allenc

The newer hollow irons give you lots of game improvement properties in nice compact shapes. The three lines I can think of are the p790, Ap3, and i500. They're a bit more expensive than other irons though. Tons of other irons these day are also tweeners. The old "players" vs "game-improvement" is becoming an outdated dichotomy.

In the 900s, the forged and hot metal had exactly the same lofts. It’s interesting that now they decided to separate them by 2 degrees in the longer clubs and 1 degree in shorter clubs. I tested the 900s and it did seem like the Hot Metals got up in the air quite a bit and the Forged not quite as much. So this might actually bring them to perform more similarly. However, I though that the fantastic launch and spin of the Hot Metals for a near super game improvement club was one of their strong points. If these lofts bring the flight down some that might not be the best for some players. I agree. And I would guess that the Forged play similar to the MMCs. The lofts will be exactly the same and other head specs are pretty similar. Should mostly depend on what kind of iron you want to look at or maybe feel. Between these, the Srixons, and the Pings it might be iron buying season. They are all in my wheelhouse.

If your hands get sweaty, you’ll need a glove. No grip that I’ve found is good enough for a sweaty hand. It looks like the Karma Velour is a typical Tour Velvet so is will be firmer than the DriTac. The DriTac, which I’ve used, will be slightly better when moist but again, I don’t think it will be counteract sweaty hands well enough to be used without a glove.

Sorry to break it to you, but just because you shoot some score with a bunch of mulligans does not mean you “coulda” shot that. We are all better than scratch if we get do overs on our bad ones.

If you can't shoot in the 80s, move forward a set of tees. Repeat.

Get the Rogue Pros. Some online reviewer said something negative about them? The most important reviewer loves them.

Its either the Exotics 5 hybrid or the CBX 22*. If the club doesn't fit squarely between your 3 hybrid and your 5 iron then you probably want it a little closer to your 5 iron, right? So go with the Exotics 5.

Nice post @jas80s. I agree with your fitter that in many cases, if you’re a mediocre golfer, new clubs will not benefit you much. You didn’t mention what your old clubs are but, reading between the lines, I assume the fitter thought they were already a decent fit for you. If they were way off he may have been able to come up with something that performs better, not because of new technology but just from more appropriate specs. Drivers from 5-7 years ago are pretty similar to drivers today. In my opinion most of the advances in the last several years have been more options, more adjustability, better looks, and better feel. It’s hard not to falter under the onslaught of the golf club advertising machine but it really mostly is just marketing. And going against the grain here, that includes the “get fit” mantra — especially for average golfers. They might need some general equipment advice, but not a 2 hour trackman session.

It’s interesting that even two guys who are know for hitting it incredibly far for their size get it done in completely different ways. Very behind him and “one-plane”ish for Rory and arms incredibly high for Justin. Tiger of course sitting there in completely textbook position.

Fyi, the P770 is analogous to the Ap2 (player’s cavity back) and the P790 is analogous to the Ap3 (hollow player’s distance iron). If you are considering TaylorMade P750 then that would be more like the Titleist CB (minimalist cavity back). And of course each company’s blade would be comparable. They all look close to blades from the top IMO except the P790, which is a bit bigger. The AP3 has more noticeable offset than the others.

Until you can answer that question yourself, there is no need to upgrade. Once you can hit it solidly enough to be able to tell that your driver, for example, isn’t giving you all that it should be able to, then it is time to upgrade that club.

I don’t think this is the right way to frame your decision. IMO what is most important is finding the right coach. One who works well with you, knows his stuff, and tells you things the way you need to hear them to make the appropriate changes. And also emphasizes the proper practice plan.

Some courses offer 30 year old garage sale rental sets, others offer the latest Taylormades. So yeah, you never know.

Do you take lessons? Rather than a fitting, my suggestion would be to take at least one lesson from a good pro and then ask him to help you pick out used clubs on eBay. Otherwise most fittings and buying used clubs are mutually exclusive. They usually involve recommending custom new clubs that will cost over $1000 for a full set. Even if money is no object you may quickly grow out of clubs “fit” for a rank beginner. One other thing. What kind of rental clubs do you use? If you like them, or some of them, you could use those models as a starting point. Again, I would a take a lesson using them and ask if they are good for you or if something else would be better.

At the very least you need to borrow someone’s heavier iron and see if you like it better. Just buying some random stiff shafts online would be a shot in the dark to help you with anything. To my understanding iron shafts that are too weak will not hurt you much. If you are experience extreme misses it is almost surely not because of your shafts. That being said with your swing speed a fitter would probably recommend something on the stiffer side.

