Golf Thread

[booyaka]

Can anyone recommend a decent/cheap 3 wood for a high handicapper (26)? I've been looking at Fazer XR9 fairway wood from American Golf but no idea if it is any good?

I know I can look on auction sites but there are so many to choose from it's hard to know what is decent for such a high handicapper

At the moment I just cannot get on with a driver and tend to just leave that in the car, however my uncle recommended that I try a 3 wood instead off the tee. Right now I'm mainly using a 4 iron hybrid club off the tee.

2nd game of the year and hit ball pretty good, chipping is the worst part of the game after a lay off. Still managed a couple of birdies, some very decent drives and shot 13 over which is not bad. Playing of 8 last time I played!

 

[ste2005]

Can anyone recommend a decent/cheap 3 wood for a high handicapper (26)? I've been looking at Fazer XR9 fairway wood from American Golf but no idea if it is any good?

I know I can look on auction sites but there are so many to choose from it's hard to know what is decent for such a high handicapper

At the moment I just cannot get on with a driver and tend to just leave that in the car, however my uncle recommended that I try a 3 wood instead off the tee. Right now I'm mainly using a 4 iron hybrid club off the tee.

TBH if you are struggling with your driver I would highly recommend some lessons with a pro, he can look at why your not using your driver properly. With the 3 wood, the fazer are nice cheap clubs, that are good for beginners.

 

[glitch]

Anyone able to offer me some assistance with re-gripping clubs?

I thought I'd pop a new grip on my putter at the weekend, so out came the carpet-cutting blade, off came the grip, off came the old tape (which was very hard and tough) and then the re-gripping process started in earnest.

I wrapped some double-sided tape around the shaft, removed the cover, poured a little White Spirit inside the new grip, shook it about, poured it over the tape on the shaft and then slid the thing on. Out of the vice, quick bang on the floor to make sure it was seated and then aligned it properly.

Three days later and it's still not secure - in fact, I've just pulled the grip off and the tape seems to have dissolved! And it wasn't cheap and nasty stuff either - although the White Spirit was bargain basement stuff.

Where have I gone wrong?

Should I be using 'proper' grip tape? Is there even such a thing or is it simply expensive double-sided tape that some enterprising person has cut to length and added 500% to the price?

 

[Skii]

Yes, you used the wrong tape. Normal double-sided tape won't work, you need proper re-gripping tape that either comes in a roll or strips. A pack of ten strips should only cost you a few quid from ebay or amazon.

You can use any old tape for building up layers , but the adhesive layer needs to be decent grip tape.

 

[stuie]

Also use petrol over white spirit, petrol evaporates white spirit doesnt

 

[Saint]

Bought a Titleist Vokey SM4 52 Degree, for use as a Gap Wedge, this one to be precise:

http://www.americangolf.co.uk/Titleist/Titleist-SM4-Black-Nickel-Stl/228850,en_GB,pd.html - managed to get it for £75 w/ 5% quidco as well!

If all goes well, will buy a 56 degree one as well to replace my SW

 

[MoodyB]

Can anyone recommend a set of fairly forgiving irons for someone getting back into golf again after a 20 year absence?

Been looking at 2nd hand sets in my local pro shop & they currently have Wilson Ci9, Di9, Di11 and Callaway FT's which all fall around my £200 budget.

Should I pick from one of the above sets, or would there be a better choice?

 

[Skii]

Can anyone recommend a set of fairly forgiving irons for someone getting back into golf again after a 20 year absence?

Been looking at 2nd hand sets in my local pro shop & they currently have Wilson Ci9, Di9, Di11 and Callaway FT's which all fall around my £200 budget.

Should I pick from one of the above sets, or would there be a better choice?

I'd strongly consider the Taylormade Burner 2.0 or Burner OS irons, now under £300 for a new full set and about as good as it gets for high/mid handicappers.

 

[glitch]

Yes, you used the wrong tape. Normal double-sided tape won't work, you need proper re-gripping tape that either comes in a roll or strips. A pack of ten strips should only cost you a few quid from ebay or amazon.

Thank you!

Also use petrol over white spirit, petrol evaporates white spirit doesnt

And thank you too!

