Just as I was saying – practise with the equipment that ‘punishes’ you for not using the correct technique, or at least gives you enough feedback to tell that you are doing wrong.

Fight Vs Flight
Rigid singlespeed Vs lightweight full sus
Unforgiving Studio Speakers Vs Flattering HiFi speakers
Winter road bike Vs carbon fibre Sunday best

If you’re doing it professionally, or just get a kick out of being as “pure” as possible, then you should use the equipment that is going to give you the most feedback and the purest experience. The rest of us need all the help we can get, and the fun is actually in enjoying the activity (aided by the equipment) not by pushing ourselves to be as good as we can be.

Though of course if you get serious, you should of course use appropriate equipment

Yes, but once you have learnt a poor golf swing it is difficult to change – as the OP is learning it is worth trying to get it somewhat correct in the first place – golf is frustrating enough as it is so might as well try to reduce the frustrations by not having a fundamental flaw in your swing developed through bad practise.

I took it up at the begnning of the year as in the constructin industry and most networking is allegidly done on the course.

Scoured ebay for a few months and picked up a set of Donnay clubs, bag, balls for £30. It was a cheap bag so looked for anotehr and then got a titleist bag for £15.. which also had another set of graphite shafted donnay clubs in! So you can start cheap.

A good ebay seller is hacker Golf Shack in Pompey – He’s had some good stuff in the shop before now.

You can learn to swing a golf club perfectly well with cavity clubs. The club will not create a bad swing!! The truth is, 90% of golfers have poor golf swings whatever clubs they use, some because of self teaching (me), some because of no teaching, some because they can’t bend in the right places and others just don’t care. Most of them can enjoy their golf by using forgiving clubs, very few will using blades.
A good instructor will teach the correct swing to an individual with whatever clubs they own – that individual still needs the ability and talent to be able to repeat that in a methodical way, and indeed the ‘flair’ for want of a better word, to ignore the teaching when some situations demand it.

but the point is that the cavity back club will let you get away with a poor swing as they are more forgiving and provide less feedback from the ball strike.

It is therefore easier to deviate from the correct swing to one that is flawed without noticing it, and then it is a long way back.

How can you develop a repeatable swing without the feedback that one swing differs from another???

This thread is useless without handicaps … 😉

Most of them can enjoy their golf by using forgiving clubs, very few will using blades.
A good instructor will teach the correct swing to an individual with whatever clubs they own

Spot on.

1/2 dozen lessons followed by practice between each lesson ie. a few hundred balls on the driving range without going near a golf course for a few weeks. Can be boring but you will see more improvement than 50 rounds of golf in 6 months. Practice chipping and putting in the garden/on the carpet if you can.

This thread is useless without handicaps …

No handicap currently as not played much for a few years 😳 Used to be ok ie. offered a assistant pro job at 16 (off 2 h’cap) but didn’t think I was good enough to ever play the tour and didn’t fancy being a club pro. Played in NE Scotland teams at junior and senior level.

4.6 before I jacked it in

2 Uncles are Club Professionals
1 Brother plays for the county
1 Cousin plays for England Boys
1 Other cousin used play for England boys

don’t play anymore but was a solid duffer at 13 around gatton manor at ockley, which is a fairly decent course. Played to hcap round East Sussex National. Ball striking is fairly ok but short game not so great.

I struggled with consistency because of a swing error brought on my loads of practice with some cavity back clubs which lost me all my swing speed and got me a bit too much lateral movement. Couldn’t effect the swing change needed to get it back ‘cos I was playing all the time and making the change would need a long period of practise.

I am therefore speaking from bitter experience – If only I had bought my Apex redlines earlier 🙁

I occasionally have intensive periods of practise trying to move my swing back to what my dad taught me, but not really interested in playing regularly as it takes away from time on the bike 🙂

Played to hcap round East Sussex National.

36?

Edit – sorry, I thought you meant you were 13 years old when you played there 😀

This thread is useless without handicaps …

er… about 70, I think. I appreciate all the input, btw; my own thought (fwiw) is that I probably would benefit most from a set of clubs that hits the sweetspot in the middle – flatters my (in)ability enough that I want to continue playing, while also encouraging me to swing correctly.

For reference, I ride a HT because a) I’m lazy and can’t be bothered with maintenance; b) I love the do-it-all simplicity and value; and c) a 6-inch compensator is too much bike for me and I enjoy picking a line. Come to think of it, it probably does say a lot about the kinds of clubs I need… 🙂

You’re taking up Golf with a history of a bad back !!! 😕 good luck

i totally disagree with pushing a beginner towards blades for a purer strike. Someone whos just starting will not be able to strike the ball consistantly enough to gain the feedback and intuition your suggesting from the clubhead.

