The first set of clubs I had were Sam Snead blades and persimmon woods. I learned to expect instant feedback when I had mishit a ball; I didn't really even need to watch the ball flight to know where I had hit it on the clubface. The insert on my first driver was raised almost a quarter inch above the rest of the face so mishits that caught the edge of that raised surface were interesting to say the least. I soon developed a well deserved reputation for wildness off the tee amongst the group I played with.
After I had been playing regularly for a little while I invested in a set of irons. I bought a set of Spalding Pro Flight cavity backs for $180.00. Of course this was only the beginning of my investment in golf clubs. The Pro Flights were good clubs but I always had problems controlling the trajectory on them as everything went very high from my steep downward attack. Still.... for the most part I was just happy to make decent contact most of the time and wasn't as worried about trajectory as I was directional control.
I soon found a used Powerbilt driver that I fell in love with. It was the burnished light brown color of caramel with a red insert and a smooth silky overall finish. It was a beautiful club and one that I played with for several years. I learned to tee it high and hit it on the upswing and revelled in the beautiful feel and flight of purely struck balls. Granted, I didn't do it very often but when I did it was a sight to behold. I made my first eagle a week after I bought the club when I drove a short par four and made the putt. This was immediately followed by a two out of bounds 9 on the next hole but it didn't matter as I was convinced that I had found the secret of golf. I loved this club so much I kept it for many years after I quit using it and would use it to practice with at times when my swing got way off. I had to have it reshafted after it collided with a ball washer on the way back to the cart at high speed after pummeling a ball all the way across the next fairway and into a water hazard. I felt bad about the broken shaft but it had it coming.
I friend of mine had a Cobra Baffler five wood that I liked the feel of so I started looking around for one of those as well. This was the persimmon bafflers with the brass baffle on the bottom of the club which made it feel heavy and stable throughout the swing. One of the private country clubs in town sold them so I ordered a 3 wood and a 5 wood. They were a perfectly black with a red insert and felt like a well balanced hammer to me. The 3 wood was a heaven send in that I immediately figured out how to hit it very hard and very high with little movement on the ball. I had my second eagle with it a couple of months later when I hit a par five in two and tapped in a 6 inch putt. Truthfully, I could have played better if I hit the 3 woood off the tee all the time but couldn't bear to give in to the wild rides high and left that most of my tee shots with the Powerbilt were.
Lefty clubs were and are hard to find in much variety. Most manufacturers aim for the big market of people who want game improvement clubs to help get the ball airborne. While this is only natural and to be expected it can be a pain in the butt if you want something not designed with that in mind.
Putters were something I went through with great speed and reckless abandon. I started out with a Sam Snead blade that looked like something you would find at a Putt Putt course. This was followed by several others that I found in bargain barrels and usually discarded after having learned they were not a bargain after all; they were only worth a few dollars as paperweights or door stops. I was playing on crappy greens and had developed a crappy stroke. I stood open to the line and pushed putts toward the hole with my left hand. I soon learned to hold the angle in my left wrist which helped control distance but I was by no means a good putter for many years. I had my putting stroke described as a rusty gate after losing a team match one time. One of my teammates suggested that I hit the ball like a rocket launcher but could probably putt better if I kicked the ball. I took it as a compliment and briefly considered asking if kicking the ball in the hole was a legal method of putting.
I soon settled on a rotation of two putters. A Ping Anser and a Ray Cook Mallet were my standbyes for years. As a matter of fact I still have both of them even though they haven't seen the light of day for a few years. I putted with whichever one I hadn't missed a short birdie putt with recently. I will say that the Ping Anser was hands down the best for throwing as it was weighted much better and I could get the pleasant helicopter sound and motion when I hit my release point just right.
I once had a playing partner admonish me for slamming a club in the ground after a bad shot on a par three. "It ain't the club's fault" he said. Now I wasn't in the best of moods after the shot but I especially didn't appreciate volunteer wisdom from someone I was beating by five strokes at the time.
"That's the reason you play like shit," I told him. "Your clubs have no respect for you. Mine KNOW whose fault it is when they hit a bad shot. They start cringing the moment the ball comes off the clubface wrong because they know what is in store for them after they hit a bad shot." I was only halfway kidding.
more later.....
No comments:
Post a Comment