Hollister

Well, are you really having a chicken wing and are coming over the top? Do a vid. Really. Every phone has a video mode, some shoot 60 frames per second which is preferable, 30 or even 24 are better than nothing. Either do what the Pro says (search above for "stupid monkey") or do a video of your swing to get the right advice. Best, H.

Do a video and look where you loose your "angles" - elbow or wrist. Really, shoot a video. Best advice to speed up the learning process. Start to own your swing...

Get a video - without one you do not see improvement. Getting rid of a chicken wing might be done in five minutes, or five months. Bad things tend to stick or show up again when you work on other things. Give yourself time to improve. For your challenge you might go hunt for quick fixes. Better ask a seasoned golf pro than try to hunt for snippets here and there. Shoot a video and open up a My Swing thread in the member swings forum. You get quick help there. Otherwise it is hard to help you on the forum. And an in-person golf lesson might give you the best quick fix for better drives.

Got a video of your swing online you can link to?

If golf was that easy, we all would have a single handicap... Did you film yourself swinging (I did not search the forum)? I would suspect you hit the ground often before the ball (hitting it fat). With a 85mph driver swing speed you might be flipping your wrists, too. Do the above exercises until you see your chicken wing disapear and extend your arms properly. There are a lot of good videos from those two guys on youtube. Check out a golf trainer for a quick fix, but you might find http://evolvr.thegolfevolution.com/ or a 5SK certified golf pro a better long term deal. Oh, did I mention Aimpoint...? Keep on hacking...

You luck with your challenge... And this drill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4QOuP15wWA beginning at minute 2:20 might be another good one to make you happy... (extending arms after impact).

Ooops, not that I am currently supposed to do other things... Caught a break, watched a vid, did not think it out... Touche :D Your remark puzzles me - would that be a 48° loft club head delivered at 38-40° giving it a positive attack angle of 10° to 8°? If so, what sense does putting the ball back so far in the stance make - wouldn't it move the low point further back and make hitting up harder?

Zack Johnson's set-up for a flighted high spinning wedge shot explained. 45 degrees of spin loft maximes the spin - hitting down -3 deg. with a 48 deg. pitching wedge would be optimal. And off to the range we go...

Yes, right, will do! Isn't 15 degrees launch angle sort of enough for my current speed? At 15/16/17, 1700rpms and 125mph the total distance would remain 228y, the carry would only increase from 182 to 189y. Hey, interesting - so there is hope for me being a decade younger! Do you know your launch angle? Are you satisfied with the regular shaft? With the TrackMan Range and the heavy, limited distance balls I am not sure if everything is fully correct. I found a few photos from last August hitting the R7 on the TrackMan Pro using a different range ball, I selected a good and a bad impact shot (smash 1.38). Back then I was concentrating on getting the attack angle up. The TrackMan Pro has been adjusted to the balls, the FlightScope Trajectory Optimizer prompts different numbers: 198y carry and 230y total for the upper shot, 188y and 220 for the one at the bottom. The distances in yards from TrackMan Pro are 199y/220y and 191y/211y - carry is spot on, roll depends on the surface. On the TrackMan Range I had ball speeds around 117mph. Again, different ball last year. Will report more in the coming days...

Yes, Erik, hit it too high on the face and may have lost 2mph+ doing so. Plus I hit heavy, flight reduced range balls, too. They would not be as fast as regular golf balls (lower COR). My ball speed on the TrackMan Range is usually 120 average in the range of 118 to 123 max. Smash on the TrackMan Pro unit with the same balls (and settings to normalize performance) was 1.43 and up. Again, I promise to do better to the get the SLDR hot face upping ball speed. At least I hope to get a new maximum speed on the range unit.

