golf4ever

I have an old Cleveland Raw. It has no silver plating on it. I actually wrapped a salty wet rag around it and let it set a couple of days to generate more rust. I am told the rust will help the wedge get more traction on the ball.

Being almost 70 years old with a swing speed of only the mid 80's, I had a very low ball flight off my driver. I finally got tired of never being able to get over the large pond off the tee and having to hit to the side of it leaving a 180 yd shot to an uphill water bound green. Many of our seniors hit to the side of the water, but I wanted more. I've always been a Taylormade fan and loved my Burner '09 10.5* R-flex, but broke the shaft and never could find the right replacement for it. I've also tried a senior flex shaft in a few drivers and did not hit them well. Now the story: I went to the PGS Superstore this week with the intent to try 12* - HT regular flex drivers (TM Superfast 2.0, Ping G20, and Callaway Razr X Black). None felt that great and surprizingly (after reading reviews about the G20) I could not hit the G20 good at all. They did not have the Razr X Black in a 12*. I also tried the Cobra Amp and it felt better than the others. Finally they brought out a Cleveland CG Black 265. I had not reviewed it and had not even heard about it, but it just felt smooth and hit the best of the lot, being straighter and longer by 10 yards on the monitor. It was also so easy to swing. It is the lightest of all the drivers (265 gms) and has the Miyazaki C. Kua 39 Limited Edition graphite shaft. I bought the R-flex. I had a Seniors tournament the next day and only had a few minutes of warm up to get used to the driver. I hit every fairway (really) and did not even come close to the rough. I gained at least 10 yards on most of my drives (maybe due to the higher ball flight). I usually fight to keep from a fade, but this club flew very staright and I did not have to go through most of my swing thoughts to get a good ball flight. It was just natural. It was nice to get a lot of favorable comments by my foursum on my drives, instead of the usually silent treatment. Oh, and that large pond, I decided to test it during the tournament and hit well over it leaving me with a 116 yd shot to the green (yes I put it on the green). I know this club will not be for everyone, but I think it will suit a lot of players like me. It is also a beautiful club in all black. Hopefully, this will not be another "Honeymoon effect" driver.

On Allison's elimination 6' pitch, it looked like the chains were not set for 6', but about 4' or 5' when you compare it to the guys holding the chain, unless they were 8' tall. Maybe it was the angle of the camera, but after looking at it several times it still looked like the chain was not 6' width. Anyone else notice that?

The Golf Channel had a great show for distance tips last week. See if you can find "School of Golf; Lesson 3" with Martin Hall.

One other thing I can see is on the back swing: your club head is falling below your hands. This has caused the club shaft at the top of the swing to be pointed past the target path. I would hope your golf pro is using a video with line drawing capablilites to show you where your swing is going astray. It would show your head movements, etc. If you drew a line from the ball through your right shoulder you would have about a 45* line. On the backswing, your clubhead and hands should stay pretty much on this line untill you started the wrist cock halfway back. When the club is on the backswing parallel to the ground, your clubhead and hands should be aligned when looking down the target line. You are doing great. Keep up the good work. It looks like you have good lag at impact too. I wish I had this good of form after only 3 months.

I think a lot depends on how often you play a course too. My private club has really steep greens and require a lot of break. I often under read them. When I go to another course, I over read them. In fact, most of the time when a straight putt is correct, I try to find a break that is not there.

I did the evaluation and then purchased 10 lessons about 2 years ago. Pros: Good videos and electronic harness data feedback. I could see I started slightly over the top on my downswing. You can review the lesson videos on your home computer. The data will show the face angle in degrees at impact and degree of shoulder and hip turn. Cons: I did not feel there was enough instruction on how to overcome the slight over-the-top-move. The instruction was only with a 6I; no driver instruction. I still had a slice with my driver. My overall iron play improved, but my driver did not. I think it was worth the money though.

