Golf Thread

kefkef said:
Meh, i take a differnt view on this. Just because they arent of a brilliant standard means they cant buy decent gear? Is decent gear only the province of the 'elite', going by that standard most people should be driving around in crappy cars as only Lewis Hamilton should be driving supercars, Matt Neal driving sporty/quick saloon cars etc. At the end of the day if they want to spend their hard earned on new clubs let them, it makes them happy! (plus it fills the 2nd hand bins with nearly new drivers/irons that aren't "suited to their swing" or rather their crappy swing isnt suited to them despite being told countless times to spend money on lessons rather than new clubs!! :D)
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Oh dont get me wrong.... I dont begrudge anybody having what ever golf gear they want. The point I was trying to make is that many people are happy to spend countless amounts of money on equipment to improve thier game but completely refuse to go and have a lesson with a pro.

After all a good golf swing will work with almost any golf club but....no golf club can fix a terrible swing

The old adage that the dog wags the tail not the tail wagging the dog :)
 
Was thinking about this today whilst playing a nice course in Scarcroft and there is a point i agree on, that's Balls!! I never begrudge people with nice gear, after all if you can afford it then crack on, but it's when a 28hcp'er with all the gear turns up and proceeds to knock a dozen ProV1's out of bounds over the course of a round that gets my goat! :)

I re-read your post afterwards and also thought that you were aiming it towards the have a lesson rather than buy new clubs, my mistake for rushing to post prior to getting out of the door to play 18! :D
 
Well American Golf phoned this morning to say they could not get my white/orange ATV's in a size 12. :(

Then I phoned Onlinegolf.co.uk who surprisingly had a size 12 pair in their warehouse. :)

What is it with trying to get shoes in a size 12, its almost impossible. I must be a freak! :(

And I love watching people pull out the Titleist Pro V1 balls and procede to lose them straight off the tee. I have a dozen box I haven't even opened yet.

For a casual practice I use the cheapo 2 for £15 boxes of 15 Slazenger balls from JJB. Sports Direct have a box of 24 Dunlop balls for £8 at the moment, which seems quite good! For a more serious practice i'll dig out some TM Burner's or Titleist NXT's.

My serious game ball is a TM Penta.
 
kefkef said:
Meh, i take a differnt view on this. Just because they arent of a brilliant standard means they cant buy decent gear?
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I didn't say they couldn't buy decent gear :p Like Snooze alluded to it just seems like a bit of a waste of money when you see them hitting shot after shot along the floor with a set of 600 quid irons or putting a nice sky mark on a brand new Taylormade R11! Their hard earned cash would undoubtedly be better off spent with the local pro and they'd also enjoy the game more too.

SnoozE said:
Good Luck in the comps :)
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Cheers mate, will let the OcUK golfing community know how I get on :)
 
kefkef said:
Was thinking about this today whilst playing a nice course in Scarcroft and there is a point i agree on, that's Balls!! I never begrudge people with nice gear, after all if you can afford it then crack on, but it's when a 28hcp'er with all the gear turns up and proceeds to knock a dozen ProV1's out of bounds over the course of a round that gets my goat! :)

I re-read your post afterwards and also thought that you were aiming it towards the have a lesson rather than buy new clubs, my mistake for rushing to post prior to getting out of the door to play 18! :D
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Nah I say let em buy Pro V1's because then I can find lots of em when I searching in the rough (*cough* when looking for my playing partners balls of course *cough*) :P

And on the subject of Balls I enjoy the following
Pro V1/V1x
Bridgstone B330
NXT Tour

Also my club Pro has become a Ping stockist because we are a host for the Lee Westwood Junior Academy so I am tempted on a set of pings.
I have never owned Pings before because they always made pig ugly game improvement looking clubs but the newer ranges look much better. Has anybody owned/played with Ping and whats your opinion of them as a whole?
 
I have a fair experience with Ping clubs.

Currently I am playing with G20 irons, G15 3 wood and I had an i15 driver before I had to replace it with an R11.

The G20 irons are superb. Very easy to hit with and give the ball a nice high flight. They are still workable enough that I can draw and fade to a fair extent, albeit not as much as a blade, and I can lower my shot trajectory if I am playing links or on a windy day. The irons look very good as well now. though it took me a little while to get used to their fairly big offset.

I tried many many different sets of irons before going with the G20's. I'm going to say that these are the best set of cavity backs on the market right now.

i20 irons are due out early next year, these would fit somewhere in between the game improvement G20's and the more player focused S56 and Anser irons.

I personally plan to get i20 7, 8 and 9 irons and use them as a combo set with the G20 4, 5 and 6 irons. This means I get the extra workability and manipulation of the i20's in the short irons combined with the forgiveness and ease of use of the G20 long irons.

If you are looking for a players iron set, then the S56 set is pretty awesome as well, though they do look very strange for a forged iron, nonetheless they are excellent.

And if you are minted, the Anser irons are to die for.

As for the woods, I have tried the G20 driver a few times, and it too is excellent. Not much different from the G15, so if you wanted to save a bit of cash go for that, there really is nothing between them except the price tag. I would have one for sure if I didn't love my R11 so much. Can't fault my G15 3 wood either, love it.

The only clubs from Ping I have never tried are the hybrids and putters (im a Scotty fan), so I can't comment on those.

