Play with your equipment. Mix it up. The clubs you put in your bag dictate how you play the game. This is how I'm playing this spring.
Driver - Titleist 975D
Hybrid - Ben Hogan Edge CFT 17*
Irons - Ben Hogan Apex RedLine 4-E
Iron - Ben Hogan Apex Producer 9 (left-handed)
Wedges - Titleist Vokey 52, 56, 60
Putter - John Reuter Bulls Eye
No fairway woods, one hybrid, and a left-handed club. Really, I only need the thirteen clubs to get round the course in fine shape.
The left-handed 9-iron is the ultimate trouble club. Next to a tree or other object with no right-handed swing available? Ball beside a deep bunker you would have to take your stance in to swing right-handed?
A little chipping stroke will do, and it's not that hard to learn how to swing from the other side. Let's see how many strokes it saves me this year.
[That's the right-hander's version of this post. Maybe you could put a right-handed 9-iron in your bag and see what goes down.]
Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Thursday, January 21, 2016
My Left-Handed Golf Club
I've joined your club. I now play golf left-handed.
But only if my ball is next to a bunker that would make me take a stance IN the bunker to hit the ball.
Or next to a tree that is in the way of where I would normally stand to address the ball.
I have run into these situations too often to take it lying down.
So, I talked to my pro about it, and said I wanted to get a left-handed sand wedge for these shots, and his response was,
"Get a 9-iron."
So I did.
I went online to ironfinder.com and found a Ben Hogan Producer (1977) LH 9-iron in very good condition.
It came in the mail today, and took its place in my bag. I took out my 3-iron, which I seldom hit.
Now, the trick is to learn how to swing left-handed. It's really not that hard to do.
I just take my right-handed grip and swing back a little right-handed, then switch my hands and do the same thing in the other direction.
It takes a few tries to get it right, but it's coming along.
Maybe all of you should get an RH 9-iron for your bag. Just a thought.
But only if my ball is next to a bunker that would make me take a stance IN the bunker to hit the ball.
Or next to a tree that is in the way of where I would normally stand to address the ball.
I have run into these situations too often to take it lying down.
So, I talked to my pro about it, and said I wanted to get a left-handed sand wedge for these shots, and his response was,
"Get a 9-iron."
So I did.
I went online to ironfinder.com and found a Ben Hogan Producer (1977) LH 9-iron in very good condition.
It came in the mail today, and took its place in my bag. I took out my 3-iron, which I seldom hit.
Now, the trick is to learn how to swing left-handed. It's really not that hard to do.
I just take my right-handed grip and swing back a little right-handed, then switch my hands and do the same thing in the other direction.
It takes a few tries to get it right, but it's coming along.
Maybe all of you should get an RH 9-iron for your bag. Just a thought.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
The Gap in Your Golf Game
Unless you are a very good player, there is a gap in your golf game that you likely cannot close. That gap is between your 4-iron/24° hybrid/7-wood and your driver. Within that space, recreational golfers generally do not have a good chance to hit greens and make pars.
The solution is to judge the conditions carefully if you have a long shot into the green. When there’s no real trouble around it, then go for it IF you can get there with a club you get into the air easily.
(Having said that, if it’s a club you don’t get into the air easily, maybe it shouldn’t be in your bag at all.)
If you miss the green, you’ll at least be hole high with a chip onto the green for a par putt and a sure bogey. Nothing wrong with that.
What if there’s trouble in the form of bunkers, water, tall grass? Now it might make sense to play short to a long chipping position. In that case, hit the shot with the longest club you have confidence in.
That way, you’ll eat up a lot of yards, be in front of the green with a good lie and a chance, again, to chip on for a par or a sure bogey.
If you have a gap like the one I’m talking about, and I do, it’s best to think of the longer clubs as advancement clubs -- clubs that get your ball down the fairway without the risk of losing strokes.
Or, you can go one step farther and not even put them in your bag. That way, they will never get you in trouble.
I like a light bag, so I carry only 10 clubs. The set starts off with driver, 24° hybrid, 6-iron and on down stepwise to a 56° wedge and my putter. No 5-iron? I hit it well, but not often enough to carry it.
I hit my driver 220 yards. With a 175-yard second, I can reach the green on all but the longest par 4s. Long par 3s are hard to hit anyway, so playing short and safe works out better than playing long and into trouble. Par 5s are three-shotters, and 395 after two shots leaves a short iron into the green.
