Joey's Golf Bag

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.