What’s In San Diego’s best Golf Coach’s Golf Bag?

Understanding shaft selection – All golf shafts bend forward into the ball as you approach impact. In stop-action photographs, it looks like the clubhead will arrive at the ball while the middle of the shaft is far behind, like the letter C. Because of this, softer shafts hit the ball higher and lefter, while stiffer shafts hit the ball lower and righter. So if you slice the ball, a soft shaft would make your slice less pronounced, but you should not select your shaft to compensate for a flaw, you should select it based upon your clubhead speed. If your clubhead speed with a driver is less than 95 mph, you should play with a regular shaft flex. If your clubhead speed is between 95 mph and 105 mph, you should play with a stiff flex. Finally, only if your clubhead speed is over 105 mph should you use an extra stiff (X) flex. The better you get, the more you will benefit from the specific flex pattern of a custom shaft. You can “dial-in” a trajectory based upon your swing speed. Finally, keep in mind the correct relationship for overall weight in your driver-fairway wood-hybrid shafts is “10-10-10″. For example, if your driver has a 60g shaft, your fairway woods should have 70g shafts, and your hybrids should have 80g shafts. Sometimes it is hard to get it exact, but do the best you can. Mine, for example, are 70g, 80g, and 93g. Other pros teaching golf lessons in San Diego do not go the extra mile in picking out what the best equipment is for the skill level of the student.

The bounce angle on your wedges is important to fit properly. If you have a normal angle of descent on your partial wedge shots, a sizable bounce of 8° to 10° will benefit you, keeping the club from “digging.” In addition, you need bounce on any wedge you plan to play from a greenside bunker. Whenever I have a greenside bunker shot, I take both my 60° and 54° to the bunker with me. If the shot is short (40′ or less), requires height, or stopping power, I will use the 60°. However, longer shots that require less height and can roll out are hit far more easily with the 54° club. Players who use a shallower angle of approach on partial wedges sometimes prefer a lesser bounce angle. This is fine as long as the ball is hit while the club is still descending to some degree. The attempt to “slip the club under the ball” to get it up fast is an erroneous concept. A scooping action, causing both fat and thin shots, is the result. In addition, a 60° wedge with 4° of bounce would never be as effective a club from the sand as one that had more bounce because of its tendency to “dig”.

There are two factors affecting the lies of your clubs. First, centrifugal force raises your hands slightly at impact in relation to where they were at address. For a good player, this can be as little as 1 inch. For a less skilled player, the hands may be 6 to 8 inches higher at impact than where they started. Second, the shaft “droops” when you swing it. That means that viewed from the “down-the-line view” the shaft bends at high-speed in a direction that makes it look almost like you were holding a piece of rope with a weight attached to it. 3° to 5° of shaft “droop” or deflection in this direction is very normal, and for softer shafts, up to 10° is possible.

As a result of these two factors, if you were to sole the club flush on the ground at address and make a normal swing, the toe of the club would hit the ground first and twist the club open at impact. That is why the hands should be set lower at address so that the toe of the club is slightly off the ground. Still, raising the hands through impact is such a prevalent fault that if you are fitted using a “lie board”, nearly always you will be told your irons need to be bent significantly upright.

Although you may get some temporary relief from toed or pushed shots by this over-bending, in the long run it will work against you. As your swing improves and a lower hand position at impact is achieved, overly upright irons will cause severe pulls and hooks. As a result, you should bend your irons according to your fingertip-to-the-ground distance more than what a lie board seems to be telling you. 1° flat or 1° upright would not be a major problem, but be very suspicious if you are told your clubs need to be 3° to 6° upright. I have my own lie and loft bending machine to make sure the specifications of my clubs are perfect and I am happy to precision bend a set for one of my students. What other golf lessons in San Diego offer that kind of service?

