jimnm

Welcome to TST! I would recommend adding a putter. 🙂 Also, you might want to consider a 3 wood. You may want to add either a hybrid or 5 wood depending on your gapping and preference. Also if you have a yardage gap between your SW and PW you can always add a gap wedge (or some call it an approach wedge). Basically, I would try to get yardages for all your existing clubs and try to fill the gaps where the need is.

The answer to this question is no. As I stated in a follow up post (quoted below), the provisional ball landed short and right of the tree that the original tee shot was likely to have landed.

This is very true. I just started reading LSW a week ago and realized that GolfTec and LSW (5SK) march you down the same path. Good stuff!

I am currently taking lessons at GolfTec and have been pleased with my results. I first started off with a swing evaluation. At the same time, I looked at yelp reviews for the golf coach that gave me my swing evaluation. My swing evaluation went well and the reviews of my coach were very favorable, so I ended up committing to a 12month/25 lesson plan. I'm glad I did. The cost wasn't cheap, but I signed up in March during their "March Madness" sale and paid for the plan in one lump sum, which saved some money. That and having access to their facility (simulator/video etc.) for practice sessions 2 to 3 times a week has made the cost well worth it. If I can manage to find the money in my budget and continue to see my scores improve, I will continue to take lessons. Here is a thread with data on my improvement. I haven't played a round since August. I hope to get out playing this weekend or next and will update my progress.

If that is the case, I would ask your coach for a recommendation on if/when you would benefit from getting fit for new irons. Since they know your swing best.

I would say irons based off of what you posted. There are probably bigger gains to be made in terms of scoring with properly fitted irons. That or invest in lessons since you mentioned you just started playing. Lessons may help with your ball striking and may shed light on if your current set of irons are a good fit for you already. That and buy and read LSW, Lowest Score Wins. I recently just purchased this book and I'm about 2/3 through it. I wish I had read it sooner.

This happens to me too. I'm not the best at picking up my ball mid flight on drives.

I will usually duck down, cover my head with my arms and hands (like a boxer blocks a punch) and turn away from the voice where the "fore" is coming. I probably also crouch down a little and think small. I will yell fore if people are in the general area of the direction of my shot. I do my best to try and yell early. If someone hits a ball in my direction, I would like for them to yell fore so I know it's coming. I like to think the way I duck down will minimize the chance of getting hit in the head or face. I wouldn't want to get hit at all, but protecting the head of face would be my top priority.

I will need to consider this next time I'm in a potential OOB situation. 👍

I should have stated that I played the original ball within 5 minutes of reaching the provisional ball/area of the original tee shot. My provisional was short/right of the tree. I looked under the tree for my original and did not find it. So I hit the provisional. Then walked towards the green and ended up finding the original in front of the tree. Hopefully the original ball was the right play.

Thank you! Yes that was the case. I ended up playing my original ball without penalty which was the correct thing to do. I was playing as a single and one of the guys I was paired up with explained the rule correctly.

Let's say I hit a tee shot with driver and pulled it left. It hits a tree and potentially bounced left into a canyon that is out of bounds. I then hit a provisional ball off the tee and it ends up on the left side of the fairway. I then search for my original ball and I'm unable to find it, so I hit my 2nd shot on my provisional ball and it ends up near the green. After hitting my 2nd shot of my provisional ball, I walk towards the green and end up finding my first tee shot. It had hit the tree and somehow bounced forward, resting beyond my provisional ball tee shot. What is the ruling here? Do I play my first tee shot without penalty? Or do I have to play my provisional ball with a "3 off the tee" penalty?

During practice, I have access to an indoor GC2 simulator and it has given me very accurate carry distance compared to the distances I'm seeing when I play on the course. On course I use Game Golf Live. This tells me my total distance (carry + roll) and find it to be pretty accurate as well. This correlates well to what I see on the GC2 after taking roll into account. These are on sale for about $99. I recommend Costco as their package comes with a second set of tags. But this is for on the course and won't help you on the range. I also have a laser range finder which works well both on course and at the range. When on the range, just shoot various targets for distance and go from there. This also correlates to what I see on the GC2. All 3 of these are well within the accuracy needed for my game at a 20 index. I wouldn't trust markers at the range. They may or may not be accurate. My local range can be off by about 10 yards depending on which bay I'm hitting from. This assumes you are not using flight limited range balls.

