DDBowdoin

I'm lucky my wife even got me in the frame, I'll have a tripod next time I go about this.

I've been Playing Golf for: 11 Years My current handicap index or average score is: haven't kept a GHIN in a few years, shoot 82ish on a good day. My typical ball flight is: push / push cut but with new irons and shaft fitting hitting baby draws. The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: hitting a ball heavy enough that I can't muscle it down the fairway/close to a green A little back story to this swing. For years I played irons with shafts too stiff and heavy, stock length S300 DG Stiff. After a great fitting at Club Champion I was fit into a set of Taylormade P790, half inch down, Aerotech Steelfiber i95's, 2 flat, and they adjusted the lofts to have equal spacing in the set. I am still getting used to the clubs but I have gone from a push and push cut to a nice high, baby draw. I am incredibly happy with how these feel, especially on my leading left hand that has suffered past injuries and diagnosed tendonitis. I felt like I was striking the ball really well but after viewing the video my caddie (my wife) took jeez... what an ugly swing. For years I have worked on some form of a stack and tilt swing and I have moved out of a bad habit of coming across the ball and my divots now shot either a square strike or coming in from the inside. I am just shocked at how close my hands come to my beer gut, jeez... no wonder my hand hurts!I just wrapped up the Francis Ouimet Golf Marathon and finished up with 108 holes, unfortunately I missed my goal of 200! Picked up some pointers on how to rack up more holes from some vets! So excited for next year. I worked a 135 par 3 (basically everyone played from the reds to help rack up holes for charity) and I birdied the hole 13 times out of 54 holes finishing up +1 on that stretch. On a side note, I feel terrible for this grounds crew. We destroyed this tee box and 5 inches of rain two days prior left greens soft, the ballmarks were insane.Please, take a look at this... laugh at this ugly swing, revel in it, toss some pointers, share your ugly swing stories. Videos:

The problem for us mere mortals comes from playing different models in play that aren't built for us... instead we rely on demo programs that offer fairly stock options when we would normally be fit into something very specific. Its a huge financial burden to just keep trying new clubs, scouring used stores and ebay looking for the "right" club.

I failed to mention... I am a school teacher and am off from June 1 to August 25th so I will play every day.

My cousin lives 3 miles from Ballybunion. I played there in 2008 and am itching for a return. I remember buying 500 dollars worth of Goretex rain gear and gloves and I found 79 degrees with sun and not a lick of rain on the course! What a memory! As a single they paired me up with a father/son and the sons best friend. His friend was a low level tour player in England and played the tips. I played up that day because I shot an 82 to his 69 but it was so damn inspiring seeing someone control that course! What memories.

I'd agree with this... of the countless times I assumed it happened I've only seen two or three people straight up pick my ball up from the tee as they walked into my hole. It happens all the time because I see people picking up balls or yelling over to a buddy "hey man, did you hit a Callaway with a blue dot? No? Ok, I'm just going to pick this one up".

What happens when someone just takes your ball... this happens ALL the time on these crap public dog tracks I play.

While I generally agree with you at roughly 99%, there is 1% of me that has some followed some low PGA tour players who spread the ball EVERYWHERE and have marshalls finding balls.

Hey everyone, Looking to gather some folks who are in Eastern MA / Greater Boston. I'd like to be able to put together a Ryder Cup event or something fun like that. Who is out there?

I am just coming off a driver fitting and trackman data showed me capping my spin at about 2200 RPM, on the low end of the normal spectrum. I was curious if a ball selection could help drive that number up a small bit to squeeze another 7-10 yards off the tee. Is that even possible? I normally game the Top Flite Gamer Tour balls... which I really enjoy. I sometimes pick up a dz of ProV's but its rare for me.

I dropped 200/250 (can't remember) into a Bushnell V2 and while I do use it the experience of buying one reinforced the reality of my good eyesight. I am usually really close to what the laser tells me. I grew up playing on an absolute horrendous muni that barely had 150 markers so I learned how to see distance by my depth of field and vision.

sold

I teach at a private school and our Fall is considerably busier than Spring with open house events, recruiting evenings, and back to school potlucks so my golf will drop come fall.

Yeah unfortunately Massachusetts is a tough state all around... I posted a massive rant against MA golf on TST about 8 years ago! It still holds true. It’s going to take some time convincing the wife for the 5,000. Relative to many of the other clubs around here it’s a pretty good price.

Teachers schedule, nice huh? im considering a membership somewhere so next summer I can play 36 a day.

