korsmot

Most people already do it when the irons and woods, or irons and wedges that don't match and there is no issues there. An important thing to me, are the distances gapped properly? I just want clubs that have the right space between distances. I don't need a 6 iron that goes 175 yards and a 7 iron that goes 170. That is not helpful. Also, you could have two unmatched 5 irons that have a 15 yard distance gap because of loft, swing weight, head type etc. So at the end of the day do you have 12 clubs that have the distance gap you want? (left off putter and driver, putter for obvious reasons and driver as I normally want to hit that as far as possible, even if it is way longer than my 3 wood. If you are worried about hitting your driver too far, time to club down!) Also having the confidence with each club is important. If you hate your 4 iron, ditch it and get a different one or a hybrid, or fairway wood that goes the distance you want. One of the reasons to have matched set with irons is you are assuming the manufacturer has already done the gapping for you. Since there is no standard loft or weight for a PW, if you buy mixed you have to make sure the effect at the end is what you want. Pros will go and bend the loft or change shaft to adjust the final distance they want to get. so they have a mixed set, that looks matched (plus the endorsement factor). So buying a matched set is "easier" for the consumer. Cheers Tigger

What is funny is I never met a player who said “I just hit the ball too straight”. I have had the same experience as above. Bought muscle backs when I was a 5. Added 5 strokes to the hcp. Went back to Ap1s with a good cavity back. I want the ball to go about the same distance with a slight mishit not lose 20 yards. pros have to work the ball much more than the standard amateur because of course set up An interesting idea is finding a single “blade” iron to practice with and work on hitting the center of the club face. take the ego out of it. Let the results speak. I would play with a pink plaid driver shaped bagel if I hit it 300 straight all the time.

Always start with the effect or deficiency you are trying to get to. More length off the tee? More spin on iron shots into the green? too much? more spin with the pitches/chips/half wedge shots? Even at a 10 HCP you probably aren't hitting it so flush every time that the differential in balls (in the same price category) is probably not a massive upgrade. A mis-hit on the driver face center by 1/4 inch could cost you 10 yards. Changing balls won't probably get you 10 yards off the driver (again assuming you are already playing a premium ball). But depending on your issues, 4000 rpm on the driver, super high ball flight etc, you might be able to find a ball that helped in those regards. Despite advertising, there is no ball that is crazy long off the tee, low spin with the driver, high spin with the wedges, solid with the iron shots and soft on the putter. Unless you change price point categories. Assuming you are looking in the $40+ per dozen price point, lots of that goes to feel and spin. I have tried this experiment several times; playing a couple of rounds with one type of ball then switching to another for a few rounds and then thinking about those in comparison. Hitting 10 seven irons into a green with one ball, then 10 with a different ball to see "stopping Power", etc. Can you hit a low spinning chip like the pros that flies 80% of the way, one bounce and then full check spin to throw on the brakes? Summary: My experience has been if stay at the premium price point (40+), it will just be feel and preference. I firmly believe that single digit hcp (I am 6.7) could play ten rounds with one premium ball and ten with another and it won't change your average score at all. It is way more body/swing impacted and mental challenges than equipment. However all of this goes out the window if you are scratch, aspiring mini-tour player that pulls the string on every wedge in every green to suck it back 15 feet. That is a different game than most of us are playing on the weekend. The Tour player is trying to suck every ounce out of every facet of their game. But it absolutely fun to tinker with this stuff and see if you find out anything. Also, if you BELIEVE you are playing the right ball, right clubs etc, it really builds confidence which is big! So why not mess around with it? Have fun!

Then I would say lessons, if just pure ball striking is the problem. Driving and approach game is tee to "green" = ball striking. (not counting pitching and chipping). Some people think they have putting problems but they can't hit irons to a reasonable distance and leave themselves in 3 putt territory all the time or they can't chip it to 10-12 feet to give a reasonable chance for up and down. A great training aid for ball striking is a phone holder to video yourself on the range $20. Real vs Feel is shocking some times. Going along with that is a good mirror in the garage to work on your positions that you can see from your lessons. $60 at lowes. I would not recommend launch monitor at 30 hcp. If you are just trying to stay on the course, that will not be helpful. Agree with the above. Pick an instructor you like and have a conversation about where you want to go (game-wise) and how to get there. Do you want to get to single digit hcp? or do you just want to be tweaked a little? Old guys don't want to be broken down and start from scratch with their swing. Will take too long. Young guys (less than 50) should consider it and remove all the bad habits from previous times. That might take 10-15 lessons over 6-12 months. if you want get a lot better. but that 10 lessons will do a lot more for you (if you do the practice with it) than a $500 anything. Cheers Tigger

You need to look at your game and see where you are deficient. You want to work on areas that you are dropping strokes. Are you three putting alot? Are you missing a lot of 3-4 foot putts? Then address the specific issue with a specific training aid not get a training aid and try and shape that to your game. Launch monitors can tell you lots of stuff, but do you know what to do with that data? I recommend after each round you play for the next three or four rounds, seeing where you are throwing away most of your strokes. 3 putts? Duffs? penalties (from driver or irons)? chipping not nearly close enough to have a reasonable one putt? I am big fan of cutting down these listed areas as they are just strokes that are very hard to get back. You can never get back a missed putt. However, you can hit a drive way offline and still hit it on the green with your next shot, like the bad drive never happened. This is all predicated on the idea you want to lower your score, not just have fun hitting solid strikes of the golf ball. Big fan of bob rotella as well. Course management mistakes are just wasted shots as well that are the most preventable, as it is just thinking. Summary: find your very specific problems and get training aids that address that. Cheers