Golf

Aztec chimera

Aztec chimera

Well-known member
Anybody taken up the game again or just started playing? I havent played for about 10 years but with all of the youtube videos now available im getting sucked in again. So much so that ive bought a cobra dark speed driver and a set of dark speed irons and i havent played a round yet. All the gear and no idea and a fool and his money are soon parted spring to mind. Any idea on wedges and putters i can waste more money on?
 
Wilson wedges are fine, at about £30 each on Amazon. I love my Cleveland putter, which was about £35 on American Golf. I’m a tight ****, so tend to buy last year’s model when buying drivers etc. My irons are Cleveland CG16 £199 for full set 4-PW. I’m on my second full set, after 5 years. You don’t have to spend a fortune
 
A good website for quality second hand golf clubs.

www.golfbidder.co.uk

Golfbidder UK

Next Day Delivery on Europe's widest choice of quality used golf clubs and affordable equipment for sale. Choose from major brands including TaylorMade, Callaway, Ping & Titleist.
www.golfbidder.co.uk www.golfbidder.co.uk
 
Try Cleveland cbx zipcore wedges. They’re cavity backs so easier to strike than the blade style ones. About 3 or 4 generations of them now so there’s always deals to be had with them second hand.
 
There’s some great golf channels at the moment. Golf mates is a good watch, just blokes playing golf to a normal standard, not scratch. Dan Hendriksen Golf is also pretty good. His brother and guests are good players / pros. Joe the Pro in it explains a lot of the technical stuff when he’s on.
 
The Costco Kirkland Signature wedges get great reviews and you get a set of 3 brand new for about £150. I've never seen or used them myself but I think they are supposed to be very good value.

If I was just starting out I would get on Marketplace and get some second hand stuff though. If you find a high handicapper selling a 60 degree wedge the sweet spot will still be brand new.
 
I've played really sporadically for the last 20yrs. Maybe 4-5 games a year if I'm lucky.

But my 3 lads all taken it up this year and so we've played quite a bit. Been great spending time outside with them. Getting the bug for it again. Trying to avoid all the tips and youtube videos tho. Information overload!!
 
Best thing to do if getting started is play at the par 3 course at Stokesley. Nice little course not too challenging perfect for beginners . If you start playing 18holes on a proper course with par 5s you will get totally disheartened
 
I am contemplating it next year. I still play cricket and captain our club's third team. I was retired from playing for 10 years but got lured back in as my lad started playing - by skippering the 3s I got to play a few games with my lad which was great, but he has now got into golf and his cricket has fallen by the wayside. My biggest issue is I have a shoulder operation in a few weeks, which might naturally bring an end to my cricket career at 52. Myself and a few mates have dipped our toes back in the water with golf again recently and I have definitely started to think that is what I might do instead of cricket from next summer - all depends on recovery from shoulder surgery (which should be OK).

I played with a group of regular players a couple of weeks back and I couldn't believe how kit has changed in the 15 years since I played semi regularly. All of my kit was decent quality, but driver technology and hybrids have come on in leaps and bounds.
 
Aztec chimera said:
Anybody taken up the game again or just started playing? I havent played for about 10 years but with all of the youtube videos now available im getting sucked in again. So much so that ive bought a cobra dark speed driver and a set of dark speed irons and i havent played a round yet. All the gear and no idea and a fool and his money are soon parted spring to mind. Any idea on wedges and putters i can waste more money on?
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You've basically did what I did about 13 years ago, which isn't really the best way to do it to be honest, unless you were playing off single figures 10 years ago and would still not be far off that, i.e decent repeatable swing etc.

Might be a bit late now, but normally the best way is to play with some old/ second hand clubs which are hopefully around ok for what size you want, then once you get to a repeatable level (often requiring some lessons) you go and get fit for some clubs which are more suited to your swing, i.e length, loft, lie, forgiveness, grip width etc.

The key thing about playing for a while and being repeatable, even if it's a repeatable similar miss (like a slice), then some of this miss can easily be removed just with minor club changes or something more suitable. Otherwise you might just end up fighting the wrong clubs for years etc.