Wow, nope. Neither convinced, nor looking for the truth in the equipment. Will try to hit it better and then see, what the "hottest face" of 2014 has to offer. Since I have permanent access to a TrackMan Range unit when practising, verifying numbers and working on my swing accordingly is possible. Thanks for the recommendations, will try to hit them in the coming weeks. Time to fess up: guilty of a click-baiting subject sporting a little ignorance... But I did not know, neither did I read, that the 460 SLDR was intended for higher club head speeds. Was that communicated openly? Nor did I read much about 17/1700 - more like unspecified high launch, low spin. I demoed the SLDR (14 deg. regular) against the JetSpeed (10.5 deg. stiff) at the beginning of 2014, the latter had more carry than the SLDR and was recommended to me. Odd, I thought back then. Yup, would have done better with the 12 deg. head, but with a stiff shaft it just was not available. Plus the loft sleeve was too tempting compared to the SLDR S with a fixed loft. Glad that I did not end up with a 430, the JetSpeed is soo dirt-cheap here (very lite use: 90$ vs. 130$ SLDR). So I bought the SLDR to try it for a couple of sessions and on the course, stupid me, the demo clubs are on sale (for 200$). Will loose 20 bucks max. when selling it, affordable risk, good fun doing the testing and learning about driver fitting, trajectories, etc. I am happy launching 15 deg. thou in my tests, although hitting it too high on the face... These two videos made an impression on me deciding to buy the SLDR (even in 9.5). First SLDR vs. JetSpeed, second SLDR performance. SLDR 12 set 10.5 - which would lower the spin by -750 rpms according to the SLDR tuning guide . He launches it at 16 deg. with 150mph ball speed, FlightScope says 300y total, 260 carry. The performance of the JetSpeed at 9.5 deg. is just little below the SLDR. Found the SLDR tuning guide too late, would have gone for the 12 head, even with a regular shaft. Rick has similar values, but launches the 9.5 deg. SLDR at 15 deg. with way higher spin (min. 4.29 in the video). And he is hitting it far from good (cold and wet...) according to spin, side spin and smash. That gave me hope, that 9.5 at 10.5 might equal the launch condition. Check, but increases spin by 250. Crossfield was wiser lowering 12 to 10.5 reducing the spin even more by 1000 rpm. Both are hitting it not perfect, Crossfield perfomance is 10yards+ longer in carry and way longer totals. Well, well, so far from my little adventures. I am not really feeling like a marketing victim, no, but I can see that a of-the-rack customer might do very much wrong with the SLDR lofts. Seeing a 2007 driver performing equally with the 2014 longest driver ever (may have) looked for me like a marketing swindle. I promise to hit it better next time on the range and see what the numbers tell. Cheers, Hollister

Hi all, thanks for the interesting discussion. My official handicap is 28 (Europe...), I usually play around 15 over, best rounds last year were 6 and 8 over. My performance off the tee - LSW... - is too short to go flag hunting... Impact during testing was a little erratic, especially hitting the SLDR for the first time and switch back and forth to my old driver. Been pondering the alternatives fiddling with the FlightScope Trajectory Optimizer . With a swing speed of 90mph I would gain around 10yards max adjusting launch angle and spin (would need a 12 deg. driver head to do that). Since every driver is limited by the rules (COR, etc.), I suspect there is not much left in the head to adjust. Its the swing speed stupid... The SLDR club head weights around 200 grams, the shaft 57. So, it is already on the light side. Since the driver won't loose value, I will keep it another week or two and try to adjust to the stiff shaft, the midsize grip and work on the impact. Read TrackMan docs, I lost up to 4mph hitting it that high on the face and toward the heel. Gotta buy my own rubber range tee (or get the Kuchar move right). Plus I will work on speeding up the club. 250yards (230m) total distance is my goal - I hit a few that far, but would like to get the length on every drive. And that would call for a speed increase of 5mph. Tough, me thinks. I'll post updates. Regarding shafts, I am all ears. Does a shaft really contribute that much to club head speed? If so, how much?

