RWC

Use a G30 7 wood for past 2 seasons. Love it for reliable 160-170 yards. As my swing speed slows (age 67), I've found the 7 wood and my 4 wood are much closer in distance but I seem to be more reliable with 7 wood.

Have OA affecting both knees and ankles. Doctor sent me to PT to help strengthen muscles around the knees as well as improve flexibility in hips. PT has been a big help along with narrowing stance and flaring both feet. Still take NSAID before rounds and soak afterwards.Try to walk as many rounds as possible and dropped handicap from 14 to 12 last year. Working to get back into single digits for 2020.

I moved from 12.5 to 12.4.

I tend to have a similar problem with new courses as well. My miss tends to be steering the driver and then pulling my irons - both misses that seldom appear on my regular course. After I've played a new course 3 or 4 rounds, I seem to relax more and my old swing tends to return. Unfortunately by then, I've lost a few beers and lunch bets :-(.

Now that the handicap season has ended in Illinois, it's time to compare to 2018. 2019 year end Index. 12.5 2018 year end index. 13.0 While the index improved only slightly, looking at my golf stats for errors (bad tee shot, bad chips, bad sand shot and 3 putts) I improved from 4.9 strokes to 3.7 strokes per round. My target is 3.5 strokes which equates to my overall target of a 10 index. Now its time to dive into my golf library for the winter and look for an off-season golf trip.

Good luck to the OP in finding balance both in your golf as well as lifestyle. I've been retired for 11 years and my golf game has slowly gotten stronger but only after a couple of years of way too much golf - it got to the point where it seemed almost like a job. Now I play twice a week and practice 1 day - this has become a reasonable balance for my body and my enthusiasm. As to the year round aspect - well living in Chicago, we are happy to have a 7 month season. Snow on the ground for the last couple of days but might hit 45 next week - perfect for a quick 9 holes. Best of luck!!

Got picked as well - seems like we still need to get selected on the 16th for the actual ticket selection lottery. Starting to sound like the PGA played us a little. Will fell better if I actually get to buy tickets on Wednesday.

Count me as a 7W devotee. I have a fairly slow swing speed (80-85 mph) and have found the 7W gives me a better ball flight and control/contact as compared to my 2 / 3 hybrids. I think each golfer is probably different on this issue - some will like 7W more, others will hit the hybrids better. Find what works best for you and tune out the background noise.

@iacas congratulations on the well deserved recognition. This just confirms the quality of your excellent teaching and analytical comments we are lucky to enjoy on this site! Thanks for all the hard work.

Had one of those rounds today - 9 hole league play and I shot a 47 with 2 doubles and 7 bogeys. Just could not make anything work and harder I tried the worse it got. So... next week I am going to play my hickories - ignore the score and try and have fun. Hopefully that will banish the demons in my head / swing and I can get back to my more normal game of low to mid 80's. If that does not work then its time to dust off that bottle of brandy and hit the range.

I bounce between hickory clubs, vintage and nearly modern and typically play with 7-8 clubs. My current nearly modern set is 8 clubs (Ping G30 driver and 7 wood, i20 irons (5-7-9-GW) and Ping Glide 56 deg. Use an old Ping Kushn putter. Handicap has dropped from 14 to 12 this season. I have been concentrating on making the bad shots better and reducing the unforced errors. I like the challenge of making clubs handle various type shots. Would I play better with 14 clubs - who knows - key at my age is to have fun!

Luke Donald has been out quite some time on a medical disability - he still has a few medical exemption starts available when the 2019-2020 season starts up. He also should a career money exemption to use if need be to cover 2019-2020. Hopefully Donald can get his health and game back in time.

I will be 67 in a few weeks - and play to a 12 index. Based on my GPS watch, I am averaging 184 yards this season with my tee shots. Key for me is to hit fairways, avoid the dumb mental errors (fat chips, 3 putts, etc) and work on short game. I try to play from tees in the 5800 - 6000 length. I also have flexibility exercises I do each day and walk when I play. Good luck with your game. Bob

Well the 74 on Saturday was not his worst 3rd round this season - maybe (hopefully) he's turning the corner. A round in the 60s today could be on tap. I'm going to the BMW next week and hope he and Tiger are both there.

I'm pretty much same boat as the OP - use the Pro V until its scuffed up and then into the shag bag. Most of my rounds are on a course without cart paths so I can get 5 - 10 rounds before its retired.

Sadly JS may be an example of the "Perfect is the enemy of Good" syndrome. Hopefully he can get is his head and swing working together.

I have found that I putting more effort into playing smarter made a difference. Dropped my handicap from 16 to 12 over past 2 years. I have re-read LSW several times and have worked to eliminate several "dumb" mistakes that plagued me: chipping - always get the chip onto the green - better to have 20' putt attempt than 2 chips. Same with sand shot - get it on the green! Lastly, putt better and avoid the 30" 3-putt scenario. These 3 things have helped me cut down on the doubles and my scores reflect it.

Good luck with your 7-wood. I have the G30 7-wood and really love it and the versatility it offers.

Guess it must be really hard to justify / recoup the corporate investment necessary for this tour - seems like its a new name every 5 years or so. Only people who must love this are the logo companies!

Nice to know someone else has perfected that shot as well. It seems to be one of my favorites. When I go back to a 9 iron, I seem to maintain the shaft angle and hit the right distance. Damn this is a crazy game!

+/- 5 or 10 yards is certainly a normal variance for any of my clubs. If I am worried about being long then I choke up about 1/2 to 1 inch and then try and put a normal swing. Key is to swing normal and not decelerate as means of hitting shorter. Never have been able to "stand on" the shorter iron to get more distance - almost always get the pull shot or fat shot.

Daily stretching exercises are key for me. Also started using a push cart if I'm playing 18 holes (still try to carry if only playing 9). Industrial strength pain meds help the arthritis as well as soaking in an epsom salt bath with a glass of vino after the round.

I track a variety of stats for each round and generally try to score my best - unless I am playing by myself and then I will often ignore the score and instead hit multiple balls working on whatever aspect of my game needs some extra work.

Jealous of you guys that can hit balls before you play. Course I normally play was designed back in the 20's and didn't include a practice range. I try to use a tip I heard Johnny Miller talk about: 20 consecutive swings (right handed) and then change grip and do the same 20 swings left handed. I then work on a few 30 ft putts for distance and 3 ft putts for those TV tap-ins. Not a great preparation but I am no longer surprised when my tee shot on number 1 is one of my longest 2 or 3 drives for the day.

Hmm.... 3 sets of Ping, 2 sets of Hogan and then there are the hickory clubs -3 sets of those. Don't even ask how many putters!