Franc38

Yep, should have that on my pro mail when on holidays, or something!

I'm currently away from my golf bag, but I'll post some pictures (included the "at address" pics that are so hard to find for most manufacturers... makes you wonder if golf club manufacturers think people buy clubs to look at them in the bag, instead of playing with them).

True, the improvement will always and only really come from the swing getting better... Except I don't know of any golfer that will not change their swing after they've hit a few blades low in the toe on a freezy early winter morning. The feel is so "disgusting" that your brain will do whatever is required for that not to repeat itself too often. Either that works unconsciously (like what the training aid hopes to do) or via a "ah ah" moment that sends you directly to your local swing coach or by simply putting the blades back on eBay and getting a new set of SGI

To me the general idea makes sense... But only insofar as you use the same clubs bar the head for gaming (shafts, swing weight, size, lie and loft, at the bare minimum). Else you're training to use a thing and then use an other one to perform; that's likely not going to work. Just like if you were training on a go-kart to then drive a LMH race car. In both cases you improve one skill (trajectories with the cars, hitting the centre with the clubs) but you'll need a lot of work to transpose it to the "real life situation" as the implements of the trajectory/swing are different. However, you can perfectly decide to get a set of blades on heavy shafts, correctly fitted to you, and use them for one or two years at least, practice and play both, and see what happens. Be ready to "suffer" a bit at the beginning but then your ball striking will improve (or you'll quit golf ). I did more or less that a few years back. I was about a 25 handicap and bought (for the sake of aesthetics) a set of tour CBs. It was the middle of the winter. I remember rather vividly (and "painfully") said winter: bad contacts are punished by nasty feels and short balls going about everywhere but where you want. Even when you catch the middle of the face the loft (usually fairly "traditional" on these type of clubs, think 35 to 33° for a 7i) makes the ball go not as far as what you're used to. But then, I began hitting the ball more towards the centre, and now I'm considered a "decent ball striker" (and a bad putter, but that's another debate all together ) and won't ever go back to any club head that's not one piece forged, compact and with a "high" centre of gravity (blades and shallow cavities help me keep the ball "a bit lower" in general and most importantly to have the trajectories I want, draw/fade/high/low with less efforts... SGI and PD, for me, just do "high little draw that goes miles and don't spin enough" unless I work extra-hard). TLDR: Just like balls, you should practice with the clubs you plan on playing with. Playing with blades or similar small CB will most likely improve your ball striking or make you quit (golf or simply using these unforgiving sticks) but be prepared to go through a period of "suffering" or "bad golf" while you adjust. And don't do it unless you either have distance to spare or don't care about that... Typically you'll loose 1 to 2 clubs, simply because of the lofts (more if you don't hit the middle of the face).

I've ordered a combo set of iron 301 on Christmas' eve and just got them this morning. Had the time to go a play a quick 9 holes this afternoon... So far, I'm really happy. The lofts are in my wheelhouse (just 1° stronger than my current/former set, so no need to change the rest of the bag), the fit and finish is great, no dinks or uneven surfaces that I've noticed, The heads are really nice, squat compact with a bit of a "thick-ish" (say that very very fast) topline. They remind me a bit of the Mizuno MP4 at address. The offset is not too big (but looks a tad larger than what the specs say... somewhat more than my current/former set of Bridgestone J38 CB. Well, that's talking fractions of mm on something that's on the "low offset" segment of the market anyways. The feel is really nice, a bit more "solid" or "hard" than the Bridgestone (same S20C steel, but the Bridgestones are Endo forged and have a small magnesium insert supposedly "vibration dampening"... either could be the reason). I'm liking that more "solid" feel a lot (reminds me of the TW blades that I've tried a while ago, and the MP4s, again are in the same ballpark). The soles are bit wider than what I was comfortable with but being "pre-worn" on the front and back edges, I found the "turf interaction" to be quite nice (the ground is soft, verging on soggy, at the moment, we'll see when conditions get harder in the summer. All in all, I'm very happy! Sure, the grips are standard but I had asked them and getting midsize grips would have pushed the wait time from 5-10 days to 8 weeks, apparently, so I'll keep the standard grip for a while an regrip in a while with some good midsize corded things later on.

