Apologies for goin' waaaaaaay of thread topic here

Before I got into wrenching cars, golf took up the majority of my free time. Started as a total hack, but Ive got decent athleticism (could dunk in my prime) so I could hit the ball pretty long and straight on occasion. As you probably know, those "on occasion" shots are the drug that get you hooked, haha. After all, if I can strip one once, there's no reason I cant do it every time, right?
Helped that I lived in Hawaii, had a muni with an $8 all day walking rate, and my wife was the one that got me into it as I she had been playing since Jr high, so year-round practice time wasnt an issue. Pre-parenthood I was playing 18 holes 3-5 times a week. After bout 5 years got down to a 4 hdcp, but I could only get about 250-260 when I nutted one. When I was sh!itty I could get it out about 280, so whatever I was doing to be accurate was killing my distance too much. Went through a total swing overhaul to get my distance back, which I got (get Hogans 5 fundamentals book, fantastic), but dont quite have the hang of it yet. Handicap is like 10 now.

Anyways, the sticks, haha
I give you props if you can score with a bullseye. *You find out what the hubbub about heel-toe weighting is when you use one of those. *Need a really honed, confident stroke to do well with it!
Pardon my lameness, but those things are blingin! I dont think Ive ever seen a club so shiny. My wife has an old copper ping she got from an uncle that I bet would look sweet with such a treatment. Its got sentimental value though, so some convincing might be in order to convince her to be ok with me sending it to some dude I know from an internet forum lol.

Im with ya to an extent on traditional clubs. Square drivers...ugh. My wife had a lawyer boss that did alot of ebaying for japanese clubs (which are sweet BTW) and he gave her an older persimmon Honma 3 wood. She loved the thing. I only hit it a few times, but I see what people mean with the "theres nothing like hitting a wood club" stuff. You sweet spot that thing and its like butter.
At the same time though, you miss that shirt-button-sized sweet spot and its good luck. Putters, even wedges, are one thing. Hell, Mickleson still uses a variant of that Tommy you have. However, Ive seen a few sets of pre-80s era irons. I mean, those are almost literally butterknives! No thanks
My bag is pretty tame, no spaceship looking clubs. Irons are 10 year old titleist 690cb.
My wife got me one of those white taylormade 3 woods for christmas. I was never really a taylomade fan, but man...that thing is solid.
No matter what, it will always be the indian and not the arrow, but technology aint always just a marketing gimmick

 

I know what you are saying. I envy the childhood you had to endure. My only early experience on the green was the little muni at our City Park just south of Atlanta. When the baseball games were boring, I would sneak out on the green with my girlfriend. The local motorcycle cop would chase us off on his big Harley with the lights flashing and we would run down the creek to get away.

I took up golf at 40 and was just a gorilla loosing more ***** than you ever thought possible.

But I could always hit that Big Bertha a long way. And had a huge Mizuno mallet that I sank long putts with no problem but hit short ones way past.

I tried several putters until the beautiful redhead that is now on the Golf Channel Stephanie Sparks sold me a Scotty Cameron Special Edition Bullseye Platinum Plated Machined Steel with the huge flange on the back. With that big head though I occasionally thumped the big ball first.

One day I picked up two original John Rueter Jr Brass Bullseyes at a Play it Again Sports shop for 15 bucks. One was a flange and the other was a traditional blade A5 Original Acushnet. I nail everythig with those. I even sold the Cameron to a Country Club member when I worked there to get to play their 1930's classic course for free as an employee. I got fired for selling too many restored clubs to members and pissing off the club manager.

After I got my latest set of Sam Snead Wilson Blades and they outhit my Mizuno forged TZoid Pros by several yards, I sort of retired the Mizunos. I did recently bring them back into my rotation though. I added a Mizuno Black Finished Bullseye Blade along with the TPM that was in there.

