FmrCaddie13

Great to have confidence in your clubs. Every club in the bag is a personal decision. No one plays them but you and most would trade handicaps in a heartbeat. Love the CBX. I have the CBX T3 and am confident 100% of the time with it.

Live in Iowa as well. FootJoy rain gloves are my go to throughout the year except for very cold condtions. Then switch to the FootJoy winter gloves. Intrigued bh the Tropicool suggestion above though.

Have to disagree re: choking down. Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia do this all the time to name a few. Reduces distince and improves accuracy on holes where accuracy is at a premium. Like anything else, practice first. Choking down 1/2 inch on your irons also fills in the gaps. Easier for some than taking one more club and swinging 80% or trying to step on a lesser club for extra distance.

Thinking beyond the shot at hand. Whenever I lose focus I tend to dump the current shot. Was recently diagnosed with ADD so I have to work harder to stay in the moment. I try to maintain a consistent routine for every shot. I am now playing the hardest holes best as I am really dialed in but the easy holes I count on for birdie opportunities are biting me as I tend to lose focus. Same thing happens on shorter putts. Trying to develop a mental strategy to stay in the moment

Being a content golfer is a good thing. You are having fun and obviously enjoy the game. There is no requirement to practice. Better your way than my friend who practiced incessantly, won a lot of amateur events, got a golf scholarship and quit the game aftsr his sophomore year. Got him to play once a decade later. He dug out his clubs, shot in the 70s with zero practice and was miserable the entire round. Now almost 2 decades later and still no interest. Golf isn't a job unless it's your job. "I'd keep playing if I were you."

Go back to the Tour Edge CBX119 with a stiffer shaft. There is a reason so many Champions Tour players game the FWs and hybrids. I had the original CBX 15° with a HZRDUS Yellow 6.0. Miss was a hook when I stepped on it but other than that was perfect. Upgraded to the CBX T3 with a Paderson Ballistic TP x-flex. I can't imagine a club out there that is more reliable in all situations calling for a 3w.

Sounds like shoulder misalignmemt, not the club. From your description his misses with the Ping he is used to are a high push or low pull. These are the same misses I start to have when my shoulders start aiming left of target. The more I try to step on it the more likely I am to hit the low pull. The temptation with any new driver is to nuke it and the loft/shaft combo in his TS3 pretty much demands it. Make sure his shoulders are aimed slight right of target or at least square and he should be back to bombing it soon. The lower the loft the harder it is to see alignment imho. I game a G400 LST 8.5 adjusted down to 7.9 and had to cure the same issue just adjusting the loft so a new head/loft/shaft combo will take a little getting learning curve.

I like to buy slightly used clubs I want to try on Ebay. I try them out and if happy they stay in the bag a while (my Odyssey Tank 7 putter and Cleveland Mashie hybrids with X-flex Miyazaki shafts). If not, I resell on Ebay or Facebook Marketplace (often for more than I paid). Getting ready to try a third iron set (Titleist AP1 714s, Aerosteel 95 X-flex shafts) in the last 12 months. So far I am up $100 for the year while replacing my Taylormade M1 driver with a Ping G400 LST that is staying in the bag for a while and my Tour Edge CBX 3W with the newer CBX T3 (including a Paderson Ballistic TP shaft) that is also a keeper. Used the extra $100 on a used range finder and lesson. Life is good. Should mention, don't sell your current clubs until you decide you really like the new ones. I still have my Taylormade Tour Preferred irons with the 1st gen KBS Tour X flex shafts I got from a tour pro. Haven't found an iron yet that I like better. Eventually my method will yield a replacement but not in a big hurry. Maybe these Titleists are the ones.....

The tour pros are the best guide for the answer. You hear "less than driver" and "3 metal" (hate both terms btw) and see lots of 5 woods, 7 woods, hybrids and long irons off the tee on lots of par 4s and some par 5s on both the PGA and LPGA. Going driver is a classic amateur mistake. You see it all the time at the range as well. Golf is about going low and you know driver is not the comfortable play here so go hybrid, give yourself a shot at birdie or an easy par, "Christmas shop" the tall grass as you stroll by for someone else's lost ProV1 and move on to the next. Bonus tip: Your described driver flight. High cut with a random low pull sounds like mine until a recent lesson. My club head and feet/hips were properly aligned but I didn't realize my shoulders were misaligned left of target. The PGA Professional had me line up normally, then turn my left shoulder until it felt like the shoulders were slightly right of target. Now bombing driver even with an easier swing. Give it a try on the range. Love to know if it helps you.

Spend the money on a fitting or a lesson instead. I like trying different shafts but it is not a cheap option way to improve or upgrade. It may work better for you than your current shaft but you won't know why. If you have a swing issue and the new shaft seems to improve your drives if you fix your swing it may suddenly be a terrible shaft option for you. Not sure I would consider the Smoke Yellow an upgrade either. I had the regular Yellow and loved it. When it broke I gave the Smoke Yellow a shot and hated it. A fitting or lesson feels expensive because you can't see it in your bag but add up lost balls, club experiments and money spent on rounds you wish you could forget when you play terrible and a fitting or lesson quickly becomes the cheapest option.

Same two for me. Before teeing off my buddies all take turns with my Orange Whip to warm up. I use my daily and hit it past them regularly. Tried to convince them to get their own, but don't mind being the big stick. Low putter in the group too and only one with a mirror. Go figure.

Rangefinder. Peak Pulse LC 600 A is about $100. Does everything my buddy's Bushnell does (including accuracy when we compare) so no need to spend $$$. Started using one this year. Scores down at least 3 strokes per round.

Too many pairs of golf shoes so these have to go. Cool color scheme. Very comfortable. Minimal wear. PayPal or Venmo. $60 OBO + $10 shipping.

Between playing and caddying starting in the mid 1980sn I'm not sure how many rounds I carried. Most of those rounds were pre-backpack strap bags and lots of heavy, leather tour bags owned by wealthy 15+ handicappers with extra clubs, the very early bag phones and tons of balls. Carrying has messed up my posture and back. My right shoulder is noticeably lower when I look in a mirror. Pull carts are awful and when push carts came out it seemed like a gimmick. Pride that I still carried was also a factor. Back pain led me to give one a shot and I haven't carried since. Still love walking the course and now my back also loves it again.

I'll pass on Round #2. Love my Odyssey Tank #7 too much. Had a riduculous 25 putt round last week including 9 total on the back nine. Two chip-in 0 putts, two 2 putts and five 1 putts. Short game was on point!