FarFromScratch389

If you saw me hit 3w, 15 shots, you'd think I'm a +3. If you saw me around the greens, you'd think I was about a 5. If you saw me hit wedges from 100-15 you'd think I'm a 20. LOL! Knowing what to work on is half the battle. Grinding out wedge work all summer long. Finally found "my number" (92y) with my 3/4 sand wedge. Hopefully we can keep the feel.

One more thing about the 'pros' --- In 2017-18 before Brooksey got hot, his coach had him shift from a high draw to a middle/lower flighted cut off the tee. His 330 went to 300-310 but significantly more accurate. This is more along the lines of my thought process. What's the best way to use the speed.

Great question. And I know everyone 'carries 300' online but I've been a bit blessed with serious length. I cant hit my 3w unless I have 290 yards or more to land. So that's my baseline. 3w and everything in my bag below that draws - driver cuts. Not sure why I cannot close my wrists. So it's not that I want less distance - my swing speed with driver is like 115 and can push up to like 125, so I'm not swinging out of my shoes. I just cannot control it. Your second half of the comment is spot on. The 3w aint broke - so I'm not going to fix it. The driver *is* broke, but in the context of my tee game, just hit 3w (unless we have a big dog leg right par 5, which my home course has two of and I can smash driver). Scores are coming down big time since bagging the driver. Handicap hit 10.0 on the nose for the first time last week after a recent 79.

hahah! It's funny - the #1 thing I learned in this process is that if you spend on fitted clubs - take those clubs back to the fitter at least 1x/year to check the lofts. JPX 900 Forged are stronger lofts to begin with. So my 6i is a 'regular 5' that has now bent down to a 4i!

The Numbers: Current Gamer (120 C Taper) to newly fitted 130 C Taper Club Speed: 92.3 to 94 + Smash Factor: 1.45 to 1.46 + Carry: 204.5 to 211.8 + (He measured my 'gamer' 6i at 3* stronger than it should be. So carry distance went UP (thanks to club head speed) even though the loft is 3* weaker. Dynamic Loft: 17 to 19.2 (numbers to back up the above note) + Land Angle: 43.5 to 48 + Dispersion was pretty cool. Major difference in distance dispersion with the old club having balls range from 194 carry (if we omit those two, the shortest carry with a 1.47 smash factor was 204.7; ranging up to 213.5. The 4 hits with the new shaft: 207.7 to 213.8. AND the 207.7 had a 1.42 smash factor. The 1.42 smash factor in the original grouping carried 194. Horizontally - the easiest way to explain would be that I hit 4/9 balls righter than 20 yards right. Another 2/9 balls from 10-20 right. The new club had one ball flared out to the right outside of 20. But that was it. As far as the rest of the bag goes - maybe wedges in the offseason/mid-next year and I'm going to keep the long game in a holding pattern. Smoking my 3w like I never have before - not sure I need to mess with that currently! Went 79 again on Sunday, that's 4 of my last 11 in the 70s!

Thanks for the response! Wanted to provide the quick update as I pulled the trigger! We swapped out the 120g C-Tapers for the 130g C-Tapers for my 2-PW. Found out after 5 years of beating balls all my lofts were 2-3* stronger than they were fitted at.

Interesting. Appreciate the insight. I feel like the answer (per usual) is just go get fitted to see the difference. My question would be if I go to a fitter - would I be able to test: My current iron set up vs. My current irons with new shafts vs. New irons with new shafts?

Wanted to provide a little more info: Red: Regular, full, PW. Massive dispersal. You can probably eyeball the difference between the 100 and 150 is the same as the very left edge of the red spray vs the right edge. 50 yard dispersal for a pitching wedge. LOL! Yellow: Full knockdown PW shots. If you look at the numbers, hitting this shot into the wind should carry about as much as a full shot as it's significantly lower. It's also a much smaller dispersal. Purple: This would be akin to a "Dave Pelz Finesse shot", 3/4 takeaway - I've been calling it my "pendulum swing" as my body is nearly still and I'm only moving my arms (like a pendulum). This shot is about 125 carry (which is what my full GW normally carries). This info shows that I absolutely should be shooting 3/4 shots (My scores have agreed!). The question then becomes - how much easier would heavier/stiffer irons be to control for me? While my accuracy inside 125 is at a career best --- everything outside of that is going in the wrong direction.

