Grand Stranded

The clubs I usually play with are in my current signature, but I also switch in a Ping driver, a set of Cleveland Halo Launcher XL irons, a Hy-wood and a Launcher XL 4H. Last week I played with a pretty competitive travel group, and I didn’t know two of the 3 players in my 4 some. That day I had the Cleveland’s in my bag, and I broke 80. After we finished, and were sitting around waiting for the results to be posted one of them said he was “shocked at how well I played…. When I saw what was in your bag, I assumed you were a 20+ and wondered what you were doing in the group.” The other stranger agreed, and said he thought the same thing, and kept waiting for me to fall apart after a few good holes. They rode together and they said that around the turn they said to each other “it looks like that’s not going to happen.” This was interesting to me, so I told them about my other clubs you see in my sig, and asked what they would’ve thought if I had those in the bag. One said maybe “I’d think you were trying to buy a game”, and the other said, “no, I’d think you were like me and really into equipment”. (I told them they were both right, ) I’m curious, has this ever happened to any of you, or maybe you might be the one to judge a player by their WITB? I’ll be honest, I’ve done it, just not to that extent, and I’ve never talked to the other person about it.

I had an earlier version and had the same issue you did. Look into getting the lofts adjusted if you buy. You might just end up with that unicorn you’re looking for. I ordered these 2* strong 4-DW. Hated the 4i, and traded it in for their 4H. The ball flight is perfect now with the 5-DW, and the distance is very nice.

Life is a circle… I remember a few years ago you reviewed an older version of these irons. It’s like you went back home again!

I played with two different groups on Friday and Saturday than I normally do. Friday we played a course at 6200, and yesterday the one we played (The Pearl) was supposed to be 6300 from the whites. It turned out to be a little over 6500, which is way too long for me. They were seeding most of the white tee areas, so we ended up hitting from the blues on most holes. My scores weren’t as good as earlier in the week. I played pretty close to bogey golf, which is actually what I try to do when playing courses that long. Results wise I did really well though. I won the front 9 on both days, tied for 4th in total on Friday, and tied for 1st in total yesterday. I won $67 Friday and $85 yesterday. I simply ran out of gas at the end of both rounds… Anything over 6200 is going to be a grind for me. I need to really be on point with my wedges and putter as on longer courses. I also need to make a a few one putt pars or play for bogey/net par. Thankfully I was on point for the most part both days, and surprisingly my 3W really came alive when I needed it. I’ve learned some very important lessons playing competitive golf the last few years, but the most important is to stay patient and play your own game. Don’t get caught up trying to keep up with long hitters. Just keep grinding, every stroke matters. By the end of the day you’ll realize the handicap system works. Most guys are going to end up playing close to their level. The ones who try to do stuff they can’t will not.

Have you guys ever laid in bed thinking of how to tweak your golf swing? (Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this) I’d been struggling a bit, hitting everything low and out on the toe. Clubs are so forgiving now, I was kinda sorta getting away with it, but as you can imagine, I wasn’t playing well. Earlier this week I had one of those Eureka! type moments. I hopped out of bed, grabbed an 8 iron and took some practice swings. I knew right away I’d fixed my problem! Fast forward to this week, and two terrific (for me) rounds of golf. A 77 and an 80. I’m going for the trifecta this morning with a very competitive travel group I play with occasionally. *fingers crossed* this continues. btw my experiment with a stiffer shaft in my driver is over after those two rounds. It’s not that I couldn’t hit it, I was obviously playing well. It was more that I was subconsciously swinging too hard a lot of the time. The ball seemed to be going about the same as with my old driver, and that was the rub. I wasn’t seeing any benefit to making the switch. I dropped the club off yesterday afternoon to my local guy, and he’s going to switch the shaft out for one in a lighter flex. My hope is going from a 9* to a 10.5* will give me a higher flight, and longer carry. We shall see. If it doesn’t, the Rogue ST Max goes back and my old faithful PING goes back in the bag.

These threads are fun, but a little silly. Your distance varies so much depending on where you play. Most of the year I’m down in the Myrtle Beach area, and because of the soft conditions and sea level, I’m 10% shorter (at least one club, sometimes more) throughout my bag. With an 85ish mph SS, I can carry the ball about 200 on average down here. Roll out is dependent on conditions, but it’s usually not very much. If I’m up on Long Island, I’ll average about 215 carry and get some decent roll out. If I were to play at a higher elevation, or an are like Texas where the fairways are rock hard, I’m going to get a lot more. So depending on where I’m playing I can average anywhere from 200 carry/ 210 total up to 225 carry/ 250 total.

