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Hickory4ever

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About Hickory4ever

  • Birthday 04/10/1954

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Ontario
  • Interests
    Play with Modern and Hickory Golf Clubs
  • Referred By:
    MyGolfspy website

Player Profile

  • Handicap
    11

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Hickory4ever's Achievements

  1. My original pushcart was a Bagboy Quad and I Now have a ClicGear 3.5 three wheeler. Both are great carts but the ClicGear is easier to push although either is acceptable. Even on hilly courses, stability is not an issue with either. I do prefer the ClicGear as it holds a variety of bags easily.
  2. I have found it interesting as I saw this thread asking a question about the relevance of another forum. From a personal standpoint, I have for many years looked at both MGS and Golfwrx but have only recently began contributing to both forums. Each forum has its own culture which seems to be relevant enough to attract a large number of people willing to wade in. I think the question has to be, is MGS, GolfWRX, or any other relevant to my interests and are people at least civil in dealing with someone that may disagree with them. Like Stu and a couple of others, I approach golf differently than the vast majority of people that frequent both sites. I am a feel player and my personal observation is that modern golf has got so caught up in technology and it’s “benefits” to players that has become somewhat one dimensional in its thinking. Pronouncements that one should or should not play blades, CB, or “game improvement” irons comes out of that thinking as an example to make you a better player. Personally I play just about everything from the hickory era to modern equipment and that the technological improvements are not as impactful to a decent player than is almost taken for granted. I think you should play what brings you the most enjoyment and embrace the challenges of the game. Thank you for indulging my rant. Back to the original topic. I think GolfWRX and MGS are both relevant to their online communities.
  3. “Please let any lost balls come to a complete stop before picking them up” is my first rule of golf ball etiquette.
  4. I replace my modern wedges every 2 to 3 years, mostly because of wear and tear.
  5. I play in at least a few scrambles every year, most are charity events and we make it fun. For shots off the tee, we go from shortest to longest which keeps everyone’s mind in the game. For approach shots and putting, we use the most skilled last which relieves a lot of the pressure on the weaker players. Keeping it upbeat is always better than being too serious even in more competitive events. Our groups usually punch above their weight.
  6. Or just buy an adjustable driver and leave it on the native loft that you think suits you.
  7. A man after my own heart. I have 10 or 11 restored hickory sets that get significant play. A couple classic iron sets in addition to my modern set. Large assortment of woods in hickory, classic, and modern.
  8. I don’t disagree. But even average golfers carry clubs throughout the range at least to the SW. My point is there is no need to Jack the loft. The reason is marketing. The shaft is at least as important in this equation as well.
  9. Actually, with the exception of the 60 degree and above wedges, all of the lofts have existed in most sets from at least the 1920’s. Many golfers struggled with irons with less than 25 degrees of loft (mid iron) just like today. They had various high lofted woods to compensate, does that sound familiar. Although most irons were butter knife blades, there were clubs with greater flanges and different weight placement. Until 1938, there was no club restrictions and players ( especially good ones) had a variety of irons to produce the shot shapes they required. I have introduced a lot of good golfers to hickory and they are amazed at the versatility and trajectories possible with a hickory shaft. Steel shafts were legal after 1924 in the US. Bobby Jones still used hickory for his 1930 grand slam largely due to the feel and versatility. So, in answering your question, yes we do talk about how to maintain launch angles. For the first time player, I use magic marker with a rough equivalent to a modern set as a base to start. After two or three holes, good golfers are having a ball, working shots and getting very creative. I would encourage anyone to give it a try, these old clubs are still very playable.
  10. I play modern clubs as well as everything dating back to Pre1900 because of my fascination with the game. I just updated my modern woods in November. I was fitted into a set of TM P790 irons for my 65 th birthday a couple years ago. I live in the middle of a golf course and love trying players irons from every manufacturer. I sold the P790’s to a friend last year because of the lack of feel and because flyers would go too long. I went back to a fully forged club because I found better control. The P790’s are very good clubs as are other brands. You are absolutely right that the number on the club is irrelevant, at least to you and me. Nevertheless, there is no way to justify having PW at 41 or 42 degrees as some SGI clubs have. It screws up the back end of the bag for the golfers that are generally less informed. The ironic part of the situation is that the extra wedges you have to buy all have the lofts on them. There are a lot of players out there with their iron sets being 7-PW followed by three or four extra wedges, basically an extra set. There have been technological changes, virtually incremental from year to year and some are featured strictly to sell more clubs. Do they make someone a better golfer, maybe, maybe not. Good golfers are usually more knowledgeable and likely get their facts straight. Interestingly virtually all the players clubs from OEMs have close to standard lofts with PW around 46.