I’m not asking you to play wimpy golf. Not at all. I‘m suggesting that you be realistic about how to play from long distances so you don’t lose strokes needlessly.
The pros play golf one way. We play it another. When you’re ready to hit into the green from 200 yards without courting disaster, you’ll know.
The solution is to judge the conditions carefully if you have a long shot into the green. When there’s no real trouble around it, then go for it IF you can get there with a club you get into the air easily.
(Having said that, if it’s a club you don’t get into the air easily, maybe it shouldn’t be in your bag at all.)
If you miss the green, you’ll at least be hole high with a chip onto the green for a par putt and a sure bogey. Nothing wrong with that.
What if there’s trouble in the form of bunkers, water, tall grass? Now it might make sense to play short to a long chipping position. In that case, hit the shot with the longest club you have confidence in.
That way, you’ll eat up a lot of yards, be in front of the green with a good lie and a chance, again, to chip on for a par or a sure bogey.
If you have a gap like the one I’m talking about, and I do, it’s best to think of the longer clubs as advancement clubs -- clubs that get your ball down the fairway without the risk of losing strokes.
Or, you can go one step farther and not even put them in your bag. That way, they will never get you in trouble.
I like a light bag, so I carry only 10 clubs. The set starts off with driver, 24° hybrid, 6-iron and on down stepwise to a 56° wedge and my putter. No 5-iron? I hit it well, but not often enough to carry it.
I hit my driver 220 yards. With a 175-yard second, I can reach the green on all but the longest par 4s. Long par 3s are hard to hit anyway, so playing short and safe works out better than playing long and into trouble. Par 5s are three-shotters, and 395 after two shots leaves a short iron into the green.
I’m not asking you to play wimpy golf. Not at all. I‘m suggesting that you be realistic about how to play from long distances so you don’t lose strokes needlessly.
The pros play golf one way. We play it another. When you’re ready to hit into the green from 200 yards without courting disaster, you’ll know.
Monday, November 17, 2014
The Importance of Lie Angle
The golf club's shaft runs down to the hosel, which takes off at an angle to the clubhead. That angle, called the lie angle, contributes to the direction the ball goes when you hit it, and more.
Golf club manufacturers build standard lie angles into their mass-produced clubs. There’s a good chance the standard lie angles do not fit your physique and swing, just like a suit off the rack in your size fits sort of, but not quite right. Just like you would get that suit tailored, part of a club fitting is getting the lie angle right.
Here’s why lie angle is important. If your clubs are too upright (the lie angle is too large), the club will be tilted toward you at impact, causing the clubface to face to the right of its address position, and the ball will go right. Conversely, if your lie angle is too small, the lie is too flat and you will tend to hit the ball to the left. (See drawing. Left-hand club should read, "Ball will be hit left of target" Right-hand club should read, "Ball will be hit right of target".)
The more lofted the club, the more pronounced this effect is.
In addition, a club with the wrong lie angle will tend to strike the ball with a glancing blow. That will cause you to lose distance, the ball will fly lower and have less backspin, and the strike will never feel solid.
There’s an easy way to check whether the lie angle on your clubs is right for you. Get a Sharpie with a wide tip and draw a line on the ball. Put the ball down so the line is perfectly vertical and against the clubface when you address the ball. Now go ahead and hit the ball.
If the lie angle is correct, you will have a vertical stripe of ink on your clubface. If the lie is too upright, the stripe will lean toward the toe. Too flat, toward the heel. If there’s something wrong, get it corrected. This is a simple adjustment on a loft and lie machine.
The reason you want to get wrong lie angles corrected is that if you don’t, you have to introduce a compensation into your swing to make the ball go straight. It’s a lot easier to fix the club than to adjust your swing.
Get the lie angle on your irons checked every year if you play a lot of golf. Repeated impact against the ground can cause this angle to change.
You can use the theory of lie angles to help you play a shot from a sidehill lie. Imagine the ball being above your feet. When you address the ball, the bank raises the toe of the club, making the clubface point right of the swing path. So, aim left to compensate.
The opposite is true when the ball is below your feet. The clubface is now facing to the left, so aim the shot to the right of your target.
