I used to be a TaylorMade man

Public Forum—Concepts in Advanced Ball Striking
1

Since becoming a member here and starting module 1 and starting the new hobby of classic club collecting…everything I have ever believed about technology, marketing and the world of big business has been turned on it’s head.

A bit about me:

I’m a typical 34 year old Australian with a young family, a “keep up with the Jones’” McMansion and two leased cars. I work longish hours in a job I’m not the most passionate about. I took up playing golf in April of 2006 and since then have owned the following clubs, 1) Shark (Proline) beginners package with a Wilson Hybrid that I couldn’t even hit but paid extra for just because everyone else had a Hybrid. 2) Nike NDS irons with graphite stiff shafts purchased off the shelf which I sold when I found that some of the shafts were regular and others were Senior. 3) Precept something or other package which included 3 woods, 2 hybrids, etc. etc. (this set last 18 holes). 4) Wilson Staff Di7 which I only went into so that I could get out of the Precepts. 5) TaylorMade R7 which had paint flaking off the cavities after only 9 holes. TaylorMade wouldn’t repair or replace under warranty but the retail shop offerd me a set of TaylorMade Tour Burners instead for a small up charge. 6) TaylorMade Tour Burners which again had paint flaking off the cavities, and I’m not talking about fakes here. I was able to sell these and buy a used set of TaylorMade 09 Burners for a couple of hunderd extra dollars - these Burners are set number 7 and I purchased them about a month before I discovered this forum.

After all of the above and not to mention quite a few different Drivers, Hybrids, Putters and GW/LW had my ball striking, game or scores improved? NO. Even though I had forked out hunderds for lessons with 4 different pros. You know the ones, “oops time is up see you next week” “but, but, I didn’t quite get that last thing you told me” “too bad time is up, see you next week”.

I had a TaylorMade hat. I had a TaylorMade bag. I had a TaylorMade glove. I had TaylorMade balls and an Adidas towel. Ohhhhhh I was a real golfer wasn’t I. BULLSHIT!!!

I’m so thankful to Pipp for putting me on to this forum. I’ so thankful to John for taking the time to put together a course to help a hacker like me who lives on the otherside of the world and a total stranger too. How good is it that I have a coach at my disposal pretty much 24/7. Send him an email, question answered. Send him a video, form crqitiqued. However I’m mostly thankful for the good members on this forun who have opened my eyes up to how I have been sucked into the marketing crap by the big OEM’s, the mdeia and big business in general. I feel like Neo in the Matrix when he wakes up in the real world. Since 2006 I must have spent $6k or more on golf equipment when now I’m more than happy playing (and well) with 30 year old clubs worth no more than $100. Gee I could have put that $5900 to so many other things.

So right now I’m in the process of selling my Hybrid, LW and Burner irons. I’ll keep the TaylorMade standbag until it dies because I don’t want to spend $$$ on a new bag right now but my next bag will not have an ugly TaylorMade logo all over it that’s for sure, however my TaylorMade hat has alrady gone to charity. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders (too dramatic?).

Even my motives for playing this game have changed. I used to seek out the wide fairways and huge greens of resort courses and pay $100 a round for the pleasure to drive around it…and still come home frustrated because of a crap score. Now I’m happier walking my local council course that was built in the 50’s with narrow tree lined fairways and small, elevated greens…for around $30. The score is no longer of consequence to me (at the moment anyway) and I simply enjoy chasing that feel of “flush” from one of my muscle backed long irons :smiley:

All of this has made me question other aspects of my life…do I want to live in a house with no character in a street that looks like every other street in the McMansion suburbia of North Western Sydney? Do I really want to eat burgers with plastic for cheese and fast food in general that is so far removed from food that you can’t even call it food? Tell me, why do I need a freakin Sat Nav??? Seriously, where do I go that I don’t know how to get to. Do I really need to be told by yet another person (in this case the pre-recorded voice of the NavMan) what to do? Don’t I get told what to do and how to do it enough already. :imp: :imp: :imp:

As a society though we have gone too far. So I’m making stand starting with golf…I will no longer pay $38 to buy a hat that advertises TaylorMade. They couldn’t even supply me with a set of irons without the cavity medallions falling out, real quality clubs they are. It’s amazing how some 34 year old forged clubs look newer than most 6 month old cast ones.

Sorry about this post, I had a bit of a deep and meaningful with myself this weekend and this is the result.