The golf swing ain't rocket science or anything that complex... It's just been rather badly taught and it's hard to incorporate what we "learn we should do" into what we do... that old "feel is not real". So yeah, I totally agree with Crossfield on this one (and many other things... he tends to be one of the most interesting YT coaches). You'd be much better served by being "anti-fit" than by being fit. Unless, that is, you're competing at the very top level and already have a great command of what you do and search for every minute fractional gain you could scrap. The rest of us? Get something very neutral, club-wise, so that you'd be most likely to get a desirable flight only if you do deliver neutral conditions. The rest of the swing? You'll figure it out yourself with or without the help of a coach by just trying to get what you want (the ball going where you want it to go). When you get fit for "help" and "correction", you stick to your mistakes and never improve (actually, improving your swing will make your shots worse!). Sure, they might hide the problems, mitigate the consequences of bad swings. However, improving on centredness of strike if you can't feel the difference between a heel, a toe, a low, a high, a flushed strike, might prove a bit challenging. Getting path and face neutral and matching when all balls fly relatively straight might prove difficult. If you "early extend" (don't like the expression, but you get it) and raise the handle massively, a very upright club with help you keep the ball straight with your fault, a very flat club will make the fault so bad you'll be forced to figure out a way to deliver the shaft on a better "plane".

My irons are from 2011... 11 years young. I do play almost daily (even if not a full round, I'd say I average the equivalent to three eighteen holes rounds per week). So that makes my iron set about 1560 rounds old. Wayyyyyy past the noted 300. I'll certainly buy a new set very soon (like "for Christmas" in January), in part because the grooves start to look worse for the wear, and the soles are worn out on the most used clubs (PW, 9, 7 and 4 for some reason) and in part because I want a bit more weight and stiffness in the shafts, while having them a bit more "lively" (so swapping the old PX 6.0 for some KBS tour X)... I could have plaid my set a few more years without much loss in performances, I guess, despite the heads being forged in the softest steel (S20C). So changing is mostly for looks, new shiny things, possibly "tech improvement" (even if the CBs/MBs I play are well... almost totally devoid of any technology and I must say I've never been really that convinced by the "advances in tech" for golf irons since the eye2 came out at some point last millennium.

I usually keep using a ball until it's lost or too scuffed to fly "straight". What I usually do is pick a ball in my bag that's not too scratched or even a new one, and play with it. If I loose it, I'll pick another ball in my bag, if I don't loose the ball in the 9 or 18 or 14 (in winter I often do play 14, the routing of the course allows it and the time before sunset is OK) back in the bag it goes, where I'll probably pick it up the next time I play. After a while my bag is full of very used balls (either my old ones or balls I've found while playing) and I use these for chipping practice, or some times I use them on the range (only with short irons, else I could go over the back net as my range is fairly short. At this time I usually put a few (4 or 6 typically) new balls in the bag. Rinse and repeat!

in France, the standard (recommended and sort of implemented by the federation) is as follows: Black (tour tees... not existing everywhere, far from it, and often not maintained except for pro comps), white (initially for men comps with lower than 11.4 index), yellow (men competitions, with higher than 11.5 index), blue (women competitions, index below 11.4) and red (initially for women of index above 11.5). Then you have orange tees for the kiddies aged less than 12 and with a "high handicap" (national U12 comps are from blue tees more often than not). Two or three years ago, they decided to act and change the "pro/lower handicap men/higher handicap men/lower handicap women/higher handicap women" description, as indeed a man in his 80s, even if a skilled player, will be usually shorter than a top amateur girl in her 20s and all sort of other "anti-sexist" considerations. They came up with an algorithm that recommends the tees to use based on a mix of age and index. That's obviously for "recreational play". In proper regional/national competitions, everyone tees up from the same tees, which are likely to be a combo of the black and white tees (for men) and a combo of yellow and blue tees for women. These combos set so that the average single figure handicapper of each sex driving at 230m and 190m respectively are "challenged a bit but not too much" distance wise.