Golf club manufacturers build standard lie angles into their mass-produced clubs. There’s a good chance the standard lie angles do not fit your physique and swing, just like a suit off the rack in your size fits sort of, but not quite right. Just like you would get that suit tailored, part of a club fitting is getting the lie angle right.
Here’s why lie angle is important. If your clubs are too upright (the lie angle is too large), the club will be tilted toward you at impact, causing the clubface to face to the right of its address position, and the ball will go right. Conversely, if your lie angle is too small, the lie is too flat and you will tend to hit the ball to the left. (See drawing. Left-hand club should read, "Ball will be hit left of target" Right-hand club should read, "Ball will be hit right of target".)
The more lofted the club, the more pronounced this effect is.
In addition, a club with the wrong lie angle will tend to strike the ball with a glancing blow. That will cause you to lose distance, the ball will fly lower and have less backspin, and the strike will never feel solid.
There’s an easy way to check whether the lie angle on your clubs is right for you. Get a Sharpie with a wide tip and draw a line on the ball. Put the ball down so the line is perfectly vertical and against the clubface when you address the ball. Now go ahead and hit the ball.
If the lie angle is correct, you will have a vertical stripe of ink on your clubface. If the lie is too upright, the stripe will lean toward the toe. Too flat, toward the heel. If there’s something wrong, get it corrected. This is a simple adjustment on a loft and lie machine.
The reason you want to get wrong lie angles corrected is that if you don’t, you have to introduce a compensation into your swing to make the ball go straight. It’s a lot easier to fix the club than to adjust your swing.
Get the lie angle on your irons checked every year if you play a lot of golf. Repeated impact against the ground can cause this angle to change.
You can use the theory of lie angles to help you play a shot from a sidehill lie. Imagine the ball being above your feet. When you address the ball, the bank raises the toe of the club, making the clubface point right of the swing path. So, aim left to compensate.
The opposite is true when the ball is below your feet. The clubface is now facing to the left, so aim the shot to the right of your target.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Build your swing around your wedges
A teaching pro once told me that when he was getting ready to play in a tournament, he did nothing but putt and hit wedges. Lots of wedges. He explained why, but I didn't really get the point until about two years ago.
Take this self-test. Go the range and get ten golf balls. Take out your sand wedge and hit a pitch with a half swing. It will go about 70 yards or so. Now hit nine more, with identical results. Identical. Carbon copies.
If you hit the first few O.K., but then they start going every which way or you start having contact problems, something about your swing is missing or needs tightening up.
Get a lesson if you need to (and you probably do) to learn how to hit a 70-yard pitch in a way that you can pass this test.
One of the major flaws the test will uncover is that your hands are behind the ball at impact. Pick a bad shot type, fat, thin, slice, and this flaw is a likely cause of it.
There might be other things wrong, but by getting this flaw corrected, other swing flaws get patched up, too.
There's a story that when Tom Watson first went to see Byron Nelson, the first thing Nelson wanted to see is Watson hitting a few pitches. If there were problems with that shot, then there was no point in moving on to any of the longer clubs.
I have a mat in my back yard off which I can hit plastic golf balls. I spend almost all of my time there hitting them with my 70-yard pitch swing.
It's the same with you. Once you have the pitch swing down cold, you not only have a deadly scoring shot in your bag, but you'll have mastered the key to your full golf swing.
Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com
Take this self-test. Go the range and get ten golf balls. Take out your sand wedge and hit a pitch with a half swing. It will go about 70 yards or so. Now hit nine more, with identical results. Identical. Carbon copies.
If you hit the first few O.K., but then they start going every which way or you start having contact problems, something about your swing is missing or needs tightening up.
Get a lesson if you need to (and you probably do) to learn how to hit a 70-yard pitch in a way that you can pass this test.
One of the major flaws the test will uncover is that your hands are behind the ball at impact. Pick a bad shot type, fat, thin, slice, and this flaw is a likely cause of it.
There might be other things wrong, but by getting this flaw corrected, other swing flaws get patched up, too.
There's a story that when Tom Watson first went to see Byron Nelson, the first thing Nelson wanted to see is Watson hitting a few pitches. If there were problems with that shot, then there was no point in moving on to any of the longer clubs.
I have a mat in my back yard off which I can hit plastic golf balls. I spend almost all of my time there hitting them with my 70-yard pitch swing.