I then regripped the MacGregor 086 Gold Bear blades and they play beautifully. I will hit a modern driver sometimes, I have picked up a few really reasonably. I have a MacGregor VIP 410 that I can nail 300+ with a slight power fade. My son has a Cobra 454 that I hit stupid long 320 or better but I hate the dull THONK sound it makes. Picked up a Cleveland 400 that I can outdistance the VIP410 occasionally but not as consistently.

Depending on the course, I may take a different set. I love playing those pretty woods and often as possible I take the wooden Wilson Sneads or MacGregor Nicklaus ones.

But if the challenge is up there, I wll not hesitate to reach for my Callaway War Bird Heaven Wood (7) that is phenomenal distance and flight or my MacGregor Vip Driver or 3 Metal to get that additional distance advantage.

I even managed to get several vintage wedges that we practice ringing Folgers cans in the backyard with.

After golfing for several years like a gorilla, I finally learned to just make a wide turn and a full release without rushing or trying to kill the ball and let everything work in unison.

Hogan was great, I prefer Sam Snead's style of swing. I also read several other vintage books, one of which was written by Gene Sarazen and one day I was given an original set of Sarazens with a Brassie and Driver of the first Wilson Staff clubs ever made along with a 2,5,7&9 forged blades.

I have a 2 iron with most of my sets that I love to hit and get 270 out of the Mizuno and Nicklaus 2 irons. I even picked up a few vintage 2 irons that are awesome.

I have become a Golf Equipment Fanatic but only on certain sets. Then I try to match the set to an appropriate bag and find a book either by that person or about them.

So far I have two identical MacGregor Nicklaus 086 model, two different Sam Snead Blue Ridge of different style heads. One vintage Lee Trevino MVP by Rawlings in a US Open Bag, one Lynx like Els played with and won at Oakmont.Come to think of it all of them played and won at Oakmont. Five miles away.

Then there are the Sarazen set, the Mizuno set in a Nick Faldo British Open Bag, and the various TP Mills, Bullseyes, the odds and ends and the wedges.

I plan to start donating sets to vets under the WWP through the local American Legion. If all goes well, I want to do nonprofit status and get into club fitting so I can let it support itself thru donations of old equipment from clubs and courses to be refinished and donated to deserving individuals.

That should keep me from being bored and getting into trouble!

 

....who would have thought danny? i'm not much for golf but I do like sports where you can use the equipment as a lethal weapon.

 

Hmmm...I don't golf, but I love miniature golf and the driving range. Just never put the two together. What info would you need for someone to take you up on that offer!

 

Slang,
I have some wedges that are definitely in the realm of lethal weapons.
Most have huge heavy flanges on the sole of the club and I have even taken a file and worked the leading edges to cut right thru the turf. I consider it to be working out the defects/scars.

With one swing you could remove someones nose from their face or carve an ear off the side of their head. A temple shot could be lethal. I consider each of my clubs to be a weapon and I play them with deft accuracy.

For practice I drop ten ***** from a Folger coffee can, toss the can across the back yard and proceed to see how many times I can ring the can. I posted a video on my facebook page that shows the grouping I had one day. Before developing this drill i was horrible at short lobs. I started practicing trying to wring one of those large metal foot tubs and worked my way down from that to a 5 gallon bucket to a Large Folgers can and finally to the small Folgers can.

 

A lot of the early minature golf facilities used the Bullseye or similar putters. There are even some places that call themselves a Par Two instead of a mini golf, they usually have more challenging layouts and often have leagues or tournaments.

To fit you with a putter is fairly straight forward.
1. Dexterity: LH or RH
2. Height: So i can match up the putter length for most comfortable stance. You don't want one that is too short or too long. I like a 35 or 36 inch length. I am 6 ft and like to stand tall and not hunch over like some golfers you see.
3. Beyond that, the style of head. I like the classic Bullseye that can be used either left or right and it is considered to be center shafted.
4. Grip size: The grip sizes can vary a good bit , but generally go by how big your hand are. I wear a 2xl glove even so I prefer the oversize or Jumbo grips usually in a tour wrap style. You want to grip it like it was a live bird. Tight enough to keep it from getting away, but not tight enough to hurt it. Too tight a grip impedes wrist action and feel.