You're probably on for spending over 1k on clubs now, and haven't been on the course for 10 years, that's like not driving a car for 10 years and walking into the porsche garage and buying any random car, with a random spec without driving it first.

I told myself I was due a new set of clubs a few years back but wasn't playing enough to get a repeatable miss, so decided not to get new clubs again. Hoping to get back into it next year and I'll be going lessons with old clubs>repeatable miss/ get a bit better>club fit>hopefully hitting it straight.

YouTube is great for golf, I've been watching Crossfield, Lockey, Shiels and Finch since they all started basically. Crossfield is a bit of a nerd, and can be annoying but he really knows what he's on about and is great with the tech aspects and lessons if you like that.

Bryson's channel is quality too, I used to think he was a bit of a d*ck, but since watching him on YT he seems sound. Never really been a fan of "Me and my golf".
 
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Golf entertainment videos like Rick Shiels and Iona Stephen are fun to watch, but don't look at golf instruction on Youtube. I don't agree with Tiger Woods very often but he said that golf instruction on Youtube is a no no, and he'd dead right.

For anyone getting back into golf, or getting into golf for the first time, find a pro who teaches beginners, book a series of lessons and practice what you are taught on the range. Trying to fix your slice by watching Youtube is like drinking Draino to cure Covid.
 
Soutra said:
Golf entertainment videos like Rick Shiels and Iona Stephen are fun to watch, but don't look at golf instruction on Youtube. I don't agree with Tiger Woods very often but he said that golf instruction on Youtube is a no no, and he'd dead right.

For anyone getting back into golf, or getting into golf for the first time, find a pro who teaches beginners, book a series of lessons and practice what you are taught on the range. Trying to fix your slice by watching Youtube is like drinking Draino to cure Covid.
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It depends how you absorb and use the information to be honest, you can't apply someone else's lesson to yourself unless it's something basic like a weak grip or whatever, but even that might not even be your problem, and changing it might add other problems. There are like 50 things which can go wrong, figuring out what your own problem is by looking at a youtube and thinking "that will work for me" is a bit of a stretch.

What it helped me with is understanding the ball flight laws and gear effect etc, so I can basically "almost" self diagnose what I've done wrong at impact at least, just by looking at where the ball impacted on the face, the direction the ball starts and where it went after that.

I thought I was slicing it for ages due to out to in swing, but figured out my path control was quite good, but what was **** was my face control and also where the ball was hitting on the face. I was often a few degrees open or hitting it on the heel etc, that's where most of my problems were. Fixing those was a different matter, especially with the big stick.

I personally never worried too much about having a swing which "looked good", like recording myself with videos etc and trying to chase that nice swing, it just made me miles worse and a lot less repeatable. Need proper lessons for that sort of thing I think.

I would only ever get lessons with a pro who had a decent launch monitor though, but it's just easier for me to process things with numbers etc.
 
Andy_W said:
The key thing about playing for a while and being repeatable, even if it's a repeatable similar miss (like a slice), then some of this miss can easily be removed just with minor club changes or something more suitable. Otherwise you might just end up fighting the wrong clubs for years etc.
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This is nonsense. Getting a repeatable swing is ok but no one cured a slice by getting fitted. I say this as someone who has been fitted for clubs.

Andys subsequent post makes more sense.

I would go to American golf and try a few clubs letting them think you are in the market for a set. They will cotton on if something other than a standard set is needed ie. are you particularly tall, have short arms etc.

If you do decide to look for advice on the internet then Russell Heritage is decent.
 
Soutra said:
Golf entertainment videos like Rick Shiels and Iona Stephen are fun to watch, but don't look at golf instruction on Youtube. I don't agree with Tiger Woods very often but he said that golf instruction on Youtube is a no no, and he'd dead right.

For anyone getting back into golf, or getting into golf for the first time, find a pro who teaches beginners, book a series of lessons and practice what you are taught on the range. Trying to fix your slice by watching Youtube is like drinking Draino to cure Covid.
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Nothing beats lessons with a pro for fixing your swing but I found that by watching the instructional videos on Youtube I knew the language. It's like doing a theory test for driving. You'll never learn how to drive by reading a book but knowing the theory makes it a lot easier trying to put instructions into practice.