Can anyone recommend a set of fairly forgiving irons for someone getting back into golf again after a 20 year absence?

All personal choice, but I'd suggest that you get fitted for a set of Ping irons and see if you can pick up a second-hand set of G15's.

Should be around £200 for a 4-SW set, or thereabouts, and I think the G-series are amazing clubs. Plus getting fitted for a set gives you a good base to work from.

 

[MoodyB]

I'd strongly consider the Taylormade Burner 2.0 or Burner OS irons, now under £300 for a new full set and about as good as it gets for high/mid handicappers.

All personal choice, but I'd suggest that you get fitted for a set of Ping irons and see if you can pick up a second-hand set of G15's.

Should be around £200 for a 4-SW set, or thereabouts, and I think the G-series are amazing clubs. Plus getting fitted for a set gives you a good base to work from.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I hadn't considered TM Burner OS, but I'll keep my eye open for them

A local shop does have a 2nd hand set of Taylormade RBS'z for £220 but I've yet to try them out. And a set of Nike VR_S irons for the same amount too.


As for the Pings, I can get a set of G5's for around £200 it seems, going by Golfbidder. I did see a few sets of G10's & G15's but they were £250 - £285 2nd hand, so out my budget sadly.

 

[glitch]

As for the Pings, I can get a set of G5's for around £200 it seems, going by Golfbidder. I did see a few sets of G10's & G15's but they were £250 - £285 2nd hand, so out my budget sadly.

Forget Golfbidder - it's highly-priced equipment for people who can't be bothered to scour eBay.

Even if Ping clubs aren't your preferred weapons of choice, it's still worthwile running through their nFlight Web online fitting to get a rough idea of how far away you are from the 'standard' clubs - in Ping's case, that's their black dots.

As an example, nFlight says I'm a Blue Dot with stiff shafts and an extra 1/4" of length on the clubs. But having been properly fitted by a Ping Pro, I'm actually more comfortable with a Yellow Dot set with standard-length stiff shafts - they fit my swing better.

As for pricing, G15's go for around £180-£200 for a full set and G20's (virtually identical to G15's apart from the shaft) go for upwards of £250. I wouldn't bother with G10's as their pricing is a bit weird. G15's are the best value for money in my book as they seem to not get as much attention as the others in the range, for some strange reason.

Anyway, Pings aren't for everyone but I do urge you to try the nFlight Web fitting to get a rough idea of how far away from 'standard' you are.

 

[MoodyB]

Forget Golfbidder - it's highly-priced equipment for people who can't be bothered to scour eBay.

Anyway, Pings aren't for everyone but I do urge you to try the nFlight Web fitting to get a rough idea of how far away from 'standard' you are.

I'm just wary of eBay due to the whole club clones scandal from a few years ago.

Golfbidder are a bit high it seems, but they're still cheaper than my local pro shop for the same set of 2nd hand clubs

I did try the nFlight fitting & it says I'm green dot, so 2.25 upright from standard.

I'm going to American Golf to try out a few 2nd hand sets at the weekend, so I'll see what they say as well. Even if I don't take a set I can at least try a few out & get a feel for them.

 

[glitch]

I'm just wary of eBay due to the whole club clones scandal from a few years ago.

Understandable, but second-hand clubs are usually a safe bet. It's the new stuff that you have to be very careful with.

I've bought all my second-hand clubs from eBay and, thus far at least, it's all been genuine. General common sense prevails - if it's too cheap to be true it usually is, always ask for the serial numbers and back away if anything rings your alarm bells.

Plus you can always email Ping directly and say you've bought some clubs from eBay and want to check the serials are genuine.

Anyway, see how you get on at AG. You'll always play better with the clubs you feel mopst comfortable with, so try everything you can get your hands on and ask them about custom fitting - they should, in theory, be able to tell you what they think about that particular area.

Oh, and keep one eye on these for a rough idea of pricing, if Pings tickle your fancy.

 

[MikeTimbers]

So on a day when we should be congratulating Furyk on an amazing 59 at the BMW, all the focus is on TW again because a slo-mo camera filming every second of his round showed an up-down movement on his ball while he was removing debris from around it, resulting in a pre-signing but post-round two-shot penalty.