I really have a hard time understanding the ego connection with tees... I mean, I try to play "normally" from tees where I'll have a PW or a 52° as my second shot on the "average par 4" and where reaching most par 5 in 2 is a stretch, a bit of a gamble. That's my "normal" (and quite a bit in line with the "5 iron carry times 33" rule). But I do often tee from the forward tees, the "tour tees" or a combination. It keeps things interesting, different, and offers me the ability to work on different shots. I sometimes play with friends of the fair sex and tee with them. Some par 4 become almost par 3, most par 5 are reachable in 2, the "partial wedge play" comes front more, the driver gets a bit of rest, the 4 wood, 3 hybrid and 4 iron get used on many tee boxes. It's fun, it's refreshing... and we can keep talking a move fast easier that way... You can get your guys to try mixing up tees a bit, randomly at first (like a roulette to choose the tees for each hole) and have them realize that if you play "serious, competitive golf" and use the index, slope and the rest, it's often times harder to shoot below your handicap from the forward tees as you get less shots from the course... But those shots you shoot are more accessible if you're not as long as you used to be!

That's rather lovely looking (if you like darker clubs) but I'm a bit shocked at how thick the topline is, how large the sole and how much offset there is. I though that these clubs were in the same sort of bracket as my Bridgestone J38cb but visually at least that's really not that similar.

Using plastic (of some sort, resin maybe) tees from Decathlon. I just don't break them (or very rarely), or lose them (they're a bright fluo yellow) and I probably use 3 of them per year while playing almost daily... Being stronger than wooden tees, they also work wonders as pitch mark repair tools... Sure, "plastic" is not biodegradable, but that's not a problem as my tees don't have to degrade on the course, they just get back in my pocket. And on the rare occasions when they fly in a place I don't find them, some other golfer will find them soon and use them again. Better that than a wooden or bamboo thing that will degrade "fast" but that fast still takes months if not years and will not be reusable after a short while... and ends up costing more as you use so many of them, plus may have a dulling impact on mowers' blades.

I have a Boblov that I got from Amazon a few years back (3? 4? can't say for sure, I changed the CR2 battery 3 times I think, and use it "roughly"). It's got slope, vibration, it's not the fastest ever when using pin lock but in standard mode it's pretty much instantaneous, the distances are never more than 1 yard off from what friends with Nikon's or Bushnell's expensive units get, The only negative is that the dioptric adjustment doesn't stay in place so I have to fiddle with the thinggy about once per round to have a pin sharp image. Other than that, my 90 dollars unit performs just as well as the "big boys" and I certainly will replace it when it dies (probably in a looooong time) with a similar unit. I might actually change before it dies or does anything wrong, just to get the "newer things" like a visible and easy to access slope toggle and a possibility for red display as I often play dusk golf!

A lot of people believed that the path was determining the direction and the face, the curvature. Top teaching pros and tour players included. They still were wrong. A lot of people think that "feel" is in the hands and has nothing to do with sound, until they try in a controlled, serious way. Plenty of people think they can't play this or that, until they try with a free mind and realise marketing had them think things that weren't real.

agreed, the difference between balls is a bit in the feel section (and that's mostly for chipping and putting, anything more and the speed makes the club itself the major "feel" component) and in the numbers you see on the launch monitor, much less in actual behaviour. A very very spiny ball, like the Inesis tour 900 checks a bit faster on hard greens than a Titleist Velocity, but that won't be a 4 yards difference, more like 1 or 2 yards max. Are we accurate to the yard or 2 yards, methinks those who'd say yes are delusional. Regarding distance and all, same thing, the difference (which undoubtedly exists) is minute and cannot be easily seen within the distance dispersion that we "naturally" have by our not so accurate impact location, slightly fatting this one, take the next one 3 or 4mm to the toe, then 4mm to the heel and so on... For me the Inesis tour 900 which is, in the MyGolfSpy latest big test, the shortest and spiniest urethane ball goes "about the same distance, give or take 2 or 3 yards" than the proV1x I use at times, that is, on the same holes, for similar shots, they both end up in roughly the same area... What I do notice in actuality between a very cheap ball and a proV1x is: - the cheap/hard ionomer ball flies or launches a bit higher, so visually it's a slightly different trajectory (but the results are very similar) - the sound is (a bit) nicer when putting/chipping, albeit some might prefer the "firmer" "clickier" sound of a proV1x to a proV1, so the "cheap" ball if it wasn't already, in our mind, damned, would be fine... - the chips check a bit faster, but again, after testing, it's more visual than real, and the real part is negligible compared to our inaccuracies. By the way, I often play with the ultra cheap, hard as nail, Inesis distance 100... And I've played some of my best rounds, score wise, with this ball... You just have to chip and putt a bit with a given ball, and keep that one ball for your round to adjust to whatever differences there are. If you can't... well, I bet your handicap is high enough that it really doesn't matter what you play, you'll shoot the same!

