Clubs That are not Yours

I went back home to visit the family recently and was lucky enough to get a couple of wonderful Fall days to hit the links with Dad. We went to the course I grew up playing and had a great time searching through the trees I used to search through when I was young. It was a real pleasure to be there again on a course that I love dearly with the man that introduced me to this silly game…Thanks Dad!

There was one problem though. I was using equipment that was not my own. Okay, so the irons do have my name on them (Ping I5 irons) but they are not the irons I play on a regular basis. They are the “Spokane set” to appease the wife and relieve a little space in the closet. This set contains no driver, no fairway wood, and no wedges of consequence.

Here is the problem with this…my Dad plays vastly different clubs than I do. So what am I saddled with? A Cobra Offset driver with a regular shaft. Not exactly the specs I play. Adaptation time is zero and the tee time is in 30 minutes. What am I going to do?

Some of us are talented enough to not have this make a difference and can just adjust the swing to keep things going. I am not that guy ha ha. So I tried a couple of different things. The first thing I did was to take his offset driver with the loose shaft and swing a bit slower and aim a little right to compensate for the offset in the driver. I also teed the ball up a touch lower because the offset feature tends to send the ball higher than I am used to.

That worked for a while. As my round progressed, I found myself swinging better and freer and my swing speed increased. Now I was in trouble. So I did something I would have never thought of if not for some practice sessions back in college.

I switched tees. I played some white tees to shorten holes a bit so that I could hit Dad’s hybrid or even a iron off the tee. I was hitting the ball into the spots I typically do with my own driver and things were somewhat back to normal.

I remembered back to a time in college. We had just been to California for a tournament and our entire team’s performance around the greens was awful. In fact, from 100 in was pretty much abysmal. Our coach had us play the next few rounds from the ladies tees at our local course.

This gave us more wedges and more than our fair share of 40 yard shots to practice. We were told to play every tee shot as if we were playing the tips, which took the strategy of laying up to our “normal” approach shot distance out of play. Coach sent us off with an adage that I have held onto forever, “It doesn’t matter what tees you play, you still have to chip and putt to score.”

I hit my wedges well that day and putted fairly well and was able to score despite having equipment that didn’t match my swing. Remember this next time you are on vacation and are borrowing a set of clubs and they do not match your everyday clubs. If you have to, play a set of tees up so that you can lay up to distances you would normally have if you had your own equipment.

Most of all, have fun.

What do I do with old golf clubs?

“How many clubs can you play with?” Picture this voice coming from my beautiful bride. The one I cherish more than any on this Earth. She pretty much controls all that I do and oversees my whole existence to keep me afloat. So you can imagine my shock when she asked me this question. She knows the answer is 14. But the tone told me the story.

She was more commenting on the collection of, formerly favorite, golf clubs in our closet. The number seems to increase to the point that I actually think they reproduce on their own. (Don’t get me started on the noises I hear from them, but that is for a different conversation.)

So there I am, going through what I call “the arsenal” when the voice of my sweet chimes in. At that point, I wondered the same. My immediate answer to her was “NEVER enough golf equipment.” My brain told a different story though. I did have an awful lot of stuff.

What do I do with the weapons of years past? Thanks to technology, I have a bunch of choices now. I can do the tried and true and put up a letter at the local club with all my stuff I am looking to move to a new home. Maybe someone can find a use for that persimmon #6 wood that Dad gave me when I was 7.

I can also go the Ebay route. This has become the choice of the moment as it comes to selling just about anything. Ebay is nothing more than an auction. You place your item on their site and you take bids. You can even set a reserve if you think that club with the fake wood looking shaft is actually worth something. Once the bidding is over, you sell the item and pay Ebay a portion.

Or, you can visit the idea of trade in. Some of the best moves I have made in the battle against the growing of the golf collection has been trade in. I have taken 3 or 4 clubs I will never play again and turned them into new drivers or wedges. It is a great program and is much easier on my mind than Ebay is.

I prefer to hang onto most of the following items, Drivers, putters, wedges. As we have talked about in the past, I believe that confidence is something very important when it comes to your equipment. I hang onto anything that was once the magic wand. I have a few I will never get rid of.

