Make room for an old friend.. Hot Driver

A cautionary tale... I'd warn: There are some old driver's around that beat the yards out of the "new" ones. 

This info is not new: A friend (really-sitting at a computer most of the day, I still talk with people face to face and develop relationships!) who works in a Super Store and has played at the National amateur level for many years plays a bag that is unavailable today (no retailer has sold his equipment new in years) and, because he "works" in the business, he has tried to "get current" but when tournament season comes around he always goes back to his faithful irons, wedges and driver (which is His bag-not mine).. 

I on the other hand have spent a small fortune trying to find 10 yards off the tee and a few more greens in reg.. buy a game? you sorta can but I'll get onto that subject some other time. I have two friends now..  make that three that use drivers that are more than 5 years old .. and they are Callaway drivers. FT-3's and an X-460. Introduced about the same time I think. Providing distance and accuracy that I've haven't experienced in a long time. I swing right around 102 and now with the FT-3 and a tour platform 26.3 shaft (stiff) I am into an area on my home course I've never seen before off the tee. If I miss the driver on 11 (mid length par 4 ...generally into the wind) I'll have 145-50 into the smallest green on the peninsula.. catch it and I've got 120-125..  used to be 175 if I missed and 145 if I caught it.. Earlier reports of my success with the tour Octane were true but I seemed to spay it now and then.  I hit a drive 273 yards the other day with the FT-3 and 255-260 is not uncommon. You can play from there. You can't get around the dogleg on 15 (two very big trees guard it) for a clear shot at the green without a 250 yard shot.. I have had 110 in with other drivers but I think I may have had a very fortunate bounce. 

I got a razr Hawk tour in the mail last week to try and had some hope for it. Love the sound and feel (really!) It is being reshafted today. Perhaps it is an FT-3 with a hosel.. we shall see. I don't have another one of those "old" shafts to try it with. 

The other heads on the Oldies but Goodies list are the original Cleveland comp and the 425 Orlimar. I have seen guys in competition crush these and have been told by fitters that they are very difficult to beat for ballspeed. 

Hear the reigning US Open champ (who left Cally for Srixon this year after a great 2010) tried a few drivers and now is back using his FT-3. Think Stenson also kept his FT-3 when he left Callaway. 

If you want to try one, the heads are inexpensive on Callaway pre-owned and eBay's good as well. I sure am pleased with what I found. 

In the racing I used to do when much younger (Tri's, Bi's, Cycling, Running) we used to say that so and so "found a friend" if they showed marked improvement due to weightloss, diet, drugs, or say a new aerobike. I just found one in a headcover tucked away in a travel bag.. I shafted it before and got nothing.. a new lease on life I guess. A hunch with an old shaft in the corner and my game has been issued a new lease on life. Get used to the sound.. It's easy with the performance. 

BTW-The Hawk is being outfitted with a MotoreF1.. We'll see!

WRX and Callaway get my vote for Great Customer Service

I hang out on golf forums. Longtime BSG guy from the early days and now a contributor when I think I have some relevant experience on WRX. Have played the game as well as a 2 and started someplace at well over 100 for 18 holes. Learned to play the game from a wonderful former LPGA pro and have appreciated the lessons in life that the game has taught me.. Have been given equipment to use by Taylormade and Callaway but have spent most of my "serious" playing days with Mizuno clubs in my bag along with  a Titleist or Taylormade driver. So I got a PM from the owners of WRX and they had a "deal" for me.. send specs and get clubs.. Hope you'll like them and say nice things. I did ...and got a fresh box of Callaway RAZR tour irons in a week and a half and after a very pleasant phone call with their customer service folks had a gap wedge to match a week later.

I love to look at Equipment Pictures and find some of the guys who shoot the pro tourneys at WRX to really do a great job . The latest from the Transitions Championships.

I have a bit of a collection on Photobucket. Some nice stuff over the years.  