The problems with the videos isn't that they don't know what they are talking about or that they don't apply but there are 100s of elements to a golf swing and trying to change them all at once based on some videos is impossible. If you go for a course of lessons a pro will have a process where he'll correct your grip one week, correct your follow through the next, then your takeaway etc but won't try and do it all at once. You'll need to practice in between to commit to muscle memory. Self-diagnosis via Youtube encourages too many things to be corrected all at once which is like playing whack-a-mole. You can't really do it. Having 20 different swing thoughts all at once is just too distracting.
 
Millbrook said:
This is nonsense. Getting a repeatable swing is ok but no one cured a slice by getting fitted. I say this as someone who has been fitted for clubs.

Andys subsequent post makes more sense.

I would go to American golf and try a few clubs letting them think you are in the market for a set. They will cotton on if something other than a standard set is needed ie. are you particularly tall, have short arms etc.

If you do decide to look for advice on the internet then Russell Heritage is decent.
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I'm not saying cure a slice (or anything), I'm saying the wrong size clubs, grips, lies or whatever can make things miles harder, and may end up less repeatable etc.

Loads think a slice is caused by a bad path, and a lot of the time it is, and new gear won't fix that, but loads don't even realise they're starting the ball 5 degrees right of where they're aiming/ their path etc, and that's going to be impossible to not slice it.

Hitting it out of the heel will slice the ball too (L to R spin), same as out of the toe will put R to L spin on it.

New gear won't fix a broken swing/ impact, but if some of that is caused by the wrong gear then it's making the task much more difficult, and we know it's difficult enough.
 
Nano said:
Self-diagnosis via Youtube encourages too many things to be corrected all at once which is like playing whack-a-mole. You can't really do it. Having 20 different swing thoughts all at once is just too distracting.
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Yeah, that happened to me, lots!

Was trying to fix like 3 things at once (probably not even the right things), and it's just not possible. Thinking about more than one thing in the backswing or taking 20 seconds to get the set up right isn't healthy.

That's not to say you can't try a few things/ ideas which you see in video's mind, but it is playing with fire a bit.
 
Soutra said:
Golf entertainment videos like Rick Shiels and Iona Stephen are fun to watch, but don't look at golf instruction on Youtube. I don't agree with Tiger Woods very often but he said that golf instruction on Youtube is a no no, and he'd dead right.

For anyone getting back into golf, or getting into golf for the first time, find a pro who teaches beginners, book a series of lessons and practice what you are taught on the range. Trying to fix your slice by watching Youtube is like drinking Draino to cure Covid.
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Agreed. Some pros do group beginners lessons. If you can find a set of these about to start then jump at the chance. You do not need individual tuition when you are just starting. The pro can easily teach a group of 5-6 beginners in parallel. So it is a cheaper way to get a basic understanding. Of all aspects of the game.
 
Millbrook said:
This is nonsense. Getting a repeatable swing is ok but no one cured a slice by getting fitted. I say this as someone who has been fitted for clubs.

Andys subsequent post makes more sense.

I would go to American golf and try a few clubs letting them think you are in the market for a set. They will cotton on if something other than a standard set is needed ie. are you particularly tall, have short arms etc.

If you do decide to look for advice on the internet then Russell Heritage is decent.
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I have never had a lesson since I was 14. Now in my fifties - around 10 years ago I finally - I mean finally after 30 + years of playing the game cured my slice after seeing something in golf monthly - so I tried it.
At address ; of the ball ; before you hit it ; just move your right elbow in slightly closer to your hip (like tucking it in a little like 1 to 2cms only) and swing normally ; try to be conscious of that right elbow remaining tucked in as you swing and lo and behold - my slice disappeared ; it's basically physics ; tucking in your right elbow stops you swinging outside the line of the ball and returning back to the ball from outside to inside (thus creating the sidespin)

Go and try it slicers and report back - i'll take my payment via bacs 😉
 
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