I have 5° between the PW (47°) and my gap wedge (52°) and then 6° between said gap wedge and my sand/lob wedge at 58°... Gaping isn't much of a problem for that, I'd say as we're talking wedges, so very lofted, relatively high bounce clubs with short-ish shafts, that are made for "funking them". So I play full PW, full 52° sometimes but then again most shots with these 3 wedges are "partial", cutty (I usually play a strong draw), open faced.

I don't use cart bags, as I walk 99% of the time. However, I've tried "hybrid" bags with 14 slots, and they're not great, the grip (midsize) catches the fabric often, the space in which you have to insert the club back is rather small (obviously we don't have bags with a 15 or 25" opening diameter). I've had bags with 5 slots, now 4, and they end up being much more practical, sure the clubs can get mixed a bit but you end up have a larger space, even if shared, and therefore clubs go in and out easier. I doubt the added 1" or less diameter in cart bags change things that much. That's probably the reason why tour bags have a limited amount of dividers : less catch!

If they allowed 15 clubs that wouldn't change a thing for me... I currently carry 13 clubs and I'm just fine with that. Used to have 3 specialized wedges (50/56/60) and moved to 52/38 to "simplify my short game" (it worked!) but I didn't substitute that by a club in the top end (my needs are well enough covered and the gapping is good between Driver / 4-wood 16° / 3-hybrid 21° / 4 iron 24°)... maybe a 18 or 19° club with law launch could help in windy conditions but I never have a shot that I miss a club for. 230 yards is somewhat of a "missing yardage" but a great 3h could reach or just be a tad short and a cutty 4w would probably be just a wee bit long, so that's sort of covered. And as I'm not that accurate at these distances, if I'm 230 yards away from a flag I'll more likely than not hit a 6-5 or 5i and then hope for a chip and a putt. As I walk and carry one less club is 300g-ish less on the back, not a bad thing!

Currently I have 5 brands in the bag... Driver and 3-hybrid are Nike 4 wood is Inesis 4-PW irons are Bridgestone 52 and 58° wedges are Vokey Putter is Cleveland

Hollow body construction like the sub70 699 pro, tends to lower the CG of the club and therefore pushes the launch angle up. Add that to lofts that are strong (compared to old time standards) but not as "jacked up" than most comparable sets and you have a recipe for a higher ball flight than with most comparable irons. Now, lets be honest... there are not that many people who really need to bring the ball flight down (typically very high club head speed players who are in windy places with hard greens). If you need to keep the ball "low" on links-y courses, and hit it very fast, blades and small cavities may help... And ultimately you'll end up with a PX 6.0/6.5 (not LZ) or a DG X100 as these are the "kings of lower balls". If you really want KBS, that will be a C-taper. Rest of the market (and that's a big big part) would probably benefit from a higher ball, hence the popularity of the hollow heads. I mean, distance is fine and all, but with irons you don't want to be long, just consistent at the same yardage with the same club AND hold greens!

I don't really have a 3wood. I carry a 16° wood with 42" shaft. I guess that is a 4 wood. Anyway, I do use that thing a lot... I mean, my driver is the absolute on/off part of my game, possibly worse than my putting. On a given day I might drive "fine" (ie straight... I typically spin the ball too much with that dawn club, so I rarely get more than 260 yards out of it) and on an other one, I block 7 out of 10 drives miles right. So here comes the 4 wood. It goes about 240 yards, pushing to 260 on dry hot days and it draws a few yards or some days cuts a few yards... Sure I do get the occasional snap hook, but that's all. So I tend to use it often off the tee. I don't have many holes where it's making sense for me to use it for a second shot (the par 5s that are "the right distance" to get there in two with that club are either double dog-legs or with tiny greens guarded severely) but it can help if the previously mentioned snap hook has me playing my second shot from the woods 150 yards from the tee box