Hi all, bought a used SLDR driver for cheap last week. Yes, I am late to the party, but finally succumbed to Taylor Made's driver marketing scheme of the last years. Been still playing a TM R7 425 and thought hoped that newer technology might help a little distance-wise. Here are the results testing my 2007 R7 425 driver against the SLDR 460. The test was done with a TrackMan Range unit using heavy, flight reduced range balls. I deleted the obviously bad shots (too much side spin, the low ball speed) to get better values for comparison. The SLDR 460 9.5 deg. 57gr. standard stiff shaft driver was set to 11 deg. and 10.5, the bottom slider remained in the neutral position. The R7 10.5 deg. regular shafted driver had it weights in the standard out of the box setting. AVG shows the average from 14,18, 6 and 27 balls I hit. CONS give the mean deviation Overall, I hit the balls a little too high on the club face - must bring a better rubber tee next time, since the range tees were a little too high for my taste. I usually see ball speeds of 120-125mph (193-200kmh), but must have lost a little due to the impact location. The impact on the SLDR (right) was too far on the heel. These were probably the shots I deleted due excessive spin values. The R7 (left) looks better, but I shot the pic after teeing the ball a little lower (found a cut down tee...) plus a few high tee shots. With the similar range balls the TrackMan Pro unit measured a club head speed of 90mph and ball speed of 125mph. On the course my GPS based App reports 211m / 230y driving distance. These values are pretty much what the FlightScope Trajectory Optimizer tells me by entering my TrackMan data and modding launch angle. Am a little off regarding the driver fitting chart - must be due to an overall lower smash factor looking at averages and not only the best shots. I did the test yesterday, the day before the weekend being a little spend from the work week. Brief warm-up followed by 100+ drives. So, it looks like I have not much to gain switching from my 2007 driver to the 2013 SLDR driver. Right? I hoped to gain either a little more speed or get better results on mishits. A clear no on both hopes. Result for my bad shots by dropping the driver too to early too low and coming very much from the inside, applying side spin of 30+ (spin axis) for a healthy overdraw, were similar. The spin rate of my R7 is even a tad lower compared to the slider. Hitting the SLDR with more loft, e. g. 12 deg., would lead to more carry, but the total distance would be the same (checked it with FlightScope). Looking at the driver fitting chart total optimizer data, I would be on the right way. Launching it at 85-95 club head speed and 10-14 deg. hitting 0-5 deg. up might give me more distance. That would have me to set the SLDR to 10.5 and work on speed and impact. But hey, that values/results are what I already get with the R7... Maybe the mid size grip on the SLDR had a little impact, feel-wise, but the results speak for themselves. What should I do now? Do more testing? Sell the SLDR and continue with my R7 working on swing speed?

Quote: The clubs, which were unveiled Tuesday at the merchandise show in Orlando, will sell for $149 for a steel shaft, or $164 for a graphite shaft. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/sports/golf/hogan-a-revived-club-maker-returns-to-its-roots.html?_r=0 ) 1,050 $ for a set of seven clubs (P to 4 or 9 to 3). Very competitive! Bet we see a good deal of new Hogan irons out there soonish. Am not sure that I like the brushed look thou.

Selling clubs by loft is nothing new for Mr. Koehler (SCOR wedges). I am curious if it works for an iron set, too. "Hoganfit" says it all. Getting fitted by picking the right club might be a new way to explore. And I bet it is going to be an up-price exclusive product line. Miura comes to mind. We will see how attractive the Hogan brand still is. Oh please Mike, loads of photos and try to hit a few balls with them. Am not so sure that I will get to see the clubs over here in Europe. At least not in 2015.

Oh, got mine a few weeks ago. Now I know how closely I followed the TST threads over the years. Familiarity strikes, but in a little more condensed forum than TST. So, LSW is like your favorite sirup then...

Being the depicted as indispensible for the avid golf by the members of TST, we Europeans would like to get the book, too. And pronto, pleeease. Would you pay twice the price for the book and wait up to four week for it to show up? And then even have to drive between 10 and 40 minutes to a customs office, wait cheerily for another 30mins in the line, because everything about 30 US$ is subject to an import taxation? Took me nearly three hours to pick up golf clubs that way, a book might arrive with the regular mail (when the right form is attached to the outside of the package). The order for the Stack & Tilt DVDs from Medicus wasn't even processed with a European credit card - although I went through the ceck-out process error-free. Quite easy for me to understand one asks for an ebook or the date of availability of the ebook or print version in Europe. Erik, all owners and reviewers, please stop to tell us that this book is so goooood. At least until delivery is up again... :D

Should be around $60 with intl shipping to Germany including tax. To save that extra cash you have to find a friend visiting the US and have him buy the book. I am waiting for my friend to return in a couple of days. Hope he does not get hooked reading it and somehow looses the book... Silly solution, print on demand might be a viable solution in the meantime...

Oiii, $29 for the book, $18 for intl. shipping, $10 tax - about $60 overall. Plus three weeks wait. Uugh. Do you plan to sell via Amazon UK, which cuts shipping and tax expenditures? OK, I dare to ask ( I read this on page 1 1): When do you plan to think about the ebook release?

