WUTiger

Also, be aware that some golfers hit hybrids better than fairways. And others hit fairways better than hybrids. Hard to tell from your info. I would suggest a diagnostic fitting with current long clubs. This would show what performance you are actually getting from each club.

Home course has a 370-yard par 4 with a landing area about 20 feet above tee box. If I push or pull a drive, I can end up in a similar situation in light rough. This particular green has four distinct nodes to it, so from even closer in "hitting to center" is not a sound option. (Hitting the wrong node and three-putting is enraging.) But from 190 yards out... depends on how your day is going. If hybrid have been flying smoothly, go for it. If not, lay up short and chip on. Also, what does terrain look like in "long miss" zone? In the courses I play, some greens are set inside a horseshoe, or mini-amphitheater. This means a miss - long or side - can leave you with a downhill angle pitch or chip out of shaggy turf.

That's understandable. Our league uses it for one-day medal play matches, but not in our annual championships.

Any chance he's confused about the new local rule option for OB? He might not realize that the shot - after his drop on edge of fairway - will be his fourth.

Depends on which tee is used. Tee A: Let 7W land soft and roll out, then aim 7i at left edge of green and fade it. Tee B: Though shorter, be more aggressive. Hit a chokedown driver. If it flies into water, take one-stroke drop and play on. Lay-ups on shots like this usually end up in bad stuff, farther from green than aggressive try would be. A full or chokedown SW would do it for approach.

Yeaaaaars ago, I had a pro work me into this method, weight on left foot (front foot) throughout. This was before anyone talked about StackNTilt. Result for me: I was solid with my short irons and wedges, ho-hum with medium irons, and had lots of trouble with low pulls with my long clubs. If it works for you throughout your bag, go for it. I just know it didn't work for me.

Power Five football set the stage for returning to college in a different sport. A decade later, Oklahoma State did the same thing with Brandon Weeden, another former pro baseball player. Weeden also played QB, and eventually had seven seasons in NFL.

Yes, I lost my swing when I was up in Jefferson City, MO playing with my brother. I asked him to ship it to me if he can find it.

GolfWorks sells a magnetic loft and lie gauge for $15, and a heavier protractor for $20.

Pre-COVID, Ping would show up at the St. Louis Golf Expo, and a few of the course-based demo days during season. The Ping team always had at least two of their experienced product reps.

Know what you mean. The course has shuffled the White and Gold (senior) tees a couple of times a season. Hole reworks keep things in state of flux. And, half the time I play in AM when course has been set up for a noon scramble tourney. Thus, half the Gold tee blocks get moved back to White zone. So, if I register the Gold rating, my differential jumps because of the longer course.

and your point is... I've been on TST hiatus for quite awhile, so I've lost track of your Sweet 16 mix. Apparently Tour Edge is out and Srixon is in. If you remember, the TE reps billed the CBX family hybrids as left-proof. CBX Tour available on TE-Pre for about $180. But, what shaft did you have in your CBX? Of I remember right, you had gone to heavyweight R-flex in your irons. Your story sounds like me and the FlyZ hybrids: got fitted for one in late summer, used in fall tournaments, but had trouble with it in ensuing seasons. Sometimes the fitted clubs don't work out in combat. What you might do... For one round: move up a set of tees, and hit the hybrids for all tee shots. Due to lesser distance than driver, you will be hitting lots of hybrid approaches. If you had a round where you hit 25-30 hybrid shots, you would notice things about the clubs. Can you find the adjustment, or are the ZX simply a no-go? Again, from your shared past history, I'm surprised you could use a draw-biased anything. And, congrats on the 1.5 HDCP! Any regional tournaments coming up?

