04v8s4

I'm selling my Taylormade RAC OS2 irons. I bought new irons and no longer need these. This is a full 3-P set in great shape. Shafts are taylormade "light metal" stiff flex shafts (95gram shaft weight). I recently re-gripped all irons (except for 3-iron, which I didn't carry/play) with Golf Pride tour wraps and they are still in great condition. Asking $175

I like the suggestion to bring your current R11s and your old burner back to golfsmith. Get on the monitor with both clubs and see what's going on. Should tell you very quickly if you have a swing problem or a club problem.

You are crazy man...the farther you hit the ball...the farther off line it will go. Period.

One thing to look at... The curve fit is only .91. That's a strong fit but not great. If you look at the higher handicap players (say 8 to 18) the curve fitting is substantially worse and the data is much more erratic. This makes perfect sense as you have good players (8-10 hdcp) with both "high" and "low" swing speeds for their respective categories. On the other hand the curve fit for the lower hdcp players is much better and the data is more consistent. This makes real good sense too as there aren't many scratch players that swing "slowly". The chart makes perfect sense and you non-believers are just being closed minded or don't know how to read a graph and trend line.

That is a massive range in swing speed. 85 mph with a 4 iron would be just about right for an average golfer, maybe even a bit high. 100mph is incredibly fast in my opinion. I hit my 4 iron about 205 yards and my 4i swing speed is 90-92 mph with a good agressive swing. Not swinging out of my shoes...but going after it a little.

I cannot give you any advice other than my personal experience. I started last season at about a 14 hdcp and I was playing taylormade RAC OS2 game improvement irons. By the end of the season I had improved to an 8.8 hdcp and I felt that my ball striking was consistent enough that I could make the move to players irons. My standard shot shape is a slight push draw and my distances are respectable, so I know my swing is decent enough, on plane...blah blah blah. My miss is a slight toe hit...I also have the occasional fat or thin shot...but not nearly as many as I have hit in the past. I went with Titleist AP2s which are probably slightly more forgiving than those MP-30s. I love the look and feel of the AP2's but can say that they are harder to hit...for sure. Those slight toe hits or hits higher on the face are definitely not as good with the AP2s as they were with the GI irons. The switch to the AP2's has pushed me to work on my ball striking more than ever. I enjoy practicing and I know this will improve my game in the long run, so I dont mind it...but there is some skill required to play these clubs well day-in day-out. My advice would be to stick with the GI irons until your ball striking improves. Hold out until you are hitting the ball consistently enough to know your misses and what causes them.

I know that this may sound over simplified...but here are some thoughts on gaining consistency in ball flight. Decide which shot shape works best for you. Nobody hits the ball consistently straight. It sounds like you normally hit a fade...or a pull (same thing). This is probably due to an over the top move. So you have two choices...either decide to keep playing the face (which is fine...lots of successful golfers play a fade). Or fix your swing plane to start hitting a draw. Once you have decided which shot shape works best for you...you'll need to alter (3) things to ELIMINATE one half of the golf course. 1. Alignment - if you are going to fade the ball, you need to be aligned left of your target. 2. Ball position - Generally a fader will play the ball slightly forward in their stance to make sure they are cutting across the ball. 3. Grip - again, generally a fader will play with a slightly weaker grip to make sure the club face doesn't close down too much during release. (this is one of the reasons you hit a straight pull sometimes) If you do these three things well, you should have no problem ensuring that your ball ALWAYS moves left to right.

There are lots of sweepers out there....even a few of them on tour. Take a look at stricker's turf interaction...

I always try to play from the back tees. At my home course that's 6600-6700 yds. It's not because I hit the ball a mile (I don't)...it's because I enjoy the challenge of hitting mid/long irons into the greens. I'm working towards being able to consistently hit a 5 or 6 iron into a green. I'm not there yet, but I feel like I will never get there unless I practice those shots on a regular basis. I dont enjoy hitting driver - wedge all day. My game has got to the point where I don't misshit my tee shots so badly that I have outrageously long approach shots. I think this is the key. Most people play from tees that are too long...and dont get off the tees consistently. This is a frustrating way to play. Now, when I play with other people that I dont know as well...I will usually play from whatever tees they want. I will never pressure anyone into playing from the back tees.

I agree with many of the recent comments regarding swing speed vs ball speed. I'm 27 years old 5'10" and my avg SS is 104-106. A good drive for me is 285 total. A normal drive is 265-275. Sure I can swing it 110-112 but have very little control. That's the difference between us and the pros. They have that extra gear...where they can swing it 115-120+. But they maintain their swing path/AOA and always strike the center of the face. That's what's most impressive to me.

I feel like this happens to me too. I try to focus my practice time on the part of my game that needs the most help (who wouldn't?!) However, I feel like I'm a fairly well balanced player. No one part of my game is significantly better than another. So if I'm not striking my irons that well...I will focus on my irons during practice and inevitably my driver game suffers the next time I play. I also try to "play a round of golf" during my practice sessions...but often wind up hitting a bunch of drivers or approach shots if I dont hit the first one well.

I think this was also part of it. I think the true root cause is a bit of a flip...starts the club going left too soon.

