Siamese Moose

I can't think of a single five year period, not to mention fifteen, where my swing stayed constant enough that one set of irons was still a best fit. There were a couple times I simply reshafted, which I can do myslf and enjoy doing, but I really can't fit myself anymore. There's no way I can keep up with the myriad options available today, so I rely on a professional. At this point it's simpler to buy new.

I've worked in the alcohol industry. Every state prohibits a license holder from allowing outside alcohol into their license area. (It eliminates the possibility of a holder cutting off a drunk.) Depending on how aggressive a control agent gets, even a single case can result in a suspension in the liquor license. Multiple cases are a certain suspension, and a recurrence after a suspension probably will result in permanent revocation. While the agency may take into account how sneaky the person was who brought it in, they're not required to consider that. I've heard of country clubs around here who have kicked out members who did this. I do not know of any golf courses who have suffered suspensions here, but I do know of other private clubs that have (a VFW hall).

Sam Snead once said something to the effect of, "Give me a big dumb man with big hands, and I'll turn him into a golfer." Sometimes when I hit a poor, or poorly advised, shot, I'll actually say out loud, "I'm too smart for this game."

I'm short (5'6") with back issues. On the advice of my instructor, I've gone to a longer driver, and I got both longer distance and improved accuracy. His rationale is that the longer shaft makes me swing a little flatter, taking pressure off the back, and I make a freer swing. He recommends it for most seniors. Twenty years ago I went with a shorter shaft, and saw significant improvements then. Now at 62, it's a different story. Fortunately I love tinkering, so I'm always open to trying something new. I realize that what works for me is not going to be the same for everybody. Best of luck with your back!

Hi Johnny, Thanks for doing this. I've been really happy with these threads, and I'm sure you'll be right up there. I'd also like to thank all of Callaway for allowing me and three others to be testers for the Epic drivers. I greatly enjoyed doing the test, and learned a fair bit about my driving game as a result. I hope my write up lived up to your expectations. My question is about the other end of the bag. My PW is a set matching cavity back (45°), while my gap (50°), sand (54°), and lob (58°) wedges are are traditional muscle backs. I have a very large yardage gap between the PW and GW, 35 yards. I worked with my instructor on this, and found that if I hit down really hard on the gap and sand wedges I can gain as much as 15 yards, but that's not a change I'm comfortable with. I still have a couple sets of older clubs in the basement, and I have a couple clubs where I have a cavity back and a muscle back in the same (or nearly the same, 1°) loft. Hitting those I found the cavity backs were consistenly 10-15 yards longer. My instructor says it's common for the cavity backs to go farther, but he says I show more of a difference than most. Is this really that common? How do you fit around it? In my case, we bent the gap and sand wedges 2° stronger (I left the lob at 58°), and brought the yardage gap down quite a bit. Both wedges were high bounce models, so there's still plenty of bounce left (>10°). I use the LW for the vast majority of my bunker and greenside play, so I didn't change anything there. I have tried some cavity back wedges (Cleveland CBX), but was really unhappy with my yardage control with those. Conversely, I'm really pleased with the wedges I'm using. Thanks again for coming to MGS and letting us bend your ear!

Thank you!

Golfworks had a Toski series 10-15 years ago, but I don't remember an X series. Would you post a picture?

I've played in windy conditions a few times, but mainly on trips to the coast. It's rare that we get a heavy wind here in SW Ohio that isn't also rainy and miserable. I can't even guess at what the wind speeds were, not to mention the gusts, but I average 245 with my driver, and into the wind I "busted" one 195, and downwind had a couple over 290. #13 is an uphill par 3 where the wind was straight off the right. Today's tee was 166, but it's a least a club uphill. Even though the wind was cross, I figured I needed even more club for it. I took my 7 wood (normally about 195) and aimed it 25 yards right. I pushed it another 15 yards right of that. The resulting wind sweeper ended up pin high, 6' right of the hole. That's 40 yards of wind push! (I missed the putt, but the greens were aerated last week.) It was a difficult round to get judgements right, but it was a tremendous amount of fun!

First, let me give you strong encouragement to do it! The golden age of component clubs has passed, but that's when I got into club building. I don't do nearly as much anymore, and mostly play with shafts and keeping up with my loft/lie specs, but I still enjoy it. A lot. Yes, regripping nowadays feels a little tedious, but being able to do it myself means I change my grips more frequently, and I have fun trying new grips. My current project is working with a new putter, and adding weight down the shaft to get the feel I want. As far as tools, if you want to play with lie angle you'll need a bending machine. That's some real cash. If you're only doing wedges (esp. forged), you could get by with a club gauge (or even just a loft/lie protractor), a vise, and a rubber mallet. That's not a bad way to start. Whacking stuff can be quite fun! Next is a swingweight scale. If you're going to grind (I don't do that) you'll want a good scale. The basics listed in the previous video is good, and I may be wrong, but I think most guys who are confident enough in their tool skills to be considering club work probably already have those.

Sounds similar to what I went through, just on the left. I ended up in a wheelchair for a month before surgery, and was only able to sleep with heavy opiates. Surgery wasn't a totally perfect solution, but it was near enough to be called perfect. I have some small issues with soreness in the muscles overlaying my disc site, but overall it's been a remarkable recovery. My golf handicap is now the lowest it's been in 20 years. You'll get there too! Best of luck.

I would be interested in testing the Tour X. I'm concerned about the timeline, however, with little time left in the season here.

Not as great an improvement in GIR as I would like, but still a gain. If putts had fallen, the score could have been really special.

My weekday group tries to play a different course every week. This means we usually suffer on the local knowledge aspect. Today we played Lassing Pointe, in northern Kentucky (Golf Digest's #1 public course in KY). None of us could figure out the greens. They were smooth and consistent, but just subtle enough that we were flummoxed. Other than one unexpected 25' birdie for me, I don't remember anyone making anything over about 6' all day. The last is a par 4 that is famous for it's 100 yard deep green. Today the pin was back, so from our tee it was a robust 460 yard hole, a little downhill, but into the wind. I hit my only bad drive, and was blocked from even seeing the green unless I hooked it 80 yards. I laid up, but pushed that, so now my line to the pin was blocked. I "took my medicine", and hit it where I could onto that massive green, but a long way away. One of us was on in two, but even farther away, maybe 100', and as was typical for our day, left it 25' short. I had 92' (stepped it off after), with the line skirting the edge of the fringe for the first 20'. When that putt went in all of us just burst out laughing! I had a great ball striking day, but under the circumstances that putt was the shot of the day!

Career day for driving accuracy: 12/13 fairways, and that doesn't tell the story. Most of the drives were exactly where I wanted them. Yesterday's lesson worked!

We don't watch too many streaming shows, but I'll give a plug for Ghosts, on HBOMax. It's a British show, and incredibly funny.