Norm66

Ogio makes a bunch of different bags at pretty reasonable prices. Both the golf warehouse (tgw.com) and golfsmith.com have closeouts going on for some 2006 models that might suit you.

I went with the Cobra 3-wood M-speed Offset model. It's last year's, but it was only $110. I also ordered an Ogio Grom stand bag based largely on the review on this site. I can't wait for it to come in though it probably won't be until Tuesday now.

My irons and woods do not have offset. My Adams a2OS 3h does. With my other clubs I use a pretty strong (3 knuckles visible) grip but when I use my normal grip with the hybrid it's very prone to hooking which is a distinct change from my normal slice. At any rate, it's different from my irons & woods but it's really not a big deal for me. Now I'm in the market for a new driver & 3-wood and both the clubs I'm looking at (Cobra M-speed & Cleveland Launcher) are available in offset models but I don't know which way to go. Is offset simply a band-aid to fix a slice? It seems I might be better served to get my swing in shape and go with non-offset clubs, but I'm open to advice. Thanks.

Congrats to Tommy two-gloves. He was clearly the best player out there. One thing all the talk about how good (or not) Big Breakers are is the fact that if they were good enough to get on the Tours they would already be busy doing that instead of playing on a game/reality show on the Golf Channel.

The only glove I've used so far that I really liked was a Srixon I picked up at a course last week. It was only $12 (at an upscale Pro Shop) and I think it's synthetic, but it's far & away the best I've had so far.

Thanks folks! This place is the best. Thanks WTD! That was the shot I was looking for. I too think I'd prefer the Woode top to the ARC.

Thanks Klew. I'd been to their website and was surprised they didn't have some better pics of their products. I miss living in DC when I could go to a specialty store no matter what the specialty was. This area has a severe shortage of such shops. That's why it's so frustrating to me that Ogio doesn't have better descriptions & pics of their products.

I'm semi-familiar with the ' Woode ' tops in Ogio bags, but there's a new one I'm looking at with a 9" ARC top . Anyone familiar with these? The reviews are all positive, but I can't even find a good picture to compare the Woode to the ARC. Living in West Virginia can be a drag, the nearest well-stocked golf department is two hours away at best. Thanks for any help you can provide.

What I did was buy a cheapie set from K-mart and added a couple of wedges to it. When I outgrew that set in about 4 months I stupidly (in hindsight) bought a somewhat nicer complete set from a local clubmaker. My 3 & 4 irons bowed at the topline and the driver I find pretty much useless. I use the 3-wood to tee off and the irons from 4 on up. I replaced the 3i with an Adams 3-hybrid and will soon be buying a new 3-wood, driver and probably 2-hybrid to replace the 5-wood. Add the fact that the bag I got with that kit was a piece of absolute crap (strap connections broke, no way to carry the bag now) and I paid $300 for a 3-wood and 4-PW irons of dubious quality. I'm back to carrying the much sturdier RAM bag I got with my $130 K-mart set and looking at new carry bags. In hindsight I wish I'd picked up the irons and bought woods separately. Irons even in pretty inexpensive sets seem pretty solid to me while woods and hybrids from those same sets are pretty junky. I can't even put into words the difference in quality between my set and the Adams 3-iron (a2OS) I recently added. It's tough because you need something to play with pretty much right away but if you buy cheap stuff you're kind of wasting money because if you stick with golf you will buy more expensive gear down the road. See what works out for you.

I waited until I was old enough (in my case, 34) before I started playing golf specifically because I'd have been a hot head. But now I have a 5 second rule. For 5 seconds after a bad shot I can cuss, look unbelievingly at the sky, try and assess what went wrong, whatever. But after that time I just let it go. It's worked for me thus far.

I just replaced my 3-iron with an Adams Idea a2 OS 3-hybrid. It's my first 'good' club and so far I'm very pleased with it. I only hit a handful of shots with it before going out to play 18 on a course I haven't played since my very first time out last August. It performed quite well, consistently getting me close to my aim-point even when my swing wasn't up to snuff. This course has a lot of mounds so side-hill lies were the order of the day. I can't wait to play it at my home course.

Generally, when a question starts with the words, "Why don't they..." the answer is always Money . The second round cuts in half the number of judges they'd need to have working so it makes sense in that regard. Just my thought. Now that I think about it, wouldn't it be easier, not to mention cheaper, just to have an official at each hole rather than following a specific match? Plus that way nobody could claim favoritism from the rules officials like often happens in other sports.