Just stumbled over a longer article on that matter at pgatour.com http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/05/20/ben-hogan-golf-clubs-terry-koehler.html Quote: Return of a legendary brand A disciple of the late Ben Hogan has plans to bring back his line of golf clubs. Will he live up to the Hawk's demanding standards? Terry Koehler is a fourth-generation Texan and loves golf, so it's no surprise that he grew up idolizing Ben Hogan. The textbooks of his youth were Hogan's "Power Golf" and "Five Lessons," two of the sport's seminal instructional books. His very first set of clubs were cut-down Hogan 5- and 9-irons. That reverance and respect for Hogan continues to this day. In his office, Koehler has a variety of Hogan mementoes. While discussing Hogan's career, he can rattle off stats and records, even the most obscure ones. The number of consecutive greens Hogan hit during the 1960 U.S. Open? The number of 5s Hogan had on his scorecard at the 1950 Greenbrier Pro-Am? Koehler has the answers. He is a walking Hogan encyclopedia. But his association with Hogan is more than just mere fan. For a three-year period in the 1990s, Koehler actually worked for the legend as the marketing director for the Ben Hogan Company. It was the thrill of a lifetime and also the most intimidating. It was Hogan, after all. His idol. "I'm a Hogan disciple," Koehler unabashedly declares. In 1997, Hogan passed away. Eleven years later, the last shipment of golf clubs with the Ben Hogan name were produced, a victim of business shortcomings more than club quality. Since then, the Ben Hogan line has been dormant, fading into memory even as Hogan's legacy itself endures. Last August, Koehler, as president/CEO of Eidolon Brand, acted on an idea that's been brewing in his mind for some time. He approached the Perry Ellis company, the last owner of the Hogan brand, to discuss the idea of giving life to the Hogan line of clubs. He told them he already had interest from people who had worked with Hogan, who knew the quality of clubs that needed to be produced, who would not compromise on quality. The first question the Perry Ellis representatives had for him: Why? "I told them we were the Ben Hogan Company right here in Texas," Koehler said. "We live by his principals. We live by his values. We live by his guidance about golf clubs. "I have 160 years of Ben Hogan experience in my key managers. We're it. "We just didn't have the Hogan name." He does now. ... more at http://www.pgatour.com/news/2014/05/20/ben-hogan-golf-clubs-terry-koehler.html

The news has been around for a while, I read it first yesterday. One of the many sources: http://theaposition.com/golf-equipment/golf/equipment/6645/ben-hogan-co-planning-2015-comeback Since former Hogan staff from Ft. Worth is involved, I am truly thrilled :D Quote: In the early 1990s, the Ben Hogan Company was one of golf industry’s top equipment company in the irons market place. The company’s Edge and Apex forged irons were among the top iron lines in the game. But the company – like many others – hit tough times in the late ‘90s, was sold a couple of times, including to Callaway Golf Co., and fell off the radar. Ben Hogan Co.’s legendary Apex iron Now, Oscar Feldenkreis, president of Perry Ellis International and Terry Koehler, president of Eidolon Brands, LLC have announced the Ben Hogan Company will return to the business of club-making in 2015. This re-introduction of Ben Hogan golf clubs coincides with the 60 th anniversary of the introduction of the first Ben Hogan irons in the fall 1954. Ben Hogan founded the company in 1953 in Fort Worth, Texas. “Since our purchase of the Ben Hogan brands in 2012, we have been contacted by many parties inquiring about the return of this revered brand to the equipment business,’’ Feldemkreis said. “After much deliberation, we are excited to have Eidolon Brands reintroduce the Ben Hogan brand back into the golf equipment sector.” “Respecting the history and the legacy that Ben Hogan built with the golfing public, we were determined to find just the right group to drive that effort. As we became more acquainted with Terry Koehler and Eidolon Brands, it became clear that this company exhibits the values, spirit and passion that Ben Hogan always represented to the golf community.’’ Koehler, President/CEO of Eidolon Brands, is a former director of marketing of the Ben Hogan Company. Koehler said creating the ‘new’ Ben Hogan Company represents an opportunity to honor the legacy of two of his heroes – his father and Ben Hogan. “My golf life began with an introduction to Mr. Hogan’s values and principles from my father,” Koehler said. “He played with Mr. Hogan before the war and considered him a true hero, so I did, too. I grew up with ‘Power Golf’ and ‘Five Lessons’ as my golf textbooks, and always played Hogan irons from my very first cut-down 5- and 9-iron. To be in a position to assemble and lead a team of equally committed Hogan disciples is an honor I could not even have imagined.” According to Koehler, an R&D; team has already been working on the new Ben Hogan club designs, and the first offerings are targeted for introduction in 2015. “We are studying all the things Mr. Hogan believed about golf clubs, and dissecting early Ben Hogan designs to understand his performance principles and knowledge of what a golf club should do,” Koehler said. “There was a wealth of genius in those early clubs. Our commitment to the Ben Hogan legacy is to ensure that every product delivers unmatched precision and dedication to the art of shot-making, providing equipment that allows golfers of all abilities the opportunity to optimize their skills.”