@onthehunt526, people like me who started playing golf in the previous century were hitting greenside cut shots with SW for 15 years before the Tom Kite turned us on to the LW. It wasn't like one of those silly pharma TV ads where someone 48 hours out of heart surgery say, "Gee, I wonder if there's something better than Warfarin?" We just tried to make the best swing we could with the clubs we had... sometimes a 7i chipNrun, sometimes a PW, sometimes the SW cut. If you can work the 56* as your main close-in club, go for it. But, I'm sure you have a couple of courses where the 58* goes back in the bag. Put the LW to the side, but don't chop the shaft for your daughter just yet. In my revised bag, I have 48*, 54* and 58*. As for the LW, you probably don't need one - until you do. As for me, the 60* LW has always been problematic for something other than greenside shots. The 58* is a lot more stable for up to a 3/4 swing. Not all LWs are created equal! Nowadays, inside 20 yards it's mostly 58* cut shot (not lob), or 7i chip shot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative viewpoint. Ten years ago, my wife and I went on our first spring golf vacation. We showed up at a small resort, and met two golfers from the local college. For both, the highest lofted wedge was a 56*. I asked one how it worked. He said, "Uh, I'm smart enough not to shortside myself. So, why do I need a lob wedge?"

He can still have a Foster's.

We - who are well over 60 - are giving general advice regarding someone who is in his Sixties. The "3/4" swing remark is one of the identifiers that a Dustin Johnson swing is no longer possible. And, balance exercises and club fittings can help the person out. In my old Senior group, people who dumped their Titleist DCI 2i and 3i for hybrids had big improvements in their game. So, @Shorty, print out this thread and put it in an envelope. When you turn 60, grab a cold open the magic envelope and review the printout! And if the rest of us are still alive, you can contact us for updated advice.

We met several years ago at the St. Louis Golf Expo. @Club Ratthen invited me to play WingHaven GC, one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf since I returned to StL. P.S. CR is a better golfer than I am.

First, I want to mention balance. As people get older, they encounter a diminished sense of balance. Gyms which have special workout sessions for seniors now include specific exercises to improve balance. As for me, like OP's father I have also gone to a 3/4 swing. But I get much better control and swingspeed with this than trying to reach high as in olden days. Reach high leads to a downswing in which I feel like I'm falling out of a tree. As you get older, getting fitted more often becomes important. After a couple of years with specific fittings, I can self-tweak for awhile. But one day, things just don't work any more. Time for another fitting, either a rough one at demo day or a detailed one at golf shop. Started struggling with consistent distance yardage at end of 2019 season. Now, I have switched out long clubs - driver through hybrid - with one change being shafts 10 grams lighter. Irons are coming up this spring. Suddenly a seemingly solid 7i can go anywhere from 130 to 145 yards. My current model has KBS Tour 90 steel shafts, about 101 grams raw. In four straight senior tournament rounds I played at end of 2020, I was the only one in the group still swinging steel shafts in irons... Maybe there's a pattern there? 😟 P.S. - Yes, my sig line is out-of-date for clubs.

Good choice for set break. Mizuno recommends blending sets between 4i and 5i. As for what to do with loft gap, Here are your lofts for the MB20s: HMB Iron MB 19* 3i 21* 22* 4i 24* 25* 5i 27* 6i 30* 7i 34* ------------------ You would need to test out the set at the mix point to tell for sure. First you need to test out the MB 5, 6, and 7i yardages to find out MB internal gaps. If the MB 5i is a bit hotter than other faces, it could overcome the 3-degree loft gap 5i-6i and not be a yardage issue. But, if the 5i-6i distance gap is less than 6i-7i, you might bend the MB 5i to 26*. Otherwise, you might bend the HBM 4i to 23*. The two HMB irons, being hollow-headed, might be a little hotter overall than the base MBs. Again, test out the irons for yardage gaps. Don't bend unless there is a consistent gap.

In early April, St. Louis area courses kinda closed, but they didn’t… Played a few nine-hole “stealth rounds” at home course, but range was closed due to COVID social distancing restrictions. Didn’t play first posted round until June, when courses “reopened.” After that got in range time about once a week separate of play days. I played 21 posted 18-hole rounds at these courses: Stonewolf Golf Club (5) Cape Girardeau Country Club Dalhousie Golf Club (2) The Landings at Spirit Golf Club St. Peter’s Golf Club Jefferson City Country Club Tanglewood Golf Club The Quarry at Crystal Springs (2) St. Clair Country Club (4) Bogey Hills Country Club Fred Arbanas Golf Club Acorns Golf Links Dalhousie and Jeff City+Tanglewood hosted two-day state level tournaments where I was out of my league, but I got a chance to play three excellent courses (Dalhousie and Jeff are upscale private clubs). I guess the state group was short on players this year – I got offered a slot for team competition against Kansas, although I finished bottom half in all four rounds. The Quarry hosted the local two-day amateur circuit “handicappers” championship. Only played two of their summer events, but still got invited. Total field – all ages – was only 40 golfers instead of normal 90-100.