Golf always seems a little uptight to me, especially the pros on TV. No wonder considering it's their livelihood and the amounts of money involved. Thus far in my watching of the game (all of a few months now) I've really enjoyed the events where the players were a little looser all around like the Skins Game and the Bob Hope. Sure some of the celebs are jerks, but then some of the pros are probably jerks too. I agree with NM Golf about not watching or playing if you don't like it.

When they interviewed him at the Buick they asked if he would consider skipping the US Open. His answer was that if it happened at that time he "would" skip the US Open. Good for him.

I see a number of different weighted clubs for sale from the fancy ones in the magazines with Jim McLean's name through the cheapies available at K-mart. I'm looking for something to keep my back limber and my golf swing (such as it is) in tune while the winter is keeping me from playing. Any thoughts on these?

How about if your belly is big enough that your normal putter becomes a belly putter? That's where I'm at.

Thanks for the replies guys. Seppo kind of nailed it about being fitted for irons. I talked to the local pro/clubfitter-builder and after watching me swing a few times he basically told me I'd be wasting my money having irons custom fitted right now. I'm still too inconsistent to make it worthwhile in his opinion. He says I just needed a better set of clubs, some lessons and more practice at this point. I thought that was cool since it was obviously going to be less money in his pocket than what I had planned to spend. So what I wound up with was a set of Hippo clubs for an incredible deal that are light-years ahead of what I was using up to this point. They're probably low-middle of the road quality wise but a huge step up for me. I hit my average score on 9 holes yesterday using them for the first time despite some really horendous fat shots. The 3-wood seems to average about 15 yards longer than what I'm used to getting and the irons perform better even on mishits. We also got my wife her own set of game improvement clubs, her first. Funny looking things, but her first time at the range she was getting balls up in the air with a lot more regularity than she has in the past. Hopefully having clubs that fit her will help to keep her interest up.

I can tell you that it surely doesn't make it any easier for someone to begin watching golf. I'm constantly confused about which event they're talking about and now with the names changing it's even worse. Will golf someday be like NASCAR?

I currently hit my POS Ram 3-wood between 170 & 180 yards off the tee. I'm not accurate enough yet to even bother with a driver. Now I'm looking to upgrade to a decent name-brand 3-wood to replace my cheapy one. I will very soon be fitted for a new set of irons so I'll have a grasp on my club head speed and know what kind of shaft to get. But I'm open to suggestions as to what clubs to consider. I'll be trying to buy used, possibly from eBay so obviously the latest & greatest are right out. I don't have a problem buying a club that's got a few seasons on it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. thanks, Norm

"You have been playing for awhile now, and you probably are making better contact with the ball more often. That would be my guess to explain your increased distances. It's a natural progression. Congratulations!" Thanks. This is the first "improvement" that I've experienced that wasn't on purpose. I hope someday my 3-wood flies more consistently out of the blue. ;^) I stopped on the way home from work yesterday and lucked into a really nice 52* wedge. There's a guy who runs a driving range & small pro shop behind a gas station/convenience store/general store/grocery store (hey this is West Virginia here) and he had his stock inside the main building on Clearance waiting for the new year's stuff to come out. Part of what he had was Vulcan forged wedges for $25. They look a lot like Vokey or Cleveland wedges. The only thing I didn't like about it is it's highly polished and entirely too shiny. I kind of had my heart set on one of the darker finishes, but for $25 I'm not complaining. I went immediately to the Par-3 course to try out my new wedge and sure enough, it flies just over 100 yards. Since there are about 4 holes between 96 and 104 yards it's my new favorite club on that course. It was also great for chipping when I missed greens. With a little more loft than my PW I was able to run less chips too far past the hole. I'm seriously considering going back today to see if he has a 56* left. I think that would fill the gap between 100 and 60 yards quite nicely. I've got plenty of room in the bag (below 14 clubs) so why not? Thanks again for the help.

