Tag: golf

In My Golf Bag

Nick Momrik3 Comments

With all the club changes I’ve been making, my bag has quite an assortment of brands. Fourteen clubs from 5 manufacturers.

  • Driver: Adams Golf Speedline 9064LS
  • 3 Wood: TaylorMade RocketBallz
  • Hybrids: Adams Golf Idea Tech V3 (3 and 4 iron)
  • Irons: Ping i20 (5-PW)
  • Wedges: Cleveland CG14 (52, 56, and 60 degree)
  • Putter: Odyssey White Ice D.A.R.T.
  • Balls: Titleist Pro V1x
  • Rangefinder: Bushnell V2 Tour

The TaylorMade RocketBallz 3 wood could make my driver obsolete. The club hits the ball a mile and then some! It came in yesterday, so I’ll give it a week in the bag before I jump to any conclusions, especially since I bought the driver at this time last year.

I only buy pre-owned golf balls from Knetgolf. Unless you are close to playing scratch golf, there is no reason to pay full price for brand new golf balls. A dozen of the Titleists I play go for around $50 at the store. I usually get 10 dozen of them, lightly used, for $160. Do the math. When you hit a brand new ball a couple of times you end up with a pre-owned ball anyway. Are those first few hits worth paying 3 times as much? Over the course of a year you’ll save a lot of money hitting used balls and your scores won’t suffer.

If you don’t have a rangefinder in your bag, make the investment. You can get a nice one for $250 or less on eBay or if you watch for sales. A rangefinder speeds up the pace of place, takes the guess work out of walking off distances, and helps to improve your game because you’ll learn how far you really hit your clubs.

The Not So Great Tip

Nick Momrik1 Comment

It turns out the golf tip my buddy gave me a couple of weeks ago wasn’t so great after all. Focusing on a feeling of keeping the club face closed going back caused my swing plane to get really vertical. A steep swing is especially bad as you get into the longer clubs which are meant to be swung with a sweeping attack at the ball.

A few months ago, before I came to Phoenix, I bought a golf lesson package on Groupon. It was $179 for 3 one hour lessons and a 90 minute playing lesson with a pro at one of the Troon golf courses in Scottsdale. The pro’s name in Ken Carpenter and he has some game to back up his teaching. He played in the Phoenix Open, which is one of the top tournaments on the PGA Tour, and was once an instructor for Golf Digest. It’s safe to say I’ve never worked with anyone that has more knowledge of the game than Ken. His normal lesson rate is $140/hour, so the Groupon was a hell of a deal.

During the lesson, we worked outside at the range, but Ken had a camera and laptop setup there. After warming up he had me take a few swings and then showed them to me on the computer. I had the golf club nearly straight up and down at the top of the back swing. Not good. It’s difficult to make solid contact from that position and even harder to have any consistency.

He talked to me about the swing plane and helped me feel what the correct position was instead of only telling me, showing me in his swing, or showing me on a video. As I took my stance he guided my club and arms back into the correct position. I’ve worked on my swing plane before, so it wasn’t very difficult to understand and get a feel for.

A new thing I’d never realized was where my hands should be in relation to the shaft of the club and where they should stop. If I look back, it should feel as if my hands are stopping out there to my right. I’ve always swung my arms more around my body to change the swing plane, which brings a lot of unnecessary shoulder movement and causes other issues. When GolfTEC worked with me on shortening my swing it was always about my arms and we never talked about the position of the hands.

It didn’t take me long to get a good feel for the swing plane and I started hitting consistent shots. It was really nice to be taking lessons on the range where you can instantly see the results in each shot. When I didn’t make solid contact, the misses were still pretty damn good. You always hear people say that better players have better misses.

Correcting the swing plane should prevent a lot of slicing because a vertical swing tends to come over the top. A swing on the correct plane is hard get going on the wrong path to and through the ball.

