New short game

2 years ago it was irons, last year it was Driver & 3 wood, this year it’s putters & wedges.
First things first does anyone else think the price of new golf kit is just getting bloody ridiculous??
Why change then? Well, putter is an old Nike Method with a fat grip and I just don’t hole enough putts.
Wedges, I tend to replace every 3-4 years, I rely quite heavily on my chipping/pitching and a key element of that is the ability to apply check. As the grooves start to wear that ability diminishes…so new wedges required.

What am I looking at?

I’m a blader, I can’t stand those space invader type contraptions!! I have tried and to be honest they’re just k up to about 10 foot, above that no, above 20 feet just absolutely no.
Of the blades I’m feeling the heavier the better. Nothing decided yet but the scotty Newport with the heaviest weighting is winning so far. Got a SAM putt lab session Weds and have a few candidates to try out.

In terms of wedges I said (after they welched on their warranty when my 4 iron shaft broke) that I would NEVER buy another Taylormade, their new wedges are the grippiest look and feel. So do I cut my nose to spite my face?? Last 3 sets of wedges have been Callaway Mack daddies and they have served me well, then there’s vokies, yep it’ll be a tough call.

Why does everyone think it’s the equipment rather than the person holding it? I rarely change my clubs - if I have a problem I go to the range and sort it out. Club manufacturers just want to con people out of buying their new products every year by saying it’s the best. Didn’t they say that last time?

My current putter is 12/13 years old LP, there’s speckled rust on the shaft, I can’t say I haven’t stuck by it, despite having gone through at least a couple of phases of really shocking long putting.

With regard to wedges, grooves are like tyre treads once they wear down they don’t work too well.

I have just invested in a new putter. This one. The reason I got a new putter was that the one I was using was a very simple type - a present for the work I did for a photo society - the one you should put on the wall as a memento. The other reason is that - as mentioned in another post - I won money at our pro shops Xmas raffle. In that post I said I won £150. But in fact I won £225, I won two cash prizes. As you can only spend the money in the pro shop, I went for a putter. Had a proper fitting and everything, so got a mini lesson as well. Only got it yesterday, so yet to try it out.....

Absolutely none of my bag was purchased new. I agree that the cost of new kit now is absurd - £500+ for a new driver?!?!? Golfers were always gullible re. so-called 'new' technology. The latest is apparently AI designed kit. I'm surprised some of the clubs don't claim to cure cancer or something as a bonus.
Most of the time it's that players simply can't strike a ball out of the centre of a clubface consistently because a) technique is poor and b) it takes too much time invested in practice to overcome a).

Yes, new wedges have sharper grooves that makes a bit of difference re. spin for a short while. The tradeoff is they trash golf balls, which are the main consumable. Like inkjet printer ink, they're a huge cost for most via loss and damage because every hacker has to use ProV1s or some other Tour-level ball, don't they? I have just (literally, within the last couple of months) iced my Vokey 200 series wedges, but not because of anything to do with the grooves wearing. They're not legal anymore I believe, or won't be, soon. They still spin like a b'stard with a urethane ball, even though they're well worn right through to the steel on the sweet spot. For most, spin is far more linked to strike quality that it is to wear and tear, so we're back at technique/practice again.

I have a couple of putters. My current go-to is an original Rife Aussie anser-style. Ian Baker-Finch used one pretty well for a while. Designed by the same guy responsible for the EvnRoll putters I think. It cost me ~£30 via eBay a good few years ago, is made of single-piece milled 303SS, suits me well and looks almost new. The only reason I have a couple (the other's a Ping Anser Sigma G) is because, sometimes, I think a change is good for freshening things up a little, but I always end up back with the Rife Aussie. Poor putting is almost certainly down to technique, eyesight etc. Even the pros are absurd - look at all of them that apparently swear by AimPoint. Laughable. Barely more validated than plumb bobbing i.e. more golfing homeopathy. Crenshaw, Nicklaus, Locke etc could putt with a stick and still hole more or less everything.

There's probably some mileage in players going through a good fitting session across their entire bag at some point. Once that's done and new kit's in the bag, I think there's zero point in thinking the next season's "next greatest thing" is going to make a blind bit of difference to one's game.

I agree with big chunks of that Navy and I'm not an "Annual equipment manufacturers cannon fodder" (I don't have enough disposable income for that). My wedges are my most frequently replaced (every 4 years-ish) as I said my putter is over 13 years old now and it whilst it has had it's highs & lows, overall I think I can have higher highs and higher lows with a putter that better reflects and complements my putting stroke. I can only wait and see what results bring. I would also concede that there will be a fresh impetus on practice to bed the new kit in and that in itself will (or certainly should) help results. Even if not buying a putter I'd recommend a session or several on a SAM Putt Lab machine. Unbeknown to me I had quite a lefty aim bias (counteracted by a bit of an in to out poor strike - so ok at relatively modest putt length but a recipe for really inconsistent distance control on long putts (which TOTALLY reflects my on course putting).

With the wedges I was getting 12000rpm out of my 60 yard zipper pitches and full wedge shots as opposed to 9500 from my existing mack daddy wedges. Do I need 12k of backspin? not on the mush we're playing on at the moment...but on summer links? I cant wait.

The golfer is one of the most gullible customers going. If you compared how most players played with a random set of clubs from a charity shop vs a brand new custom fitted set you would see no measurable difference.

It's fun to buy new stuff, but there isn't much more to it than that.

So lesson learned...dont start a conversation on here about new kit, apart from INW mentioning that he's bought a new putter pretty much all the other comments centered around buying new kit = gullible as Frak or even worse i.e. it's not rusty worn old clubs that are the issue, you must be a Poopie ball striker. All implied if not directly accused, as I said lesson learned I'll keep my potential purchase options and the reasoning behind them to myself in future.

JAS wrote:So lesson learned...dont start a conversation on here about new kit, apart from INW mentioning that he's bought a new putter pretty much all the other comments centered around buying new kit = gullible as Frak or even worse i.e. it's not rusty worn old clubs that are the issue, you must be a Poopie ball striker. All implied if not directly accused, as I said lesson learned I'll keep my potential purchase options and the reasoning behind them to myself in future.

Don't take it to heart, JAS. I'm sceptical, in general, about the gains available from changing kit cf. manufacturer's claims etc. If you/someone wants to buy new gear, go for it, especially if you've done the testing to see if it actually makes a material difference to your game.

For too many amateurs, the latest driver just means they can perhaps hit it further into the cabbage...

Jas

Not sure anyone said keep it to yourself. This is a discussion forum. Why not offer a defense of your position?

And I clearly said there was a reason to get new gear.

navyblueshorts wrote:For too many amateurs, the latest driver just means they can perhaps hit it further into the cabbage...

Made my day!

I'm entirely second hand with my bag and delighted with the value from it. A mixture of GolfClubs4Cash (basically Golfbidder based in Scotland) and Gumtree.

On the thread topic, I'm gaming Cleveland CBX wedges in 46, 52, 58-deg. I love them. Forgiveness on the full swings but plenty of workability around the green.

I picked up an Odyssey Ten 2 ball on Gumtree in basically new condition for a decent price too. My putting is ropey but that's user error not the club. The course I'm a member at has largely been on winter greens (West Coast of Scotland!) whilst I've been playing so it's the area of my game I'm yet to really be able to grind at improving.

McLaren wrote:Jas

Why not offer a defense of your position?

Why? I don't have to defend/justify anything over and above what I already stated earlier in the thread.