Meddle

In my experience, the main difference is the ball flies slightly lower with stiffer shafts and rolls out more. I also find the feel a bit rougher with stiff steel shafts.

Like most of us, time is the biggest problem. Other than that, I need to do a better job taking advantage of my good drives and put the ball on the green from 150 and in more often. My scores are pretty much a function of how many GIR's I hit that day.

Totally agree. The biggest difference between when I averaged in the 90s versus now comes down to knowing where my ball is going to go when I hit it. I also think the short game (chips and pitches) are similar to the full swing, so improving my full swing has helped my short game as well. Getting there for me has simply come down to practicing and playing more often. I have seen some pretty ugly swings result in low 80's scores. Maybe to get down consistently in the 70s would take lessons and a more fundamentally sound swing, but 80s are attainable for a lot of people I think.

Great advice! Can't be afraid to execute shots out there. I need to apply this to my own game more often...

When I start slicing, it's usually because I am bringing up the club too high (for me) in my swing. I bring the club back flatter (think Kuchar) and for some reason that gets my swing back on track.

Unfortunately it is not. I have hit numerous Ping putters including a bunch of old ones and have yet to find one that actually makes a "ping" noise!

Like some have said, my strengths and weaknesses slowly change... Lately, my driving has been my biggest strength. I hit it pretty long and pretty straight, with a few big hooks or slices a round when my tempo gets too fast or slow. My biggest weakness is short iron shots. Too often I push or pull them, or just line myself up wrong, and I'm too far from the pin for a reasonable chance at birdie (or par).

I have been shooting the best scores of my life so far this year (broke 80 three times in March!) with this bag: Ping G20 10.5 stock reg. Taylormade Rescue 11 16 set at 16.5 stock stiff Ping G2 HL 3-5 irons stock reg steel Ping G2 6-U stock reg steel Ping iWedge 56 Ping Anser 3 putter (was my Dad's old putter)

A scorecard from playing with my Dad a few years back on a golf vacation. We both had the exact same score, 86, and really enjoyed the course. My Dad was a big reason I got into golf in the first place, and now it is one of the major things we have in common. I'm not really a "momento" kind of guy, but I'll always keep that scorecard.

I find choking down 2 inches on my driver makes a world of difference, both in making better contact and avoiding unwanted side spin.

One of the really nice things about just starting is you will see rapid improvement with practice, which motivates you to practice even more. All of us started out terrible at golf, and many of us started playing as adults (I did). You can definitely learn it and get better, just try to remember the good shots, and not get discouraged! You will get better, I promise!

I think that it's a legitimate question even for lower handicap players. I think ultimately playing with equipment you like and "feels" right can be just as important as fit. After playing for a few years and trying different irons and drivers, I can tell what stiffness shafts feel right in my swing or if the lie angle on a set of irons are right for me. And quite frankly, even when I play with a set of irons that don't fit me right or a stiffer or looser-shafted driver I don't score all that different. That said, I have never been professionally fit... and those that have been usually rave about how great it is.

You know, for me the experience has been the other way around. When I started golfing (in my early 20's) I would just kill it, but had no control whatsoever over the ball flight. As time went on, I kept on dialing back on my swing until I had it under control. Now, I can't swing as hard as I used to even if I try (in my late 20's now). I even look back at some of my previous posts when I first joined this site (2009), talking about my typical iron distances, and can't believe I used to do that. I scored worse then than I do now despite having a higher swing speed, so the correlation between swing speed and skill can't be exact. After thinking more about it today, I think you guys are really on point, saying that learning to swing hard young brings the greatest benefits. As a golfer who has not gotten any better for years and with limited time to practice, I am always trying to think of some way I can improve away from the course (as ridiculous as that sounds), like through working out. I haven't been too successful so far By the way Hammer, that's a nice 9i, 140!

Ultimately, this is probably the right answer to all my questions. But it's more fun to over-analyze it on the forum :)

My thought is, ideally you want to swing as hard as you can without losing balance, say, 90-95% of what you can muster with a driver. If you can't hit the swing spot or control your ball flight, then rather than swinging easier, practice swing mechanics and work on flexibility and strength until you can control it. Get as much swing speed as you can first, work on control later. I agree that if the trouble is bad enough, one should lay up off the tee. However, I think we often overestimate the risk involved and underestimate the reward of a shorter iron into the green. I think there comes a point of diminishing returns when it comes to practicing the short game. When you know how to hit the basic shots and you have some experience, I wonder if working on swing speed (or controlling it) is of greater value. Especially with some of the studies I have been reading.

For the past few years, my golf focus has been to improve scores by throttling back the driver (and hit more Fairway Woods) in an effort to hit more fairways. However, I have been doing some research lately and have found things like this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15712503 and this: http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/blogs/theinstructionblog/2014/02/fitness-friday-fantasy-vs-real.html It got me thinking about a comment a friend of mine made last year who used to be on the Hooters tour and played some Nationwide events. I asked him what I should work on in my game, and he said I should work on swinging the driver as hard as I can, just within the limits of my control. He said worry about trajectory control later, that hitting the ball as far as I can is more important. So all this has me wondering: shouldn’t maximizing potential clubhead speed be top priority among all golfers? If clubhead speed really is highly correlated with handicap per the studies above, shouldn’t stretching and developing core and forearm strength be fundamental to getting serious about improving scores? If clubhead speed is a valid indicator of performance in golfers (per the first study above), why should we spend so much time working on our short game, especially those of us who have been playing awhile and have some experience? Which brings me to a similar question: Is there any situation where we should hit anything but a driver on a par 4 or 5? One scenario on a course I often play is a 320 yard par 4 with a narrow fairway lined with trees. My leave after hitting driver is usually about 70 yards, with hybrid its 100+ yards. My gut tells me its worth getting as close to the hole as possible, to accept the risk/reward scenario this hole presents. What do you all think, especially given the information above on the importance of club head speed and distance?

The best iron set for you depends on so many factors... Do you want to hit the ball higher and softer into greens, or lower your ballflight? Do you need to look down on blade-like irons or can you stand GI clubs? Do you dig deep divots or clip the ball (or somewhere in between)? I hate to repeat typical cliche's, but I have learned the hard way: Try out clubs you are interested in before you spend big money. Get a demo club and take it to the course, hit it from the rough, the tee, around the green, and see how it plays for you. Until I did this, I never found a set of irons I was truly satisfied with.

This... Thinking of "nothing" only works when I'm hot. I usually need a swing thought or two on my full swings. Short game, usually my only thought is to accelerate through impact on every shot.

Russell Henley: -13 John Huh: -13 Sang-Moon Bae: -13

The most important thing is, Have Fun! And to get better, play and practice as much as you can! Take advantage of all the time you have to play! The older you get, the less time you have to play. Many of the better players I play with got good at golf when they were younger.

If I were you I would sell your current driver on ebay and either look into a new one or swing some used ones at Golf Galaxy. Find one that has a shaft you like the feel of and a head you like the look of, and pull the trigger.

I believed for a long time that I simply could not play a 3 or 4 iron, that I needed to play hybrids. This past year I tried a 3 iron for the first time in years and actually hit it really well consistently. I'm tempted to try out a 2i for the hell of it.

Have you hit the i20's on the range? I don't know what clubs you use now, but I noticed that they lowered my ball flight a good bit when I tried them at a demo day. I would also hit some balls with a 3* flat Ping iron to make sure you are comfortable with that before you jump at the purchase. Like someone else said, that is a pretty big jump from standard.

This is all true, but I wonder if for under $100 he can do much better than the stock XCon he has in his driver already. Only one way to find out I guess.