My next lesson is in a week and a half so I’m going to spend some quality time on the range before then. In fact, I’m headed to the range now, before I play a round with the guys. I’m excited to see where my swing goes with the rest of the lessons.

GolfTEC Lesson 11

Nick Momrik1 Comment

Last winter when I was out here in Phoenix I took 10 lessons from GolfTEC, which improved my golf game a lot. I had a free lesson from a referral and they offered me another free lesson because my coach moved on. So of course I took them up on the offer, especially since I’ve really been struggling with my game this year. The lesson was on Wednesday of this week.

Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is the video of a swing at the end of the lesson.

I had two 30 minute lessons, so I booked them together since I didn’t plan on signing up for more lessons. We were able to cover quite a bit in the hour and I’ve already started working on some of this stuff at the range. Here are the notes he wrote for me:

  • Grip: Not quite as much of a long left thumb. Somewhat is okay. Right hand crease in line with left hand crease.
  • Hands slightly ahead at address with your irons and the upper body tilted right.
  • Feel like the hands finish in front of the right hip pocket at the top with extension.
  • Low hands and high club head at the top.
  • Lower body engages earlier to stop your back swing.
  • On the down swing, the head should stay back behind the ball with the weight already back to the left….the left hip will rotate around the pivot point of a posting left leg.

Here is a video with thoughts from the instructor.

Below are a bunch of stills with audio to go with each of them.

I’ve always had a very “armsy” and “handsy” swing, which is inconsistent because it relies so much on timing. I’ve usually hit slices, but there are days when my timing is different and I’ll hit big draws. Other days it’s completely different from shot to shot. It’s a frustrating way to play golf.

While working on some of these changes today at the range a buddy gave me one of the best golf tips I’ve ever heard to fix this problem. I’ve taken lessons from 5 or 6 coaches in the last 12 years and none of them have been able to get me to understand the role the arms play in the golf swing. Today, a golfing buddy made it click for me.

He told me to feel like I’m hooding the face of the club (keeping it closed relative to my path) going back, which will keep my wrists and hands from getting too involved. It also helps my arms and chest move as one piece in the back swing and everything will be more on the target line. It’s one of the most awkward feelings in the world because I’ve been playing with my arms for so long, but it was feeling a bit better by the time I emptied a jumbo bucket of balls.

I’m excited to keep working on that because I think it has the potential to improve my game more than any change I’ve ever made. It also will prevent me from making such a long back swing because it’s impossible if the arms and chest are working together. I can’t wait to be dipping below 80 again because I’ve been getting a lot of 90+ scores so far this year.

I Will Never Buy Another TaylorMade Product

Nick Momrik3 Comments

Today, 13 days after sending my message, I finally got a reply from TaylorMade. If you haven’t seen it, go back and read A Message to TaylorMade. After waiting nearly two weeks, I get the canned response you can read below. The last line way at the bottom is priceless. It’s pretty clear they didn’t take the time to read my message. I’ve spent well over $1,000 on TaylorMade products in the last few years. I expect better customer service. I’ve been a fan of their products for a long time, but I will never spend a dime on something with the word TaylorMade on it again.

Hello,

Thanks for the email.

We would like to opportunity to assist you in the repair or replacement
of your TaylorMade golf club. We offer a two year warranty from purchase
date on all of our clubs with proof of purchase. If your club qualifies
for a warranty, the first step in this process is to take your club to
your nearest authorized golf retailer that carries our product. They
will inspect the club and possibly contact us to begin the warranty
process using their account. To find your nearest authorized retailer,
please visit www.taylormadegolf.com and click  Find a Retailer.

If you are unable to reach a retailer, please call us at 800-888-2582 so
one of our Customer Service Representatives can assist you with an
alternative solution.

Thank you again and we wish you continued success with your golf game!

Best regards,

Andy
TaylorMade – adidas Golf

http://taylormadegolf.com  | http://adidasgolf.com |
http://ashworthgolf.com
We sincerely hope that the quality and speed of our email response
satisfied your expectations.

