Jenks465

I use my digital camera on video mode and then use media player to view it and play through it frame by frame. Works pretty well for me as i'm not too interested in the details just the big things; posture and alignment, takeaway, swing plane and balance.

If you look through history there are any number of players who aligned a touch right and swung "outside in" from Bobby Locke and Bobby Jones to Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan (Nelson and Hogan only did it with Woods and Long irons as far as I can tell), it used to be the way that the game was taught! Equally many players have aligned the other way successfully, e.g. Trevino, Azinger and Andres Romero. The only things you have to do is swing the club down the target line with the club face square at impact and if you need to adjust your set up to do it, go for it. I've played well with both extreme open and closed stances over the years and will do again if required, good luck!

Went for my fitting today, what an eye opening experience! My old driver was supposed to be a 9.5* stiff but actually turned out to be 10.7* X flex! Was fitted for a 9.5* (true loft this time!) 525 GRT with a regular flex, 64 gram, Matrix studio shaft that feels so much easier to swing! Also got the shaft in my 3-wood changed to a Matrix 74 gram regular as that was overly stiff for me as well. Can't wait to get to the course with these beauties and no more wondering where equipment is concerned! PS. The Wishon driver head came to £160 (I think thats about $200 these days).

I went for my first ever real custom fitting today. Not just hitting a load of different clubs and coming up with the best of the bunch, or going to a golf store and hitting 10 shots on a launch monitor like I used to think was a custom fitting, but an actual professionally trained and certified person taking account of all of the variables that are unique to MY golf swing and suggesting the best two or three options for ME personally! The fitting itself was fantastic and i've come away with two awesome new clubs, but most enlightening thing to me was when the fitter measured my current equipment and told me that the 45 inch, 9.5*, stiff flex driver that i've been using for the past three years is in fact a 45.4 inch, 10.7*, extra stiff flex driver!!!!! I don't know about you but that seemed odd to me, so I asked if this was normal and he said that my driver was a pretty moderate example compared to the majority of "off the rack" clubs he sees! He also told me that half an inch above or below the sweet spot and the loft was 13* and 8.4*. Following this revelation I was just wondering if anyone else knows what the true loft of their driver is?

My goal for the season: Stroke average below 72, (previous best 72.6). Plan to achieve goal; 1) Ensure equipment fits my game. I've already gone through a full fitting process for my irons and wedges and am going to visit Rene Cleaver, a former winner of clubmaker of the year, on Wednesday to get my woods and putter done. 2) Improve iron play. I've been a consistently good driver of the ball for a long time now (70-75% fairways hit for the last 5 seasons) but my iron play has always been a bit mediocre (59% GIR ave.). To improve this there are a few long standing swing issues that i've decided to address with the help of my local pro, I take the club outside at the beginning of the takeaway which causes me to flatten/ shallow my swing excessively coming into the ball, good for hitting from a tee, not good for pure iron striking! I've already started to make the change to my takeaway by using a block of wood placed outside the toe of the club, forcing me to take the club away on line. 3) Improve short game. My short game has always been pretty good but to get to my scoring goal I need to improve my overall up and down percentage within 100 yds to 50% (prevously 35-40%). I plan to practice all aspects of my short game 3 times a week and have identified wedges between 30 and 100 yds and bunker play as the two areas that can be improved most easily.

I expect to hole them all! Chips, pitches and bunker shots too!

If you go to a good club maker (one who has been in business since before metal headed clubs were the norm!) they'll be able to sort you out without a problem. It's all down to getting the swing weight sorted as swinging a heavy shaft with a light head isn't a nice feeling! Titleist still offer steel shafts as custom orders in their drivers as well if you prefer to go down the OEM route.

Perfect answer! Why not use different clubs? You do for every other shot in the game! At my home club (heavy deep fluffy sand) I use every club in the bag from 58* to a seven iron depending on situations I face. If the option of playing for a bit of run isn't available then it's square the face up and swing longer for long shots or open the face wide and fizz the clubface under the ball for the short ones! Good luck.

After a few more days testing with the Z-Star-X i'm still extremely happy with the performance of the ball but an issue has arisen. With the Pro V1 I was able to play the same ball for all eighteen holes with no problem but with these if i play two or three wedge shots the ball is virtually destroyed! Maybe more thinking required!

Thanks for the opinions guys! I can't find anyone with a bad word to say about Wishon equipment so i'm just surprised that i've never seen anyone using it!(money talks I suppose ). I've got a fitting booked with the local Wishon certified clubmaker who is a former winner of the international club maker of the year, so hopefully the fitting will be as good as it gets!