  11. My comment is not disputing the importance of dispersion, it is critical and you have found a club that is more accurate. That does not negate the argument that I am asserting. The primary reason for the loft creep over the last thirty years has been playing on the egos of guys that want to say they hit a 7 iron 150 yards. The 2 iron and 3 irons are going the way of the dodo bird after almost 100 years for one reason only, marketing. That being said, all of the factors you make in the second paragraph are absolutely valid and important. What has been done though is eliminating the 2 and 3, creating a need for a GW and an extra wedge at the other end. My point on the graphite shaft being half an inch longer than the same Club in steel is for marketing purposes. The half inch extra length will likely give you extra length at the expense of dispersion, exactly like your 7 iron. I am an organizer of historical golf events and introduce new people to historical play routinely. The understanding of the lofts and how the numbered sets evolved to make it easier for players to understand is one of the fundamental evolution of the modern game. For sixty years, there was rough standardization, the last while anything but. You are well informed, most golfers are not and my cynicism is rooted in what I believe is marketing hype for one purpose, to sell the latest toy as being better, whether it is or not.
  12. I know all my lofts as well as the yardage that I hit each. It was important in making up my sets, even more important for me because I frequently play other sets of clubs frequently and can make the yardage adjustments. Since I organize and play in historical events with clubs from different eras, knowing the lofts is very helpful moving back and forth. You may be interested that loft for loft, the difference in iron distances is at best 1 to 1.5 clubs over the last 100 years. One more point about jacked lofts. You can rationalize that a shorter shaft will give you better dispersion with shorter shafts, then why are graphite iron shafts routinely a half inch longer than steel. Simply marketing smoke and mirrors. I would rather buy a set where a five iron. was a five iron, but more importantly that a PW was actually a PW. Given the current lack of any standardization, we might just go back to mashie- niblick and niblick, oh I forgot, we now call them gap wedge or approach wedge. My take is you need to know your lofts and yardages when testing new equipment along with dispersion to assess whether the new equipment is better than what you currently play. I am all for getting proper equipment that gives you a chance to approve, I am opposed to the current marketing trends in the golf industry that confuse rather than enlighten the situation.
  13. I agree that there are going to be days that it seems you forgot how to play. On another front, as we age, there is a tendency to believe that we can maintain our tempo like we were younger. Truthfully, once you are in your 50’s or after a significant injury, facing reality and making a few adjustments can help you maintain your scores. I did not age gracefully on this front. I was in good shape for my age but still tried to swing as hard as I used to. It did not work. Once I made a conscious effort to slow my swing down to a sustainable tempo, my scoring improved. Chasing distance in my opinion is not the way to go especially over 50. I am now almost 68 and in season play almost everyday. Playing within myself has kept my scoring in the same ballpark as 20 years ago, one tee forward. I have a better short game to compensate for shorter length. Trying to swing to hard is the easiest way to go off the rails in my opinion.
  14. Shaping shots for no reason is not being creative. The shotmaking skills I am talking about is basically applying the wedge matrix throughout the bag. Learning to confidently hit half and three quarter shots for example with other irons is very useful depending on pin position, wind, etc.. This is particularly in getting back on track when you don’t have your best stuff. Playing with a short set of clubs can help you accomplish the same thing. I was not suggesting that a person should not practice outside of a round. I am suggesting that battle testing is a very good teacher. I play most of my rounds with several friends that are evenly matched. We all want to win and pride ourselves in being solid grinders even when we don’t have our best. All of us by the way do well in CC competition because we thrive on the pressure of our matches. One other advantage of being comfortable with controlling swing tempo is it makes it easier to right the ship.
  15. Shotmaking and creativity do aid in improving scores. Almost everyone introduced to hickory golf show improvement in their modern game as well. There is no better way that I know of to gain new perspectives on course management and improving tempo. Personally, I almost doubled my games in the 70’s this year. I had rounds in the 70’s with several different sets of irons including five hickory sets. By the way, it is not only me. We have several people that have done the same. There is more than one way to improve and I would not be dismissive. Incidentally, my best score of the year was a 74 (2 over) from 5500 yards with a set of Jack Whites from the 1920’s. The yardage would be roughly equivalent to 6200 with modern clubs. My best round with modern clubs was 75 at 6,000 yards. By the way, i take my game very seriously.
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