I have an Odyssey White Hot Tour putter that I have played with only once. I have a Ping G5 driver that I swear will see my bag at some stage again. I have 3 or 4 sets of wedges “just in case” the new weapons decide to misfire. I have a couple Scotty Cameron putters in case the 3 wiggles infest my golf bag with my current putter.

I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to golf equipment. I know that they worked before and they will work again, if they have to. They have proven they are equal to the task and so I hang on to them. (Much to the chagrin of some)

She should be thankful we don’t have a garage…yet!

When do I change clubs?

Changing the neighborhood

I had just shot an 87. I was miserable. My buddy Brad had just beat me senseless, which is the case most times, but this one was different. Usually I can hang with him and this time it was over before it began.

The next day I went out by myself and ripped off an 85. Now I knew something was horribly wrong. 3 days later an 84. Over the weekend, 2 more scores over 85. It reached catastrophic levels now. I called for help.

I called Brad and relayed the story. Brad is always helpful even though we compete against each other from time to time. Brad asked a bunch of questions about my weight shift, my spine angle, my wrist at the top of my swing, all the stuff a “swing doctor” is supposed to ask. Then it hit me…my confidence was shot.

I suddenly realized that every time I set the club down, I felt a sense of impending doom. I had no idea where the ball was going when I put a tee in the ground. I was scared I would hit my long irons fat. I was certain that a shank was right around the corner with my wedges. Every 20-foot putt felt like it was across state borders. My swing was not perfect, trust me, but that was not the culprit this time. This time it was the head. I decided something rash. I would buy new clubs!

Now I am not a guy that tries every new thing out there when I miss a green. I am a realist. I know that my ability will dictate my score more than anything else will. But this time I tried to inject some “quick confidence” into my game. I remembered the last time I got a new putter…I was lights out. I made everything in sight for about a month. Then I settled into a groove. While I didn’t make everything anymore, I putted well. I still have that putter to this day.

That was when it hit me. I was changing clubs for no reason before. This time there was a reason. I wanted to change to get rid of the bad feelings in my head. I couldn’t look at those clubs anymore and remember the good shots. I just remembered the bad ones that got me to this lowly spot in my golf life.

I started with new wedges. I bought wedges that looked completely different than what I had been playing before. I had been playing a Cleveland 588 TSC gap wedge at 53* and a Ping Tour Black Nickel wedge at 56* with a T grind in the sole (trailing edge was ground as well as the heel so that I can open it up easier). I kept the wedges for the future when the new ones would leave me. They are currently on "exile" to my closet where I am hoping some time alone, in the dark, will scare them straight ha ha.

I went with the Callaway X-tour wedges in the satin finish in a 52* and a 56*. I held off on new irons and new woods to see what happened. I liked my gear before. Why didn’t? I like it now? More importantly, would the change in wedges help me fall in love all over with my gear again?

Truth is, I fired an 82 the day I got the new wedges and then back to being Tom Flynn the next day. I had 73 with a double and I felt more in control of my golf game again. Steadily, it all came back. I was back to reality again and it seemed that a change in equipment did it. I called it "changing the neighborhood." I was looking at a new place every time I put the new clubs down and that shot of confidence fed through my entire game.

Try this, next time you think it is time to change clubs. Is it that your clubs are outdated? Is it that your ability has new demands that your clubs can not deliver? Or is it that you just need a shot of confidence? Maybe it is time to change the neighborhood in your own game.

Torque is for Mechanics

Torque is for mechanics?

I will probably get some flak for this statement, but the most overused and least known term in golf equipment today is torque. Before you fill the comment section with cries for my head or my position, let me explain.

Can you tell me what torque means? Can you tell me why I should use a low or a high torque? Better yet, can you tell me what will happen if I play 3.2 torque vs. 3.3 torque? I mean if I told you I was a 1 handicap and had a swing speed of 97+ MPH on most driver swings, played a 9.5* driver at 45” with a 65g shaft and I didn’t know what torque I should be playing, you could tell me right? What if I told you that my typical ball flight was straight to a power fade. You could tell me straight away, right? Ohhhhhhh or better yet, I can go hit on your launch monitor and you can tell me then what torque I should be using. That will do it. Okay, I know that torque is important in some capacity. I kid when I say it is immaterial, but am I so far off?