Like 8 bills... which isn’t far off Callaways own price on their web, 200 upcharge on the OBAN shaft plus the 499 price tag. But then I’d have to have a local clubmaker shorten and tip the shaft. So that all brings it to the same price

Just wrapped up another solid fitting session and solidified my support and belief in Club Champion. Visited a few other local shops and fitters and no one had anywhere near the amount of variety in stock. Ended up in a Callaway Rogue 10.5 with a FW wood shaft (OBAN Isawa Red 65 Reg). A full inch shorter than my 45.5 inch Nickent 4DX. Smash factor was good at 1.51 with a consistent ball strike but it was amazing what the shaft did for ballspeed and overall distance. I’m still low on the spin number (low 2100-2300) but launch angle and apex was great. 93 MPH, 240 carry, 265 overall. I’ll take it. I was topping overall distance with the Nickent at 235-240. I’ve never been fit for a driver and have always scoured eBay and local used shops for “good deals”. Dropped serious coin but hey, you only go around once.

This is my first summer off as a teacher and the key to my practice is staying off a driving range. I have a bad left hand, numerous MRI's showed nothing wrong but there is an acute pain when playing golf. I have a tendency to come down hard and steep and I take a big divot. Therefore, range time has to be limited especially if I can't find a grass range. The key for me is to stand in the fringe and hit a 100 chips, 10 yards back, 100 more chips, 20 yard pitch, 100 balls. Final practice for me is 100 balls using either my 56 or 60 degree wedge to pitch a shortsided pin OVER a trap. Doing this 2 days a week helped me tremendously. My tendency was to decelerate and chunk a ball into the sand. I never find myself with easy chips that are short of a green. I tend to find myself pulling or pushing irons that are pin high but off target, or perhaps aimed poorly!

100% agree with this mentality... I had the same experience where in my iron fitting the Callaway EPIC Rogue's went 6 yards further but at address, I didn't like the top line and the feel compared to the P790's.

The only time I've seen 300 is downhill, downwind, on a baked state-owned course that doesn't have an irrigation system... yeah, once!

I suppose your local market also matters... I have never experienced a shop or fitter that carried so many shafts. I am headed in for a driver fitting this afternoon. I don't think I'll go back for hybrids or long game as I am pleased with the old Sonartec hybrids that just work for me. Those hybrids were a complete crap shoot as I ordered them on ebay without ever playing the shaft (Banzai Hybrid, Reg) and it just flies. I hit the 4 hybrid 210 with a slight draw or dead straight about 95% of the time. while I certainly have flaws, I have a consistent swing. I have some sort of hybrid stack and tilt thing going on.

They claim they have higher standards of quality in their work, that's a bit subjective and harder to quantify. They'd rather build the set for your then just submit the specs and hope the factories in China get it right. The best part is just working with someone who wants the best numbers, not trying to push one brand vs the other. It was AGES ago but my first job in high school was at a local golf chain and the management used to always sweeten spiffs and deals for us to push certain brands. I don't know if that happens anymore but it's always been in the back of my mind.

It's worth it if you get properly fit and they fitter moves away from OEM shafts if you can afford it. Off the rack I don't think you'd see a difference but the minute you're on a Trackman with 12 different shafts you will at least see an improvement in the launch, spin, and overall distance figures. It won't make you a better golfer it will just produce a better result on those swings where you put the pieces together.

I just came off a Club Champion fitting and I must say that I had a wonderful experience. I am coming back to the game, slowly, but noticed that the consistency in my swing and ball striking is far from what it used to be. I knew a change was needed and decided to make an investment in my game. I've been fit before but nothing compared to the extent of this trackman experience. In the past, it was a simple clubhead speed reading and a lie board test to determine flex and lie adjustment. What I found the most interesting about CC is their lack of allegiance to a brand. They had me hit my 6 iron and while I was doing this the fitter was listening to contact and already assembling combinations. They have such a wide breadth of offerings in both head and shafts. I didn't care about brand, aesthetics of shaft colors, or any of that stuff... I wanted the best ball speed, launch angle, spin, and smash. I hit Callaway EPIC pros, PXG XF and T irons gen 2, the P790's, and some Titleist offerings. I skipped the DG to lightweight KBS and then into graphite offerings. I ended up with a set of P790's with Aerotech Steelfiber i95's regular, heads were reduced to swing weight D0, 2 flat (which I had before in all my clubs), and they bent to create a 4-degree gap in the set. I gained 11 MPH of ball speed over my current irons. They are by no means cheap as they order stock clubs from OEM's and then reverse engineer and adjust in their own shop. Big thumbs up for this experience and would recommend to anyone.

Get off the tee consistently... if I do that, I usually ok. My ball striking is all over the place at times but my wedge play is strong and carries my ass out there. I just need to find the fairway.