Although I still take the sets of blades out one warmer days; the calling of falling leaves and cooler temperature with wet turf will tell me to bring out the cavity backs.
I just went to the driving range yesterday to brush off the dust on my favorite winter iron set. Did some adjustment on the swing weight with a roll of lead tapes. Surprisingly most needed 3-6 grams extra to get the trajectory and the distance I was used to.
Nov 1st will be the off-season rate starting date. Hopefully this fall/winter will be warmer and drier. Maybe some of those new golfers will pack up their golf clubs and go skiing.
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Last Thursday was cold with rain and small hail. I semi bladed my 2nd shot on the first hole and my cold hands knew all about it. Very jarring
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I know all about the sting to the hands and shoulder with missed iron shots in cold temperatures, especially off frozen turf. Game improvement irons or not, the only thing that might lessen the shock wave is graphite shafts.
Jarring? Try to take a divot on frozen ground and topped the shot…
You guys down there are supposed to get out of the cold very soon.
At the end of the cold season? Even in winter, the low lands in your country are not supposed to get very cold?
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@Dewsweeper Last Thursday ranged from 9.6 to 18.5. That is down in town. It is a bit cooler at the course up at 400m. At 0815 it was still cold enough for small hail to fall. After the 5th hole the front had passed and the rest of round was rain free and much warmer. The ground never freezes here. Our coldest winter day always gets to 8 or 9 and other winter days get to 13 or 14. It is lovely to play on a sunny 13 day day in winter. We are in spring. So far this month max temps have ranged from 16.3 one day to 32.4 another. Still plenty of cold fronts and rain bands sweeping across us here but when the winds turn to northerly it drags hot air out of central australia hence the 30 deg days. Summer starts Dec 1
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8-9 Degree Celsius = 46–48-degree Fahrenheit, which is considered “balmy” in our winter time and typical spring weather temperature. May get up higher in the late afternoon around 3 P.M. because of the angle of the sun.
The number one weather related deterrent to get on the golf courses in our region will be the moisture. Which will render the fairway soft and muddy in spots.
I hate to lose a well-placed tee shot in the fairway. Often had to look for the pitch mark to “dig out” a perfectly placed tee shot.
I used to be an all-weather golfer, frost, hail, rain, even light snow, gale strength wind. The worse the conditions, the fewer golfers on the golf courses.
Now I’ll hide in my La-Z-Boy chair with a cup of hot tea.
There are more and more weekday golfers now, since the “home office” days compete with the retired and those on vacation time for the tee time. Golf courses in the cities are packed with golfers. A 6-hour round is very common.
I was asked to watch the golf swing of someone I know over this weekend, the parking lot is packed. The overhead paging of mostly single walked on golfers dominated the tee sheet. Obviously, no one cares if the golf course over charge for what it is. A short track of 6,100 yards from the tip for $70. Not too long ago, I was paying half of that.
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This morning we were a group of 4. we teed off at 0749. The group in front teed of at 0724 as a 3. We caught them on 13 and had to wait every hole after. Finished at 1115. The group behind us fell 3 holes behind us. So 3hr26 for 18 holes. It is not like that every day and usually we have to wait every hole. We don’t run. We practice missed putts but still must be one of the speediest groups at the club. We play any order and are constantly moving. We had a very wet June but by August the course had dried out and now we wont get muddy again till next winter. We have more weekday players too but they play throughout the day. Today 147 people played
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This city owned public course near us had 64,000+ rounds logged for last year and on track to go over that this calendar year.
I think we are up around 60,00 rounds a year. Last year we got 250k of green fees from visitors and we have about 1200 members. Green fees are $80 or $40 after 1500. A very friendly and welcoming club. And only 6km from home with only one traffic light in between and that is a pedestrian crossing. Driving to the course last Sunday I was on a 4 lane main road and thought I saw a greyhound on the other side. As I went past I looked right and it was a kangaroo jumping towards me. I was doing 60km/hr and it went behind me. Lucky there were no other cars behind me.
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That is a very high number for membership.
We don’t have Kamikaze Kangaroo here but we have plenty of deer and elk. My wife had a deer encounter many years ago when a deer decided to jump in front of her car. Animal ran into the woods afterward, car=$3,200 damage to the front. Lucky the car was not traveling over the posted speed limit (40 MPH) and the impact was after the emergency break so the deer did not roll up the hood into the front windshield.
That was lucky. Deer are a pretty solid thing to hit. It might be 1119 members now as the flag was at half mast today with the details of someone who has died. I live in the eastern suburbs which back on to the hill face and natural scrub. Sometimes roos are found in the city and beyond.
Around here, we see herds of deer all the time. With deer, came cougar. There were black bears along the creek in the nature reserve area over the back yard. Lots of hare because the wildlife control killed a couple of coyotes a few years back. Spotted a few coyotes in the neighborhood so that’s good for controlling the population of wild hare.
I had seen a large herd of elks near a golf course maybe 12 miles away. A huge bull with a herd of 40+ who will come on the golf course during the nights. We know because they left hoof prints on the greens.
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I was going through the golf bags in the garage looking for a spare wedge for a new golfer. Went through half way and my eyes were caught with the driver I used to play from 2006-early 2010. Titleist 905R with green Aldila 65.
I cleaned up the dust and inspected and cleaned the grip before I took it to the driving range.
Hit maybe 35-40 balls with the 905R. First few failed to turn it over. Even the 400 c.c. head volume is not that far away from today’s 460 c.c.; I could feel the missed hits.
Towards the later part after warmed up a bit. I remembered just how good this driver was to me.