I haven't heard of it, but this site has 127 reviews of it. http://www.golfreview.com/cat/accessories/dalton-mccrary/straight-shootin-golf/prd_76476_2947crx.aspx

Last year I bought a set of demos 60*. 54* and 50* Cleveland CG14s and love them. If you want to be safe, go with either Cleveland CG14 or Titleist Vokey and you will not go wrong. Do heed what ND Fan said about the bounce though. Soft turf and sand require a higher bounce and hard turf and sand require little or no bounce. I also have a 60* zero bounce Cleveland raw wedge from when I lived in Tucson. The sand in some of the courses was like concrete.

I bought the Master Key and thought the video very amatuerish,although I do sometimes use the left arm (for rhg) for better control though. Search for Paul Wilson Golf on youtube.com. He has a lot of free very good lessons. Some of the lessons I do not agree with his technique, but most are solid and easy to understand. Or go to his website www. paulwilson golf.com

A 7I should be about in the center of your alignment; with the 8I also centered to just slightly back. Although, your excessive height may be caused by not having your hands ahead of the clubhead at impact, which would deloft the clubhead. When I don't consistently strike the ball (fat or thin) it is because I released the club too early (fat) or stood up during the downswing (thin). I try to take a slightly steeper angle and look at the front of the ball to be sure I hit down on it.

Always take your current driver with you so you can compare. I have saved myself a lot of $$$ that way over the years. Having said that, I have finally replaced my Burner 09 (broke the shaft and the replacement shaft did not work as well) with a Cleveland Ultralite 270 draw after comparing it with 4 other drivers on the Golf Digest Hot List (Gold). I was concerned about the 46 1/2" shaft, but using face markers, I am hitting it in the center zone. I chose the XL 270 to increase my swingspeed by about 3 mph to 85 mph ss. I am 68 and it has slowed down. I really like this club. It is straight and long. However, if you have a much faster swingspeed you might like one of the heaver swingweight drivers.

Hitting it fat used to be a huge problem for me. What cured 95% of my fat shots was to go to the Flying Wedge (assuming you are also getting your weight on the forward foot). Rick Clearwater is demoing the Stack & Tilt method, but the Flying Wedge can be used in most any swing styles. You may (or may not) lose a slight amount of distance using this swing, but it more than makes up with consistent contact. Try it with a PW first and work up. Good luck!

At the first of 2010 I gave my set of Ping G5 irons to my son and bought a new set of Adams A7OS irons (PW-3HB). They have hybrid irons for the 6I and 7I and then 3, 4 & 5 hybrids. They are catogorized as "Super Game Improvement" and a Gold rating by Golf Digest. They are very easy to hit and forgiving. They have a little longer shaft and lower lofts than most irons, so I get a decent distance. Cons: Adams does not do a fitting and they are best sutied for an average height person (5' 10" - 6'.0") I had to buy a set of wedges, which I needed to upgrade anyway

I've had the G5 for almost a year now. Previouly I had the Sky Caddie 3.0 Pro's: 1. Free courses; no annual subscriptions 2. Don't have to download a specific course or group of courses ahead of time. (I traveled from Dallas to Phoenix and Tucson Thanksgiving and played courses that came up automatically with GPS shortly after turning the unit on). 3. I have found all courses in the Dallas area to be loaded. 4. New software and course downloads at least once per quarter (does take about an hour to doanload) 5. I found one hole on my home course was 30 yards off and they corrected it in the next update. 6. Latest S/W has in addition to scorecard, fairways/putts made and distance shot with each club (that round only). 7. A calibration screen to align touch points. 8. Very good and simple touch screen to see distance left to the pin and how far you hit. 9. Expanded view of hole and you can move the pin location. 10. I use the Rayovac 4.0 rechargeable AA's. They hold a charge while setting up for a long time. I get about 10 hours on them. 11. I've checked the distances with my laser range finder and it is accurate within a couple of yards. Con's: 1. A thicker unit than I would like. 2. The belt clip that comes with it makes it stick out too much and catches on the cart. I quickly took that off and bought a cell phone holder that works great and streamlines the profile without the belt clip. 3. It does not come with a charger. You have to take the batteries out and charge them. 4. The screen is hard to see with polarized glassses in the shade. You have to move it to sunlight. You can brighten the screen some by changing the battery type setting from "Alkaline" to " Rechargeable NIMH".