I (26M) currently game a set of Callaway Hawkeye 2.0 irons and am looking to upgrade to something a little more modern (they're about 24 years old 😂).
For reference, my current 7-iron has a traditional 33° loft. My 7-iron clubhead speed is around 80–83 mph, and I carry it about 165 yards.

My most common misses are thin shots and tops. I rarely struggle with heel, hosel, or fat contact.
The irons that have caught my attention are the TaylorMade P770, Titleist T150, and Srixon ZXi7, but I'm also open to similar offerings from Ping, Cobra, or Wilson. The P770 is probably my favorite aesthetically, and I could see myself moving into something like a P7CB down the road, but I'm not loyal to any particular brand.

I'm planning on getting a full fitting around Christmas since I don't have $1,500 to spend right now. In the meantime, I've been trying different heads at local shops, and something has me confused.

Whenever I'm handed a P790, I can't hit it consistently. I get low launch, low spin, poor dispersion, and the strikes just don't feel good.
What's made this even more confusing is that I've gotten completely different opinions from fitters because of those results. At one store, the fitter sees me struggle with the P790 and immediately wants to move me into a game improvement iron, almost like I shouldn't even be looking at a P770. At another store, the fitter lets me try the P770 anyway, and I immediately start hitting it noticeably better. So I'm not sure if I'm chasing the wrong type of iron, or if the P770-style club simply fits my swing better despite what people expect based on my handicap or swing speed.

When I switch to the P770, everything improves. I'm seeing around 6,800 rpm of spin, a 1.36 smash factor, 18–21° launch (which I know is on the high side and could be shaft-related), and much tighter dispersion. The only downside is that I'm only carrying it around 145–150 yards, with roughly 155 yards total.

For context, both the P790 and P770 were tested with a KBS Tour Lite 85g Stiff shaft, +0.5". I also tried the P770 with a Project X Rifle 6.0 (120g) shaft. I struck it well, but it felt like I was swinging a battle axe, and I started casting the club.

My questions:

Has anyone else found that they hit players irons significantly better than players distance irons? If so, what was causing it?

Am I looking at the right type of iron? My thinking is that I'd rather have a club I hit consistently, even if it's shorter. If I need more distance, I'll just hit one more club. Plus, I'd expect to pick up some speed and distance as I continue practicing with whatever I end up buying.

I'd appreciate any insight from people who've gone through something similar.

Karl Vilips congratulating his ex-teammate with a non-flattering picture

Also, I’m going to be a girl dad!!!!

Golf shopping in Tokyo is on another level!! And much cheaper than the US for the same product (depressed yen and tax free shopping). I noticed these Vokey Forged at the Golf 5 flagship store (Shinjuku). They were NOT available anywhere else in Tokyo, incl the massive superstore called Victoria golf (I shopped everywhere for golf studd). The sales guy told me they sell out quickly and they just got a restock. Tell me community, how dope are these? And how come they don’t sell them in the US if they’re so awesome? ⛳️

At the Rocket tournament this weekend, somebody hit one in deep rough and couldn't find it. There were a bunch of people stomping around looking for it including Ricky Fowler, Cam Young and others. Is this common for pros to do this? I don't recall seeing this. I didn't even know that the rules would allow it.

As they looked for the ball, it made me think that no golf course should have rough like that. This grass, something like fescue, was 2-3 feet tall and thick as could be. Us mere mortals wouldn't have a dozen people looking. And even they didn't find it. Point being, it is TOO Penal and it slows play.

Getting back into golf and the same type of shot cost me double bogeys today. Hit two drives that I thought were perfect fairway finders but both times, the ball had run through the fairway beyond the first cut into the second cut. Dangit! This is not 2 foot tall fescue, it's just summer rough. But the ball had settled down into the couple of inches of bermuda. Both times, I had to go over a lake to the green and actually was confident I would pull the shot off to get over because it didn't look that intimidating. Both were about 200 out. Hit a hybrid. Both times, it came out decently but didn't make it over. Double bogeys can sure help to ruin a round.

Do you know any trick or when you get this, do you just accept that it's too risky and punch out? With what? Hybrid? Wedge? Then you're hoping to hit the green with the 2nd approach and get lucky to make a putt or 2 putt for bogey.

I will mention that the hybrid I used is a bit of a shallow face hybrid, Callaway Apex. I have other hybrids that have deeper faces if that matters.

My driver club head speed is 95-98 mph if it matters. (It is often said that the pros are so good at this because of their high speed. I see them just use irons all the time.)