Lets define torque and march through this together. Torque is defined as the shafts resistance to twisting. The lower the number, the less it twists and the higher the number the more it twists. Torque is “fitted” by testing contact and ball spin. A lower torque typically spins the ball more than a higher torque does. So spin is bad and so we should all play the lowest torque possible, right? Well there is more to it than that.

If you make consistent ball contact, you hit the middle or close to the middle of the golf club every time you make contact, lower torque might be right up your alley. But if you hit it like my buddies, you are all over the face. One is off the heel, one out on the toe, torque might not hurt you if that is the case. In fact, torque can help you. A higher torque might afford you some forgiveness on those off-center hits. Your club could attempt to correct some of those impact faults.

I know what you are saying…”Tom you sounded like you thought torque was a joke earlier and now you are making it seem like it makes sense to take into account.” Well I don’t think it is a joke and I certainly do not think it is something to take into account…for all golfers.

Let me put it this way. If you are a 20 handicap and have trouble finding the fairway. Maybe you slice the golf ball and are just trying to get it in play so you can find it and hit it again. Why would you be concerned with the torque of the golf club you are playing? Is this torque thing going to magically produce Tiger-like drives from your over the top reverse pivot golf swing? No. This is just another variable to confuse you in an already confounding game.

Now if you are a low handicapper or even a golfer that makes consistent contact with the sweet spot of the golf club, maybe torque is something you should consider when purchasing your next driver. Be very cautious though. Do not let torque override the more important aspects of the shaft such as weight or flex.

Torque is not going to make you hit the ball 10 yards further like weight can. Torque is not going to produce a higher ball flight like flex point can. Torque is not going to turn heads like even the color of the shaft will. Torque has and will continue to confuse the average golfer, but can be a variable that the consistent player might want to examine.

I choose to play a Cobra X speed Driver. I play the D version (deep face) with an Aldila VS proto shaft in stiff flex at 65 grams. They tell me it is a 3.2 torque. I have no idea what that means to me, but I hit it well and like the way it feels. It is SOOOOOOOO important to golfers everywhere that Cobra does not even print the torque of that shaft on their website when giving the specifications of the golf club.

I guess it isn’t first on their mind and they were the ones that built the club. Makes me think…maybe it should not be first on my mind.

HIT EM WELL!

Flex and Flex Point

Flex and flex point…there IS a difference?

Here is something that bothers me. Flex vs. flex point as it relates to shafts. Here is another marketing mess that can not only confuse, but scare golfers into submission to the golf companies every whim.

Flex of the shaft is usually printed on the shaft somewhere. It will say “regular” or “stiff” or “ladies” or “lite” or…well you get the idea. This is the designation that corresponds to the type of golfer that should be playing the particular shaft. Faster swingers typically play “stiff” and slower swingers play “lite.” Pretty cut and dried here. This is typically measured by swing speed and is, of late, being measured by ball speed.

Let me side step for a minute. If you are being fitted and are not being told your ball speed, ask the fitter what is it. If he/she does not tell you, go somewhere else. Ball speed is the single most important detail in the fitting process. Ball speed tells the seasoned fitter what kind of contact you are making when looked at with the swing speed in mind. Ball speed is the "new" swing speed to most of these golf club companies when they design and match shaft to head.

But I digress…shaft flex point is very different. Flex point is the zone that a shaft actually flexes at. You will see this called “low kick or flex”, “high kick or flex” and “mid kick or flex.” Here is where it gets tricky. High flex point will deliver a lower trajectory ball flight and low flex point will deliver a higher trajectory ball flight. Mid is…well…mid.

This should help you understand why the manufacturers will offer one driver with 3 different shaft options. In most cases, the “stock” shaft will have the lowest flex point while the other 2 options will be the mid and high flex options. Here is just such a monster. You will notice that when you select the “shaft” option, the dropdown menu gives you 3 shaft options. In this case, the stock is the mid flex point option where the Pro Launch Red is the high flex point and V2 is the low flex point. Remember, in flex point high means low trajectory and low means high trajectory.

So what should I get? Well that is a great question. I would urge you to take loft into account with all of this. I play a 9.5* driver with a “mid to high” flex point. That produces a 9.5* driver that tries to play like a 9*. Why not just buy a 9* you ask? Because they didn’t make one ha ha. I would also say that if you need some forgiveness, play a lower flex point shaft. It will produce a higher trajectory which is typically easier to control.

