The more use the older stuff. The more the club wants to have a shallow approach into the ball. The ball will come out lower and truer. And I have more of that feeling that the club is to the right of me with the weight of it.With these ultra light calaways with the mega big sweet spot and it’s offset.I have to create a whip type of swing motion to get the club to feel like it is to the right of me.And instead of a shallow entry; it has more of a drop down right on it feeling.I’ve always fought an urge to hit way too early and come over it and outrace any body movement.Would play a pull and was very steep.Now I’m seeing that maybe it wasn’t all my fault.It was the equipment becoming extremely lighter more upright and offset forgiving.My old 1957 hogan iron 6 iron will be 155.But it will be a true 155.This 6 iron will be 170,180, and even have a few that go 200plus.Maybe because I have to whip it and drop on the ball.Even back in 1987 when I started the old school ping eye 2’s and ram accubar were made very light,offset and forgiving.If I was born 50 years earlier… and had the real old gear to start off with.Maybe then it would be a different story.I often wonder if local ams now are way more over the top and throw with no body versus and back in the 1940 to 1970 era?
Why the pros keep on getting better and local and never seem to show promise.With the pros action the forgiving clubs and unlimited shaft selections are totally taking advantage of their superior moves.
Maybe it is the equipment? He can’t find the true bottom of the swing and has to throw it.Anywhere I go in the great United States.I see guys and gals like that all the time
I think there’s been terrible golfers throughout time, could be the equipment these days alright, hard to say. I think the huge focus on speed/distance in the last 20 or so years has been a disaster for most people because it makes throwing the head at it even worse.
It used to be that striking the ball was prioritized, hitting fairways, etc. That as much as anything I think has caused problems. You really did have to hit blades and persimmons well first, before hitting them long. And if you used a balata, then any bad strike cost you a ball, that was pressure to hit it well in itself!
Lots of reasons, I think, but deffo the massive sweet spots, low COG, hybrid ‘irons’, etc., have all made the game ‘easier’ in a lot of ways, but also put less onus on doing things properly.
Here is my son and a young lady im dating. One is using heavy mens clubs.The one is using a driver that was also too heavy. The body’s react more natural with the heavier.They open up and have to orbit pull to hit it straight.So… like I said. I was pretty much screwed once I started golf in 1986 with the ping eye light gear and era of the first light metal woods.
I think about stuff like this. So the stronger and get fitness wise. The lighter stuff will feel. Which is very bad for the golf swing. Maybe I need to start swinging rebar or electric poles
It’s interesting how a lot of women end up swinging the club better than men - I often think they benefit from being weaker so the clubs are relatively heavier for them, so they have to engage stronger muscles. Height is also a big deal for them swinging more rotationally I reckon. Kids too on both counts.
You really notice the difference on women’s teeboxes vs men’s, par 3s mainly. The amount of steep, gouged sods of turf dug out of the men’s, but lots of nice scuffed turf on the women’s. Longer irons/woods come into it, but still, it holds true pretty consistently.
Spot on.Golf is now for local am’s …or any am’s. It is being marketed as speed and distance.It’s all towards getting your trackman numbers as long as possible by throwing all you have at it.Make the irons and woods with a mile wide sweet spot.Forget about technique, but focus on what will sell and make people who play on the weekends happy.
They can careless if a heavy old school 6 iron will go 155 consistently and drop their score. But are more excited knowing it can go 200 plus maybe once or twice a round.Very very few vast majority of amateurs care less about what the swing looks like or functions.They are trying to figure out this on their own with equipment that will develop them into a life long slasher.But im starting to see that the vast majority doesn’t really care.So….it is what it is
Even a little baby who has better body action thru the ball than 99% of hit as hard as you can amateurs. That club for her must feel like a lead weight. But her body is turning and opening with the handle pointing at the belly button. Face square not flipped closed with the hands outracing the body to stop flip and save
Modern club head weights are not really different from clubs of 50+ years ago. But shafts have been getting lighter for decades. You can find 100-120 gram shafts today, which is basically X300.
These are 130g. Heavy or heavier than any legacy shaft that sipped with old Wilson or hogan blades. If you want massive club heads you can buy lead solder and epoxy as much as you want into the cavity of many modern clubs.
It’s not difficult to set up stuff, heavy equipment if that’s what you want.
Played with this young man who was jamming out to Pearl Jam when we played a few weeks back. He was slashing it all over. Than one hole he hit it to 3 feet with a 9 iron. He looked at me and said if he can spend more time on the range he can do that more often. I’m thinking to myself “
Ok”. This is what golf is becoming.
Maybe … but I am pretty sure If you forget club numbers and look at length and loft, they are roughly the same. Even in most mfg. tour blade designs, standard length and loft is about 1-2 clubs stronger than in the past. So apples to apples it’s the same.
Game improvement clubs made for women or slow swing speed men are lighter yes to match the ultra lite shafts they yes.
I used to epoxy lead into the cavity of my clubs - did this with 2 ping sets in the 90s. I like clubs to be a little heavier. I don’t think there is an advantage for me…I hit it straighter and further with Mizuno JPX irons shafted with aerotech steel fiber at an R/S flex than any previous sets I had.
Karsten believed in very stiff shafts and his Eye2 sets for men shipped w the equivalent of S200 shafts or X100 for years. His engineers finally convinced him to make the shafts softer.
I think for expert level players like I imagine many of you, experimenting with extremes of weight or flex is fine. For average recreational players I don’t know. The mfg’s spend a lot of time and money studying golfers and I’m pretty sure you ask any sales rep about demo day experiences and they will tell you how much lighter and more flexible gear helps average golfers.
I was on Golf Digest’s “Hot List” panel of testers the first few years they had it, as one of their mid-hcp players. I saw all the new equipment from blades down to weed-whacker chopper clubs for about 4 years in the mid-00’s. The technology and thoughtfulness put into the equipment is astonishing. There is plenty of sizzle but more than enough steak behind it. And that was 12-13 years ago. The clubs out today are as better as the ones I tested as they were better than 80’s-90’s gear.
Huge ABS, Hughes and Erickson fan - I’ve been working Brad’s drills for just under two years. Currently, focusing on level pivot to square club and finish swing. Club is Mizuno mp-30 5i, 3 degrees flat - lots of lead tape and 8g but-end weight.
