sethro5hc

I think that hitting a perfect shot, and striking the ball perfectly are different things completely. If you're feet are lined wrong and your set up is bad, hitting the ball perfectly will just make it go where you incorrectly were pointed.

Well the general guidelines for shaft flex are about swing speed. I think the current ones say 90-105mph (likely where you are if you hit it 270 with a lower end driver) should be stiff flex. 105+ is extra stiff. I'm in the 105+ range but those extra stiff shafts just don't feel right after playing with my dad's regular flex hand me downs for so long. I'm using a stiff flex with an 8.5 degree Adam's redline driver and have had great results for awhile now. I think you'd definitely get better results from a better driver even if that one were in perfect condition, but you even say it's developing cracks? My advice to you is to research, go to golf stores, demo some drivers until you find one you like, then go buy it online. I think any model of driver from a golf brand you could find at Dick's, Golfsmith etc would outperform an "offbrand" from walmart. I used to play those too and remember feeling a difference with my first namebrand clubs. If you have the chance, go somewhere with a swing simulator, you don't need the fancy launch monitors and all that, just get an estimate of swing speed and hit a few different lofted drivers, you'll have a better idea of what you want.

I'm like that with brand loyalty as well. From baseball and football though there isn't a lot of crossover into golf brands other than clothing and shoes, and the expression "taylormade double plays." Ha, actually taylormade may be my favorite brand now that I think about it, I am swinging r7's afterall.. interesting how that works.

Oh and also, is there a general formula you should/could follow for picking the right compression ratio based on swing speed, or is compression ratio also something that would solely depend on if you're going for distance or control? If there is a loose formula or guideline I'd love to hear it.

$ isn't really an issue on balls for me right now, so basically you're saying go top-tier? I just picked up a dozen Nike One Tour and Nike One Tour D, I'm partial to Nike for some reason with balls. Gonna see how those do, what other balls do you recommend other than PV1 and Bridgestone (I always liked their e6+, ready to try their top notch ball)?

TN94Z I see you play a lot of Nike, do you have experience with the Nike One Tour (4-piece) and Tour D (3-piece).. they've got a decent deal on those around town and I bought a dozen of each, just wondering if you had any experience and what your thoughts were?

Yea that's what I was leaning towards. I will say however that with my driver it was fairly accurate, certainly not overestimating. I was expecting a full 10-15+ yards to be magically appearing with my old trusty driver, but it didn't happen. Seems like an obvious way to sell more clubs is to convince people their shots are going further everytime, but I didn't really see it with that one club, with a higher lofted club though who knows. The test with the driver did show me though that it performs just as well as the brand new '09 $300 models though :) (this driver test was several months ago).

How accurate are these swing simulators you find at Dick's and Golf superstores and local places? For one, most tell you ball speed, not swing speed. Sure you can divide by 1.5 and find ROUGHLY your swing speed, but that'd be assuming a near perfect smash factor of 1.5 (I certainly don't hit it perfect frequently). More than this though, how accurate are the slice and hook simulations? If you hit one and it hooks on the screen will it have most likely hooked out on a real course? This final question is probably most important, and the easiest to answer for anybody that's hit on some of these and is a consistent golfer on real courses. How accurate are the distance readings? If you hit 25 balls with a club and the average was 182, how close have some of you found that to be to your actual real course distance? I ask because I literally just came from Dick's and got a new 18 degree hybrid 3 iron, and the results were ridiculous. I went looking for a 2i, but the ones they had were all top of the line and I'm not dropping $199 on one club right now, so I found a lower lofted 3 hybrid for cheap. Anyways, either that thing is grossly overestimating, or I've been grossly UNDERestimating my real distance with my current 3 on the course. I rarely hit my 3i now, but when I do it's usually because I got in trouble off the tee on a par 5 or something and I'm just trying to throw something far, so I don't really know my distance but I always estimated it was around 235-240. At dick's it was averaging 260 with a long of 272 and ball speed of 165, quite a difference. So, do you guys trust the distance those things throw out, or not so much? (it is one of the fancier ones with a screen and simulated courses and all that btw, not just hitting into a net)

So I've been playing golf since I was old enough to stand up, but not very consistently. Within the past 3 months I've finally begun playing with some regularity and gotten new clubs suited to my own swing. Now I'd just like to figure out what ball is correct for me. Lately, I have been shooting in the mid to upper 80's with the occasional low 80's game. My issue is the following: I have a swing speed with my driver of about 120, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. It's been tested at several different locations so I'm not just estimating. I've driven several different par 4 greens in my life, but am very inconsistent. I can't count the number of times I'll hit a 315 yard drive, have 30 yards to the hole for a par 4, and end with a bogey. My short game and iron play (irons are getting better) kill me everytime. Lately, I've started teeing off with 4 irons on par 4's, to leave myself full 100-125 yard shots rather than those mid range ones I have trouble with, and I've gotten more consistent. My question is this, should I play a low spin, hard two piece to try and maximize distance, the one part of my game where I have an advantage, OR should I play premium 3 or even 4 piece balls and hopefully improve around the greens? The ability to compress a premium ball isn't really an issue, this is just a thought process question really. Go for distance and maximize my one advantage? Or play it smarter and work on the $ part of the game which is coming into greens and chipping?

tiger is the man

Mine is Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA. Lakeview and Mountain View are the two courses.

I'm a mechanical design engineer in Columbus, GA