Yeah, yeah - I get what you are saying. Changing the club is easier than adjusting, testing, ... Spin was about 2,400 to 2,800 with the JetSpeed, 2,800 to 3,000 with the TM 425, the launch angle 14-16 vs. 10-13, ball speed was not displayed on the mini tablet. Regarding the spin numbers, I am so sure how accurate they are with range balls that are approx. 15 % distance reduced. My priority is still to get the AoA up. Accuracy, consistency and then the swing speed. I hit the balls a little too high towards the heel that day, which skews the numbers, too. And after the 50th drive in 20mins my performance did not got better anyways.

I know, I am tempted. But let me explain my current math of the deal: The launch angle of my (old) driver was only 13deg. I can change the weights and make it launch higher - 8gr. from the front to the back. Thats what I have to check before deciding, tests say the weight change would add about 1.4degrs. Having access to a TrackMan, makes the tinkering possible. BTW, the deal for the driver test was to receive a discount by the increased length you get with a TM. 25$ off are OK, but I was not that impressed by sights and sounds. Since most of the players have too little loft for their swings, TMs claim might really work for many. For me it did. Over the Winter I worked on hitting up with the driver and got from -2 to something between 0 and +1.8. One or two more degrees (with changed weights or thru technique) and I should be a happy camper. 300 bucks saved, a couple of strokes gained. Me uncle called to ask about the JetSpeed performance, citing magazine tests and was happy that I liked the cheaper driver even more. Bottom line, he was impressed and eager to get one. Marketing worked. I'd rather feed a pro with that money (and my uncle should better do that, too). I currently play between a 14 and 20 handicap and bet that a better driving performance could half that score. Will see, last year I halfed my official handicap of 28 already in my first and third round of the year (btw, thanks to AimPoint).

Hit the JetSpeed and the SLDR yesterday, had data recorded by a Trackman unit. It took 14deg. with the SLDR to match the launch conditions of the JetSpeed with 10.5 (both with stiff shafts, my clubhead speed avg. was 90mph). The weight distribution is completely different... Compared to my driver, a 2007 TM 425 with a regular shaft and standard weight settings, the JetSpeed carried the ball about 20+ yards further due to a higher launch angle. I did not have to time to change the weights on my driver to try to match the COG in the JetSpeed. Overall 20+ yards are impressive. Carry, not total distance, range balls, not regular balls. My tests of the RBZ and R1 last year looked pale compared to the Jetspeed. Kudos, TM has something nice me thinks. 20 more yards would make a big difference for my game. Getting around 210/220 yards carry now and adding another 20 to 30 yards would let me carry a few obstacles on the course. Hmm... So, will I swap my driver? Don't know, am very tempted, but I will hit a few more balls with the JetSpeed and tinker with the weights of my 425cc driver. Looking down on those huge 460cc heads and getting this canny sound still put me a little off...

Went out to hit these beauties today. The CB looked very like the MC or even the MB at address. Nice to look at. Hit OK. The MC looks like a blade, but does not have the touch and sound. Hitting the MB just put a smile on my face. Very nice. First time I hit something coming close to my 1988 Hogan Apex. Well, MC for the handicap, MB for fun. After hitting the CBs and MCs, the MBs look really, really tiny. Classic club. (I jet have to hit Nike or Mizuno blades to compare...)