Interview with Bradley Hughes by Rod Morri

Good luck Bradley…
Mind sharing what will be in your bag for the tourney?

PING Rapture 7.5 loft driver…(circa 2006?) Graffaloy Axis 75X shaft
13 degree Taylor Made 200 series (circa 1999) Graphite Design YS 8.1
17 degree Taylor Made 200 series (circa 1999) Aldila 95g
3-PW Scratch Blades- personal grind- Dynamic Gold X100 swingweight D3-D8
56 deg & 60 Deg Scratch - Dynamic Gold X-100 swingweight E0
Ping ‘My Day’ with tungsten face inserts for added weight

Irons are set up at 4-5 degrees flat (depending on whose scale you use)

I am also taking along my 1948 MacGregor Hogan persimmon driver with Apex 5 shaft for practice
and a
MacGregor Jack Nicklaus Muirfield 1 iron with dynamic gold x-100 shaft - I may use this club in an event or two
depending on course set up and would drop the 17 degree wood

The Scratch irons I had made are beautiful…small heads (I got to have them ground exactly how I wanted them to look)…very little toe (squarer look)
and I had them inserted with tungsten weights down the hosel to build up swingweight

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I think the progressive swing weighting through the irons is a great idea. I think moving from D3 into E is fantastic. Obviously dead weights progress into the shorter irons, but allowing that to also gradate through the feel of your set through swing weight balancing has been a concept historically overlooked.

The Bob Charles interview in the equipment section is priceless.

I’d love to see the look on a few faces if you decide to pull out the 1 iron on a few occasions.

Talk about intimidation factor!

TM

“Ping ‘My Day’ with tungsten face inserts for added weight”

How did you do that, I’ve had a ‘My Day’ for 16 years and I love it, but it’s way to light since I shortened it by about 3" - do you have a photo of yours?

I recently bought (or was I raped) a Scotty Newport 2 which has extra heavy weights in the heal/toe areas (the 30g ones) - I still prefer the look/fit of the ‘My Day’, but I undoubtedly putt better with the heavier Scotty.

Thanks in advance.

ZM

Don’t know if anyone can get their hands on the tungsten insert models or not?
I used PING for a few years in mid 2000’s so was lucky to be able to ask for something and receive it
I always liked the My Day look and had one of them but it felt too light and I waved the putter around and had awful distance control with it.
So they made up another and plopped 2 tungsten weights in the face …one in toe area and one in heel area, and presto…great feeling putter

Cut for time as I am on the plane tomorrow early, but may get a chance to post a pic of it when I can

Don’t mean much, but will be cheering for you mate. Won’t be up the Hunter but will wander out to The Lakes. I know you get feedback here but I also appreciate the advice from the old place.

1st Round NSW OPEN The Vintage Golf Club (Greg Norman design) Hunter Valley New South Wales Australia

Had a good ball striking day for my first competitive round in over 15 months. Hit 13 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. Unfortunately had 33 putts but finished with a 1 under par 70. Didn’t hole anything until the 16th hole…had a bunch of chances but couldn’t get anything to drop.
Looking forward to the hole opening up tomorrow and going low. Certainly played well enough for a 5 under but gotta take what you get.
All in all I was quite pleased with the round. Hit some fantastic shots. Had good distance control and even though I didn’t hole many putts I rolled the ball well.
I really only hit 2 poor shots for the day that both cost me bogeys, but hung in well and hit some quality shots which will give me confidence to build on for the rest of this week and the Aust Open and PGA in the upcoming weeks
ABS’ member Steb walked around all day and watched and had a chat with him out there., Thanks for watching Steb… will report again tomorrow after Day 2

Nice one Two, best of luck for tomorrow, we are all rooting for you!

Confucius say…

“He who hit ball at pin is soon to win”

Yeah I had me a super module 2 expo today. Probably other modules too but I don’t know what to look for yet.

18 holes of two and it was inspiring. 1st tournament hole in 15 months and birdie! I must say I it shocked me to learn that one of the others in the group shot 3 better than Brad, as Brad seemed to be the one on the fairways and doing the better approaches all day, and chipped superbly. Only one drive missed the fairway (and by 10 yards at that) and it made him pay alright.

Totally enjoyable to watch–I felt like I’d won a competition prize or something.

Impressive stuff…

2nd Round

Well …what can I say about my putter today… Played great…11 of 14 fairways…15 of 18 greens and sign for a 74 !! :smiling_imp: …15 birdie putts for no birdies and collected bogeys on the missed greens.
That’s golf. I had a real hard time getting a line with my putts. The greens were full of thatch and needed a good core and sand a few months ago,but we all had to putt on them and I just didn’t have a feel for the lines or the speeds. Hit a lot of good putts that didn’t drop, so confidence on the greens was lacking, especially when you hit them where you want and they still don’t go in. I hit one putt that I aimed about 12 inches left for the break to the right and it went left!!! by a good 20 inches…so either I need glasses or the grain and thatch and bouncing green totally destroyed any chance that putt had of going in.

Met up with Rod Morri today at the end of play. Had a chat about things and how my using a persimmon driver in practice is gaining some headlines and recognition amongst the tongue waggers of the media.
Will miss the cut but the great news is I still hit the ball really well. Drove it well. Hit a bunch of good iron shots inside 15 feet but couldn’t convert.
Noticed something with my divots that intrigued me and proved how well I am actually swinging…in that …ALL my iron divots were almost a brush of the grass…shallow and thin and hardly moving any turf from the ground.
Lots of good signs…now to find some putting confidence and the next 2 weeks will go well

Good luck for the next tourney Bradley… I hope your putter will be hot soon…
We’re still rooting for you!!

6 putts better each round =

33 - 6 = 27
35 - 6 = 29

144 - 12 = 132 Leader (Our old buddy Peter O’Malley)

I’m sure Peter was under 30 putts each round.

Pretty much sums it up.

Ball striking sounds like you’re back in form. Excellent.

Peter Cooke 61 - 73, that must have felt odd to him. I’m sure the flat stick did a Jekyll & Hyde.

Great to catch up with Two today and meet face to face. It’s all too rare these days to meet an honest, down to earth touring player of Brad’s calibre and it was a real pleasure and a treat. I did a quick interview with Brad just for the guys on this site which is available via the link below. Brad tells it all…a co-operative putter could have meant anything but, more importantly, a couple of competitive rounds under the belt after a long lay off will be invaluable heading into next week.
Look forward to catching up next week, Brad, and hope the preparation goes well between now and then.

blogtalkradio.com/talkingolf/2010/11/25/brad

Interview goes for about 3 minutes. Nothing earth shattering but nice to hear things from the “horses’s mouth” so to speak. There’s an annoying ad at the start of the piece but if you wait about 10 seconds you can close it without sitting through the whole thing.

Rod,

Thanks for linking us to your interview with Two. Really enjoyed it.

Best,
1teebox

Good for you Bradley,

It’s just a matter of time now… that’s all. What a great way to start up again with such a strong showing of ballstriking. Even at my level I am furious with anything over 28 putts. But I’ve learned my putts are shorter because I’m missing greens. lol So it’s all relative.

Equipment wise you sound set; Scratch makes some nice, soft forgings, I bet it’s a great fit.

You have a great engine, and a great mechanic to draw on… I don’t know how long it will take, but as long as you’re hungry, I have no doubt you will succeed.

Thanks for posting that article. I enjoyed reading it very much!

All the best for your upcoming events Two.