My Aching Back
This morning, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center in cloudy, cool weather. There was a breeze in my face that averaged about 1 club.
Today, I brought out the new Wishon Golf 770CFE irons I built this week. In general, I was quite pleased with their performance, although I wasn’t swinging particularly well today. When I did produce a good swing, the irons produced a high ball-flight that landed softly on the target greens. I was especially pleased with a 4-iron shot into the blue target green; the ball came in high and rolled no more than 10 ft after landing. The clubs are a 1/2″ shorter than my previous set and weigh about 28 grams less. It appears my clubhead speed has not suffered from the shorter length, and may even improve slightly once I get used to the lighter swingweight (D-2 vs. D-7). Before I hit the clubs, I was concerned that the sound of impact might be different due to the thin clubface, but I really like how the ball sounds at impact. The sound is more like a forged club than an investment cast club, due, I guess, to the variable thickness forged clubface. The clubheads are certainly more forgiving than my previous set as well. So far, so good…
I felt pretty sluggish today during practice and always felt like I was a little behind in my tempo. I warmed up with the 6-iron and hit several fat shots before I got going. I got out the pitching wedge and 8-iron and alternated shots with those clubs. At first, I got very high ball flight and not much distance, but I soon got the ball flying well. My swing path was good today, mostly straight. My release was not well-timed, so I had a mix of fades and draws, more of the former.
Next up, I got out the hybrid and 3-wood (back in my bag for practice purposes). I never got the tempo right with these clubs, always late and usually topping the ball, so I went back to hitting the wedges, which I did well today, despite a fat shot or two. By now, my back was aching, so I finished out the balls by hitting mid-irons off tees, with mixed results. I had one high, monster hook with the 5-iron, but the hook monster was otherwise absent today. My back didn’t feel up to any additional practice, so my plan to have a full practice with short game and putting was not to be.
Not a very good practice today, but it is pretty clear I will benefit from my new irons. Additional reports to follow.