Trev

This is an odd one for some people, I recently bought a second hand V-steel 4 wood with a grafalloy blue tour stiff shaft and it's perfect! I'm hitting this 250yards easly, my drivers longer but not much considering the club difference the main thing is ease of use. Although I love the roll a low lofted driver gives I'm having second thoughts about trying a 10 or 11 deg model just to see what happens.

Don't worry I havn't taken it the wrong way. I did once try to lock my knees but played awful for a couple of months so I've gone back to the elvis method Like you said everyones different tho

Cheers RX Phoenix, Classic indeed? how many people have you seen playing in the rain sliding past the ladies tees after a drive ?> I'm quite sure I could get more distance by changing my swing but I honestly don't want to, I'm quite long now and any more would make me loose more balls Simple fact is I never have to swing full out, it's odd and it's probally not a great swing but it works for me, so I'm happy with that. Tiger gets more money in a day than I see in a year but there ya go ...he has to use Nikes to get this hence he may well have to swing perfect and force power.

I learned in the 1980's using blades and have only once considered something else. I made the mistake of buying some mizunos in my mid teens and played awful for about 6 months until the pro who sold me them finally took it upon himself to show me there was nothing wrong with them by swopping clubs for 4 holes, the result was I played the best I had for ages even with his lead taped up old MT's that where about 2' too long and he played like a hacker. The next day he did me a swop for a half set of tour grinds and it was heaven! Strange that mizunos make the best blades now (if you read adverts) yet I still wouldn't touch them.

Hmmm ...I've never been a belever of this, Is'nt it club head speed, how clean, square you hit the ball and most of all weight transference that is more important ? snapping your left knee on impact or bending and flexing the whole leg is your bodys natural way to deal with weight transfer, yes it's a major part of the swing but it is just natural. Personally with my own swing most people actually think I reverse pivot because I don't snap my knee, I tend to just flex and slide forward with the shot, it's odd but it works for me. to give you an idea here is my swing (much slower in gif file)

If you can hit any club from the tee then you can hit it off the deck. It's been a while since I've used a 3 wood as I just use 2 drivers an a 4 wood but 2 of these get the fairway usage when needed. Best advice I can give you is: trust the loft! You dont have to change your swing or do anything different to get the ball airborn, just swing smooth and thru the ball, try to brush the grass just in front of it. When starting golf I used to almost use my woods like a sand wedge allowing the sole to bounce under the ball, I don't now but this did seem to work at the time although I think I was just odd

I still say the best 'feeling' driver is persimmon, it's just they were the worst feeling drivers too when you hit a bad shot

Distance is something that stunns you (big time ! ) if like myself you have returned to the game from a long lay off. I now view most short par 4's as drivable when hitting the ball well!. I wouldn't say I actually hit many greens doing this, maybe 1 in 20 max but distance has made the game much easier for me in this respect as I still seem to quite good with a wedge (shame my putting still stinks). At club level I seem a little longer than most from the tee, this was so odd at first because I gave the game up aged 16 playing off the same handicap and on a good day maybe hitting just over 200 yards! I know a lot of this is because I have grown up, I'm no longer a 7 stone weakling, in fact Im twice the weight now and a little bit fuller. I'm not a big hitter with my irons tho, in fact I'm short owing to the fact I play them all from my left foot a little like a driver, this I find gives me more stopping power even with my long irons for par 3's. I know how many many players exagerate about distance and to be fully honest I'm hitting about 270 yards, with a good bounce and roll in summer I can crack the 300 mark but it tends to lead me into trouble. These are range figures and not from a score card, I know a lot of players drive a 300 yard hole and think they have hit a ball 300 yards when in truth they have faded around a corner of a dog leg or hit over trees ect. Many people seem to be confussed about distance untill they actually see a (Real) long hitter, I watched a few at a demo day here and then you realise your not long at all .

Hi everyone, What a great looking forum with some very intresting posts this will provide me with much reading when the weather here is too bad to play. I've have only returned to the game of golf about 18 months ago after a 20 year lay off, my handicap is about the same as it was when I was 16 but the changes in the game are huge!. My handicap at the moment is an un-offical 8, I'm not a member of any club and to be honest I don't get to play enough to consider joining anywhere just yet. Since being bitten again by the golfing bug my wife has also started to play and tends to drag me out at weekends even if it's pouring down just to have a quick pitch and putt around our local par 3 course I Look forward to posting and reading here