great flexibility. Their arms go back and up so high that their club shaft is parallel to the ground. I'm not as flexible as them and my shaft doesn't reach parallel. However, if I bend my left arm (my leading arm) at the elbow I can get the shaft parallel to the ground. So... is it ok to slightly bend my left arm on the back swing to get my club positioned optimally? Or is it best to keep the left arm straight through the back swing and I'll just have to deal with my lack of flexibility with a less powerful and slightly less fluid swing? I was thinking that by not having my back swing go all the way back, I could be messing up the rhythm of my swing. But at the same time, I can see bending my elbow leading to inconsistent shots.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I ordered 3 of the boos mentioned in this thread as well as the DVD set mentioned as well. I've been watching a lot of videos online but I'd much prefer to sit down and read about the different swings and how to use them. I can't stand watching anymore videojug with those Gerber commercials before every video (that they don't allow you to mute) :). But I did find the perfect swing video to be very helpful.

I'm a beginner golfer and I've read and watched a lot of videos online on how to swing irons correctly. I'm happy to say that I have gotten rid of my slice now that I swing instead of trying to chop/hit the ball. The last two days I've gone to the range I've hit my irons very well. However, I'm having a heck of a time with my 3 wood off a tee. I'm still slicing with that club so I'm looking for ways to correct my swing. 1.) Ball position. From my understanding... a 9 iron starts with the ball in the center of your feet. As you move down in irons the ball moves further towards my left foot. For wedges I move the ball back towards my right foot. For a driver (I don't have one yet) the ball should be 2"-3" behind the left foot. So I'm guessing with a 3 wood the ball should be somewhere between where the driver would hit and the 3 iron would hit? 2.) Arm position. When I'm swinging my irons I have my arms pointing straight down towards the ground. Is that the same position I should use when swinging my 3 wood? Or should I push my arms slightly more away from my body? 3.) When lining the ball up to the wood's face prior to swinging, should I line the ball up with the center of the club or the heal of the club? With a lot of my shots I noticed the ball hit off the toe of the club instead of the center (even though I lined the ball up towards the center of the club prior to swinging). I thought maybe putting the ball at the heal of the club could fix that problem... although I also thing it could be a problem with my swing as I'm not being consistent enough or my swing isn't always following the same arc. 4.) With irons you're supposed to lead your hands into the shot (so your hands are in front of where the ball makes contact). Is the same true with my wood? Should I lead through the same amount? Maybe less? 5.) Should I stand slightly more upright with the 3 wood? The shaft of the club is much longer then my irons. If I'm bent over the same amount I am with my irons with my arms hanging straight down, the 3 wood club face doesn't sit flat (it's sitting slightly more on it's heal). The 2 ways I see to correct this are to stand more upright, or push my arms out away from my body so they're not hanging straight down in front of me.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll go ahead and order an X-22 51 degree gap wedge and that will give me 3 wedges to use for now. Once my game improves a bit and I see a use for the LW I'll go ahead and pick one up.

I recently bought a whole new set of clubs to replace my 1970's hand-me-downs. For the irons I went with Callaway 5-SW. The PW is 45 degrees and the SW is 56 degrees. I was thinking I should probably add a 60 degree loft wedge to my bag to complete my iron set. So my two questions are... 1.) For a beginner golfer with a high handicap, would it be worth adding a loft wedge to my bag when I have a pitching wedge and sand wedge already? I see a lot of people on here have 4 wedges total (including a gap wedge which I believe is between the PW and SW). But since I'm still trying to get down my swing and learn more about how to hit each club in different situations, would a LW be helpful for me? Or should I be fine for now with my PW and SW? 2.) If I should get a LW, should I get the X-22 to match my Callaway set? Or should I buy something else? Maybe something with more bite on the club face? Any recommended clubs for a high handicap golfer?

I bought myself a putter, 3 hybrid, and 3 wood today to finish up my bag full of irons (I'm forgoing the driver until I take some lessons and improve my swing/consistency). I went in planning on buying the Taylormade Burner 3 wood but a guy that helped me before asked me if I was 100% sold on the club. I said no and he told me to checkout the Sumo SQ instead of the Burner. When I asked why he said it's a more forgiving club and better for more of a beginner/higher handicap golfer (which I am). My swing isn't good enough for me to pick clubs based on feeling... so I have a hard time saying which club feels best. The only club that was easy for me to say felt better was the putter... but swinging irons and woods feel mostly the same to me. Even if some feel softer or harder, I'm not sure which is "best" for me. So I've been basing most of my club purchases based on reviews I read online along with points like "game improvement clubs." The Burner 3 wood was ranked as one of the best woods in on golfdigest.com for 2008. But the Sumo SQ is also ranked as one of the better woods as well. My question is... is the Sumo SQ a good club for a higher handicap golfer? Should I have gone with the burner? I'm pretty sure the Sumo SQ is a good club for me and I made the right choice, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask on here to see what you guys think before I take off the stickers and take it to the range. This club will mostly be used off a tee, but it will see a little use on the fairway as well.

Thanks for the replies guys. I went down to my local shop today and they let me hit clubs for nearly 2 hours. The guy helping me was helping me improve my form and by the end of the day I was almost never slicing the ball anymore (which has always been my problem). After trying a bunch of different hybrids I am debating between the Adam's A4OS and the Taylormade Burner (both 3 hybrids). They both ranked highly on the golf digest article posted earlier in this thread and the guy helping me said they'd both be good clubs. Either way I can't really lose with either but I'll be going back tomorrow to take a few more swings to see what feels best in my hand before purchasing. I didn't have enough time to play around with the 3 woods but I'll do that tomorrow. The guy helping me recommended a few to try out. He said the Taylormade 2007 Burner would be a great choice as well as the Cleveland HiBore XLS. So tomorrow I'll take a bunch of swings with each of those to see which feels best. He didn't mention any Callaway 3 woods to look at though (which a few people mentioned in this thread). I tried the Mizuno Hi-Fli hybrid that a few people mentioned in this thread but the guy helping me said it may not be the best club for me since it's less forgiving then something like the Burner or A4OS. If there's any other 3 woods you guys think I should take for a swing when I visit tomorrow let me know. Otherwise, I think I'll just pick my favorite out of the Burner or HiBore XLS.

Is it true that mallet style putters are more designed for people who swing straight through the ball while blade putters are more for people who arc their swing (opening and closing the face of the club)? From what I've heard and read online that appears to be true. Mallet style putters are generally weighted evenly to help with a straight through put. But blade style putters are usually toe heavy to help with the club face opening and closing during the swing.

I'm planning on taking a few lessons soon... but I thought it would be helpful if I bought a book or two on how to correctly swing golf clubs. Do any of you have any recommend books I can checkout on Amazon.com?