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Apparently you took the red pill… :open_mouth:

of course life is easier if you just take the blue one! :unamused:

themeatrix1.com/

who knows… maybe some truth here…?
pretty funny stuff…

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Haha Moopheus

I most definitley did take the red pill :open_mouth:

Maybe my post was a little dramatic but my point is a valid one. New and Expensive does not necessarily equal better.

I just checked out your Knudson video on YouTube Lag and it occured to me that we will never see that type of swing on tour ever again. The big golf OEM’s have not only had an negative impact on golf course design, they have fundamentally changed how the game is played and what a good golf swing looks like and. Pretty sad really.

So even though I’m bald, I will never wear a TaylorMade hat again.

4

I can understand your plight. This is what I tell a lot of people who don’t understand TGM’s ‘following.’ I don’t think the book is infallible by any means, but I think it’s still an excellent book that has ‘cleared up the fog’ quite a bit and in general, has GREATLY helped countless golfers. Anytime that can happen, with the way the game of golf is where it can be very frustrating and then you discover something new and the light goes on and your game improves, it makes it very difficult to not be loyal.

I would never get a lesson from say Hank Haney, but if I did and everything happened to click for me, I would certainly be very loyal to him (but I know that’s a pipedream).

I played D-1 golf on a scholarship at Coastal Carolina University (same school as Dustin Johnson). I had a sizeable growth spurt in about my junior year in HS to my freshman year in college. Started hitting shots off the toe, didn’t know much about clubfitting at the time and everybody said ‘you need to make your clubs more upright.’ Took my Ram FX Tour Grinds and made them 5* upright! Later on I was told I had a big problem. The clubs were too upright and I really needed longer shafts and less upright clubs. But, making the clubs longer would make them too heavy. So we installed graphite shafts in some Titleist 962’s, made them 1+" longer and STILL had them 1* upright. My game just got worse.

The thing is, deep down I knew that this just didn’t seem right. No PGA Tour pro had clubs this long and this upright. I even tried to convince myself that it was okay with thoughts like ‘well, Babe Ruth had an extraordinary long and heavy baseball bat, maybe he knew something!’

Yikes.

I got back into the game last January and bought new Mizuno irons (MP-62’s) back in March. I did go back to steel (even though the clubfitter tried to convince me I needed graphite) and had them 2* upright with +1/4" extra length. My swing did get quite good this summer, but there are still some major improvements I’m trying to make. One of them is much what Lag talks about which is pivoting past impact instead of driving the hands and taking big divots.

I didn’t get into reading about Lag’s thoughts on TGM and the game until the iseekgolf.com thread was about over. I thought his thoughts about irons were very interesting to say the least and I bought some MacGregor 985 blades that are standard length and lie and now I feel that even those irons are wayy too upright for me.

I should hopefully get some Hogan IPT blades tomorrow which should be somewhat flatter lie angles and I really can’t wait. I played to a +1.2 at one point this summer and I can feel major improvements in my swing just by using some old blade irons that are not so upright. Furthermore, as I try to make changes, it helps to have clubs that are not so upright because it ‘takes away the reward’ when I make a compensation.

3JACK

5

Great stuff, Anthgolf, thanks for sharing. Sounds like you’re on a great road from a golfing perspective and a life one too…
Keep up the good work…

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Entertaining read Anthony. I never went through the club phase just starting with a set of Tommy Armour 845’s and within a year falling in love with some Mizuno TP-19’s that I’ve had now for 12-15 years (I can’t remember). But I did reach a stage where I saw life became just too superficial. That’s when we moved an hour out of Sydney. Now I get fresh milk from the farms (illegally I might add), fresh eggs from a neighbor and you can actually see the stars in the sky. Simple living.

Forget driving ranges, practice greens, practice bunkers,…, I’ve got an empty course to play as many balls as I wish, that costs me half of what I’d pay for an equivalent in Sydney. The course is only a 5 minute drive but I choose instead the scenic 10 minute route over the mountains. I never did that in Sydney.

My brother lives not too far form you as you might remember. His course is a 40 minute drive with driving range about 30 minutes. After 2.5 hours travel a day to work with a young family means one rushed practice session a week, one game a week and he spends the rest hitting birdie balls off his front lawn down the street. Golf’s not everything of course, family and job are important, but it’s amazing how things naturally work out for the better if you trust it. I get my family visiting more often than when I was in Sydney as they enjoy the ‘holiday’, and leave relaxed. With my field of expertise I have no option here but to create my own business, so I do what I love instead of just turning up and taking home a pay packet.

