Golf Confessions

John Daly’s opening round in New Orleans was a one over 73.  It has been a long time since John has had a decent tournament.  I beleive the off the course antics, and poor physical condition has caught up with the very talented player.  John needs to get back into contention in some tournaments or this may be the last we see of him on a regular basis.  The tour is about performance and bringing in the money for the sponsors.  John still has a large following, but with all of the big hitters on the tour his glamour may start to fade.

I personaly would like to see John Daly dedicate himself to improving himself physicaly and using his great talent and finish out his career in style.  The sponsor exemptions that John is living off of to get into tournamnets may start to get fewer and futher apart. 

If you play golf at least twice a month, you could probably benefit from a custom set of clubs.  You need to be playing with some degree of regularity so that you can establish some tendencies to your game.  When you play very little and your ball flight is totally different from one round to the other, then you would have a hard time deciding what you may need to help your problem.  What you are trying to find in your game is something that you can repeat.  Repetition is what even the best of players are constantly looking for, and they are trying to find the right equipment that will help them find this consistency.  Most good players will tell you that there biggest concern is not what the ball is doing but can they do the same thing each time.
 
So what you should look for in your equipment is something that fits your ability and will allow you to be as consistent as possible.  Don’t worry about what your friends play–such as stiff shafts or no offset on their woods or irons.  You don’t want to give into your ego when getting fitted for golf clubs.  What you want is something that will allow you to get the most out of your ability and be able to post the lowest score.  Most people play with shafts that are too stiff and usually have too high of a kick point that will not allow them to get the ball airborne sufficiently for maximum carry.  It is a good idea to look at the fairway metal clubs to replace the long irons in your set, most all of the pros on all tours are now carrying at least one hybrid club in their bag.  A lot of pros have started using 5 and 7 woods that were never carried by them just a few years ago, these clubs have taken the place of the 2, 3 and the dreaded 1 iron.  The loft and perimeter weighting in these fairway clubs have made them much easier to hit out of the rough and bad lies.
 
Women and youngsters that are just getting started should get with a qualified club fitter, so they can get suggestions on clubs that will fit their abilities.  If you start out with clubs that do not fit your body frame and the clubs are too heavy and too long there is a good chance you will develop bad habits that may stay with you forever..  The worst thing that can come from ill-fitting clubs is that you may not be able to hit the ball very well when you are trying to learn and you become dejected and quit.  Everyone likes to see some progress and you can use all the help you can get in the beginning.  You do not necessarily have to spend a lot of money with your first set of clubs, even if you only have a start up set, make sure they are not too heavy and the lie angle fits your posture.
 
A good club fitter can usually take your existing clubs and tweak them to fit your needs, such as checking your shaft flex,  and your clubs loft and lie.  He may suggest changing the shafts in your clubs to help you with lack of distance or certain shot configurations. Modern technology has brought about a lot of good equipment that can be used in determining what best fits each player when it comes to fitting equipment, but remember the equipment is only as good as the person using it. There is an old saying in golf-its not the arrow but the indian-there is some truth to this, but all good indians have arrows that best fit their bodies and abilities.
 
Please share your comments and what you may experienced with cusom clubs.  
 
See you on the next tee.