This is similar to what I was experiencing. Not that I have this issue completely solved. But it seemed like I was releasing my lag too soon and flipping a bit at the ball. Letting the hands "fall" into the "slot" and holding that hinge/angle longer into the downswing really seemed to help. I felt that I was releasing the club better and started striking it much more in the center of the face. Still need to work on grooving this feeling in...but seeing some good improvements so far.

Thanks for the input. Those are good drills to practice. I just hit the "range" for 45 minutes and had some good results. One thing I notice after consistently hitting the toe for the first 15-20 minutes...was that I felt like the club wasn't releasing naturally. Also noticed that I was losing my lag too early... I did a few drills to help feel like the hands falling down from the top while maintaining my angles. This felt like it put my hands into a position where I could hit down and out at the ball (like Mr. Desmond said). The result was much more consistent strikes in the center of the club. I still had the occasional toe hit...but they seemed to come from rushing to impact and getting my right elbow out away from my body and straightening too early. I picked up about 4mph in club head speed (~85mph with the 6 iron) and picked up about 10 yards from where I was the last few days. I will continue to work on this and report back. But thanks for the help!

Hey guys, So, I built a indoor hitting area in my house and my wife got me an optishot system for xmas. So I've been hitting balls a few times a week just to keep in form....but I have a problem. I have confirmed both with the optishot system and with tape on the clubface that I consistently hit slightly on the toe. Here's an 8-iron with which I hit 10 shots. I would say that 2 out of 10 were out of the center of the clubface and 2 of 10 were hit slightly fat (high on the face). But the rest were hit out on the toe. I can feel that they aren't pure...but they dont feel like terrible strikes. My normal ball flight is a slight push draw. My misses are slight over-the-top pull draws...or blocked pushes. I have tried to obvious answer....stand closer to the ball...but that doesn't seem to help. Any other suggestions? I will try to get some video of my swing posted up in the next few days. Thanks!

There are 2 big things I try to avoid during a range session. 1. Dont ignore your pre-shot routine. I dont think you need to go through your entire pre-shot routine...as it can be time consuming. But try to avoid hitting shot after shot without stepping out of the "hitting area". Before each shot, I like to step back behind the ball and take a slow practice swing trying to feel something I'm working on. Then pick a target before moving in for the shot. 2. Dont go to the range and swing 100% the whole time. You dont do that on the course and you shouldn't be basing your distances on 100% swings. Dont get me wrong...you need to practice going after it...but work on your "stock" swing tempo. Sometimes I will find that I'm swinging harder at the end of a range session than I was at the beginning and my strike quality always suffers...when I focus on dialing it back to 85-90%, I hit much more consistent shots. Best of luck!

I just recently moved from Taylormade Rac OS2 game improvement irons to the Titleist AP2s. I couldn't be happier. My ballstriking was at a point where I felt I could move to a players iron without throwing shots away. They are a great club and actually quite forgiving. The feel of a well struck shot is fantastic and the added control is great as well. I can now work the ball left or right with much less effort than I could with my old irons. Hitting the ball out on the toe or high on the face does produce a weaker ball flight...so you need to be honest about your ball striking.

If I could give you one piece of advice for wedge play, it would be to never take full / hard swings with your wedges. It's ok to go to the range and hit lob wedges as hard as you can...and it seems like you have found some really good distance in your irons. This means you are compressing the ball well and generating good spin. However, you will soon find that you can be much more successful with 1/2 or 3/4 swings with your wedges. The flight and spin will be much more predictable and consistent. Best of luck...

That compass wheel looks foolish.

This may seem like a silly question...but how are you supposed to measure a club's length?

Hey guys, I've been following this forum for a while...but post very infrequently. I have a question about the proper length of fairway woods. I have a TM 15° 3-wood and a TM 18° 5-wood both with ProForce V2 Stiff shafts (67g). I love the shaft and actually like the heads as well...I'm just not sure I have the length of these clubs set properly for me. The 3-wood is currently 41.5" from butt to hosel (measured to where ferrule meets hosel). The 5-wood is currently 40.5". I'm 5'10" and my wrist to ground distance is about 34.75" which puts me right in the std length category. When I was fit for my irons...i was standard length and lie as well. My question is...how to I determine the proper length for my fairway woods? I could honestly stand to give up a little distance with both clubs in favor of more control...and I feel like both clubs might be a little long. Thoughts?

How well do you hit your long irons? It seems like you have a really large distance range with your longer irons. To me, this means you probably hit them inconsistently. If that's the case, I'd suggest you put in a 3 or 4 hybrid for the longer approach shots. Then I would probably add a 3 wood to the bag. Something you can use to get off the tee and to get to those longer par 5's.

Two things I noticed right away. 1. You move your head back off the ball during your backswing. 2. It looks like you finish with the majority of your weight on your back foot. Need to improve your weight transfer to the front foot during the thru swing. I do like the tempo however...you take a nice pause at the top before starting the thru swing.

If you don't play in any sanctioned leagues...can you calculate your handicap yourself based on the explanation above? Are there any sites to help you do this? Thanks!

^^ it's funny you say that about hilly courses. My home course is quite hilly and normally fairly windy. Combine that with the fact that it's not a particularly pricey course (40 dollar rounds with a cart)....the course has a decent degree of "difficulty". I usually shoot mid 80's on my home course. When i go to nicer courses...I tend to shoot better. I went to a very nice course at the end of last season for the first time and shot an 81? The course was nearly 7000 yards from the blues...but was immaculately maintained!