Golf may be the quintessential hobby. You can ignite a passion for the sport when you are in grade school and maintain the fire for another eighty years.
Our approach to the game never seems to change. We are constantly seeking improvement in hopes of shaving one or two strokes from our handicaps. We start with self improvement. I tweak my stance, shoulder turn, hip turn, and weight shift. I strengthen my grip, shorten my backswing, move my weight forward when I chip, modify my entire putting routine. With all kinds of science and hitting a hundred balls a day for four weeks, my handicap moves from 16.6 to 16.4. What does that mean? Before all of the revisions and improvements, I would take 886 strokes to play ten rounds of golf. The new and improved Mike will now only take 884 strokes to play ten rounds of golf.
Wow.
Okay, self help did not work. Perhaps the problem is my equipment. I have been using the same set of clubs for six years. The National Golf Foundation has found that the direct contribution of golf to the US economy is $102 billion dollars a year. I bet that most of it is tied to improvements in the equipment we use. The manufacturers create better clubs and a lot of people are buying them. Time for a complete equipment review. I need to refresh four types of clubs. My “woods” (driver and three wood). My irons (5 through sand wedge). My hybrids (2, 3, and 4) and my putter.
I need to think this through.
Let’s start with the woods. As I approach my golden years, I have lost a lot of distance with the driver. 200 yards is a big hit these days. Four or five companies make great woods. They all claim that you can add 10 to 25 yards by switching to their equipment. Let’s assume that I can gain 15 yards by changing the woods I use. I switch from TaylorMade to Titleist and I’m hitting the ball 215. Two weeks later I change from Titleist to Cobra. I pick up another 15 yards so now I am at 230. Another two weeks I move to Willson and I’m hitting it 245. Two more weeks and the Callaways put me at 260. Each change costs me around $900 dollars so I take a break for a year and stick with the Callaways. In 2027, I continue the upgrading process. All the manufacturers have new and improved models. I hope to kick my distance up to 320 yards before the year is over.
What about the irons. Improving distance with the irons is not a big deal but improving accuracy is. A lot of ads talk about “forgiveness”. In golf this means that if you have a very inconsistent swing and your irons are “very forgiving”, the ball will still end up in about the same place no matter how you strike it. You simply line up to hit the ball where you want to go and the club will send it where you are aiming regardless of how different your swing and ball contact is. This should really help me. After all of the swing modifications in the self improvement endeavor, I rarely swing the same way twice. Using very forgiving irons, I will be a lot closer to my desired target every time. I am hoping this will be good for a 3 or 4 stroke improvement on its own. I think Cobra advertises that their irons are so forgiving you may no longer need to go to confession.
Long irons are the most challenging clubs for all golfers, even the pros. During a storm delay on a PGA Tour telecast, Lee Trevino was once asked “What is the safest thing to do if you are caught in a lightening storm out on the course.” He said, “I take out my one iron, hold it over my head and walk back to the clubhouse.” The announcer replied “Isn’t that really dangerous? Its like walking around with a lightening rod!” Lee responded, “No it is totally safe. Even God can’t hit a one iron.” Of course the enterprising club makers saw this as a great marketing opportunity. They used to make woods and irons. If they could design a club that is easier to hit than the 2, 3, and 4 irons they could open a third market for their merchandise. So they started working on “hybrids”, clubs that were part wood and part iron to replace the troublesome 2, 3, and 4 irons. It was a lot easier to build forgiveness into a hybrid than a classic long iron. Better accuracy from 160 to 200 yards could easily shave a few strokes of everyone’s handicap. Clearly, I need three carefully matched hybrids.
The last piece of equipment I need is a putter. The putter is very important. Even though I have thirteen other clubs in my golf bag, roughly 1/3 of all the shots I hit are with the putter. Over the years I have collected about 20 of them. These are not artifacts, they are all clubs that I bring back into to play from time to time. Unlike woods and irons, putters do not become obsolete. I am not buying a putter because the new one hits the ball 15 yards farther. My 1930 Walter Hagen hickory shaft mallet putter is just as effective now as it was when I used it on my high school golf team in 1965. In fact, I used it very effectively two weeks ago. I managed to wrest $25 dollars from my thieving golf buddies by only smacking 24 puts with the Hagen. I keep 20 putters because I like them. They have all been effective at some time in my golfing endeavors. I am sure that I have tossed another 30 that did not work out so well. Even though the manufacturers claim that they have developed the greatest putting innovation in the history of golf, I haven’t found a new tool that will lower my total putts more than the 20 club selection I have in my closet. So my solution for minimizing total putts will be to head to the putting green with my 5 most favorite clubs. After lengthy testing I will put the one that is producing the best results into my golf bag.
Okay, let’s review the entire plan. Over the next eighteen months I will take advantage of the new equipment breakthroughs in drivers and ramp my average driving distance up from 190 yards to 320 yards. This is achievable because every new driver should give me an extra fifteen yards off the tee. Eight or nine changes should give me at least 140 more yards. Bingo! I will then be hitting tee shots 320. That should knock my handicap down at least 5 shots. I am going to buy very forgiving irons. The improved accuracy and consistency will probably be good for another 6 shots. The hybrid replacements for my long irons will tally another 4 shots. Recalibration of my putting will probably take off another 4 strokes. All of this should shave 19 strokes off of my average score. My typical score should be 69.
If I can achieve this in the first six months of 2027, I can try to qualify for the Senior US Open that will be held in Edmonton Oklahoma the first week of July in 2027. With a top ten finish in the Senior Open, I can expect a couple invitations to play in regular PGA Tour events. So I am booking my hotel reservations in Edmonton and I am keeping an open schedule for the last six months of 2027.
I don’t know why people think golf is a difficult game. With a little planning, practice and expenditure for equipment, anyone can be great.
See you in Oklahoma next fourth of July.