Players Irons

Nick Momrik5 Comments

At the end of 2011 golf season, I was thinking about trying out more of a blade style iron (often referred to as Players Irons) for my next set. Then two of my TaylorMade Burner irons snapped in the course of a week and I wasn’t offered what I would consider a good solution to the problem. I don’t feel like sticking to these clubs if it’s a known problem and more of them are going to break.

Tonight I headed over to the PGA Tour Superstore in Scottsdale where they have every club you can imagine and an awesome indoor ball tracking system. I didn’t have any idea what brands of irons I wanted to try and I wanted to have an open mind, so I put my swing in the hands of their staff. A college kid named Nolan asked me about my scoring and started me off with the Ping i20 (Players) and G20 (Game Improvement). Immediately the i20 felt great. I was hitting a lot of crisp shots, with a slight draw.

So then he put a plastic board under the ball and taped the club to see when I was striking the sole. It was a little on the toe so he adjusted the lie angle of the club to 1.5 degrees upright, which led to me hitting the ball nice and square. Next, Nolan had me hit a random driver just to check my ball speed coming off the face because that’s how you determine a shaft flex. My ball speed indicated I was almost right in the middle of a regular and a stiff flex, with an edge going to regular. I’ve always played stiff flex shafts so I was surprised. I could see all of the numbers right in front of me and they don’t lie.

After hitting the i20 some more I asked if there was something similar he would recommend I try out. Nolan came back with the Titleist AP2 and I started crushing it. I wasn’t sure something could feel better than the i20 had, but the AP2 was smooth swinging and long! I was consistently hitting a 6 iron around 210 yards, which is typically the distance for the Burner 5 iron.

I hit both clubs some more and really liked them both. He gave me a sheet with the fitting specs and I told him I’d stop back out in a few days to try both clubs again to make sure it wasn’t a one day fluke.

So I get home and look up the prices online. Of course the AP2 irons cost $300 more than the i20. At $800 and $1,100 neither set is cheap because they’re brand new. The good news is both sets received Golf Digest’s Gold rating for Players Irons in the 2012 Hot List so I can’t go wrong with either one. After I get back out there to hit them again, hopefully I can confirm if they felt as good as they did tonight and I’ll decide what to do. One of the guys I golf with has a really good relationship with the PGA Tour Superstore and said he could get me a deal.

A Message to TaylorMade

Nick Momrik5 Comments

I just sent the following message to TaylorMade. We’ll see what happens.

Hi,
I have a set of the Burner irons that I purchased almost 2 years ago at the Saginaw Golf Centre in Saginaw, MI. Last September during a round of golf the 6 iron snapped inside the hosel and the head went flying down the fairway on a par 3. The shop called it in and then sent in the club for a free repair. I had my club back in about 3 weeks.

This past Sunday the same thing happened to my 5 iron on a shot just off the fairway. Since I’m out in Phoenix, AZ for a few months I took the club in to the PGA Tour Superstore in Scottsdale. They sent the club in and I expect I’ll get it back in about 3 weeks as well.

I just got home from the driving range, where the same exact thing has now happened to my 8 iron. This is starting to get ridiculous!

Every time I swing the club now I’m afraid something is going to break. I’m sure I could get this club sent in for a free repair as well, but I think it’s time to ask for a different option. How many more clubs out of this set are going to break on me?

Three clubs have now broken in less than 6 months and I’ll be without 2 of them for the next several weeks if I stick to the same repair options. It makes it tough to play golf without a full bag. Is there a way I could exchange my clubs for a new set or get some type of refund?

I’ve long been a fan of TaylorMade, but my confidence in the brand is fading fast. In addition to my irons, I play a hybrid, 5 wood, and 3 wood from your company. Before they started breaking, I’ve loved all of the clubs.

Please let me know how we can address the issues I’m having with these irons.

Thanks!