As with any decent set of irons, get a full custom fit!
 
Fergie fabulous post mate many thanks for the feedback.

I am drawer (hooker :P) of the ball so I steer away from golf clubs with any kind of offset so I will be looking at the I series or the S56 most likely. I have not seen anything on the Answer do you know what type of player they will be aimed at and approximate cost?
 
Anser irons can weigh in at about £1000. They are what tour players used. Really high end stuff.

The forged irons and any "i" series driver could work well for you. The irons have almost no offset as you said, and the drivers tend to have a more open club face as this is how they play on tour. Just be aware that they will be less forgiving!

The strange thing about the Anser irons is that they have a very wide sole for a forged iron, this adds a touch of forgiveness to them but they still retain the characteristics of a normal forged iron. As GolfWRX put it, they are the Aston Martin of golf irons. :D If I had the cash I would be on them like a shot.

Sadly Ping don't do any sort of muscle back iron, that would be very interesting to see and play with.
 
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I was under the impression the Ping S56 irons are just cast irons not forged :confused: The only forged irons Ping produce are the new Ansers as far as I'm aware.

I know a lot of people swear by Ping but they don't do anything for me, what with their clunky soles, big offsets and industrious looks.
 
coupe69 said:
I know a lot of people swear by Ping but they don't do anything for me, what with their clunky soles, big offsets and industrious looks.
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I have always felt the same way about Ping irons in the past but the new S56 is a fine looking from the address position they dont look much different to my Titleist Blades :)

Must admit the ANSER do look a good club. The main reason I want to have a look at the pings is gain a bit more height on my ball. The course I play is the high point for miles around and in the summer plays almost like an inland links course with large firm greens.

I have also heard that their after sales service is excellent and although I have never had to return a club in my life its nice to know that if I should ever need to it will be dealt with professionally.

My bag at the moment has become a bit of a mashup of random clubs

Bridgestone J33 Driver
Callaway Warbird 3 Wood
Titleist 695 MB - 3 to Pitching Wedge
Cleveland 53 Degree Gap Wedge
Taylormade 56 Degree Sand Wedge
Benross 60 Degree Lob Wegde

I have a fitting session with a Ping custom fitter booked for Oct 3rd so I will see if they can fit me through the bag so I can get consistent gaps between each club.

I would like to know other peoples experience of the clubs and service they have received from Ping before i splash best part of a grand with them :)
 
fergie128 said:
Yeah my bad on that one, the Anser's are the only actual forged irons.
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I've actually delved into this a little more and it does appear that they did do a few sets of S56 irons that were forged but these were only used by tour players. Apparently they couldn't tell the difference between the forged and cast versions :eek: so make of that what you will :confused:

IMO the Ansers look very similar to any other Ping iron albeit slightly less clunky, why don't they just make a classic looking forged blade?

pinganser.jpg
 
SnoozE said:
I have also heard that their after sales service is excellent and although I have never had to return a club in my life its nice to know that if I should ever need to it will be dealt with professionally.
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Yeah I've heard the service Ping deliver is supposed to be spot on including the fitting. It's just a pity their irons don't suit my eye... The problem is if I don't like the look of a set of clubs it wouldn't exactly instill me with confidence when I took them out of the bag to hit them :o
 
coupe69 said:
Yeah I've heard the service Ping deliver is supposed to be spot on including the fitting. It's just a pity their irons don't suit my eye... The problem is if I don't like the look of a set of clubs it wouldn't exactly instill me with confidence when I took them out of the bag to hit them :o
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100% Agreed..... Confidence is everything in golf and if the club does not fit my eye when it sits behind the ball then its a no go for me.

1 interesting point for me though is that we buy the drivers with heads the size of frying pans yet our irons some of us look for tiny minuscule heads :)

There arent many blade players left on tour these days for example Luke Donald plays Mizuno who are in my opinion the best manufacturers of Blade irons bar none and yet Luke plays Cavity backs.....Lee Westwood has never played anything but Pings his entire life so therefore has always played Cavity Backs

God Damn why does golf have to be soooo bloody confusing :)
 
SnoozE said:
100% Agreed..... Confidence is everything in golf and if the club does not fit my eye when it sits behind the ball then its a no go for me.

1 interesting point for me though is that we buy the drivers with heads the size of frying pans yet our irons some of us look for tiny minuscule heads :)

There arent many blade players left on tour these days for example Luke Donald plays Mizuno who are in my opinion the best manufacturers of Blade irons bar none and yet Luke plays Cavity backs.....Lee Westwood has never played anything but Pings his entire life so therefore has always played Cavity Backs

God Damn why does golf have to be soooo bloody confusing :)
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Good point about the drivers head size compared to tiny irons. I've recently gone to a bigger cavity backed iron after years with blades (Mizzy MP33 to MX200) and I'm just starting to dial the 200s in now. While they may not be quite as satisfying to hit as the 33s it's not half as bad when you don't quite get hold of it. For example, hit a slight toe with the 200s and it will still go maybe 90% as well as a middled shot, try that with the 33s and you're talking more like 50-60%.

Like you say there's hardly any tour players using blades anymore, so if they think it's fine to play with cavity backs then that's more than good enough for me!
 
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