Ok, i've been looking for a new driver for a little while now but have been left thoroughly underwhelmed by the latest offerings from the big names (i've been a titleist man for a good five years now, 983 and now 905 but they haven't come out with any improvements since!). For this reason i'm looking at getting fitted for a non OEM driver-head and specifically a Wishon 525 GRT. I'd just like to know what the experience of others has been with Wishon components and if they would recommend them? Cheers, Jenks.

Macgregor Pro M! One word OUTSTANDING!

Have you tried the Z-Star-X? Should deal with at least the 'too soft off the putter' problem! I've been very impressed with the all round play of the X, and will be playing them at least until Titleist get the new Pro V1 out!

That sounds about perfect to me!

Tend to launch it too low with not enough spin, so a softer ball with a touch more spin does help me carry the ball farther! Changing my driver soon (looking for that 'optimum' setup) and very happy with how the Z-Star-X plays around the greens so that would be my preference if the new Pro V can't match it (I ask for a softer ball and when they give me one I prefer the HARDER one! Some people are hard to please!) You're right that the standard Z-Star was a yard or two shorter with irons than the Pro V, should have included that! I'm not sure about your reason to suggest that the Z-Star balls couldn't be longer as it's really a matter of how well the spin characteristics of the ball match up with your personal launch conditions as to which ball will play longest for an individual! For someone else it may be different but for me it was longer by measurable amounts with the Z-Star-X.

Just got some today, both the star and the X versions and their awesome! Normal star is SOFTER than the Pro V (finally after 6 years of asking someones listened) and performs very similarly too (if anything slightly longer, same trajectory and spin). The X is a touch firmer than the Pro V but no where near as hard as the V1X, significantly longer on iron shots for me but only a touch longer with the woods. Spin is very similar feel off the putterface brilliant, if the New Pro V1 isn't a superstar then i'm gaming these this year!

The lighter shaft wouldn't play softer if it still had the same properties in terms of torque and flex profile but it would feel less hard work to swing. I've been playing a 67 gram Aldilla shaft for the last 3 years and am just in the process of changing. Last week I was trying a few out and my pro suggested that I try the newest model from aldilla, so I did and it felt like a board, incredibly hard to swing. Checking the stats on it everything was the same, flex, torque, kickpoint, carrydistance, launch angle, EVERYTHING! All except the shaft was a massive 4 grams heavier and it made the world of difference to the way the club felt! If the direction was good with the regular shaft (not hooking) i'd suggest sticking with the regular flex but going for a higher kickpoint! Try the Aldilla N-Gage 55, Graphalloy Prolaunch Red or Graphalloy prolite 35. Good luck.

Lamkin cross-line on irons, wedges and woods and a nice Grip-Master leather wrap grip on the putter for me! I'd love all Grip-Masters if I could afford them tho!

The slope version gives you an estimate of how much the slope of the ground is going to affect the distance the ball travels. It's a neat little feature and particularly helpful if you're playing a practice round for an event on a course you've not seen before (saves a couple of miss clubs in the first one or two rounds) but if you're using a range finder in the tournament proper you have to use one without that feature so you'd have to buy a second! I also prefer the range finder to the GPS unit as I prefer the greater accuracy level involved and the ability to take a distance to anything that I see (e.g. layups you can laser to the stream/ bunker and hit a club that won't reach). Occasionally front and back of green yardages are useful (I just use a normal yardage book when I need one!), but most of the time it's the pin thats the thing!

I've got a big block of wood that I place on the putting green when working on the shorties (2-8ft)! Works the same as the tee drill, i put it by the toe if i'm taking the putter outside and by the heel if coming too much inside! Helps with alignment as well. In my experience most of the best putters (should say holers out!) do take the putter pretty straight back and through on putts of inside 6 or 7 feet but longer than that and it gets v. difficult!

I LOVE my KZG wedges! Try them or the Scratch wedges if you're looking for a softer feeling option. I've played Vokeys in the past (affected by the hype!) but if you do a bit of research you can find better stuff than the 'marquee' brands.

I agree, something about a Bettinardi Black Carbon just feels right! I think $400 is a touch out of my range for a putter at a moment, even one as good as the Byron Morgan, but i'll keep a look out for the second run, cheers, Jenks.

Thanks guys. That Byron Morgan is one sexy putter, what does one of those go for? And where do you get them?

One of the guys at our club turned up with a new Bettinardi putter that he bought off a tour pro. It is called a BC07 and is an 8802 style in a sweet black finish. Does anybody know anything about this putter and if it will be released to the public as it isn't shown on the mizuno website? Cheers, Jenks.

Pro V1! "The question is, why would I play ANYTHING ELSE!". LOL