I’ve been going back and forth between the Cleveland Halo irons and a set of PXG XP irons for months. I had a set of the XP’s, sold them and bought the Halos. I was very happy with them, but when PXG dropped their prices recently, I bought another set. They’re both really good irons, but also very different. The PXG’s are almost a club longer, but the Halos are like a cheat code. Today I played the Halos for the first time since the XP’s arrived, and I broke 80 (77) for the first time in weeks. It made me realize how good they are for my game. As much as I enjoy the XPs, playing one set well is hard enough for me, trying to play well with two seems like an unnecessary challenge, so the PXG’s are going back for a full refund. My bag is almost set now… depending on where I’m playing I can use either the G425 Max 5W or the Halo Hy-wood in between my 3W and 4H. The only spot I really need to decide on is driver. I really like my G425 Max, but I’m going to give the Rogue ST a try, and see how that works out.

I’m going the opposite direction. Tomorrow will be my first time playing a non-Ping driver in about 10 years, (or whenever the G30 came out?) and my first time with a 10.5* loft. I love the way the ST Max sets up behind the ball, hopefully my #’s carry over from demo to the course. I’m keeping the Ping 425 around though as a security blanket. This is a “big” change for me, and I’m not sure why I’m making it, other than when I was fit for irons recently, they told me I needed to be in regular flex, not Senior with my driver. I’m not so sure… I hit the Ping very well Saturday.

Not so much a question about what I’ve tested, but rather what I should test/try. I’ve been playing the same original set of CBX wedges for way too long I think. They have the stock Dynamic Gold shafts, about 110grams. I’m playing MMT 60 A flex shafts now in my irons. I ordered a couple PXG wedges with the MMT’s also. Does it make sense to get the same shafts in my new wedges, or should I look to get similar to what I’ve been playing for so long? I’m open to suggestions on a different wedge shaft. For what it’s worth, I’ve been told many times by friends that I have the game of a single digit player until I’m within 20 yards of the green with a wedge in my hand. Then I become a 20+. Ironically my sand game is well above average, chipping and pitch shots not so much. To say I’m inconsistent is being kind. The tight lies we play off have wrecked havoc with what was a pretty good short game up on Long Island.

Right? That’s about a week worth of deliveries for me lately. The blowout pricing PXG is doing is starting to become a problem for me. In the past two weeks I’ve bought Gen3 XP irons 5-GW $99 per club 0211 5W $89 Two Gen 4 hybrids 22* & 25* at $139 each 0311 forged 52* & 58* wedges at $124 each That’s just under $1300. I probably will send a few clubs back (either the 5i or the 5h for sure will go back, and maybe the 0311 wedges). The 6-GW, the 5W and the 4H are definitely staying though.

I just stumbled on this thread. Some of the answers are, to be kind, puzzling. I don’t know if it’s an effort to impress people or not, but as often happens in these type of threads people answer based on the most forgiving club THEY like to play, instead of answering the question asked. As far as the most forgiving irons out there now, it’s not a complicated question. You look at either Game Improvement or distance models such as the Apex DCB, the PXG 0311 XP or a club like the Wilson D7 Forged. Let’s get real here. Nobody looking for the most forgiving iron is playing a TC anything, nor a MB.

Okay, so bear with me here. I know I’m leaving myself up to ridicule here after posting in the how did you play thread I was returning my PXG XP irons, but there’s been a change of plans. Go figure…. I brought them to a PXG fitter about 40 miles away and after a few swings, he adjusted the lie angles a bit and I was hitting them a lot better. Then we started messing around with the Gen4 hybrids. He suggested I send back the 5i in my set and exchanging it for a 5H. I thought I was hitting the 5i just fine, but it was hard to argue that the hybrid wasn’t an improvement, and for an additional $30 it was worth making the change. I liked the 4 hybrid enough to order that also. I placed this order through him, since he didn’t charge for the lie adjustments, and he took $10 off the $139 price of the hybrids and he will save me the shipping fee by sending the 5 iron back himself. Long story short, I’m keeping XP’s now. I’m very happy with how I’m hitting them and I got two new 4&5 hybrids for $159 total.

PXG is giving away their 0211 FWs for $89 each w/free shipping and the 60 day 100% money back guarantee. I picked up a 5 wood tonight, because I don’t have one, and even though I stink with FWs, at this price worst case scenario is I beat the hell out of this one trying to improve?

If anyone needs a new golf bag, Costco has a online deal that’s pretty hard to beat. They’re selling the Sun Mountain 4.5 14 way bag for $134.99 and free shipping. It comes in two colors. Black, or red, white and blue. The catch is, instead of saying Sun Mountain on the apparel and side pockets, it has Pebble Beach branding (which I think is a lot cooler). I called Sun Mountain this morning to verify they make the bag, and CS said yes it’s theirs, and ships from their base in Missoula, Montana. I ordered the Red, white and blue, and saved 50% off the cost of the 4.5 bag I was planning to buy in the PGASS for $269.99

So I learned something today, and it ended the brief competition I wanted to have between the PXG XP irons and the Cleveland Halos. The Halos are like cheating. If I’m a little off with the PXGs I pay the price for it. With the Halos, unless I put a horrible move on the ball, I’m getting a decent or better result. Decision made. The Halos win by an early round KO. The XPs are great irons, but I know I’ll never want to switch them into my gamer bag over the Clevelands. It was wort scratching the itch though thanks to the 100% money back guarantee PXG’s running right now.