What prompted the post was a simple transaction between Callaway Golf and myself and the awareness that everything sorta comes full-circle. I learned to play with x-12 Callaway irons and now am back using graphite shafted Game Improvement irons from the company that first helped light the fire within me.. Along the way there have been some triumphs and lots of fun. Some profound frustration too. Many years ago I got paired up with a couple of guys who told me they felt blessed to love golf as much as they do... Feel the same way.

It's that time of year.. can smell the Master's. No greater spectacular in sport for my money. Absolutely heaven on earth. Enjoy the walk. I don't really care what Tiger does. 

  

Octane Tour Driver 10.5  Proto Blur

Burner 18 Redboard

20 mx-700 hybrid YS-Q

4-P RAZR tour vs-proto 85

52/58 CG-15 nippon 950

2ball white ice blade

proV1

There is more to the Tour than Tiger and Phil...right Golf Channel?

For many (the "in the hole" yellers who consider a Budweiser the drink of champions) the PGA tour is entertainment.. The USGA and the R&A are the guardians of the game and have grappled with how to teach the finer aspects of the game to the ever growing "I'll wear jeans if I want to crowd "(and if you don't think this is a topic for debate, check out any golf forum. These particular discussions go on for pages and pages). Last week, as we watched, my friend Ali commented that the announcers were more mellow.. more like the Euro Tour announcers. More like gentlemen. Less like entertainment and the Kelly Tillman over the top type fake adoration that has a way of creeping into even the best at the game of broadcasting. The PGA tour is the envy of all major sports (except maybe NASCAR). Until Tiger got caught running around, relatively scandal free unless you include not paying one's taxes or an occasional DUI.. Millions to charity and a clean cut image rarely tarnishing until Tiger.. you get the point.. So Quail Hollow is up this week.. a great course.. a sponsorship problem with Wells Fargo thinking over how to "use" the venue to their advantage... meanwhile TGC channel in it's usual classless approach to things, is marketing the event as a showdown between Tiger and Phil... It's not Shell's Wonderful World of Golf.. It is one of the great stops on tour.. super course and usually a great field.. the fans deserve better.. The Golf Channel needs to stop being so downright goofy. Start by hiring Peter Alliss.. he who is not afraid to stand up for the gentlemanly aspects of the game... we could learn a thing or two from Peter...BTW: Does Tiger have a new caddie yet?

Year of The Wedge --

Short Game! So I'm stocking up (a little)... it is critical to have the right tools that you are used to (or do they become used to you?) when it comes to wedges. And it seems somewhat crazy to abandon a system that works. Have always tried to play a gap wedge that matches my irons (which I do now) and I play a 54 and a 58, 59 or 60 depending on the bounce configuration required for the course(s) I'm playing a lot. Currently I play most of my golf on a course that has fluffy bunkers. So a lob wedge with extra bounce is helpful. I rarely use any club other than my lob wedge for bunker shots. I match my iron shafts to my wedge shafts (currently nippon 950GH) .. this year I'm playing Mizuno MX-300's and am very pleased with them. 5 iron through Gap Wedge. My 54 degree wedges is a Mizuno MP T-10 and my lob wedge is a Callaway x-forged 58 bent to 59 for a little added bounce to help me get out of those fluffy bunkers I mentioned.. but I've been trading some notes with a friend who has proclaimed the Cleveland CG15 the game changer and Cleveland Golf  has certainly caught the attention of the "raters" winning the Hot List wedge category at Golf Digest. So I'll be constructing some CG15's with nippon shafts and look forward to reporting back.. I have played the callaway lob wedge for nearly 6 years.. not the same wedge mind you but the exact same model.. This year I will improve my bunker play which is currently a "concede a shot" strategy. Hard to shoot par when you give up a stroke every time you drop it into a bunker...My home course has tiny greens that are well protected. This is the year I get as good from the bunkers as I am chipping around the greens.

The following is a current ad featuring Cleveland's CEO Greg Hopkins:

Some recommended reading on short game improvement: