New Golf Clubs

Well, I was definitely due for a change. I splurged a bit in 2001 and bought brand new clubs, bag, putter, etc. I am a slightly better golfer now, so I figured it's time to splurge some more (although in retrospect, this should have probably been an incremental spend rather than an all-at-once thing, as my face-to-face sit down conversation with my wife this afternoon can attest). Oh well, what's done is done...

OK, so my bag is predominantly TaylorMade now. Yes, even got a new bag. What can I say - I am not much of a shopping spree type of guy, but it was bad this afternoon (yes, I took some vacation hours off work, but what can you say). Anyway, here's my current bag (and contents, if anyone is wondering).

TaylorMade Essex Stand/Cart Bag (black/silver)
TaylorMade R580XD 10.5* Regular Flex Neutral Bias Graphite Driver
TaylorMade Rescue TP Dual 16* Steel Shaft Hodysseyybrid
TaylorMade RAC OS Steel Shaft Wide-Sole Irons 3-PW
Cleveland CG11 60* Loft Wedge
Odyssey White Hot XG-3 Putter

Carrying the bag is my ultra-light BagBoy LT440 Pull Cart (complete with beverage holder, scorecard holder, very large detachable wheels).

I am probably going to pick up one more compoent for the bag - a Ping G5 Graphite 7-Wood - I'll get this in the next week.

I did forego the 3W and 5W this time around. I never used the 5W in my previous Jazz set, and the Ping G5 7W would be sufficient enough for the loft and some distance. I've never used a hybrid club before, but the 16* Rescue club will basically replace the need for a 2I or a 3W. I was going to go for a G5 hybrid, but TaylorMade basically invented the hybrid club, so I have to go for that. I did not hit the hybrid clubs at all on site, and the reason why is that I expect to use them mostly in the rough or tough lies. I doubt I'll be teeing off with it much.

All that being said, I did test all the clubs after at the range/practice compound, where I spent around 2.5 hours this afternoon. The irons feel really nice weight-wise. I had a harder time with the hybrid at first, but I figured out how to get the most out of it - I tend to top a lot of my balls, but I made a mental adjustment to basically "dig" at the balls with driver and hybrid, and to my shock, it worked well. I didn't care if I got a ton of dirt - since I topped it mostly before, I wasn't even near dirt. Now that I make a conscious decision to dig at it with my shot style, I made tremendously good contact and get good distance (and I tend to not hook it as much). I generally play well with high irons and my pitching/putting is the better part of my game.

In terms of balls, I have historically used Maxfli exclusively with Strata occasionally (harder to find). That may in fact change this year. No, I am not interested in feeding the Titlelist corporate machine and am not good enough to use V1x balls (at around $8-9 a ball, I'd say no thanks). I know that Callway balls suck really bad, so I may go for one of two things: 1) a totally different flavour of Maxfli, or...believe it or not...try the Nike balls. We'll see. I can't keep using the same ball without trying out other stuff.

Despite the fact that my wife was not entirely thrilled with my purchase (she did seem to come to an understanding as the day wore on and as I pleaded with desperation), this purchase came at a good time. I've been invited to one of my client's annual golf tournament (this is a large Canadian IT staffing firm) next month. It's at one of those ritzy courses, so I may as well tune up with new gear, so I don't embarrass myself...too much.

If anyone is looking to play a couple of rounds before then, you can contact me.