Been a while since I posted, hope this finds everyone well. As we approach the mid-way-ish point thru the season, I'm starting to think about offseason upgrades. Here are the three directions I can go, how would you prioritize these? Irons - JPX Forged 900, bought new early '18. KBS Tour C-Taper 120 S. I bought these before I knew my game well enough to know that I needed x-stiff (or xx?). My current yardages are roughly: PW - 155 carry, 5i - 215 carry. I've done some posts on the Super Speed swing sticks & have 115 mph swing speed with my driver. Of late, I've been hitting nearly all shots inside 160 yards as 3/4 shots. My "new" PW goes 125, 8i 150 --- Need to be more accurate. My dispersion with all of my irons is, frankly, embarrassing. My irons go so damn high and after doing some research - looking like stiffer shafts will keep my ball flight lower. So, maybe it makes sense to upgrade shafts? The grooves probably are fine as I'm not intending on getting new irons for at least a few years? Driver - I was originally fitted into a stiff driver shaft but upgraded to the LinQ 7F5 Yellow. I cannot draw this club --- but I draw all of my others. My thought would be to look into a shorter driver shaft for this upgrade. I play the ST180, which is now 6 years old, so maybe I go full driver & shaft upgrade? My current driver carries 300+ and I really don't need all of that. I'd be thrilled with 280-285 and straight. Hence the 43" driver thought? 3 wood - When I started hitting driver about 3 years ago I stopped playing my 3w almost entirely as if I wanted to club down, I can still poke my 4i out there 230+ (or 2i 250). However, over the last few weeks I've started to hit 3w very consistently. Almost better than I've ever hit any club 7i or longer. The head on this is also a ST180 but that shaft is the only proper one (Tensi CK series 70 Flex-x). Because I'm hitting this thing so good --- do I just keep playing it? Do I keep the shaft and upgrade the head? Or - do I look into a full shaft/head upgrade and really lean into this off of the tee? I'll probably get everything upgraded in the next couple of years but given all of this, what would you upgrade first? My gut says: Iron Shafts (Does it make sense to put new shafts into 5-year old heads), Driver & Shaft (length of shaft the main question), 3w Head (and maybe shaft as well?) One more thing: My GW and PW are "irons" that match my set and not "wedges" like my T22 60* and 54*. I am hitting my 54*, 3/4 shot as accurate as ever. 90 carry. I'm thinking about also swapping the GW and PW that match my irons for true wedges. When I originally got fitted, I primarily hit full shots with the GW and PW (hence them being irons) but now that I hit 3/4 or lower most often, I'm thinking that's a pretty logical swap? I love nerding out to this stuff so I appreciate all of the comments and feedback. If you need/want more insight - happy to answer any follow up questions!

Finally Broke 80 with a 74 on Saturday! It's been a long road since breaking 90 on July 4th 2018 with an 87! My prior career low was also in 2018 when I was playing a lot, 81. It had been 4+ years since I broke 85 so Saturday was out of the blue! 5/6 fairways with the driver, 31 putts, striped long irons on the other holes, career high GIR%, fairway % (thanks, The Grint!), 3 birdies, 3 sandy saves! Just one of those days! And then followed it up with an 82 on Sunday (3rd best round ever, never went lower than 89 at that course) at a really tight, wooded, watery course in which I hit irons off the tee 11/14 holes... and hit 11 fairways with those irons (2/3 drives for penalty in the woods). Being a big hitter never really felt like a plus because my driver is proportionally as inaccurate is it is long (120+ swing speed) as I didn't control those longer irons either. But for the first time in my career I'm stepping up to the tee with my 2i, 4i, 5i and am fully confident that I'm going to stripe one! Super cool feeling. Now I just need to dial in the wedges a bit more!

Appreciate the details there, RickyB. Going to go down a bit of a rabbit hole on these shafts. The CC near me is no more so I'd rather not get formally fitted, but I do know that it's probably the right thing for me. Thanks again!

Appreciate the insight, Ricky. If you aint first... you're last!

Last weekend my driver shaft cracked. I'm now starting to look into a new shaft. I play the Mizuno ST 180 Driver & 3w. Drive - MT CK Blue 70 Flex-x 3 Wood - MT CK Gray 70 Flex-x I stink with my long clubs because my speed is 120+. I suck at golf, this is not a brag, I just cant control my long clubs. After 5 years of smashing drivers OB right - the shaft broke. I threw the driver head on the 3w shaft and hopefully I can start to hit that straight (doubtful) --- but marked off, using the Grint, a 325 yard drive with the driver head on the 3w (I hit 4/5 OB - I'm not normally THIS bad, but I hadn't played in 4+ months and the driver is always hit or miss). My question would be - if I wanted to buy a used shaft to replace my old one, what would you recommend? (Ie - I'd rather not go to CC again and get fitted into a $500+ One more piece of info: When I originally got fit - I wasn't hitting driver at all. Only 3w off the Tee. So my numbers from Club Champion show my 3w carry average of 248 & my driver carry of 256 with speeds in the 105 range. Thanks to the swing sticks, the speed is now significantly up (I did a post on that as well). I put a lot of work in with my driver to go from a -1.1 Attack angle to a plus angle in addition to the increased speed. The shaft that fit me at the time was the Ture Temper Project X Even Flow lack 65 - 6.5. Considering my speed is significantly up, I'm doubtful that this would be appropriate for me now. If anyone can point me in the direction of a shaft that might benefit my game, preferably used (I laugh at spending 500 on a shaft while I suck this bad - it would only infuriate me more out there, lol!), it would be beyond greatly appreciated. Thanks! PS - If your driver is not stiff enough --- would your miss theoretically be right? Ie - a stiffer driver shaft could/would help straighten me out?