Here is the noose though. What if I want a stiff shaft with a low flex point? Well I am out of luck for the most part. The reason for this is that the kind of shaft I would be asking for caters to such a small population of golfers that it makes no sense, financially, for many of the shaft makers to produce that combination of shaft. The same can be said for a high flex point, senior shaft. Why make it when it is so counter productive to what the golfer at that speed or ability is actually going to do.

Next time your golf buddy tells you that you should get a high flex point shaft put in your driver, ask him why and see what he says. If he doesn’t say “So that you can hit the ball lower,” he is just trying to get in your head, or your pocket.

HIT EM WELL!

Round and Dimples pt. 3

Okay, I’ve decided that I should play a “distance” type ball with good feel. I know I play in a climate that reduces distance, but has softer greens that do not demand I spin the ball a ton. Now what? I mean there are 20 different brands of balls that all say the same thing. How do I decide which brand of ball to play?

First a short story…I was playing a college tournament when a guy came in with a semi-ridiculous score. On a day where NOBODY stopped balls on the concrete hard greens, this guy comes in with a 67! So as we all sat around talking about our round, one of my teammates came up and told me that “the 67 guy spun the ball BACK on 4 or 5 greens.” Now I am not the best spinner of the golf ball but I knew that this was virtually impossible given the conditions.

I walked up to “the 67 guy” and asked him what ball he was playing that spun on these runway-like greens. His answer, “anything round and dimpled.” I was floored. I demanded to know what version of Titleist balata he was playing and he walked me outside and emptied his golf bag of all his golf balls. Wilson Ultra, Top-Flite XL, Slazenger Raw Distance, every manner of distance ball fell to the ground. So I asked him to his a few and sure enough, he spun every one of them. It was there that I learned that “fitting” for a golf ball was not only important, but was imperative.

At that time, as a member of the golfing general public, there was no way to test a golf ball outside of hitting it and watching it. There were no launch monitors, simulators, or internet questionnaire to help me choose a ball. I had to go about it the way that everyone else did. Trial and error.

I would sleeves of balls and test them on the same day, on the same golf course to see what each did. So I would take my Titleist Balata and compare it against the Maxfli HT-balata and against the Top-Flite XL to see what each did on tee shots and around the greens. I would play 4 holes with one ball and then 4 with another and so forth. Most of the time I would play well with one ball and it would be “my ball” for about 4 days. Then I would play bad and switch to something else.

Over time I found that I like softer feeling balls that give me some spin around the green. But I don’t hit it very far so I need all the help I can off the tee. I went through Titliest Professional, ProV1, Callaway Rule 35, and do on. I have settled on the Bridgestone E5+ for now. It does what I like. Long off the tee and soft feeling, it is my current “my ball.”

But what if I don’t have the time or the patience, or the budget to buy a ton of different golf balls to see what I like? Well golf ball companies have heard you. Every golf ball manufacturer has description pages on their websites. Bridgestone has taken things a step further with online fitting and the current “mother of all ball fittings” something they call the Bridgestone Challenge.

This is a traveling fitting center for golf balls. Your club just did a demo day? Imagine one of those for golf balls! That is what you get with the Bridgestone Challenge. You hit a variety of balls using a launch monitor and, through mathematical data, find the ball that is best suited to your swing.

I am more the trial and error type and have yet to be mathematically fitted for a ball. I can say this though. If one of the largest ball manufacturers in the world is taking golf balls this seriously, shouldn’t I?

HIT EM WELL!

Round and Dimples pt. 2

About 2 months ago I headed back to Vegas for a little vacation and to visit some friends. I lived there for about 5 years and just a couple of years ago, moved here to Seattle. Let me tell you, the change in performance of golf ball was DRAMATIC. Maybe you have had some of the same experiences. If you have not, here are some things to think about when you go on your next vacation.

In Vegas, the desert terrain and soil typically makes for firm and fast greens. Compare that to Seattle where we have very soft greens and you can see that playing the same ball in Vegas and I do here might not make for the best opportunity to score. Elevation is a big change as well. Vegas is at a much greater elevation in comparison to Seattle. Typically, elevation will change the distance a ball flies. As the air gets lighter (higher elevation) the ball goes further.