Here's a tip from the Golfworks Clubmaking Academy: Often used in fine-tuning driver... if a person has consistency problems, put a face decal on the driver. Have the person hit 10 shots. If the impacts are scattered all over the decal, chances are the person has a driver that's too long. As for the 47" driver... back in the prior century, I broke the steel shaft in my persimmon-headed driver. Standard driver length back then was about 43.5" inches. Just for fun, I had the clubsmith put in a shaft 48" long. The good news: the ball really went a long way, often total distance of 270 yards - with persimmon head! The bad news: the ball sometimes went deep into the trees, and my second shot was a chip shop back to the fairway. In late August, I had the clubsmith trim it back to 43.5" long. (It heavy swingweight was also hard to swing along about hole #17.

if you wanted to try some Vokeys, see if Titleist Thursdays option is still available. Under TiTh, you could schedule an outdoor Titleist fitting with a local pro participating in the program. Don't know if it's still active under COVID restrictions. You would get a Vokey session outdoors, baseline distances for your current wedges and comparable Vokey wedges. Then you can try out different grinds to see what you can discover. As for you, are your current wedges getting the job done? If so, the challenge would be blending your current wedges into your new irons. You may find an odd distance gap between iron PW and specialty G, S and L. If wedges have been a problem in the past, lead off with a short-game lesson to ensure you don't have any set-up or swing flaws that are hurting your wedge game. If you rely on square-face wedge shots, chances are the Callaway S-grind and the Vokey F-grind would be a good starting point.

As far as two per cart, it will return once COVID.19 data gets analyzed and a vaccine emerges. One would hope testing becomes more available so the health care people can better classify people as per their risk (to and from) COVID.19. Lots of posters have talked about the benefits of walking over riding, and the problems on spread-out courses where it can be 500 yards from last green to next tee. So, no comments from me on this. One influence on cart culture might be an upswing in the use of Golfboards. These are those two-wheeled, single-golfer battery operated "golf surf boards" that emerged a few years back. The weight pressure of the tires causes 30% less stress on the turf as two-person riding carts, and a familiar golfer can play 18 in about 2.5 hours on one of these. As of now, purchase costs for a GolfBoard is around $6,000; this is about what you would pay for a new, low-end two-person riding cart. Golfboard web site talks about how popular the devices are. But, I have yet to see any at courses in eastern Missouri-western Illinois "Gateway PGA" zone.

Thinking back a couple of years... What if you went with a Tour Edge CBX or CBX.119 hybrid in 19* or 20*? Would this be an alternative to the 2i/3i standoff? Depending on the course you could go Charlie Beljan (no 3W), or go 3W + CBX hybrid. Or, just go out and play golf... I remember how hard it was to get you to Sweet 16! And, the best to Alina and you.

Last year at a scramble, I saw a 20-something playing Ping Eye2 irons. Leave well-enough alone! Play them as is.

Here's a note on shafts you mentioned. For years, the default stock True Temper "Wedge Flex" shafts have been variations on the DG S300. Sometimes, the Wedge Flex was as softstepped S300. Here is a 2012 clip from the Vokey SM4 wedges: The softstepping gave a little extra spin on partial shots. The Callaway MD4 and MD5 wedges offer the DG 115 Tour Issue S200 shaft, 15 grams lighter than most of the wedge flexes. (MD5 offers Catalyst and Recoil shafts also). A "variation on a theme" was the Cleveland TRAction (tour reflex action) shaft. It was about 120 grams, and had a heavy butt (low launch) and soft tip (extra spin). TRAction appeared about 2010, being used in the CG10 through CG16 wedge models. The TT Spinner Flex, which arrived in 2011 with the in-shaft kink, had similar dynamics.