Strange that you mention SatNav - it was a driving holiday up the west coast and coincidentally in San Francisco that triggered the lifestyle change for me. Wife had map, got us seriously lost. I popped out the SatNav in frustration, she said we don’t need the SatNav and let’s just find our own way. So we did and had the most amazing day seeing things and people normal tourists never experience. It was a life changing experience.

7

The same thing happened to me Anthgolf, I started questioning everything modern and what we call in Italian USA E GETTA, use and throw away stuff. I’m so fed up buying crap stuff made in China/rest of Asia cheap and nasty! My new LG 42" plasma went after 2 years and 40 days, warranty of course expired after 2 years. My dad’s Telefunken made in Gemany lasted 25 years and my family got rid of it when it was still working when they moved house last time!!! You get the idea.

Everything we buy today is designed to be replaced after a short time, it’s the way the economic system works. I hate it. I’m sick and tired of it. Stuff it. I’d rather save the money and use it for my kids or for something to be shared with my family or friends. 90 bucks for 12 balls that cost them 50 cents to make? Keep dreaming, if I’m playing great any decent ball will do, heck I’m playing socially with my friends or a midweek comp, WHO CARES?

Don’t even get me started talking about golf lessons… :imp:

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Please do Pipp, your golf lesson experiences says it all.

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I have a newer Chevy Blazer that breaks down all the time… they hook it to a diagnostic computer, and it spits out all these codes and they tell me I need to replace half the engine. They wanted $800 to fix things that didn’t need fixing. They mentioned all these things that I had recently replaced. I found a vacuum leak in a hose and and fixed it for 8 dollars.

My 1973 Porsche has been running perfect for 5 years, and I have only changed the oil, a set of brake pads and new plugs once.
No computer they can hook into. I like the old school way of a good mechanic that simply listens to the engine… runs a few hands on tests, like pulling off a plug wire, or using a volt meter. Turning a few screws on the intakes on the carb. I also love being able to push start it if I need to, in case the battery goes dead. Just coast it down a little grade, pop the clutch and off I go… I love that.

I can’t believe all the extra junk stuffed into a engine compartment these days… Ignition modules, oxygen sensors, timing computers, all this stuff, when all a car really needs is air, fuel, spark… and bam… off you go.

My dad had a straight 6 in a Mustang, and when you opened the hood, you would look down and see the asphalt on each side of the block on the ground. You could get your hand on any part of the car you needed to change, with a simple tool kit you could remove and replace any peripheral in minutes.

I better stop now… :imp:

10

To cut it short, my biggest waste of money and time was with a 2 time Australian PGA teacher of the year winner. I thought, who, better than a Teacher of the year winner can teach this hacker to play golf? HAHAHA, I was very mistaken and I learnt a lot about PRs in the golf world and how you can get certain titles…

An initial $ 240 for two lessons and then another $ 640 down the drain for a 6 lesson package where he basically got me to go to a club fitter and change the lie of my irons 2 degrees upright. A 9 hole playing lesson was included where he spent more time looking for balls in the water ( not his, from other players, he searched for them and put them all happy in his pockets) instead of watching me hitting my shots and giving advice.

Oh, and when I went to another teacher and I still used the practice range where he teaches he pretended not to know me and din’t say hi for 1 year. Only recently he started saying hello again, he must be running out of students… :smiling_imp:

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You see, it’s all symptomatic of the same issue. You do not get value for money anywhere anymore…except of course with Lag’s modules :slight_smile: . Most are out to make a quick buck. The almightly dollar and the commercialisation of basically everything has destroyed society.

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Speaking of cars, I’m still in love with my first one, a Renault 4 that was ugly as sin but never let me down, EVER. I ran it into the ground, a la’ Blues Brothers where the car at then end just falls to pieces because it can’t take it anymore.

RENAULT4.JPG
RENAULT4.JPG1024×768 158 KB

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Anth… seeing as you’re breaking down the illusions in your world I think there’s something else you should know…

Taylor Made = Chelsea
ABS/Old Gear = Liverpool

Leave the dark side behind and…

[youtube] youtube.com/watch?v=Y7xvegPH_Lw [/youtube]

14

LMFAO.