For Drivers woods and irons, the other major factor is the shaft stiffness.
The faster your swing speed is the stiffer shaft you need. Regular is good for most people, stiff if you swing like ape.

There are lots of other things for a more advanced fitting like the lie and loft of the clubface, the kickpoint of the shaft, Swingweight of the club.
The big places have video swing analysis.

I do like Harvey Pennick used to do. He was the Pro Emirtus of the Fort Worth Country Club, wrote, The Little Reb Book and was the coach to Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw as well as many LPGA players. Watch someone hit a few and see what adjustments are indicated.

Everyone has their own individual swing styles with built in strengths and weaknesses.

I could put you together a decent putter, a couple of wedges, a driver and whatever other clubs you may be interested in.

I like to just pick up any club and hit a few *****. I can tell within just a few shots whether I can play that club or not. I have some clubs that are quite old but play very nicely.

 

Haha, dont envy it too much. As far as golf goes, my childhood was an utter waste. My dad played quite a bit, as did most of the men on my moms side (japanese). The house i grew up in sat atop a hill with one half being forrest and the other my grandpas old pineapple farm. Basically my front yard was a driving range. Naturally I took advantage of this exactly zero times, as I thought golf was lame and I just wanted to play basketball. Fast forward to 97, there is a rumbling of hype, it historically comes to fruition at the Masters, golf is cool, marry a girl who was better than me and loves to play (which I didnt care about when I met her ), I get the bug at 25, yada yada yada...look back and cannot believe how stupid I was to not take advantage of my upbringing.

Wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger indeed

Anyways, you got a pic of that Faldo set?

 

I can take some pics of it. Mizuno changed their logo after my bag. The new logo looks like some kind of funny animal like a kangaroo or something. Mine has the huge M on it, is the classic Mizuno Blue and white Staff Bag that they refer to as the Faldo Bag because it is identical to the one he used when he won the British Open.

I bought my bag from a former PGA pro who had lost his card and was working down the street from Oakmont CC at a new driving range. It was a snowny night the week of Christmas and I had just gotten my new Mizuno T Zoid Pro irons out of layaway at Dick's Sporting goods and stopped off at this range on my way home. They had heated covered tees and I was the only customer. The clubs were in the shipping carton and the bubblewrap.

He watched me hit, looked at my clubs and asked if I needed a matching bag. His latest one was still in the shipping container and was also wrapped. He opened it and told me to make him an offer. I said I like but it's got this name stiched in it. He said that's me. I said OK here's a $100, that's all I got left. He shrugged and said OK.

I had a woman I know who does professional embroidery make me a matching piece of white with my name stitched in blue and she stitched it onto the bag for me. That really gets the raised eyebrows look. I still see Scotty at the driving range from time to time giving lessons.

Pinky, where do you live now?

 

yea i knew you'd feel the same.

i have a women's field hockey stick that sleeps next to me. present from a finnish girl. Has that edge so it also has that slicing capability when you need it. The flat round side just smashes. you can do 50/50 too slash/smash.

 

Speak softly but carry a big stick! A golf bag usually has 14 different weapons to choose from as well.

One of my son's friends had a guy that was harassing his girlfriend. He caught the guy in the act, got out of his car and grapped a driver of all things. He took out the dude's windshield with the first swing then proceeded to beat6 the living hell out of the guy and the guy's car both.

I told my son, I would never do that to my driver! I would have used the Pitching Wedge or Sand Wedge. I prefer the flange and those steel shafts stand up better than a graphite shaft when you hit someone.

I think hockey developed from close quarters combat in the frozen wastelands of the North didn't it? You probably have one of the few Hockey Sticks in PR.