The fundamentals of a good swing when you’re really beginning are also reliant on a good teaching pro. A clubhead with a large sweetspot will give you what your looking for to be able to get the ball airbourne and travelling whilst reducing the cut spin on the ball – something which blades will definitely not do.

The aim of the game is to enjoy it, not get so hacked off with it that you dont want to go out because youre thinning / topping / slicing / hooking everything. Once you’ve mastered the basics, then you can look at a less forgiving club to move towards.

I’ve just come from titleist blades onto Mizuno mp60’s, but somehing like a callaway big bertha, x-12, x-14, will be cheap and good value second hand. When you get a bit better and move towards less forgiving clubs, the shaft is more important componant to the clubhead really.

A forged club head is softer by design to promote a softer feel and spin on the ball / workability on the ball – something you won;t be trying to achieve if your just starting, where as a stainless cast clubhead with a perimeter weighting will be ideal for 90% of golfers in the uk. Even some of the pro’s use cavity backed irons still.

Handicap as above i’m 1.7, there are usually 10 of us that knock about, 2 are on the europro tour, another is -3.1, another is -1.2, the rest are scratch – 4(ish)

I have a friend who used to play colts cricket for sussex. He will shot 6-7 over round a golf course even if he hasn’t played for a while.

Once we were down the park and I overarm bowled a golf ball at him whilst he used a 6 iron to take the ball off the half volley and hit a full 6 iron shot off it. He repeated this several times.

He then bowled to me and I also did it.

I can also line up a row a balls in the range and hit them ‘walking’ along the line.

If I can do this and hit the sweetspot consistently on my irons (which is pretty large on the redlines and apex pluses…) then virtually anyone can – trust me.

It’s is all in your head as to whether you can do it or not (which is where most of my problems lie).

People should talk themselves down so much – the golf club review forums are full of people that consistently shot mediocre scores with cavity backs and then bought some blades and cut their scores down.

I notice how it is nearly always people with low handicaps that tell everyone else they should be using cavity backs.

My first teaching pro recommended me some cast blades – petron impalas.

And I am also talking primarily about learning/practising with blades, not necessarily playing with them. Although the ball striking feel of the redlines is so sweet…

(lot of golfers on here! :roll:)

Its not worth getting het up about, everyones got valid points……We’ll all agree the proper tuition and hours spent practising that, is more important than the design of a club head, I’m sure?

(played golf for 36 yrs hcp 5.0)

I was going to reply to TurnerGuy’s (the world’s unluckiest golfer?) posts above but it must be a troll, surely!

which bit ? all true unfortunately.

And the only medal I won at my golf club was on a day when I thinned everything, but luckely they went straight. Bit of an embarrasment, that one.

My dad was a 4 hcap (got his wentworth score card at 4) but his genes must have gone to my sister. I got my mothers – once I saw her goofy tennis serve I knew it as my serve is none too good.

Won that corporate day at East Sussex National and I did win a daily telegraph regional foursome two days after I decided to give up, which meant I had to keep playing for another 3 months before the expenses paid final in Madiera, where I blew out (took the cavity backs and not the redlines!). Before the regional final I couldn’t hit the ball straight in the nets beforehand – shanking everything – then first shot on the fairway nailed a 5 iron to 2 feet from a sloping lie and played like that all the way round whilst my partner played mediocre – go figure.

Day after we got back I bought my first mountain bike and haven’t looked back!

I struggle to maintain a ten – so average golfers recommend blades as well. Some seriously good players on here. My ambition is to get into single figures, I’ll never be 1.7!!

I’ve got loads of unused golf balls in packets.

Maxfli noodle Ice etc. For Sale 🙂

They came with other items at an auction. I dont want them.

Got a massive bag of tees and gloves 🙂

Could do a box set for you 🙂

You need an Orange 5 and a dose of get-out-and-ride 😉

I have just read “Dream On” – about some guy trying to get a par round within a year.

Not an awful lot in it I would recommend trying apart from the bits about the pre-shot routine and trying to conjure up memories of a good shot, and visualisation and using a clear-key to mask the chance of any swing thoughts getting in the way.

But at the end, when he is struggling to get near par, he talks to a guy named David Waters (I think) who has some EFT technique to combat his anxieties, and so he loses his fears of certain tee shots, etc, and manages a par round.

It seemed to me he got in a mess with his swing by not taking advantages of the availability of free lessons – he should have scheduled a regular 10 minute swing check every fortnight instead of letting his grip deteriorate badly several times – and by trawling the net looking for swing ‘secrets’ when he had read hogans fundamentals and should have just relied on that.