Amazing what a difference getting the right version of a club lineup can make. I was playing the Rogue ST Max hybrids, and they were okay, but not really what I was hoping for? Not as forgiving as I thought, and I was having a hard time with the 18* 3H. The 20* was better, but not by much. I talked to a Callaway rep, and he suggested I swap them out for the OS, keeping the same shaft and flex. I wasn’t crazy about the idea as the OS are a degree weaker and sit really closed, but I played them today, and wow! They were exactly what I want to see from a hybrid. Forgiving, high trajectory with a baby draw, and because of that, they were much longer than the previous version I had. What were the odds that a Callaway rep would give me a better fitting club than I could pick out myself?

Congrats, hit them well… that’s a beautiful setup! I got a similar box on Thursday… the Gen3’s went down to $99 and I got the XP’s 5-GW w/MMT shafts. I played them today, and as much as I love my Halo irons, my goodness, these played great!

Carl, this is too funny! Check out the post I just left right above yours. We were probably typing and posting them at the same exact time!

Thanks for the pep talk and the sound advice Kenny. I tend to overreact to a round I’m not happy with, and in this case it wasn’t even that so much. I’ve been playing pretty well actually, but just haven’t been able to put 18 good holes together and my last couple of scores reflected that. Too many lazy swings at the wrong time, and it seemed like every one of them ended up in a bad spot, which just compounded my frustration. I sympathize with @CarlH when I read a lot of his posts. Like me, he’s prone to one or two of those infuriating doubles (or sometimes worse in my case) that can ruin an otherwise very good round. The good(?) news this time was me making the same mistake. If it’s only one miss, and not a bunch of different ones, I can usually fix it, and that was the case this time. I’ve been playing a lot more golf lately than I have in a while, and I was either a little more tired than I thought. When that happens, I tend to get very lazy/sloppy with my swing. I’m no swing coach, but there’s a lot to be said for your bromide about swinging (and knowing) your swing… I was able to figure it out pretty quickly once I stopped moping and got my butt to the range.

At his age (God bless him) I’d go with an all hybrid set. Tour Edge, Wilson, Cleveland and Cobra all make them and he can get a 50g Senior shaft with the set. They’re so easy to elevate, and very forgiving. If it were my dad, I’d have him play a very high lofted driver, a 18* Cleveland Hy-wood (fantastic club for a Senior with a 40g Cypher shaft) and then once he decides on the iron set he likes, find out his gapping and how many irons he actually needs. With the hybrid sets he’s probably going to be fine with a 5, 7, 9, PW. Add a SW (he probably has one already) and a putter and he’s good to go. The Hy-wood goes for about $219, and the irons are about $80-110 each depending on the brand he chooses. I believe Tour Edge is the least expensive?

The swing cometh and then it goeth. Right now it’s gone. Where it went, I have no idea.

Are you going to go to Pete’s Golf for the fitting? They’re about the best on the Island that I know of for fittings. Keep an open mind no matter where you go, and rely on the fitter. btw if you do decide on the DCB’s, they’re terrific. A few of my friends have them and love them. The one bad thing is, they’ll be closed out very soon. Your best bet might be get fit for a set, keep your specs and see if you can find a like new set on CPO? Same with the Rogue ST OS.

I love the Halos, they aren’t going anywhere. Rick and I dm’ed back and forth about the irons back then, and he knows I got a great price for the PXGs, but I always regretted selling them when I bought the Halos. There was no good reason for me to do so, other then my thinking having two sets of clubs is unnecessary. Now I get to scratch an itch that’s been bothering me. If they’re as good as the Halos, I’ll keep them. If not, with that new 60 day 100% money back guarantee, I’ll send them back. No harm, no foul. That is what probably will happen, but at least I’ll get this sense of regret out of my system.

Went out with two of my neighbors today, and on a lark, I took out the DF2.1 and put the White Hot OG Double Wide back in the bag. I think it might stay there for a while. I’m putting well with the LAB, but I still feel like there’s an issue making sure it’s soled properly. I’ve said this from the day my putter came, and nothing has changed. I’m convinced the lie angle I was fit to was wrong. I can manipulate it to where it should be, but… why bother? I own another putter that works very well. With the OG my setup is simple. I just set it down, look at the line and go.

Not the day I was hoping for today in the final round of our league championship. I was three over through 7 and 125 out in the fairway on #8 when I pushed my second shot into the bunker. Then disaster struck. I caught all ball and it plugged into the face. Took an unplayable, skulled my next one over the green and took 8. I followed that up by trying to go for the green on the par 5 9th in two and didn’t make it over a waste area. We don’t play drop zones, and my 4th shot went long then I 3 putted from the wrong level of the two tiered green. Back to back 8’s and I was done mentally. Limped in with a 90 net 77, and finished 8th in the net. One of these years I’m going to win this thing. (He says every year)…