Joey's Golf Bag

Tonight, I completed the construction of my reshafted Wishon Golf 770CFE irons. I also added the 770CFE approach wedge to the set and built two new wedges, a PCF Micro satin sand wedge and a PCF Micro WS lob wedge. Pictures and specs tomorrow.

While I’ve been hitting my Wishon Golf 550c irons pretty good of late, I’ve decided that I’m not quite good enough a golfer yet to use these fine irons. However, these irons give me much more feedback on how I’m hitting the ball than the Wishon Golf 770CFE irons do, so I’ve decided to reshaft my 770CFE irons with True Temper Black Gold shafts (stiff flex, soft-stepped one club). I’m making all specs between the two sets of irons the same (swingweight, length, loft, lie, total weight) so that the clubs will feel about the same (they will sound different, though). In this way, I’ll practice with the 550c irons, to get the superb feedback that helps me improve in practice, and play with the 770CFE irons, to get all the forgiveness and better MOI for more consistent results on the course.

To this end, this morning, I reshafted my 770CFE irons with True Temper Black Gold stiff shafts, instead of the True Temper GS-75 shafts I’d been using. I’ve soft-stepped the shafts one club to match how I built the 550c irons and I’ll swingweight them, once the epoxy sets, to the same D-6 swingweight. I’ve also ordered the AW clubhead that I didn’t have in the 770CFE set, and I’ll put that club together when the head arrives.

This afternoon, I practiced at Golden Bear Golf Center, on a warm, sunny, breezy afternoon. I warmed up with the 7-iron, hitting the ball pretty well, then moving on to the 5-iron, 7-wood and driver. I hit all these clubs pretty well, so I got out the pitching wedge, 8-iron and 6-iron to work on my irons. Unfortunately, I wasn’t hitting the irons well at all. I decided that I needed to focus on getting my hands in front on the ball at impact. I placed a ball up on a tee and worked at getting a late release with good impact on the ball. It took quite a number of shots, but I did get my swing working well again, even down to the 4-iron. I finished up the bucket with a few wedge shots, but I’d lost the good impact and late release I’d had with the longer clubs. My right arm (especially my right elbow) felt sore, so I cut my practice short. I was pleased that I’d gotten back my lag, at least on the irons, but disappointed that I wasn’t hitting the wedges consistently. Much more to work on, obviously.

Yesterday, I built a new Tom Wishon CLF Series 1 putter. I used the Tom Wishon straight putter shaft and a Tom Wishon V-Series putter grip. I built it to a length of 34.5 inches. The really nice feature of this putter is the interchangeable loft faces, available in 2°, 4° and 6° lofts. I installed the 4° loft face, and that seems to work well.

Some photos:

After I built the putter, I hit my first six putts from 15 feet! Alas, the perfection didn’t continue after that, but so far, so good!

This morning, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The day was sunny and warm, but the wind was howling at about 20-30 mph from the west. I started out with my usual warmup: 5 sand wedge shots to warm up, followed by 3 balls each (with full routine) of the pitching wedge, 8-iron, 6-iron, 4-iron (yes, had one today), 3-wood and 5 drives. My ball-striking was a bit suspect early, though finally got some good swings on the ball once I got out the driver.

After the warm-up, I did a number of drills, trying to strike down more on the ball and get the ball flight down a little. It took a while to get used to the new irons; I found that I had to address the new irons (and all the other clubs as well) off the toe. I wasn’t particularly happy with my ball-striking today, but I was pleased that if I put a good swing on the ball, the new 550c irons felt as good as any I’ve ever hit. Even though I’m using a stiffer shaft than I’ve been using, the shaft felt perfect, no boardy feeling at all. The new irons do reduce my tendency to get quick on the downswing, but I’m still hitting the ball too high. I believe I’ll be happy with the new irons once I get my swing better. I’ve been very busy at work and have been unable to practice as much as I want to.

Next, I went to the putting green and ran speed drills. Again, lack of practice has hindered my progress here, but my putting is still better than the rest of my game.

I was happy to get out and practice. I hope I’ll be able to get in some more practice in the coming weeks, if the weather holds up.

I’ve been having the problem of late of hitting the ball too high, and thus losing distance. Additionally, I tend to get quick with my downswing, which often causes a push or a hook, depending on how I release. To combat these problems, I’ve built some new irons using the Tom Wishon Golf Technology 550c forged irons. Chiefly, I selected these clubheads because they have less offset compared to my current 770CFE irons. For the shafts, I put in True Temper Black Gold stiff shafts, soft-stepped one club (in other words, 3-iron shaft into the 4-iron, 4-iron shaft into the 5-iron, etc.). These shafts are heavier than my current TT GS75 shafts, to help reduce getting quick on the downswing. I put on Wishon Golf V-Series oversize grips with 4 wraps of tape. I swingweighted the clubs to D-6.