Thanks for the help fellas. I went to the par-3 course last night, it's in better shape mud-wise than the local driving range. Plus the yardages are more accurate. It looks like I'm settling about two to two and a half clubs farther than previously. In other words, my 9-iron is going between 120 and 125 (up from 100). I'm still trying to figure out what changed to cause this and whether it's hurt my accuracy (which has also failed a little bit). My new problem is that I apparently need another wedge or possibly two to cover the new distances. My PW is going about 110 on a good shot now while my 60* wedge (the only other one I have) flies only about 60 for some reason. That's a lot of distance to cover by just making a lighter swing. Should I be considering a 52* or 54* wedge perhaps? Thanks again for the help.

Since I finally developed something resembling a golf swing a few months ago, my irons have been remarkably consistent so far as distance goes. My 9 iron would land balls at 102-105 yards and each iron longer added about 10-12 yards pretty consistently as long as I hit it well. I know those distances were quite short, but I've only been playing for 3 months so I was pleased. While playing a round at the local par-3 course 3 weeks ago with my wife I grabbed my trusty 9-iron for the 102 yard opening hole and promptly zinged it straight and high 15 yards over the green. At the next hole, a 112-yarder I grabbed my 8-iron which I had always been pin high with only to whack it high and straight across the railroad tracks beyond the green. It took me most of that trip to re-calibrate myself to the new distances. since then my irons have settled to about 15 yards longer than what I was hitting before (I hit a 5-iron 176 yards on a par-5 last week), but I still have shots where they'll go as far as 20-25 yards farther and get me in trouble long. I can feel when I'm hitting the irons well, my hips seem to lead the parade and it just feels right, but I'm still not able to be very consistent. Now, my 9-iron hits anywhere from 110 to 130 yards depending on how much I put into it. I guess my question is how much effort should I be putting into a 'normal' iron swing? Maybe on a scale of 1 to 10, my long balls are pretty much a 10. I remember in Ben Hogan's book he said to go all-out every swing, but others seem to have other ideas. Any advice to increase consistency of distance?

As a newbie to watching golf on TV I've really enjoyed the Grand Slam and Skins Game because you got to see each player make pretty much every shot. Add in the comments (I wonder what Furyk & Woods were talking about when they had their mics covered) and those were my two favorite events I've seen thus far. I know golf is supposed to be a gentlemen's game and whatnot, but it's nice to hear these pros get a little riled once in a while. Golf is just that kind of game.

Yea, I'd love to get on a launch monitor and have a pro help me out. There's no place near where I live that has one though. Looks like a road trip is in order. Allin- the irons are steel shafted, the hybrids & woods are graphite. The hybrid shafts seem much stiffer than the woods, maybe due to being shorter, but maybe not. I wouldn't necessarily class myself as athletic, but I am a big guy, 6'-3" and well over 300lbs so maybe I am swinging too fast for those shafts. I do think I'll start with the woods, I should be able to replace both of them at once if I save my pennies. Thanks for the advice.

I started golfing a few months ago and bought this set from K-Mart to get started. It's served me pretty well thus far, but I have some concerns that it's beginning to hold me back. I do OK with the irons though I don't hit nearly as far as a lot of folks seem to (100 yds, with a 9i), but the 3 & 4 hybrids and woods don't seem to agree with me nearly as well. The shafts seem unduly flexible for one thing and I can't get any kind of consistency especially with the hybrids. Lately I've been able to get decent results driving with my 3-wood (around 200' off the tee and generally straight-ish) but I wonder if I'm actually getting better or just learning how to hit that particular club. Budget is a concern so simply replacing my entire set isn't an option at this point. I'd like to get a club or two at a time to try and spread out the cost of replacing everything, but don't really know where to start. I can hit my 5i pretty consistently to 150 yards. My 3 & 4 hybrids go more or less 165 & 185 with much less consistency in both distance and accuracy. The 3 & 5 wood I hit very inconsistently (except off the tee with the 3 as noted above) and let's not even talk about the driver. So the advice I'm seeking is whether any of you have any experience with these el-cheapo sets & what might be holding me back. If there's any possibility of a new driver significantly improving my distance & accuracy I would probably prefer to start there since distance off the tee is my #1 biggest flaw. If not, I'd consider starting by replacing the hybrids and starting from the bottom up so to speak. I'm also wondering about whether I could expect a higher quality (Callaway, Cleveland, etc.) brand of irons to perform significantly better than my current irons. I realize that without seeing my swing it's hard to offer advice, but let's concentrate on the equipment for this post. Thanks in advance.