It’s an exciting day here at SirShanksAlot.com! We are very happy to announce that we have joined forces with www.golfwrx.com … the internet’s newest golf forum. SirPuttsAlot and I had long considered starting our own golf forum but it is just so much work. We worried that a forum would take up too much of our time and it wouldn’t allow for daily posts. We instead decided to align ourselves with the folks over at Golfwrx.com. Their forum is a great place for golfers just like you to share ideas and comments… and a great place for us at SirShanksAlot.com to talk to all of you! SirPuttsAlot and I will both be members at Golfwrx.com and we look forward to talking to all of our readers as well as the current members at the site. Now you can come to SirShanksAlot.com, read all of our daily news, then join into the conversations at Golfwrx.com. This is an exciting partnership and I urge all of our readers to join Golfwrx.com …. it’s totally free too. Now on to the news of the day.
We have had some great emails this weekend so let’s get to some answers! Our first email asks us about custom fitting a set of irons. Our reader recently bought a set of irons from an internet retailer and now wants to know where to get them fit. Most stores will do the fitting for you but they will probably charge you for the work. They won’t do it for free if you didn’t buy the clubs from them. You might want to try a few simple tests at your local range before taking them into having them fit…
– Check for lie with some duct tape… oh duct tape… it’s good for everything! Place a piece of duct tape across the sole of your 5 iron. Draw a line in the center of the sole (front to back) using a sharpie. Hit a few balls off the driving range mat (the part that you stand on) and then have a look at the bottom of your club. The mat should have left marks on the tape. Are the marks close to the line that you drew? If so, the lie is pretty good… you want the center of the sole making contact with the ground. Are the marks all towards the toe? This means that the toe of the club is coming through along the ground… you will need the irons bent upright. Are the marks on the heel? This means you will need the clubs bent flat. The number of degrees the irons need to be bent depends on the distance between the center line and the marks. This is also a good way to check for length… think about it… if you were holding a 10 foot long club, it would rest mainly on the heel (unless you were 20 feet tall). If you had a 2 foot long club, it would probably rest on the toe because you wouldn’t be able to bend down far enough to make it sit flat. Sometimes you don’t need to change the lie angle because the same thing can be accomplished by changing the length.
– Check the grip size. Hold the club like you are going to hit. Are the finger tips of your top hand digging into the meaty part of your thumb? If so, make the grips a bit bigger. If there is a large gap between the thumb and fingers, you may require smaller grips.
– Check shaft flex. This is tough to do on your own. I hope that you checked your swing speed before ordering your clubs!
There you go… a few easy things to do before taking your clubs in for a fitting. It will give you a good idea of what you need and what you don’t need. If you notice a lot of different marks during the lie test, you may want to hold off on getting your clubs tweaked. Try the test again in another month and see if there is a pattern developing. Thanks for the email!
On to the next email… let’s talk a bit about low compression golf balls. These are great for a lot of players with slower swing speeds. The soft core compresses on impact and allows for more distance. These balls aren’t for everyone though… someone that swings too hard will compress the core too much and the ball will do nothing. Every company has a low compression option… Nike Mojo, Titleist DT Solo, Dunlop LoCo, Precept Laddie… you get the idea. Try a sleeve of each and see which one you like the best. Our best seller at my shop is the Dunlop LoCo… it’s a great ball for the price. A rule of thumb here… you you use stiff shafts in your clubs, you probably don’t want to use a low compression ball like these. Try something a touch harder like a two piece distance ball.
An email about fake golf clubs. These seem to be springing up all over the place. It can sometimes be really hard to figure out what is real and what isn’t. The best thing to do is to buy from authorized dealers. We get the stuff straight from the factory. If you want to buy elsewhere… ask the seller questions and ask for references. Golfwrx.com has a Buy, Sell, Trade area too. Try something like that… at least you know how to track down the person that sold it to you!
Well I think that is all for now… I’m off to spend a bit of time at Golfwrx.com . Sign up and feel free to send me a message! Talk to you tomorrow!