I think I will put it back to play for the autumn golf.
Oldies are still the goodies.
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LOL, Ya don’t say?..I brought my 1989 TM 9.5* Burner Plus with a custom 43 inch Graphite Shaft out of hibernation Saturday for the young boys to take a whack with it. I used to be able to crank out…265 yd drives with that very consistently when I was 28-32 yo. The ball looks bigger than the head now…I’ll post a photo on here later. I can still generate like 98mph SS with it, but I was only hitting it about 225ish on Saturday. The young guns, couldn’t keep it on the planet!
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Yes, I have a few of those plus the fairway woods. I believe the driving distance for the tour back then was just about averaging 265 yards, as you used to have. I’ll be lucky to get 220 out of it now with the TTDG steel shaft.
The tour burner plus was a little more forgiving than the persimmon drivers but not by much. I bought them because of the low maintenance requirement than the persimmon woods.
At 275 c.c. it’s a lot smaller than the 905R 400 c.c.
I can deal with the 400 c.c. size but the 275 c.c. head would be like today’s 3 wood size.
Plus the construction was designed to be reasonablelly durable. not a whole lot of spring like effect from the burner plus.
the 905R however, has that feel of ball jumping away from the club face when I found the sweet spot.
The 905 R comparing to the new drivers is built like a tank. A little less forgiving but more durable. Will never have the separation of laminated parts from hitting golf balls.
The Aldila shaft is not like the $1,200 shaft, but not that behind.
I don;t knon how much distance I could get out of it now. I can hit the back net on the driving range 65’-70’ high, 230 yards away. It’ll ne interesting when I take it out in the wet condition. It’ll be mostly just carrying distance.
I was meeting 3 others at the driving range yesterday and this little muni golf course was packed with golfers with winde and rain 3 days in a roll prior. No rain yesterday morning, proably was the reason and no frost because the rain brought in warmer temperature.
I can see that. I came into golf with the prior version from TM, IIRC, the System2 Midsize line. Could murder the ball if I caught it just so—I hit one of the best drives in my life to the base of 6’s hill at Pebble, into a pretty stiff wind.
Still nowhere as forgiving as the 905r you guys mentioned, or this modified, Dollar General LST I’ve turned this G425 Max into. (Replace 26 g rear weight with 15, stuff head with 6 cotton balls, make the head weight back up with lead tape, right below and a hair behind the face. Gets rid of that “dumbbell” feel to the head that was messing with my wrists. Plus appears to have dumped a bunch of spin.)
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Yes, whatever works for you, because you are the only one will know what is your preference. Trying to optimize using the general data base will not wrok 100% all the time, a good reference nevertheless.
I have the original Pittsburgh driver, Burner Plus, System 2 Mid. and many other.
See, I was the original golf equipment junkie. Especially when I was only responsible for myself only.
Even with the system2 Mid. I could only average 220-230 when I made good contact.
Unlike the newer drivers with graphite shafts which will spit out another 25%-35% additional yardage with the same golf swing.
My longest averaging driving was with a 47" SMT, and that was how I injured my back. The effect showed up years later.
I’m staying with a shorter driver these days, and my back thanks me for it.
Most golfers do not understand that driver is not all about spin rate, launch angle and distance. The important part is the feel the golfer gets. If it feels good, it’ll find the fairway more often. Any knowledgeable golf fitter could tell you this, only if they are honest and dare to tell the truth, not what golfers like to hear.
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BTW, I thought the system 2 Mid has a muted sound already, why the cotton balls? It won’t add much meaningful weight to the head and the sound is already deaden.
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I agree with that, and here’s my thought about why. Golf is a dynamic, unconsciously governed skill when done well. Like driving a car. We call it “feel”, but maybe a better way to think of it as autonomous control of a lot of subtle movements that need to be repeatable with very high precision and accuracy to be have success playing golf. And most people are going to be better at repeating those movements if their conscious brain gets out of the way.
If the feel is good, your body is going to be more easily able to use your kinesthetic sense to keep track of the clubface, low point, and path. If you’re keeping track of all of those and hitting your movements repeatedly, your strike quality will be high, and your smash near maximum. Smash near maximum? You’ve got great ball speed then, and it’s simply a matter of tinkering with launch and spin to get on that narrow graph line that optimizes both and optimizes distance.
But if the feel’s off…you’re going to feel like you’re fighting with yourself to move the club. Which isn’t fluid, takes a lot of effort, and isn’t efficient.
These feels are different for everyone. Me, I evidently am really sensitive to weight distribution in the head AND swingweight. Stupidly so. But I’ve picked up a golf club, had my wife add or take off lead tape until my hands go, “That! Leave it at that!”, and damned if the swingweight scale for the woods and hybrids isn’t between D4.0 and D4.8. On a slope. With the Driver lighter and 4H heavier. Driver feels much better without the giant weight hanging off the ass-end, and a lot more weight on the sole just behind the face. Shrug.
Stupid. But it works, so it’s not stupid.
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Didn’t add anything to the TM. Most definitely added things to the G425 Max.
It still sounds like Beer-league Softball Day when I hit it, but now it’s only “aluminum-bat sound”, and not “aluminum bat bashing a galvanized trash can…”
Gahhh, it’s still awful. I was apologizing to people at the range last night before hitting with it. They claimed to be fine, but when I looked up after a half dozen, I saw they’d moved about 40 stations down…LOL.
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Yes, for the few moments I had in the past, the golf clubs felt like an extension to my arm. No extra thoughts when I swing it. Call it in the zone or call it the extension from the nice bourbon last night