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!