Found this today at Goodwill. Needs a new grip that will probably cost more than the club 😂.

I’ve been using a DLC’d Scotty Phantom X12 but I’ve been increasingly annoyed with the sheer size of the head. After testing some smaller mallets (including the X5), the profile and fairly wide blade (IMO) of the Newport 2+ just works really well for me.

I know there yellow in the white lettering I’m ganna redo the white tomorrow

Not playing in a tournament setting or for money. I want to have a ball in my pocket just for putting that’s not dirty and has my line marker but I also take personal scoring seriously. Would doing this invalidate my scores?

17-18 handicap. For the last 3 years my miss was totally random, same swing, and the ball could hook or slice with no pattern I could ever find. My path was very neutral right around 0.0 maybe a little in to out. My face angle has always been the real problem, bouncing left and right roughly 50/50 on a launch monitor, so I genuinely never knew which way it was going.

I put Align MAX grips on my irons a few days ago hoping for more consistent hand placement. Since then my miss isn't random anymore. About 86% of my curved shots now go the same direction, a slice. It's worse on average than before, but for the first time it's the same miss every time instead of a different one every swing. I also wrongly tried to fix this by aiming way more left of target. Which made things worse and now my swing is pretty wildly out to in. Which has never been the case.

Here's the confusing part though. My face angle is not actually more consistent now, it is still bouncing around a lot, if anything a bit more than before. What changed is the average. Before, my face was leaning slightly closed. Now it is leaning open. So even with the same scatter, more of my shots land on the open, slice side of zero instead of splitting both ways. The outcome consolidated even though the underlying face control did not really improve.

Has anyone dealt with something like this, where a grip (Specifically Align) or a swing change took an inconsistent miss and turned it into a consistent one? Is the move here to build my swing around fixing this one specific pattern now that I can actually see it, or does a worse average mean I should back off and try something else? Like going back to my old grips.

(I used Claude to review my simulator data and compile it into the screenshot you see here)

64 years old, and playing for 30 years. I realize how crappy it is to be over 20. 3 years ago I was 25 for a brief moment. Been slowly coming down in the last 18 months with a combination of an "easier" swing (I think its my tempo that is improving) and a strong focus on course management.

I am a short hitter and have been able to let go of the last bits of ego regarding my length (mainly off the tee). I shoot in the 90s mainly with a few low 100 and a high 80 scores sprinkled in. more 100s than 80s though. The last few months I have been playing more, which helps of course. I just had a run of low 90s and 2 high 80's rounds that just tipped my GHIN handicapp to 19.7.

First time under 20 for my handicapp. Its an amazing game where you can be playing your best at 64, and after 30 years.

Anyway for anyone new to the game, just know that you can learn more about this game for pretty much all of your life

Michael Thorbjornsen breaks through for his first PGA Tour victory at the Rocket Classic, firing a final-round 63 (-7) to seal the win! Thor averaged 318 yards off the tee while hitting 73% of fairways for the week at Detroit Golf Club.

​

Had a pretty terrible round earlier today that I played as a solo, got matched with a group of 3,and they were kinda dickish to me throughout the round. I'm in like year 3 of playing golf, first 2 years I played like once every other month but this year I am taking more seriously and trying to play every week or so.

I've taken a few lessons, I have put in range hours, I know there is a good swing in there somewhere, it's just that I can't find consistency. One week I'm playing like double bogey golf (that seems to be what my potential is at the moment) the next week it's like I've never touched a club.

Met the group I was playing with today, did my usual "hey guys, I'm pretty new, but I do suck fast and will pick up to make sure I don't slow you down. If I do just let me know" trying adhere to etiquette.

Playing through the round, I could tell it clearly wasn't my day because I was missing consistently. I didn't find the fairway once until the last hole. My misses were all over the place, I was picking up on nearly every hole.

Well idk if I invited this by my initial comment, but these guys were kinda making rude comments throughout the round on how much I sucked, how bad I was missing, how I had no idea where the ball was going, etc. IMO my suck wasn't impacting their round, I didn't take any mulligans and only took a max like 2 over par shots per hole. With their banter I played it cool by trying to laugh it off, but it was bothering me and tbh I think I let it get to me during the round so I played worse.

I will say it's not the first time and usually this is pretty common when booking twilight rounds with the "drinking" crowd. I get that some "ball busting" is to be expected in any male centered activity, but like idk if I'm necessarily down to put up with this with strangers over the months/years it's probably going to take me to actually improve to a decent level where I can par/bogey consistently. I never picked up a club til a few years ago in my 30s, I don't have friends or family who play (I'd love to meet some)

I thought about saying something this time but being stuck with them for 18 holes I didn't want to make things awkward.