My wedges are at the point where it's time to start thinking about new ones so I wanted to pick everyone's brain to get some advice on whether or not what I'm thinking makes some sense. I also have some more technical questions which I'll save for the bottom. With that said, here's my current set up: 60* - Mizuno S18, 10* bounce; At this point I really only use this club around the green. I don't chip with it often outside of special situations, I don't use it from the bunker and I don't hit full swings. My home course has a lot of elevated greens and they are fast. So if you miss them, you are usually trying to plop the ball up in the air as vertically as possible with landing spots 3-10 feet away. 55* - S18, 9* bounce (this and the 60* D5 swing weight); Bunkers, finesse game (30-100 yards), full swings. It's my most versatile club. 120-125 carry. 50* - My gap wedge is the shortest of my actual irons. It's my main chipping club, I use it a little bit in the finesse game, and I use it for full swings. 140-145 carry. 45* - My PW is is my chipping club from longer distance, I use it less than my GW in the finesse game. 160-165 carry. I was thinking of eliminating my 2I in favor of adding another wedge. My general thought process would be to go for a 60*, 56*, and a 52* while bending my 50* one-to-two degrees stronger to about 48, and bending my 45* one degree stronger so I'm a 4-degree gap 60-degree through 40-degree. As far as the bounce goes, I feel like my 60* should be lower bounce? What is everyone's thought as to the bounces for each of the new wedges? From a general point of view, I'm more of a digger than a sweeper so that should favor larger bounces? But with the 60*, If I don't hit that full too often, I feel like a lower bounce would be able to allow me to hit higher trajectory shots in close to the green? I mentioned the swing weight because I feel like I might benefit from a bit heavier club? If the majority of my wedge-shots are less than full swing, wouldn't the heaviness of the head give me a bit more 'feel' as to my tempo and backswing? Lastly, the questions I was referring to in the open deal with the different grinds. I'd be lying if I said I know too much about grinds. Ultimately, my goal with this post is to get a bit more knowledgeable regarding being a wedge-buyer. Any advice or follow up questions would be greatly appreciated!

Wanted to provide an update on my progress. First, here's a link to my origional post in March of 2019: TL;DR - I got my average speed with the driver (working on a simulator) up from 116 to 122 after 8 weeks. Had a wrist injury linger. Took some time off, got back up to the low 120's. 2019 was my best golf year but I couldn't control driver. My 3w was up to 116 and I could hit it about 280 so I just stuck with that. In 2019 I lived a few blocks from a simulator that I could go to basically whenever. 2020 happened. Moved away from the simulator so I couldn't practice during the week, nor could I track my driver speed. I was only doing the first protocol throughout 2020 (35 total swings)and I played s*** golf. 3w was no good. Driver stayed in the bag. Long irons were no good. It was a mess. 2021, I move into a building without a gym. I decide to ramp up to protocols 4 & 5 using the sticks as some cardio. Playing poor golf. Bombing 3-wood but it's very inaccurate. Two Saturdays ago I was playing with my longest hitting friends and out drove them with my 3w on a few longer holes. Was playing s***** so they convinced me to hit driver on the 18th hole- the only hole I could never go after in two (par 5). Well, I smoke a drive and had a 205 yard look to the green (The card reads 538 from the whites). I didn't hit it but it gave me the ability to conclude "If I cant hit my 3w accurate, why not focus on driver tomorrow?" The next day I used driver and hit fairways on the first 6 driver holes. The 7th hole I did spray one right, OB, but my second shot was good. I hit it 11x and only 1 OB with 7 fairways. Never had a day like that and my takeaway was twofold: 1. Use your driver on holes that allow for it. 2. The swing sticks, like in 2019, have made me more accurate. Now, the question became, how far am I actually hitting it (as I cant measure my speed anymore)? I've since gone to google maps to measure some of the shots that I've hit. I've got no reason to bullshit you guys but I'm carrying the ball 330 yards (went onto Google Earth to do some measuring). There's a bunker on hole 2 that's 330 to the far side of the bunker --- on Sunday I was about 15 yards beyond it. Hole 4 reads 512 from the blues, 497 from the whites. I was driver - gap wedge in. Hole 9 reads 359 and plays a bit downhill but I flew a greenside bunker (front left bunker, Google Earth had that bunker starting 333 yards from the box). Hole 11 is 505, that one was driver - gap wedge again (in addition to my driver adding distance, all my clubs play 1-2 clubs stronger. I went into this season with a Gap that was 125 stock. I was pin high & left on 11 last weekend with a gap wedge from 152 out). I'm not playing very good golf as my wedge distances are all over the place and they aren't dialed into the newfound distance (and driver confidence) but the main reason I wanted to post today was A) The sticks work, if there was any doubt. B) I've been more accurate with my driver over the last 4 rounds than I ever have with my 3w. Looking forward to the weekend already! (If you don't believe the distances, pull up Google Earth, pull up "Woodcrest Country Club, Cherry Hill, NJ". The first teebox is the par 4 'north' of the clubhouse with 3 distinct tee boxes (the dog leg left with a creek before the green---not the short par 3 left of the clubhouse). Follow that hole to hole 2. Measure from the middle of the tee box to the first bunker on the right. The far edge of that bunker is 330. I was over it last week by a good 10 yards. I was close enough to the tree that I didn't have a straight look to the green).