Birdies Tweet & Golfers Tweak.......
The equipment you are using in your golf game may not be right or best for you. As an instructor, the biggest fault I see in new golfers is their having bought used clubs that need new grips! Slick old grips will never make the grade for anyone. Go to your golf shop and either have them or you yourself can easily put on new grips! It's easy. Don't delay.
Tom Watson said recently that the shaft is the most important element of your equipment. That must be true because last year I was not hitting my driver well at all. I picked up a Taylor-Made 10.5 degree driver at Play It Again Sports and began hitting my drives straight and long.This year I bought an R-7 Quad Taylor Made driver and I am hitting drives unbelievably long (one was 270 yds. yesterday) and far more consistently straight.
Twenty years ago I watched Jack Nicklaus win the Masters (1986) with a wide bladed putter. I often thought, harkening back to my C.E. courses in Mechanics, I would like such a putter with weighting added to the outside edges of the wide blade. Last month (25 years later) I bought an older Arnold Palmer wide blade putter and since it had cavities on each end of the blade I added buck shot to the ends of the wide blade with epoxy securing the load. Last week I played nine and had 14 putts! My newly installed putter grip was too large so I replaced it with a thinner one which I like much better.
Two weeks ago I saw an older set of Taylor Made irons with traditional muscle back blades and bought them for $90.They needed new grips which I replaced. The shafts were S-300 which I mistakenly thought were regular stifness. S-300 means stiff and I lost 10 yards or more with most of the clubs. While they were somewhat straighter I could not afford to lose the distance. This week I will replace the stiff with regular shafts. I will also replace the new grips with new Lamkin grips that are slightly thicker. Golfworks in Newark, Ohio has everything you need for working on your golf clubs. It makes a fun hobby.
My 3-wood has always been my nemesis. I have 3-woods, 4-woods and 5-woods in the closet in the garage. Last week I called Club Finders in Texas and inquired about a Taylor-Made 3-wood which might match my Taylor-Made driver. Sure enough, they had one with a regular flex shaft and I ordered it. They accepted my two Titleist fairway woods in trade which made the deal attractive. For the past three days I have been hitting my new 3-wood long and straight for the first time in my life! The obvious difference was in the shaft length being slightly shorter and whatever knowledge TM lends to shaft design.
With new equipment I played six holes last week in even par before the lightning and rains poured down. I will, today, return to my Adams irons with regular shafts and the graphite tips. When I replace the shafts on my TM irons I will try them again. When reshafting, I will split the difference as the TM irons are slghtly shorter (which I like!) than the Adams, which also probably cost me distance. Next week I will give a report on the results of my Taylor-Made muscle back irons with new (R) shafts.
Tweak your clubs. Different grips and shafts can make a big difference in your game. Either do it yourself or let your golf shop do it for you. It is fun and surprising the difference a tweak can make. It may lead to more "Tweets"!
RHE
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