It's the same with you. Once you have the pitch swing down cold, you not only have a deadly scoring shot in your bag, but you'll have mastered the key to your full golf swing.
Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com
Sunday, February 5, 2012
How Many Wedges Should You Carry?
If you can hit the ball reasonably well from tee to green, most of your handicap is built from 30 yards and in. In order to hit the variety of short shots you are faced with, and hit them well, you have to have the right talent, but also the right clubs.
Which clubs you really need to hit to save strokes from close in is a question each golfer should ask and answer.
Everybody has a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. The question is whether to add a gap wedge of 52-54 degrees and/or a lob wedge of 58-60 degrees.
Do you think there are short shots you frequently hit that would turn out better with a different wedge, or wouldn't be so much work with a different wedge? If so, read on.
Different courses place different demands on your short game. If the course you play on finds you having to hit into the green from under 100 yards more than a few times, then four wedges, calibrated to known pitching distances would be a good way to go.
Another way to answer the question is, how much work are you willing to put in to learn what that extra club can do for you? I don't mean hours and hours, but I do mean at least a few honest hours at the practice green learning how to differentiate this wedge from the others you already have.
From the same place, a different wedge makes it a different shot. Knowing that difference is what will save you that extra stroke or not.
If you won't put in this time to learn the uses for each wedge, the extra wedge will only add confusion and frustration to your game.
Realize in addition that if you add a fourth wedge to your bag, you have to take out a club, which would likely be a long fairway club of some kind.
To make the trade, consider whether adding a wedge will save you more strokes than you might lose by removing the longer club. Golfers who are long and accurate might not benefit.
There is no pat answer on this issue. It all depends on your playing skills, your style of maneuvering the ball around the course, and the amount of time you can devote to short game practice.
In the end, look at it this way. If you think the extra wedge will save you a stroke or two every round, add it. If it's a stroke or two every month, don't bother.
However you build your set of wedges, try to keep the gaps of loft consistent.
For example, if a pitching wedge has 48 degrees of loft, a good three-wedge set is 48-54-60. 48-56-60 would be OK, but a set running 48-58-60 has too much of a gap between the PW and the sand wedge, and too little difference between the SW and the lob wedge.
A good four-wedge progression would be 48-52-56-60.
Then there's bounce and sole width to consider, but that would be turning this article into a book.
My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.
Which clubs you really need to hit to save strokes from close in is a question each golfer should ask and answer.
Everybody has a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. The question is whether to add a gap wedge of 52-54 degrees and/or a lob wedge of 58-60 degrees.
Do you think there are short shots you frequently hit that would turn out better with a different wedge, or wouldn't be so much work with a different wedge? If so, read on.
Different courses place different demands on your short game. If the course you play on finds you having to hit into the green from under 100 yards more than a few times, then four wedges, calibrated to known pitching distances would be a good way to go.
Another way to answer the question is, how much work are you willing to put in to learn what that extra club can do for you? I don't mean hours and hours, but I do mean at least a few honest hours at the practice green learning how to differentiate this wedge from the others you already have.
From the same place, a different wedge makes it a different shot. Knowing that difference is what will save you that extra stroke or not.
If you won't put in this time to learn the uses for each wedge, the extra wedge will only add confusion and frustration to your game.
Realize in addition that if you add a fourth wedge to your bag, you have to take out a club, which would likely be a long fairway club of some kind.
To make the trade, consider whether adding a wedge will save you more strokes than you might lose by removing the longer club. Golfers who are long and accurate might not benefit.
There is no pat answer on this issue. It all depends on your playing skills, your style of maneuvering the ball around the course, and the amount of time you can devote to short game practice.
In the end, look at it this way. If you think the extra wedge will save you a stroke or two every round, add it. If it's a stroke or two every month, don't bother.
However you build your set of wedges, try to keep the gaps of loft consistent.
For example, if a pitching wedge has 48 degrees of loft, a good three-wedge set is 48-54-60. 48-56-60 would be OK, but a set running 48-58-60 has too much of a gap between the PW and the sand wedge, and too little difference between the SW and the lob wedge.
A good four-wedge progression would be 48-52-56-60.
Then there's bounce and sole width to consider, but that would be turning this article into a book.
My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.
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