Moxley

I will try that. It's a regular flex graphite shaft. When you referred to a high flex point above, I assume that you meant a stiffer shaft ?

I'm nowhere near qualified enough to give technical swing advice , but my normal advice to absolute beginners is to find a way to reliably get the shot airborne (few fat/thin shots) , and then improve everything gradually from there. If you can't reliably connect, the experience is miserable, especially in winter where thin shots travel about 30 yards! Sounds like you are already past this point and are hitting fairly decent shots. Even still, I'd recommend working on the swing at the range until you're comfortable enough to use it at the course.

Finally tried this yesterday with the initially mentioned holes, and it worked as expected, both run just off the green and both give me very short putts for par. Appears to be a fairly straightforward trade off between a lack of distance control in return for more lateral accuracy. Not so good if you want a birdie, but can be appealing otherwise.

Thanks WU, You are probably right regarding 2i , although I do have a 16 degree hybrid , and I usually hit it very high. I took my old dunlop 3 Iron out of storage to the range the other day, and , although harder to hit than the hybrids, it had the shot shape I was after - I don't generate a lot of swing speed, but enough to carry the 3i about 165-170 . But the main holes I'd be using this for are ones where i'm expecting a lot of roll, so I can live with lower carry. So basically, something like the 3i but maybe lower and an upgrade on the dunlop. Thank you for the suggestions on shaft and squared heads, neither of which I'd considered. I though tour/pro etc were just marketing words!

Hi All, Really improving my game this summer, and I'm now looking to add a low trajectory shot to my bag. Higher trajactory of hybrids & woods often suits me well, but I also sometimes hit these clubs left (as well as to the right). I'm comfortable with Irons and would like to add a DI or maybe a very low flying low loft hybrid for shots where placement matters more. Would also serve me better on downhill holes. Ideally something with forgiveness for off center hits without anything that encourages a higher trajectory. Even a good standard 2 iron perhaps? Any recommendations much appreciated. Cost is a factor so cheaper is better for me.

If it helps at all, I have reduced my slices to a fairly small proportion of my shots (probably less than 15% all out weak slices, although I do fade a few) having sliced for years. But it's still a natural tendency and I have to remember not to slice it. Didn't see you mention moving the right foot back (and pointed out) which helped for me - allowed me to get the right hip rotation and focus on rotation instead of lateral movement. Slowing things down as much as possible while I worked on it also helped. But if you can't fix your swing, use equipment that makes it manageable - If I try not to slice a hybrid, it will predictably go left.

Difficult to put in percentages because of the reasons already touched on, but if I express as a percentage of how hard I COULD swing while keeping my balance and making (some sort of) contact, then I'd probably say about 75-80%. Driver carries ~215 , 5 iron ~150 so while I don't have a distance problem, I know that at some point I can gain yardage when I'm comfortable swinging faster, but probably not that much. I find that, the more difficult the shot (bad lie, tricky club etc) , the more I benefit from deliberately keeping it slow.

Thanks all, some really encouraging responses. Played the course with my group at the weekend but chickened out and ended up going the direct/high route, slicing way right and getting a 5 on both . Worst 2 holes of my round. So I'm definitely going to practice the bump and run approach now. The 2 ball shot is a good idea, Foot Wedge, and I doubt anybody at my course would have an issue if they weren't waiting, so I'll give that a go next time I go round, Cheers, Matthew

Thanks Alfriday. Just to clarify - when I said not skillful, I'm only describing my perception of the shot, which I'd be very happy to accept may not be accurate :)

Hi , Bit of a hacker's question here . I play on a course semi-competitively once a month with quite a few short-medium length par 3's. 2 of these are flat/downhill enough that the folks who duff the ball who occasionally get lucky and pretty much get there anyway on a dry day. Both greens are protected with bunkers to the right, and various issues to the left after a small amount of rough. My idea was to do a bump and run all the way (~110 yards for one , ~160 for the other , both with 30-40 yards of fairway in front) more or less taking hazards out of play as a really safe shot. Something that would allow for basically a quarter swing so I can guarantee keeping clubface straight ,which lands around start of fairway. I know this is not a skillful way to play, but I'm far more interested in the result .Anyway, I think different ways to play a hole are interesting. My question is , has anybody tried this approach for holes of these sorts of length, and with any success? Any particular club suited for it? 3 wood or 5 wood maybe? Thanks, Matthew

If one is concerned by what ones playing partners think of them, then surely hitting good scores will impress those partners far more than clubs? I've just ordered a 5h after having success with my 3h (4i is replaced with a 7 wood right now, which I just like too much to drop). My only concern with getting a 5h was whether over-reliance would impede my ability to improve as quickly by masking errors. But even if that were the case, I'd rather be able to play consistent golf at this stage, and improve more gradually thereafter. Matter of priorities.

I use ebay , but generally i'm buying balls for the garden practice so can take lake balls. For playing balls, I personally always prefer a new ball to a 'good' ball. Not sure whether that's accurate or not but I figure the loss of quality from being hit many times is greater than the (already small) difference between the brands of ball.

Hi All, Thank you for the responses / welcome messages. I found the swing videos forum, so I will video on my next round (tried last time, but the video just missed some of my backswing so will have to try again. Currently hooks range from just finding the rough , to OOB, I believe the issue is shoulder rotation. Will try and work on a swing thought to make them more consistent in the meantime.

Cured slice, now all over the place Hi All, First post here, although I've read plenty of threads to help me to get to where I am now. I've been playing about 2 years, I initially had lessons to try and fix a slice, which led to usual pointers about closing the clubface. This didn't really work but I kept the thought in my mind always and assumed this was the solution. Having played little over autumn/winter , I found this spring that my slice was getting more severe, especially with the driver. I read these forums (and other articles/videos etc) and realised my problem was clearly an out-to-swing and (OTT downswing), rather than squaring clubface. After much trial and error on range using props and so on, I've been able to solve this by swing 'round' more and ensuring that i don't come back over the top. The result is encouraging, with draw spin and much more distance ( I was stunned by how much further these go). I focus mostly on my shoulder rotation, and not 'looping' the club over at transition to achieve this. The problem is that I'm now inconsistent, especially with the driver - I do far fewer slices, but I am prone to hooks now as well as push or mild slices. This is still a big improvement on where I was, because the lack of slice spin in most of my shots means I'm hitting nearly all of my shots a lot further, and usually closer to the fairway when I miss. However, the chance of now missing both sides has given me a headache in shot planning, and I really need to reduce the variation. I also am still naturally inclined to swing out to in OTT, and have to specifically remember to rotate the shoulders and then come back on the same path, or I miss to the right. Remembering stops a slice, but doesn't guarantee I get the right amount of draw spin. So , other than practice , which i'm doing, how might I best improve consistency with my new swing and reduce curvature ? I have a new Benross 12 degree driver on order, which should help me a small amount from the 10.5. Any tips much appreciated.