Confession about golf clubs: I Hate HYBRIDS!!!!
This confession is so sacrilegious, it is akin to admitting five years ago that you despised the Atkins Diet. However, I must cleanse my soul, rehab my kharma, and set thing right with all two of my readers: I despise hybrids.
I cannot hit the little technological pickles on a stick. I’ve tried a bunch of them, and cannot get the ball off the freaking ground. I’ve gone both ways, with the iron-hybrids and the metalwood-hybrids, and flat-out suck with them. They feel so good with my eyes shut, nice weight and all. Then I look down at a metalwood on a shrunken shaft, and I lose whatever sense of connection I might have possessed.
You have never heard the weird sounds of golf until you listen to my hybrid shots. Someone once said of Davis Love III, that the sound of his driver meeting ball was like a body thudding against a fast-moving car. Imagine the car hitting a bleating goat, imagine the goat passing gas, imagine … well that’s proximate to the sound you get when RonMon makes hybrid meet ball.
I have a set of Mizuno MP-32 blades that go as low as the 3, and I love them. I hit the 3-knife with more confidence than I slurp soup (and I can drain the entire bowl with one gulp!)
I need the look of a traditional pear-shaped head. My coaching buddy made me a 7-metal last year, and I cannot let it go. It reminds me of my first wooden 5-wood that I got at age 12. I hit that thing so high in the sky, all the way up to 200 yards.
So for now, I’m stuck carrying the 7-metal 205 yards, the 4-metal about 225, and the driver, some 245 on a good day. The three iron goes between 200 and 204.8, so I have about two-tenths of a yard to figure out. There now. I feel better. How about you? Got anything to confess?
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I do want to add, however, that I carry three wedges and will putt with anything attached to a metal golf shaft. I switch drivers with frequency, although I never purchase the latest and greatest for top dollar.
Jenn, cogently expressed. I get the ball an inch off the blades. That's my best. With that ugly bleat of the goat.
Get a little softer shaft, and swing it like an iron.
My problem club is the putter. I have a hate-despise relationship with it, and the other 32 in my staff bag in the basement.
I will try your suggestion at the local Golf Galaxy. My putter suggestion is, do nothing but chip and putt. Play a few rounds with a 7 iron, pw and putter. Take three or four shots to get to greens, 150 per shot, then chip and putt the heck out of the little stubbly places. Go crosshanded, and commit. Also, try the putting arc. As an unsolicited endorsement, I love the thing. If I ever decide to abandon my family and commit to being a club player, the putting arc will make me boss of the moss.
Already crosshanded. Tried belly, long, with split grip, traditional and crosshanded variant. Tried longer traditional, shorter traditional, blade, mallet, heel-shafted, center shafted, face-balanced, heel-toe balanced. I have the putters to prove it.
Tried looking at the hole, tried the gate stroke, straight back and straight through. Tried more of a torso stroke, arms only, hell, I even tried that funky sidesaddle thing that Natalie Gulbis does.
I have committed myself to an early resolution this year: 1 stroke, 1 putter for 2006. 1 straight week on the moss early in the season, 2 hrs. a day.
I never claimed sanity as one of my virtues (or vices, for that matter.) As I wrote, it was a confession, ripped from my bowels by ... all right, that's over the top. Anyway, I can't hit them. I realize that I'm in the minority, but at least I'm out now. I can walk the fairways with my head and my 3-iron held high.
My biggest gripe with MP 32s is that for the life of me I can't feel the club head. Granted that 1 inch longer shaft length made the club head feel relatively lighter, but still I often wished that Mizuno folks made the club head little bit heavier. I am not asking for Ben Hogan heavy (I still have an old Ben Hogan forged stored away.), but is the club head weight a problem for you? Or, am I just weird?
If you see Ponch, say hi. Now, on to your question. In my region, we have a man named Bill Lindner who is a genius with golf clubs. He hits great shots and he makes great clubs. He would make suggestions such as "lead tape on the toe" or "lead tape on the hosel" or "lead tape on the bag strap." I hit them as I find them. I was just at the Golf Dome (how we Buffalonians get through the Winter) today, hitting my back-up set of Mizuno T-Zoids. For whatever reason, I can always feel the clubhead, especially when headed toward the village of shank (just kidding, doesn't happen too often.) I would find a clubmaker or two in your town, and pick their brains on what works best. I also suggest checking out Mizuno's website, and finding the emails of guys or gals in their R & D departments. Send them your query; they will be thrilled to get such an inquiry, and will respond. I emailed Dan Brown (Duke Women's Golf Coach) out of the blue (ha, ha) and got two or three helpful and favorable responses.
Now that's a ramble! Good luck.
You are now my favorite golf blog columnist. When it comes to anything that may even remotely help me in my swing, I shall whore almost anything. I have no shame and darned proud of it.
I really should talk to some golf technical people. It is not a major problem for me but golfers are always trying to do just a little better. How marginal lives become. Sigh.
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