Changing Equipment? Do It For The Right Reason!

I am fond of Charles Mingus’ old saying that goes, “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”  In 2013 Rory McIlroy changed to Nike equipment and struggled for half a year with the change, and he’s a professional.   He had millions of reasons to complicate his life.

Last weekend I re-gripped my golf clubs and made an interesting discovery.  The three Cleveland CG-16 wedges that came with my custom fit Mizuno irons had several layers of tape built up on the shaft under the right hand.  It’s a common practice to build up the right hand on wedges, but I have never played with the right hand built up.  I began to wonder if this was related to the problems (chip yips) I had experienced since changing wedges.  After the grips were dry, I took them out to the driving range for a bake off with my old Cleveland Tour Action gap and sand wedges.  The results favored the older wedges, so I removed the CG 50, 54, and 58 wedges for my round today, and replaced them with the two Tour Action wedges and a 5-WD.

Previously, I’d hit all my sand and green-side shots fine with the 56 degree Tour Action.  During my round today I felt very confident around the greens chipping and pitching with the older club.  I realized that the only reason I removed the older wedges was because the new three wedge system came with my club fitting.  By changing equipment for the wrong reason, I may have inadvertently messed with my short game.  With the new clubs, I was trying to decide which shot and technique to use based on whether I was using the 54 or 58.  Egad.

It’s been said that putting old equipment back in your bag is like getting back together with an old girl friend.  It’s great at first but you eventually remember why you broke up.  Nobody forced me to dump my old wedges, they were working fine.  This break up should never have happened.

Try not to make the same mistake and play well!

 

What Is Your Opinion About Indoor Golf Facilities?

I was at the driving range a few weeks ago during Taylor Made demo day trying to work the kinks out of my golf swing and the local pro sauntered up and asked me if I’d like to try the new SLDR ($399) and JetSpeed ($299) drivers.  I politely declined, as I was working on my swing, but he had set up shop in the stall next to mine and after about 20 minutes interrupted again to tell me how I could get 20-25 more yards of distance with the latest instruments.  Not wanting to be rude, I hit a half dozen with each new offering and then returned to my Big Bertha FT3, for comparison sake, and promptly cranked it past the newer models, somewhat humbling my demo pro.

With the advent of more indoor facilities and fancy launch monitor technology,  would you buy a new $400 driver without seeing actual ball flight?

I’ve never been drawn to indoor facilities, at least since I bought a Taylor Made R7 driver several years ago, after hitting it on a launch monitor at the local Golf Galaxy, and then finding out I was totally dissatisfied once I got to the range and observed real ball flight.  As a traditionalist, and previous club builder, I’m in the camp that golf needs to be played outdoors, on real grass (or at least on driving range mats), and that there’s no substitute for seeing the ball fly.

Admittedly, back in November of 2012, I saw master club builder Wade Heintzelman at the Golf Care Center in Bethesda, MD, and he fit me for my new Mizuno JPX irons and did it exclusively with indoor technology.  Now Wade has worked with PGA Tour professionals and is not some assistant pro du jour that was pulling sticks from a rack of R7 drivers in a retail store.  I rightly put my complete faith in his abilities and am a very satisfied customer, despite not seeing any actual ball flight during my two-hour fitting.  My only twinge of concern was when he said I had hit a 3-iron H4 217 yards on the monitor and I know I can’t hit a 3-iron that far, but chalked it up to the field goal kicker in a dome syndrome.

So my view on indoor facilities is mixed.  I understand that folks in colder climates, or in areas where it’s just too expensive to enjoy golf on a course (Japan comes to mind) might be more suitable for indoor facilities.  But to answer the question, no I would not buy a $400 driver without seeing actual ball flight, unless someone of Wade Heintzelman’s reputation were doing the fitting.

What is your opinion about indoor golf facilities?

New equipment debut: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Christmas came early this year as I put my new set of irons and wedges through a full game practice yesterday and battle tested with a round at Poolsville this morning.  Let’s look at the Good, Bad, and Ugly.

The Good:

Most noticeable change with the JPX 825 Pro irons and the H4 hybrid irons is the ability to attack the ball with confidence.  I was able to swing hard and not have to worry about hitting the big push.  I love hitting knock down shots into the wind and pulled off a beauty with the 6-iron from light rough on my third hole today.  Then I played an awesome 3/4 recovery swing from under a tree with the 3-hybrid from about 175 yards on #4.  These clubs hit the ball where you aim them and that is huge for me.

Big plus on the new 50, 54, and 58 degree Cleveland wedges especially around the green.  I hit the 54 and 58 from the practice bunker yesterday and both proved more than capable.  I’m looking forward to controlling distance out of the bunkers by having two go-to clubs.  Today I tried a lower running pitch with the 54 and got plenty of check on the ball.  Previously I would have played that shot with my old 56 and tried to carry it farther which is harder to judge because of the added air time.  Another plus is the crisp contact and straight direction chipping with the JPX 8-iron.  The low leading edge and classic look builds confidence and promotes crisp contact.  I’m absolutely giddy about building a new short shot repertoire with the Cleveland trio.

The bad:

Absolutely no complaints with any of the new equipment.  I will need to get used to the Cleveland 50 on full swings.  I reliably hit my old Cleveland 49 gap wedge 100 yards and the new 50 seemed a little hard to control trajectory and distance reliably.  Again, the sample size was limited to 15 swings on the range and one shot in play today so no worries other than the obvious lack of available practice time with winter fast approaching.

The ugly:

The dirty little secret about good scoring is that it’s set up by good driving and mine is a mess.  Over Thanksgiving and again yesterday, I spent time on the range trying to straighten out my driver and couldn’t.  I was all over the place today and finally pulled three wood on my last five tee shots to keep the ball in play.  The iron club fitting has opened my eyes about playing with properly fit equipment.  Everyone has got swing deficiencies but mine cannot be as bad as the results I was getting with the driver.  To capitalize on these new irons I need to be straighter off the tee and am going to get fit for a driver during the winter and make the purchase before the 2013 season starts.

Final verdict:

The jury is still out on full swing distances and yardage adjustments as one round in moderately cold weather is not enough time to make a judgement.  But playing any golf in December is a big plus 🙂