Your setup looks good to me. I think you have what you need. As you begin to play more and dial in your distances with your new clubs, you may find that you have a large gap between your 3W and 4i. If so, you can always try to fill that gap with a hybrid or 5W. Also, it's not uncommon to carry a 60* wedge.

Amazing!

It really is. It puts my game into perspective 🙂

I voted 65-70 for Torrey Pines North. They score better on the North than they do on the South. I'm fortunate that I'm able to watch pro's play the same course I regularly play.

That I'm not sure. I don't know how to spot a clone. Mine were purchased new from authorized sellers. Did you demo it and like how it played? Maybe you can ask what the return policy is. Then buy it and do some research on that specific model/year. If you suspect it's a fake you can always return it.

Great find! I have 2 Scotty's and love both of them. They were given to me as gifts. The first was a gift from a friend for being a groomsman in his wedding. It was my gamer for about 6 years. It's a Sonoma (he got married in Sonoma). The other that's in the bag now was a Christmas gift from my wife. It's a 2016 Newport. I plan to pass them along to my son some day. Enjoy!

I was in a similar situation recently so I'll tell you my experience. I started taking lessons over at golftec back in April. Prior to that, I had off the shelf clubs, never been fitted and never had a lesson. In August, after taking lessons for about 4-5 months I asked my coach about getting fitted while bringing up similar concerns that you have. He thought it was a good idea to get fitted. He explained to me that I was at a point where a fitting made sense as future swing changes would not result in a change to my club specs. He ended up fitting me for new irons (this fitting was included in my golftec lesson plan) and since golftec offered most of the major brands I had a good selection to choose from. I was about to buy some Mizuno irons, but then got word that PXG's gen 1 irons were on sale (which I loved the look of and now fell into my budget). Since golftec didn't offer PXG's, I found another local reputable fitter that offered them and ended up ordering some. Both fitters found different specs for me. Golftec, using a GC2, found that I was standard length, 1/2* to 1* upright and recommended KBS tour stiff shafts. But it seemed that I was in between stiff and extra stiff during the fitting and could have gone either way. The other fitter, using trackman, recommended standard length, standard lie for now (they offered to tweak the lie to any iron if needed after playing a few rounds), and DG X100 shafts with a D6 swing weight. It's an extra stiff shaft. Perhaps the increase might affect the stiffness in the shaft, but I'm not sure. At the end of the day they felt great, looked great, and performed great. It was interesting that golftec did not fit for various swing weights. So I'm glad I got the second fitting. Trying out various swing weights really seemed to make a difference for me. The increased swing weight helped with feeling the club head during my swing and resulted in centered strikes more often. So my advice is, if your coach thinks you are ready, then I say go get fit. As far as what to look for in a fitter. I would find one that has a good reputation and can fully build your clubs to your specs. The fitter I found orders the club heads from the manufacturer, then builds the clubs in their shop with the exact shaft, length, lie, swing weight, grip type/grip size, and they also F.L.O. the shaft. Some may argue that F.L.O. doesn't make a difference, but after doing some research it made sense to me on why it's done. It certainly won't hurt. So I'm glad my fitter includes F.L.O. for all the clubs that he builds. I suspect you won't get this level of detail getting fitted at a big box store. As a side note, my old irons were standard length, lie and a stiff shaft. So these were probably still a reasonable fit for me and still play well. But I've had them for 7 years and wanted to try something new. I plan to keep these new irons for at least 5 years. I just took delivery of them yesterday, and can't wait to hit them! Next on my list will be getting fit for a driver and 3W. And I will definitely use my same fitter. Ok that was a very long winded post... Hopefully it helps!

Welcome to TST! I am relatively new to this site as well and have learned quite a bit since I've joined. There are a lot of knowledgeable people on these forums. Cheers!

I don't have a club marked SW. I usually use my 56* wedge out of green side bunkers. I believe it has 12* of bounce.

I just ordered a copy... Looking forward to reading it!

I agree with others. Schedules some lessons if you aren't taking them already. After you see some improvements, consider new clubs if your current clubs are not a good fit. When you do decide to get new clubs, definitely get fitted for them by a reputable fitter in your area.

Beau Hossler did this recently. 5 off the tee. Ended up with a 7 on the first hole on the final round. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/watch-beau-hossler-hit-two-drives-ob-on-his-first-hole-to-get-off-to-brutal-sunday-start-at-the-northern-trust