It is not uncommon for the manufacturers to have their clubs differ significantly from the listed specifications, so getting your clubs checked by someone who has an accurate machine is a great idea. Finally, tall people have longer arms and shorter people have shorter arms. That means that nearly everyone’s fingertip-to-the-ground distance is the same. As a result, it is a bad idea to get your lies bent a long way from what is standard, and an even worse idea to have your clubshafts shortened or lengthened because you think you are much taller or shorter than normal in height.

Gloves should fit snugly when they are first bought. They will stretch out as time goes on. If you can completely close the Velcro when you first buy it, it is probably too large. In high school, I wore a medium large size glove. Now, even though I am 6’2″, weigh 180 pounds and wear a size 11 wide shoe, my glove size is men’s small. Regular cut means you have standard length fingers and standard hand thickness. Cadet cut is designed for those who have shorter fingers and thicker hands. Try all gloves on before you purchase them. Make sure they fit snugly, but do not bind. Also, if the seam on the thumb is in front and between your finger print pad and the club so you can feel it when you press down with your grip, do not buy that glove. The seam should be back over the top of the thumbnail and out of the way.

The argument for and against the two rangefinding systems is based upon the concept of how soon and how much you have to guess. GPS was first on the scene, using a satellite feed to give you every yardage you could ever hope to want, except the one you need most, the one to the pin. This is because all the other landmarks on the golf course remain stationary, but the hole is changed every day.

Some advanced GPS systems at high-end clubs try to allow for this, but normal GPS that you would get on your phone or wristwatch cannot truly give you the pin. Lasers, on the other hand, fire a beam that will give you a precise yardage to anything you can lock onto. If the pin has a reflector, it is very easy to do this. If not, some expertise is required. It is always a good idea to acquire the pin with a laser rangefinder and then miss it on purpose to make sure you get two different readings. If you don’t, you run the risk of missing on the first try and hitting, for example, the hillside behind the green, thinking you got the pin instead.

GPS is popular because lots of nice courses have it built into the cart. The problem with it is that it requires you to make one extra guess. For example, if you laser the pin to 158 yards and also laser the front bunker carry of 141 yards, you have a rock-solid basis from which to begin guessing how much the other factors will affect the distance it will PLAY. Those three factors are: Uphill or downhill? Into the wind or downwind? Good lie or bad lie? A Tour caddy would never advise his player to add or subtract a club or a half a club, because that is not precise. Half a club for Tiger Woods and half a club for most golfers are very different distances. Instead, you might hear him say something like there is 10 yards of “hurt” because the shot is into the wind and five more yards for the uphill. Adding 15 yards to the original 158 yards gives you a total that the shot will PLAY, equaling 173 yards. Granted, assessing the wind and the upslope constitute a guess, but the original pin and bunker yardages were exact.

When I play in a cart that has GPS, I always compare the exact laser yardage to the pin with what the GPS gives me. As a general rule, I would say that half the time the GPS is within 5 yards of being correct, 25% of the time it is between five and 10 yards of being correct, and the other 25% of the time it is more than 10 yards off. If you are more than 10 yards off 4 times a round before you begin guessing about wind, slope, and lie, the potential for a too long or too short disaster looms large. If you try to make the argument, “It doesn’t matter that much for me, I cannot hit my clubs precise distances,” you are actually making the argument that it IS more important for YOU not to be 10 yards off to begin with. In short, even though GPS seems cool because of its simple convenience, and is better than nothing, it is simply inferior to a laser rangefinder and is seldom used by better players.

To play effectively in the rain, I think there are five pieces of equipment necessary to gain an advantage over the elements and the competition. First, a rainsuit. You need both a jacket and pants. Water resistant means the suit is light-weight and will keep the water out pretty well, but not completely over time. Not uncommon to get a rainsuit of this kind for $100 or less. Can be ideal for areas where it rains very little, not very hard, and stays warm. Next, waterproof. This is a much sturdier kind of suit that is both warmer and drier. $100-$400, depending upon the manufacturer.