My specs:

Other notes: I made the clubs 0.25" longer. It turns out I mis-measured my wrist-to-floor measurement, so the clubs needed to be a bit longer than my last set of irons. The lie angles shown are before I use I lie board to determine what the specs really need to be. As shown, they are 2° upright.

Some photos below: the full 4 to AW set; back of the 5-iron; back of the 9-iron.

I’ve built a new Thriver (fairway driver) using the new Wishon Golf 525F/D fairway driver clubhead. I used a Wishon Golf 7-B2P Driver shaft, R-flex, along with a Golf Pride DD2 midsize grip. I built the club to 42.5 inches in length with a swingweight of D-1. The purpose of this club is to be able to replace my driver when it is not cooperating with an easier to hit club that doesn’t give up too much distance off the tee, which is exactly the reason why this club was designed.

I thought I would document how the contents of my golf bag have changed since I bought my first set of clubs in 2004.

My original set of clubs was the Signature Series Set from Golden Bear Golf that I bought from Costco. This is a 12 club setup, which has a driver, 3- and 5-wood, 3- and 4-hybrid, 5-iron through pitching wedge and a putter. I soon added a set of Tom Watson wedges (not the current model but a set no longer on their website) from Adams Golf. I learned to play with this set of clubs.

After the completion of the Masters class at the Golden Bear Golf Center, I set out to get a new set of clubs. My first irons were Callaway Big Bertha 2004 irons (4-PW; I later added a 3-iron), to which I added a Nike SasQuatch 3-wood, a Callaway Big Bertha Titanium 454 driver, three Cleveland 588 wedges (56°, 60°, 64°) and a Odyssey White Steel Mallet #5 putter, along with a Great Divider Journey stand bag to hold all my new purchases. I never did hit the Big Bertha driver very well, so I traded that club in on a Cleveland 3i HALO hybrid and a Nike SasQuatch Lucky 13 driver. I took the 3-iron out of my bag and replaced it with the 3i hybrid. This was the set of clubs that I used to break 100 for the first time at Sherrill Park.

I’d been experimenting with building my own clubs, but none of the clubs spent a great deal of time in my bag until I built my first set of irons, Toski T-58 irons. The T-58 irons played better than the Big Bertha irons, so I sold those irons to a friend and played with the T-58 irons for about six months. I also sold him my Cleveland 56° wedge and bought 49°, 54° and 64° wedges that fit better with the T-58 irons.

About this time I read the Tom Wishon’s book, The Search for the Perfect Golf Club, and changed my whole philosophy of what clubs to use. I built a set of Tom Wishon 770CFE irons, a 321Li 3-hybrid, a 915HL 5-wood and a set of CX Micro wedges (52°, 56°, 60°). These clubs joined my Nike SasQuatch driver and Odyssey putter, but I never really hit the 321Li hybrid well, so the Cleveland 3i HALO went back in the bag. This set of clubs was stable until I hurt my back and re-injured it after getting fitted for a Wishon 525GRT driver.

While my back was healing, I built a Wishon S2R Model 3 putter, which kicked out the Odyssey putter from my bag. I also built a new set of CX Micro Satin wedges (52°, 56°, 60°) so that the clubs were all the same length and used the heavier Dynamic Gold shaft (trying to slow down my quick tempo with a little more weight). After I got back to practicing, my only non-Wishon clubs were the Nike SasQuatch driver and the Cleveland 3i hybrid. I played that set for the last time at my swing clinic last week.

While I was resting from my back injury, I built a Wishon Golf 949MC 7-wood and a Wishon Golf 915FH 9-wood (4-hybrid). That completed my all-Wishon Golf bag!

So, how long do you suppose this bag will be stable? Don’t hold your breath… 😉

Last night after dinner, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The evening was very warm and humid, with no wind.

I started out hitting pitching wedges at the center green, which was too far for me to reach with that club. After I got warmed up, I got out the 8-, 6- and 4-irons and alternated striking each club. I was hitting the ball pretty well with all the clubs except the 4-iron; that club is still pretty pathetic.

