Man, am I angry at the clubfitter at the local PGA Superstore.
First, a little detour.
Last week I finally found a loft/lie machine locally on Craigslist.
I have been wanting one even before starting ABS.
I bought this guy’s whole clubmaking ensemble, which included a loft/lie macine as well as a separate loft/lie gauge.
Fast forward to yesterday… I put my practice club on the gauge and it was 57* lie angle.
WTF?
When I bought this club, I took it directly to the PGA superstore and asked the clubfitter to bend it to 53* (3-iron).
Of course, he looked at me like I had two heads.
He askes “are you sure?”
I assured him that was what I wanted and that it was quite alright if he broke the damn thing.
Now, I am certain that he just bumped it down two degrees and handed it back to me.
I remember thinking that it looked flatter, but not so drastic.
That should have been my warning sign.
I have been practicing with this club for months…
Now that I have it bent correctly, I have to change everything.
Hell, this even changes how I want to grip the club.
I just hate that these guys think that they “know better.”
Also, nobody in town stocks steel driver shafts anymore.
If I hear one more time “you know, graphite will get you more speed and distance” I am gonna kill one of these bozos.
The guy at Golfsmith tells me “there are some very low-torque graphite shafts now, there really is no reason to use steel.”
Ok, that is enough grumpy-old-man rant for one morning.
I’m gonna go take it out on the bag and yell at the neighborhood kids to get off of my lawn.
I had a similar experience with some Miz blades i got when starting ABS a year ago, smart arses think they know best - just do what the customer asks for !!
Well sometimes you have to get mad to get motivated. Looks like you got motivated to get a loft/lie machine to get them to the proper specs now.
I actually got a Golfsmith loft/lie machine myself about 3 months ago so I could bend my irons. Yes, it is amazing they seem to be so afraid of going more than 2 degrees either direction (liability I suppose along with the “standard” programming). I have all of my irons bend 6 degrees flat off standard, whatever that is anymore.
I’ve been cruising the Goodwill stores and have found some amazing bargains.
Full set of 2-PW Hogan Apex Irons (1977-78). $24
Full set of 2-PW Haig Ultras (1970). $36
Set of 3-9 MacGregor Tourney DX. $5 (At Play it again Sports)
Set of 3-PW Tour Ace (Never heard of them) Great looking/playing muscle backs. $8
MacGregory Tourney Driver, 3wood, 4 wood, 5 wood for about $4 each.
So what I saved in costs of clubs I feel okay with what I spent on the Loft/Lie machine. Besides it was cheaper than a modern driver and can be used many years into the future as opposed to needing a new one every 18 months. Plus I get to bend all those irons for free now.
awesome finds, i’m a thrift store junkie as well. i keep finding partial sets though.
i find a 3, 5 & 7 of bind on ball spaldings today but i passed, tired of buying partials…
i did find an almost full set of hogans at a garage sale this weekend and have been bending away on them.
i’m in houston so there is no shortage of thrift stores but they are all over the place, so i’m trying to map
them out so i can go hit 3 or 4 in one part of town every few weeks.
the nice thing about thrift stores is there is no shipping, some of these shippers on ebay get away with murder.
The old stuff is good stuff. I’ve been still hitting my 56 Dynas with stock X Rocket shafts and the original leather grips on them. They just set up so good… no offset, super heavy, flat as a pancake and those shafts are just wonderful. Took them out today with Barkow and Adam, played my first bogey free round in a while at Metropolitan with basically 5 kick in birdies.
The two longest putts I make from 10 and 15 feet were par savers! Hello 67!
Been hitting a “new” persimmon… a red keyhole Mac with the straightest grain I have seen… looks like it was painted on. Tipped a propel #1 driver shaft 3 inches and it is just such a wonderful shaft. They are hard to find, but I can see why the guys back then were nuts about those shafts. Bumped it up to 14.5 ounces… I mean you can really feel the head down there. Had I had a hot putting round… it could have gone really deep. Had it inside 15 feet thirteen times. Lot’s of if’s and could have’s in this game… keeps the imagination alive.
Wow, nice round lag. I’ve got a long way to go to get anywhere near that but I am going in that direction (lower).
This whole concept of swinging versus hitting has opened my eyes to why I have such a love/hate relationship with my swing. I realize now that I was trying to put parts of both into a single swing and not knowing that there were two swing types so I was always fighting it. Since I resolved to move to a hitting motion with flatter/heavier clubs, my swing has become much more consistent and controllable.
Kirkschwart, yep I hate finding partial sets because I have seen several sets I would have bought if they were complete. Unfortunately, they put the clubs in as individual clubs so you have to search and try to build the full set again. If you are lucky, you will find a set that just came in and will get it before someone decides they need a cheap 7 Iron desert or hardpan club. It’s kinda sad that they don’t realize how valuable a complete set is as opposed to the barrel of clubs setup. You are right about going back every few weeks, they do have quite a turnover of clubs. No telling how many great sets came and went over the months.
Nice round Lag…Have you been bumping up the DW on your fairway woods too? If so, do you have a new DW spec for them? I’ve got a 14.5 DW driver too and it feels great but haven’t dialed in the right weight yet for the 3-wood…