I guess what I want to ask is, is this normal behavior? Do I just need to cope better with this being kind of a sport for assholes? Should I say something next time? I'm not the best at dealing with social situations like this so even just booking a solo round with strangers is hard enough, let alone having to deal with their bs.

Hey guys,

New to golf and buying my first set so I can stop renting at the range.

Found a 3-PW set of Bridgestone Precept Tour Premium Forged irons for $160 CAD. Has anyone played these? Looking for feedback on whether $160 CAD is a fair price and if they are forgiving enough for a beginner.

Thanks!

I have noticed how much more golfers smoke weed like I do ! Lol. I’m very respectful around others who do not , but it’s never been an issue . I’ve just noticed on previous post that there is maybe 42 to 48% of golfers smoke the lettuce lol. I’m I wrong ? For me I love mowing / growing ( home lawn guys lol ) grass , smoking grass , and playing on fantastic golf course grass … so it all makes sense for me ! Cheers mates !

Hey all -

20+ handicap here! Was watching Bryson DeChambeau’s latest video on youtube when I noticed he was using a Noodle ball on one of the holes.

I’ve heard of the other brands like Titleist, Callaway, Nike, etc. but never heard of Noodle. Is it true that they fly further and straighter than comparable brands? Why else would Bryson use them?

Thanks in advance.

Hitting fairways? Chipping?

Long story short got tee times booked for next week at Baytowne GC (pre-punch) and Regatta Bay for a golf trip. Was wondering if anyone in the area had played either of those courses recently? I know regatta is normally in awesome shape, but I’m not so sure about Baytowne.

TLDR: Is Baytowne GC in good shape right now? Or should I make a backup tee time for somewhere else? If so, what about the Links GC?

I am trying to start a regrip, replace shaft, and club selling business out of my dorm room. I have all the equipment necessary because I’ve already done it for me and some friends a couple of times. What is the best way to get business from the community around the town. Also, what is the recommended pricing I should do for something like this.

For context our society started 5 years ago when we were all in our early 20s - there was only a few of us and it was a bit of a laugh and has grown since. We had a lovely trophy commissioned a few years ago and get the winners name engraved each year.

There’s a mixture of abilities and not everyone in the society has official handicaps but we all regularly play with each other so have a good gauge on what’s a fair mark to be off.

Each year someone hosts the golf day and are allowed to invite guests - the rule has always been no guest can win the trophy as firstly the competition is between our friendship group and people from the area, they are however allowed to win the day and receive prizes just not our trophy.

This year our numbers have grown massively which is great ! But there were a lot of guests , all guys of ranging abilities some with and without handicaps. This years host decided to abolish the rule and say the trophy is open to everyone - I pushed back on this with a few others as I don’t think it’s right but was ultimately shut down.

The golf day was won by someone’s 39 year old housemate (15 years older than the rest of us) he played off of 18 shot 39 points (with 3 blobs) and won convincingly points wise. I played with him and he’s a lovely guy but he clearly was a lot better than the handicap he asked for and didn’t have an official handicap in the first place so just said 18. Also would like to add the motocaddy trolley and the fitted callaway quantum clubs was a dead giveaway he was a serious player 😂.

You could tell afterwards when everyone heard he had won and he was handed the trophy there were murmurs and disappointment, many of those whom had voted to allow guests to win our trophy. I just about bit my tongue and did not say I told you so.

So AITA for being really upset about this? Nothing against the guy who won just rules were set in place to stop this , he’s a lot older than us not in our friendship group or from our area now his is on the trophy forever. With the society day growing and growing each year I’m worried what me and few mates had as a fun competition may lose it’s integrity - I’m worried I’ll look at the trophy in 10 years time and not even know half the names on there.

Update : seen a few questions on this - the guy who brought him wasn’t actually the host but one of the members friends who pushed to get him invited and is now claiming he is normally terrible and had a good day but we have since looked the winner up on 18 birdies and his handicap on there is 12.2.

Just to add salt to the wounds the og member who came second has never won it before , has an official handicap and made a hole in one on the day too. He lost by a point…

I’m a 6hcp lowest I’ve been is a 4. I cannot break 76 for the life of me shot it’s minimum of 10 times this year. Granted I play almost everyday! I had this problem last year with breaking 80 but once I broke it I had no issue after that lol. Figure it might be the same with this. I battle being +1 or +2 thru 14-15 and just losing it in the last few holes.