Why would I leave a champion team coached by a chapmion Italian…like myself to go and support one a two man show coached by a crazy spaniard?

Anyway, Liverpool is more like TaylorMade than Chelsea is. TaylorMade bring out a new line of irons/drivers every 6 weeks or so right? Isn’t that how often Liverpool go thru new signings - Aquilani, Dossena, Riise. Who was Rafa’s latest signing ??? I give him 2 months before he is superseded.

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BomGolf - too cool - keep the faith whatever these johnny come lately’s say :wink:

Pip - we have a blue Renault 4 called “Betsy” exactly like that one - gearstick comes out of the dashboard - love it!

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That’s the one! :smiley:

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I hear you Antgolf…“Right On!” as we used to say. I have had similar thoughts these past few months. What I have seen and learned through the ABS golf prism, seems to apply to so many other areas.

My town has 10 times more people than it had 40 years ago, but now you can’t get your shoes resoled( used to have 2 shoe repair shops), or a piano tuned. The Post Office used to deliver twice a day on foot,…now stamps cost much more, and delivery is once a day by by truck… and there’s talk of cutting a day a week. In my work, we keep making changes…but we’re not making progress. Last week , I told someone…"we need to to stop this madness and open a place called ‘Old School _____’ "…he laughed, but I knew he agreed…the thought resonated with his feelings. He knew he didn’t like what he had become.

I think we’ll see a return to Old School Stuff in several areas of life in the next few decades. Time for the pendulum to swing back.

And not all the new is bad…look at how we enjoy this forum and the ease of idea exchange.

18

Anth, great topic.

I’d love to agree with you guys, but I don’t things are changing for the good anytime soon. I hate the idea of a Chinese made plasma thats likely to just make it to warranty, but if someone hand crafted a locally made $4000 TV that basically did the same job as the $1000 Chinese one, what do you expect people to do? I hate the McMansions that look hideous and continually get stress cracks, broken doors, mismatched trims, even years after being built. But then again, they are $150,000 vs $400,000 for a custom design, and guess what people choose? And a guy rocks up to the pro shop saying he needs new clubs as he’s not hitting the old ones well. He’s already bought the Taylormade’s in his head, and might just throw in 2 lessons to make sure he hits them properly. Tell this guy to hit them properly he’s going to have to have 2 years of lessons, still hit the ball poorly for a vast majority of that, and hit thousands of balls at the range, guess what he’s going to say. “I can’t spend that much time and money on golf, it’s just a game.”

The people get what the people want. Don’t try to change them, it’s too frustrating. Just make choices that make you happy.

But you are right one one thing, we are damned lucky to have found Lag. This is as good as it gets folks. Let the people take the back streets across the country in their luxury SUV’s, we’ll cruise the interstate in Lag’s Porsche, have fun along the way and beat them by many years in reaching some level of greatness with golf.

19

Not to hijack the thread with cars, but a year ago I didn’t have my gas cap tightedned all of the way. The computer in the car will often tell you this, so the ‘check engine’ light goes on. But here’s the rub. The check engine light will stay on until you get a mechanic to turn it off. In other words, the car is running just fine…but, if there is a problem with the engine you won’t be able to tell because the check engine light has been on the entire time anyway.

Anyway, just to get the light to stop it cost me $220. All for not turning the gas cap two clicks over more and for a car that had zero problems. :imp:

3JACK

20

You may be right, but…I’m foolish or hopeful enough to think we can make some changes in golf…Look at the power of these forums, and some of our members read several of them …so there can be cross-pollination of ideas. Maybe first the clubs start changing… people will see and want the blades we are using. Then the balls…we can find and support the best ball, or have some made like we want. Then we can patronize the courses we like.

Maybe we luck into someone reading this forum who has the connections to get an big Old School Tournament scheduled somewhere…maybe even someplace like St Andrews, Augusta, Pinehurst, Pebble…

Or maybe dual tournament tracks get going…as Lag has suggested…Like NASCAR and Indy.

Meanwhile , the economic creative destruction is occuring…courses built with too much debt are closing…fancy C C of The South in Atlanta, home of the sports stars, declaring bankruptcy.

And the Green movement will have it’s say…there will be incentives to cut watering, chemicals, and labor cost of "Augustatizing "( Johnny Miller) every course.

There will some strong urges to return to the old values.

As the kid said in the movie…“It could happen”.
eagle