Equipment changes

As a group golfers tend to view themselves as fairly cynical when it comes to the latest releases from various companies. We deride the white heads, flashy graphics, and the marketing hype... and yet on an almost annual basis we see people changing one or two sticks in their bags if not the entire set. (and for those who change that regularly do you get them on some sort of lease arrangement or something?) Now I am not sure I see the value in a complete change. Yes we all get very bored of the same equipment, I recently swapped out my driver for example, but in general most of my stuff is pushing 4 or 5 years old now.

I find myself wondering, if we are all so immune to the marketing, how these companies make so much money? If it's not the cynical golfing public then who is it? Particularly since the second hand market is so active!

I've wondered that, too, LJ.

If you want to improve your scores pay to see the Pro, not to acquire the latest and 'greatest'.

Things rarely improve through constant change.

As a 'changer', I tend to use a different set each year, but these are not new sets, they are taken out of the loft I refurbish the set I want to use next season. This year I shall be mostly using a set of 35 year old Maruman conductor blades.

I do however get a new driver on average about every 2 years, but very happy with the present one, so no change this season. I am exceedingly happy with my 5 wood and am on the lookout for its big brother 3 and maybe even its little brother 7.

Putters........putters........putters *sigh* I have a whole raft of them, three of them are leaning up against the wall in the office now. However, my recent changes do appear to give me a more secure stroke, so may be in the market this year for a 'heavy' putter.

In short, the manufacturers do not make very much money out of me, because even when I do buy, I either buy low-mid range, or from flea bay.

I know, I'm a cheapskate.

Hi o_s,

When you say refurbish the set, do you re-shaft and re-grip them when necessary and do you have your own home golf workshop?

venice1 wrote:Hi o_s,

When you say refurbish the set, do you re-shaft and re-grip them when necessary and do you have your own home golf workshop?

By refurbish, I mean an amateur one. Regrip, regroove and clean up. The same as D4S, I am looking seriously at reshafting and spining as well next time around, but would need to visit a mate who does have all the goodies to check on what shafts I need now before doing that.

I've looked at the repolishing services that are available, but it seems to be a high price for something that will really only last a few weeks at most. I also haven't had to grind any dings out as yet, but that could be carried out quite easily.

shanker for shafts you could do worse than ths place for a checkup.

totally-golf.com

They validate the requirements, cost it, and then a guy who works on tour does the fitting for them. Very good service I found

I got my Callaway X-Forged irons about 20 months ago.

I (foolishly) ordered them over t'net without trying them. When I first tried them I thought "I've made a mistake, I'm not good enough to play these". But I worked at them and now love them. I'm not as consistent off the floor as I want to be with the 2 and 3 irons, but that's due to the inconsistency of my swing, not the irons. Since I've had them, I've gone from 19 to 13.

I have a 2-ball odyssey putter and it took me 2.5 years to get my putting right (my average PPH over the last 10 rounds is 1.705) Again, it wasn't the putter that was the problem, but my putting technique.

The only thing I want to do now is to get fitted as I think this will help improve the consistency of my strike.

LondonJonnyO wrote:shanker for shafts you could do worse than ths place for a checkup.

totally-golf.com

They validate the requirements, cost it, and then a guy who works on tour does the fitting for them. Very good service I found

I've looked at the site LJ and the flightscope looks interesting, but will they just test and give advice, or do they insist on doing the whole thing.

One of the reasons I tinker with my clubs is because I enjoy doing it.

oldshanker wrote:
One of the reasons I tinker with my clubs is because I enjoy doing it.

That's a completely different issue!

What's your handicap, os?

oldshanker wrote:

LondonJonnyO wrote:shanker for shafts you could do worse than ths place for a checkup.

totally-golf.com

They validate the requirements, cost it, and then a guy who works on tour does the fitting for them. Very good service I found

I've looked at the site LJ and the flightscope looks interesting, but will they just test and give advice, or do they insist on doing the whole thing.

One of the reasons I tinker with my clubs is because I enjoy doing it.

I thought I enjoyed messing with my clubs a few years back at my buddy's shop also... until I ruined a number of shafts and over-grinded a few club heads. Looked a lot easier when he was doing it. I officially 'retired' from the golfsmith business that day. Now I just drink beer and watch him. However, I do get to keep changing the music stations on his shop radio just to get his goat.

16 at the moment, but to be fair I struggle to play regularly to it. Probably because I do not play enough and never practice at the important stuff like putting and chipping.

I remember creating a thread on the darkside some time back asking the question, have you ever replaced a bit of kit with the latest shiny new toy only to regret it? I certainly have, I think my Taylormade vSteel 3 wood circa 2002(?) is the best 3 wood I've ever used. Bought something shiny and new, got rid of the vSteel and regretted it.
Did a similar thing a few years before with a Great Big Bertha titanium 4 wood. Another fantastic club that I don't think has been bettered even today.

They will just give advice if thats what you want. They charge 30 quid for that.

Golfers a re fickle bunch but also can be very gullible when it comes to the marketing done by top brands!

For instance there was a guy in the group behind us yesterday waiting on the first tee at same time as us with the new Long Tom driver from Cobra said he had it on Demo wants to get one as its so long! Well it has a 48" shaft what do you expect! Good luck controlling it though!

I only change a piece of equipment if I feel it needs replacing not because something new and shiny appears on the shelves! That said this year I have replaced my Wedges with the Adams Pulieli black series and my Driver and 3wood are now Adams Speedlines but these changes were made as I was not happy with the results I was getting from what I had!

Also changed putter as I just didn't have a consistent feel since my scotty got half inched last year and now have one that will remain in my bag for a seriously long time!

My dad however is a tinkerer and changer in one 2month period this year he'd bought and re-sold the following drivers:

Yonex E-Zone
Cobra ZL
Nike VR
TM Burner
Wilson DXi
He's now settled on an Adams Speedline just before going to have hip replacement

I do however like to work on clubs and in the New Year am going to look at building myself a set of clubs, I have no need for them and likely I wouldn't put them in my bag as my Cobra Pro-MB's are the dogs danglies! I just want to spend time doing something I enjoy and see if I can create a good workable set of sticks