Definitely take your entire old set for comparison. The quality of fittings vary greatly so it’s hard to know what to expect. You’ll definitely be hitting lots of shots with various club builds. And you will most likely end up with a much better set than your $50 pawn shop set. Enjoy.

They all used to talk about how great a putter Jordan was. Guess not anymore.

Tiger needs to start hitting some fairways.

Patrons didn’t help after all. Tiger probably bogies if he misses them.

Interesting. So you’re saying that Web.com players simply play more aggressively because their goal is to finish near the top for the season to get their PGA tour card. Conversely, on the PGA tour they are trying to avoid finishing near the bottom and lose their tour card, hence more conservative play. I’m talking new or middling PGA tour players of course.

I broke 80 for the first time in a Golf Channel Amateur event, shooting a 77. I’ve played about 10-12 rounds per year for the last three years. I went in with some swing thoughts that had been really helping but I kicked the day off with one of my worse range warm up session ever. I simply had the shanks. Heel slices with the driver. Awful. At the first tee I decided I had to do something. Even though I never practice this, I decided to grip down about 2-3 inches on my driver and just bunt it out there. After all, what I had been practicing wasn’t working. Worked perfectly, right down the middle and maybe 20 yards short of my best drives. I continued this and somehow went on to play just fine. Not brilliant. My scoring came from never really getting in trouble and putting slightly above average. It’s funny, I had maybe 10 putts from 5-15 feet, half for par and half for birdie. I made all of the pars and missed all of the birdies. The round was basically a par train. As the round went on and I gained confidence I started to grip higher and higher on my driver till I was back to normal on the back nine and hit a few nice bombs. Of course there were some holes where things went a little wrong. Hole 5 par 3 had water front and right. For some reason I felt like I had to grip my 5 iron slightly open because I had been using another set where I had to do this to avoid hooks. Not with this set. I hit a push fade that bounced off the cart path to a neighboring tee. My provisional I set up square and blasted a perfect shot straight over the green. Wrong club all along I guess. Anyway, I hit my blind original long into a front bunker and made double. Hole 9 was the longest par 4 into the wind. I hit my 2 hybrid approach shot pretty much the best ever with that club and ended 40 feet past the hole. It was a putt that didn’t seem very downhill but the slope starts increasing a lot around the hole which I didn’t notice. So I hit it well past and 3 putt bogied. Great shot wasted. The back nine went smoothly until short par 4 15 where I had an 85 yard approach. Shank! Oh yeah, now I remember my range session. Bogey. On par 5 16 I had another lob wedge in out of the rough and I was sweating it from the last hole. Stood a bit farther, made some practice swings, but still was probably too stiff with worry and bladed it. Bogey. Bogied par 3 17 unable to get up and down from next to the green. Not a big deal because that was not a common occurrence for this round. Finally the Pete Dye 18 with water left, danger right, and water and bunker guarding the green. I hit a straight drive that didn’t have much pop. 140 to a front flag. I was into the wind but the wind didn’t seem to have much effect all day. This time I thought it might and used 8 iron — one extra club. Felt awful, thin heel I think but it flew nice and gave me a 20 foot putt from just off the front. Jarred for my only birdie of the day and nice redemption for the previous three holes.

Oh I agree with that. I just thought we were talking about whether she was actually trying to get an unfair advantage or just had a brain fart.

I agree. We’ll never really know why she did it. Perhaps she went to instinctually mark it, then thought to herself, “Why am I marking this? It’s a 1 footer. Just put it back down and tap it in.” It could also be fatigue that caused her to do than then misplace it. But that’s still weird. She’s had thousands of short putts in tournaments. She must have a regular routine for them. Ha. I was just wondering if there is any footage of her hitting short putts before the incident. I looked up at the TV and she’s on there and just missed a putt, leaving just over a foot. I’m hoping they show what happens next and they do: she walks up, marks it and walks away instantly. She might have been standing in someone’s line or something so that hardly means anything. But, you know, serendipity.

And @Golfingdad There are a couple points in her defense to the last couple posts. 1. I sometimes lift the ball a couple inches, spin it, and put it back down to check if there is anything on the ball that needs to be cleaned off. So that move isn’t too unusual. 2. I just rewatched a video of the incident that was very close up with good resolution. For the life of me I couldn’t see a thing wrong with the green in front of her. It looked like a pool table. Was it her first or second putt? If it was her first it would give more credibility to seeing if the ball needed to be cleaned — but not really taking much time with that since it was such a short putt.