Is it fair that one player is being scrutinised in this way when others aren't?
Did Tiger know it moved and therefore is he a cheat for not calling it on himself?
Did he gain any advantage from it?
Would you make a playing partner take a two-shot penalty for such a petty event?

 

[glitch]

Is it fair that one player is being scrutinised in this way when others aren't?

The cameras are arguably on everyone at the BMW, although there is a higher level of attention on Tiger - but the footage in question came from a 'freelance videographer' following the round, which could well have been a genuine member of the public but seems to have been a professional.

And from what I've heard it was pretty clear cut that Tiger knew there was movement - the question was whether the ball 'oscillated' on the spot, as he claimed, or whether in fact it had moved off its spot.

Was someone like this freelancer following Furyk yesterday during his scintillating round of 59? I don't know - but if there was, and something like this had happened, I bet things would have played out pretty similarly. And the same goes for the rest of the players.

There's just more focus on it because it's Tiger and he's doing a remarkable job of alienating his adoring public in recent months. He was a total berk at Liberty National - swearing, spitting, throwing his toys out of the pram with every bad shot, etc.

Did Tiger know it moved and therefore is he a cheat for not calling it on himself?

It seems he was well aware the ball had moved, but he was adamant it remained on its spot and didn't move from its resting place.

Did he gain any advantage from it?

Alas, somewhat irrelevant due to the laws of the game. Which is a whole other can of worms.

Would you make a playing partner take a two-shot penalty for such a petty event?

No, but then again I'm not playing in the upper echelons of the sport and have the focus of the world's golfing media on me.

If it happened to me during a competition, I'd call it on myself. You'd be hard-pressed to call it on your playing partner unless you were standing right over their ball at the time.

Look, we all know the rules of golf are numerous and occasionally petty, but we aren't professional tour players earning our living playing at the highest level and as such we don't always have to adhere to the letter of the law - he does.

 

[glitch]

Okay, just seen the footage on Sky. It's pretty clear cut that the ball moves off its spot.

Under the circumstances, it's pretty stupid on Tiger's part that he didn't look to approach the PGA and clear it all up before he signed hi card. I'd probably go a little further and say that with the movement and his reaction to it, he ought to have called it at the time, but perhaps that's being a little harsh.

 

[stuie]

So another good weekend for me shot 39 points in a 4 ball stableford everything looking good for presidents day at the end of the month.

However, winds picking up and im getting my winter ballooning issue back starting suffering with it towards the end of last winter now im playing better and I can see this year is going to be tough. Im currently playing with ping i15s standard stiff awt shaft +1/2 inch green dot which is what I was fitted with when I started playing 2 years ago however I thinking these are too light as on a simulator i was pulling 80-90 mph and 6500+ rpm with a 7 iron. Having had a chat with the ex pro at the club he has recommended I look into getting them reshafted to s300s or 6.5s, I'm trying to find a local fitting day but doesnt look like anythings coming up any thoughts on either of these shaft options and realistically reshaft or am I as well just retooling?

 

[Saint]

Thinking about some new Irons, I'm an 18 handicap. Considerations are:

- Mizuno JPX 825
- Ping G20
- Ping G25
- Titleist AP1

I've heard the G25 are not much different to the G20. Golfgeardirect have the G20's at £379 and are doing £50 off all irons this week, which would be a pretty amazing deal!

Obviously it's down to feel, but which one's would you pick and why?

 

[mad_allan]

I wouldn't pick any without hitting them, what is right for 1 person, isn't for another. If that is your list, head down to a well known golf chain and hit some balls with them. American Golf are offering free fitting at the moment, utilize that and they price match too

 

[Saint]

I wouldn't pick any without hitting them, what is right for 1 person, isn't for another. If that is your list, head down to a well known golf chain and hit some balls with them. American Golf are offering free fitting at the moment, utilize that and they price match too

Yeh definitely wouldn't ever think about buying before trying, but just wanted to get some general opinions on the clubs, particular the G20/G25 difference

I tend to always buy from AG and take massive advantage of that price match ha