Forged is forged... no matter what. That means if the head is made from one piece of metal, heated to sufficient temperature and then "stamped" into form by a big ass hammer (press/die/whatever) then it's forged. If it's constructed differently it's not "really forged". However, the process by which metal is put in form doesn't really affect its physical or sonic properties. What may have an impact is the "heat treatment" and the composition of said metal. So a 1020 steel or its Japanese equivalent the S20C will "feel the same" (for a given club head geometry) whether they are cast or forged.... Now, you will have a hard time casting these type of steels (bubbles will form, the homogeneity of the metal will not be great) and forging the steels or steel alloys used in cast clubs will typically require temperatures in a very narrow band, or presses with a required power so big that it's ultimately unpractical. Mizuno does forge a stainless steel in one of the JPX irons, if memory serves, but it's a rare exception. However, other industries (automotive, aerospace, power plants) do use forged pieces from non "soft carbon steel"... The cost might not be accessible for golf clubs companies, though. So we end up with forged irons forged in soft-ish carbon steels, and cast irons in hard-ish stainless steels. And associate the softness with the forging, but I don't think that's really were it comes from. Soft steel makes soft feeling clubs, whatever the method. (that said I play Japanese irons in S20C, Endo forged, and I love the feel of a pured 4 iron in the morning... a bit less so the feel of the same thinned or too close to the heel )

I've played a 60 (or a 58) for most of my golfing career. I've heard time and again things like "amateurs shouldn't play that, it's too hard"... But then I remember, a few years ago, finding a video of Luke Donald (may be the absolute grand master of the 60, sorry Phil) explaining that different type of players, strokes and all could lead to different type of "easier to play short club". And he carried on to suggest that we should take a high lofted wedge (60, 58... ) a lower lofted wedge (48, 50, 52) a short iron (8i or 9i) and the putter, and try multiple situations around the green, go 4 or 5 balls with each of these 4 options and see what worked the best for us. To me, that was an eye opener, despite what my coach and loads of people were saying I had much better success with 2 clubs, the 58 or 60 and the putter. So now, I use "lobbers" or putters for everything within 30 yards of the pin, 58 or 52 between 30 and 90 yards, 52° outside of that. I can carry my 58 to about 110 yards but when I hit full swings with it I end up having too much dispersion both in depth and width, so I much prefer a "partial 52". That might ultimately be the reason why some say the lob wedges are "impossible" or "hard" to play for amateurs : full swing shots with them are difficult, minute variations in strike quality can change significantly the outcome and the margin for error is a bit thin. Then again, if I was playing longer 58 shots more often, I'd certainly control them better!

I'm totally with you on that... And don't understand why manufacturers keep on changing lofts, shaft length and so on. Or actually I understand that all too well. If you move from a 24° (4i) to 47° (PW) set to a 21° (4i) to 45° (PW) set you're likely to have to change a bit your driving iron/hybrid AND your specialised wedges set up. Two more clubs sold, at least. Now, when I change irons I don't want more distance (or less for that matter). If distance changes it has to be down to my getting fitter and training for speed, not a change in the ball spin/speed mix, which would force me to "learn again" the new set... Now, I remember a video by Michael Newton comparing his Mizu blade 5i (I think) to a modern SGI 7i (exactly the same loft, 1/4" shaft length difference, identical lie)... Both were doing exactly the same thing "overall": the apex was at the same height, the carry distance was the same, spin was very similar. So if I find a set with a 35° 8 iron, I'm happy, I'll just have to remove 1 from the numbers. Only problem the gap between a 45° PW and a 52° GW... Maybe I'll be fine with it playing 3/4 PW just like I do play 3/4 or 2/3 52° now as I almost never play my 58° for more than "chips" (60 yards and less). Life would be much easier when changing sets if it was agreed by all, once and for all, a "7 iron" has to be 35° with a 36.75" shaft" (I'm being a bit selfish, that matches my current set ) or something. Then we can always get similar irons, going the same distance. Ish. Thinking of it, my irons are 10 years young and still some of the finest I've ever tested/played. Getting a bit battered, though.

Yep, you might well be a relatively rare bird on this one. Tons of weight down low would push the ball up in the air. A lot of people who love a thin top line and short blade strike it well enough and don't struggle getting the ball airborne.... some, me included, have the opposite problem, their balls are too high for good control. However, I guess that a thin top line, limited offset, a mid-to-long blade and tons of weight close to the sole may well be a recipe attractive to a very large swath of the golfing population (say from an slowish 8 to a 36, easy)