Temperature is a big change too. As the weather gets warmer, balls can be easier to compress and will go a bit further. This is why those of us that live in more dramatic climates will suddenly find the golf ball going measurably shorter during the cooler months. We can’t forget humidity either. The heavier, wetter air usually causes the ball to fly shorter distances.

So there I was in Vegas. 30 degrees warmer, lighter air, firm greens, higher elevation, and me with my “Seattle” ball, the Bridgestone E5+. What was I going to do? I knew I couldn’t play a ball that was designed for softer greens as I would have a tough time spinning it on the firmer Vegas greens. I also knew that all signs pointed to me hitting the ball further so I made a change. I went with a softer ball that was more “performance” oriented to increase my spin around the greens. My thought was that the distance gain through the conditions would offset any loss from the ball type.

I played the Bridgestone B330-S golf ball and had no loss of distance with a ton more spin to handle those firm greens. So the cover was softer and I did go through a few additional balls through wear. Alright you caught me, I hit about 7 out into the desert and was not about to go hunting through the rocks for a ball I was not going to be able to play anyway. But the change in ball gave me the help I needed around the greens to play my best.

Maybe you have a trip scheduled for Florida , Vegas , Myrtle Beach or over to St. Andrews. If you are that fortunate, do some quick checks and see if the conditions might call for a ball change. Maybe the wind at St. Andrews will effect your Pro V1 to the point that you might want to play a lower flying ball like the Pro V1X or the NXT Tour.

The adjustment in feel of the ball will be minimal in comparison to the scores it could yield. Remember, the difference between 80 and 79 is a couple of inches sometimes. Make sure that you have the proper equipment for the situations you will be facing.

HIT EM WELL!

Round and Dimples pt. 1

The golf ball. Could this be the most underrated piece of equipment in your golf bag? If you had your driver, irons, wedges, and putter fitted to your swing and have not addressed the golf ball in depth, you could be costing yourself strokes.

There are about 100 different golf balls to choose from out there. Each one promises increased distance with great feel and spin. Each one promises lightning in a bottle, or sleeve, in this case. But do they actually deliver and does it really matter in the whole scheme of my golf game? In a simple answer, YES!!!

At the 1998 Masters, arguably, the greatest golfer that has ever played the game, Jack Nicklaus proposed a “scaling back” of the golf ball for professional tournaments. In essence, he proposed a tournament golf ball. Here is the greatest player in the world suggesting that the golf ball is making an impact, greater than that of driver or iron technology, on the world of golf. Can I afford to ignore this in my own game?

Golf balls tend to come in two classes. Distance balls and “performance” balls. “Performance” is a fancy name for spin balls. Now every manufacturer will tell you that their distance balls have performance and their performance balls have distance, but it is important to realize that in the world of golf balls, there is a trade off between the two.

I happen to have enough distance to play most courses. I also happen to be 5’11” and about 30 pounds overweight. For those of you that have experience in swing types vs. body types, you can guess that I have a fairly shallow angle of attack and have very little turn when I swing. Because of that, I do not spin the ball very well. Because of that, I play a ball that spins for me.

I play the Bridgestone E5+ most of the time I play. I will get into when and what I change to in part 2 of this series. I find that this ball has a fair amount of distance off the tee, but spins like a top around the greens. I have tried other balls in this “performance” class and found them all to be adequate, but I like this one the best.

If you are a golfer that tends to hit the ball shorter than you would like or more erratically than you would like, this ball might not be for you. If you are looking for distance, take a look at balls like the Pinnacle Platinum Distance. These balls will give you serious pop. The sacrifice is the spin around the greens, but if you live in an area that has softer greens, you might not need the spin that other balls provide.

I know what you are going to say. “Tom, I like the distance and all, but they feel hard and I cant stand that jarring feel of impact that distance balls have.” Well there is a solution. Most of the golf ball manufacturers have produced a soft feeling distance ball. Check out the Callaway Hx Hot if you like a ball that goes and goes but hate a harsh sound or feel at impact,

The golf ball. THE most underrated piece of equipment in your golf bag. Hopefully this helps clear up a little confusion. Next time we will talk about different conditions that might affect what ball you play and some choices based on your current ball you like.