Next, I moved on to hitting the longer clubs. I’m still not hitting the longer clubs as well as I did before my back injury, but I’m seeing some improvement. On this day, something weird happened. I was using a tee to hit some hybrid and 5-wood shots, working on getting a good release, but I kept hitting the ball thin. I decided to use the 6-iron off a tee and practice hitting down on the ball. My first ball was struck pretty well, a low stinger; I dug up a pretty good sized divot. On my next shot, disaster: I guess I hit down too much, because when I struck the ball, a loud crack and the bottom half of my 6-iron flew 30 ft down the range after the ball. I stood there dumbfounded for a second and then realized what had happened. I retrieved the broken club and went back to practicing, this time with the 5-iron. It never occurred to me that I might have the same swing fault again, but… crack!

I’ve never broken a shaft before, so this was a complete and total surprise. I’m assuming it was the way I was swinging and not a shaft failure. After taking a short break, I went back to practicing, starting with the pitching wedge. I didn’t have any problems after that, so I alternated the pitching wedge and driver, trying to get the driver to go straight again. I was mostly successful.

I then went to the putting green and spent 30 minutes on putting, first putting 10 in a row at 3 feet, then running speed drills. I followed that with some lag putting from 30 feet. I was pretty happy with the practice.

A photo of the broken shafts (True Temper GS75 steel shafts) below:

I’ve built two new clubs, a Tom Wishon 949MC 7-wood and a 915F/H 9-wood. I’ve been trying to find a club to replace my mostly reliable Cleveland 3i HALO hybrid, but so far, any club I’ve made to replace it has not been able to displace the HALO. This time, it’ll go up against the 949MC 7-wood. I’ve also been unable to hit my 4-iron with any consistency, so I’m looking to replace it with the 915F/H set up as a 9-wood.

I built the clubs using the Tom Wishon Series 7-B2P Fairway shaft in regular flex and used the Golf Pride DD2 midsize grips on each. I swingweighted both clubs to D-1.

I also reduced the length of my Tom Wishon 525GRT driver from 45" to 44.25" and replaced the grip with the DD2 midsize as well.

Specs:

Photos (949MC 7-wood on left) and back of 915F/H 9-wood:

Yesterday afternoon, I finally felt good enough to go practice again at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The day was heavily overcast, no wind, and very humid from earlier heavy rain. I planned to hit some wedges and see if my back would hold out, and if it did, run through the bag and hit a few balls with my new clubs.

I started off hitting 3/4 swings with my new CX Micro gap wedge. I struck the ball pretty solidly, but the distance was a bit low at first, as I was swinging very softly to while I warmed up my back. The fat shot was missing except for a single shot, where I clearly got too quick with my tempo. Next, I hit a couple of pitching wedges, and distance was more normal with this club. Moving up, I used an 8-iron next, hitting fades mostly. I was pretty pleased that I was striking the ball pretty well; the only thing missing was a bit of distance from my month off recovering from my lower back injury. I moved on to the 6-iron, but didn’t strike the ball particularly well.

Next, I got out my Cleveland HALO 3i hybrid. Except for the first shot, a worm-burner, I struck this club well. I was pretty pleased, so I got out my new 949MC 4-wood and my new 525GRT driver. I hit only a couple of shots with each club, alternating between the hybrid, the 4-wood and the driver. I was striking the hybrid very well, although, again, my distance was a bit short. I didn’t hit the 4-wood particularly well, hitting low, but this was due to my long layoff and not the club. I can already see the potential. And the sound it makes is really nice. The driver I also didn’t hit well. Two of the shots were straight worm burners hit off the heel. The third one showed off the potential — I hit a powerful push-fade that cleared the right hand net and ended up just in front of the 2nd green. Oops! Got a bit quick on that one and left the clubface open, but the ball was struck perfectly in the center of the very hot clubface. When my swing gets tuned up, I’m really looking forward to using this club. I’d run out of balls, but not before hitting a couple of perfect shots with the hybrid.

Next, I went to the putting green to see if my new S2R putter and my extensive carpet putting practice would pay off on grass. In short, it did! In fact, I didn’t miss a single putt inside of 12 ft for the first dozen or so balls. I was very pleased with my putting speed, leaving only one or two balls short all day. One or two balls did get well past the hole when I was practicing long putts, but at least that nagging problem of leaving the ball short seems to have subsided. My practice beyond 30 ft still needs much work, but I’m very pleased with my new putter and my putting. Next, I worked on chipping with the 8-iron and pitching wedge and I was pleased that I got up and down 2/3rds of the time.

A really good practice today, considering how long I wasn’t able to practice. Following practice, I came home and went through all of my stretches and exercises that my physical therapist gave me. I felt fine afterward, no ill effects from the practice. I’ll continue to limit the number of balls I hit in the short term (I hit only a small bucket today) until my back is fully healed.