Finally, Gore-Tex. This is the highest grade suit that is both super warm and super waterproof. If it’s raining in Scotland or the Pacific Northwest and you don’t have one of these, you would be at a severe disadvantage. Unfortunately, they can cost $500 or more.

Second, a good umbrella. Make sure you get the larger size with the flexible stays so a wind gust won’t turn it inside out. When you are finished using it, make sure you put it into the little sleeve on the outside of your bag and not inside with the clubs so the shafts and grips won’t get wet. Third, a rain hat. A regular ball cap will not do the job because when you are over a shot or a putt, you will feel the cold rain going down the back of your neck. Try to get something with a wide brim that goes all the way around to avoid this problem.

Fourth, rain gloves. Unlike regular gloves, which are worn only on the left hand and made of Cabretta leather, rain gloves are worn on both hands and made of cotton. Regular gloves get slippery when wet and become very difficult take on and off. Rain gloves do not slip when wet and stay on. If you have not played with gloves on both hands, it is a bit of an adjustment at first, but a huge advantage if you have them and others do not. They need to be wet to be effective. If it stops raining and they start to dry out, they work less well.

Finally, your club cover. This might be the most important item in your foul weather arsenal but is seldom used. It is the little hood that comes with your golf bag when you buy it that most people throw in the trunk or lose immediately. No matter how dry YOU are, if you have rain going down into your bag making your shafts and grips wet, you will not be successful. Keep it on and zip it up between shots. One final option is a hand warmer. There are two kinds: the chemical ones that last for a few hours and are disposable and the rechargeable electric ones that will last for a full round very easily. I saw one recently that was about the size of a disposable lighter and it was incredibly warm.

The rules of golf allow every player to carry 14 clubs. Three of them are the same for all players. They are:

+ A driver with the loft set for optimal launch angle and distance.
+ A 60° wedge with the correct bounce angle for you.
+ A putter with enough loft to get the ball to roll properly.

The rest of the set should be made up of clubs that will fill the gap between your longest club and your shortest club in equal increments and with optimal trajectories. There are three categories:

1.Fairway Woods

Your 3-wood goes farther than any club in the bag except the driver and can be hit off the ground. Like the driver, it must be hit high enough to go to maximum distance. They vary from 13° to 17° of loft, with 15° being the average. If you have selected the correct loft to match your clubhead speed, a well hit shot that hits the green will roll no more than 15′ from where it landed. Most people also carry a 5-wood, which should have approximately 4°-5° more loft than your 3-wood.

2. Hybrids

These clubs are designed to replace the long irons. For a long iron to be an effective club, it must fly high enough to go the correct distance and stop quickly on the green. They offer the better player superior control, but with insufficient clubhead speed the smallish heads will not elevate the ball. Hybrid heads look like mini- fairway woods with a low center of gravity that gets the ball up in the air much more easily and are very forgiving. They are a great choice from the rough or fairway bunkers. My clubhead speed with a driver is 108 mph, so I use both a 3 and 4 iron with only 1 hybrid. Most players should carry two hybrids, with lofts of approximately 19° and 25°. Fairway woods and hybrids are adjustable just like drivers, so you will be able to dial in the correct height and distance for each club.

3.Irons

The final seven clubs in your set will fill the gap between your 60° wedge and your 25° hybrid. I have a 6° gap between my 60° wedge and my 54° wedge. Then, another 6° gap between my 54° wedge and my 48° wedge. From there on, all my clubs vary 4° per club. Many players prefer their most lofted clubs to vary by 4° instead of by 6°. That set would contain 60°, 56°, and 52° clubs. The loft for the same club may vary widely between manufacturers. Some pitching wedges are turned down to 44°or 45°. So depending upon how you configure your set, your longest iron may be a 6 iron or 5 iron. Simply fill in the last seven clubs evenly with the clubs that are offered by the manufacturer you have selected.