2017 Golf Thread

southshoresoxfan

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Playing Pinehills for the 1st time tomorrow afternoon then Agawam Run in East Providence Sat AM. Wish my wife would go away more often.

Joe and Leighs shaving an inch off my driver today. Charge is the cost of a new grip. I choked down an inch playing 9 yesterday and was more consistent with it.
 

TFP

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Playing Pinehills for the 1st time tomorrow afternoon then Agawam Run in East Providence Sat AM. Wish my wife would go away more often.

Joe and Leighs shaving an inch off my driver today. Charge is the cost of a new grip. I choked down an inch playing 9 yesterday and was more consistent with it.
Which course? Pinehills is awesome, I personally like the Nicklaus course better but both are beautiful.
 

steveluck7

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May 10, 2007
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Have fun! Haven't played Pinehills in a couple of years but always enjoy it. Nicklaus is my preference as well. Played there one time the day after a MA Amateur event. Greens were impossible, like putting in a parking lot
 

Stickman709

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Jul 20, 2014
15
Played the Jones course last Thursday. It was in great shape and beat me down. Very few bail out areas and apparently I picked up a few sleeves of sand seeking balls. Played Waverley Oaks in the afternoon and it isn't even close to matching Pinehills.
 

TFP

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It's actually not that bad. Some forced carries. Fairways are decent sized but not a ton of places to miss outside them. Greens are larger and hittable but not a lot of bailout spots. Whereas the Nicklaus course has small greens and fairways but places to miss.
 

FL4WL3SS

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It's actually not that bad. Some forced carries. Fairways are decent sized but not a ton of places to miss outside them. Greens are larger and hittable but not a lot of bailout spots. Whereas the Nicklaus course has small greens and fairways but places to miss.
Where are we playing next weekend?
 

88 MVP

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Dec 25, 2007
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Playing Pinehills for the 1st time tomorrow afternoon then Agawam Run in East Providence Sat AM. Wish my wife would go away more often.

Joe and Leighs shaving an inch off my driver today. Charge is the cost of a new grip. I choked down an inch playing 9 yesterday and was more consistent with it.
Did they do anything to adjust the swing weight after cutting the shaft down? I've been reading this thread and thinking about taking an inch off of my own driver. I leave it in the bag more than I should because I can't hit it nearly as consistently as my 3 wood.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Did they do anything to adjust the swing weight after cutting the shaft down? I've been reading this thread and thinking about taking an inch off of my own driver. I leave it in the bag more than I should because I can't hit it nearly as consistently as my 3 wood.
I asked him if it weighed less to add a little weight to it. Havent tested it out yet and I didnt follow up if weight was added or not so not too sure.
 

Phragle

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So it's how long now? Also what model is it? If it doesn't have adjustable weights then the only option is visible lead tape on the sole.

I'm a fan of cutting the driver down without adding weight fwiw.
 

jercra

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If you do add weight to the sole of a driver, be cognizant of where you add it. Front leads to lower, more driving flight. Back, higher. Left, draw. Right, cut. It's something tape was used for a lot before moveable and changeable weights.
 

southshoresoxfan

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It's around 44 now and I just had the best driving round ive had in a long time. 88 from the whites on Jones but hit some absolute stripes and no hooks.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Great course by the way. Greens rolled great. Room to miss BUT left you tough angles. Bunkers guarding most driving distance fairways for me so the added accuracy was well timed.
 

jercra

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Just for shits and giggles I decided to try cutting an old driver down an inch to see what difference it made in my tee game. When I say old driver, I mean an M1 I played for about 5 rounds because it was the most seriously wrong for me club ever so it came out of the bag quickly. So I cut it down an inch and took it to the course yesterday. Driving range session started horribly but ended with me murdering the ball right down my target nearly every time. Then I took it out on the course and hit it worse than I've ever hit any driver. I didn't hit driver a single time on the back 9 after it cost me a penalty stroke on 5 and 9. I ended up with a 74 instead of what should have been an easy 71-72. All of this is to say that if a driver doesn't fit your swing, it doesn't fit your swing and not much is going to fix that. If your driver is all over the place and the rest of your clubs are not, you probably just have a driver that doesn't fit your swing.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Man the 70s. One day.

Considering joining Norton Country Club later this summer. Under 35 membership is 2k. If you join in Aug you pay 600 for the rest of 2017 and then that comes off your bill for 2018. All fees except cart included (I prefer to walk barring extreme heat) and I can throw in a pool membership for the Mrs for another 200.

This is a steal right? Its a nice challenging course. The type if i could score well there it would translate well to other courses. They have 5 recips as well including Shining Rock.

No spending mins. Any non obv pros and cons to joining a club?
 

jercra

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Is that $2k per year or is that just initiation and there are monthly dues as well?

I miss being a member at a club more than I could have imagined when I moved. The only negative I ever found is that sometimes guest fees and guest policies can mean you don't play as much with your buddies as you do without membership. Otherwise, it was all positives for me. I wish it made sense to join any club near me.
 

southshoresoxfan

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Is that $2k per year or is that just initiation and there are monthly dues as well?

I miss being a member at a club more than I could have imagined when I moved. The only negative I ever found is that sometimes guest fees and guest policies can mean you don't play as much with your buddies as you do without membership. Otherwise, it was all positives for me. I wish it made sense to join any club near me.
No initiation fees or anything. No monthly dues. The one drawback is theres no range on site but there's one down the road you can get a yearly discount on if you so choose.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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That is pretty similar to my club - Bass Rocks in Gloucester.

I pay $1800 for under 35. After 3 years (this year being my 3rd) - I get bumped up to a limited membership, and after 2 years at limited, I receive a full membership - with no initiation fees. Which saves $7000.

I could never go back to playing only muni's, fighting for tee times and 6 hour rounds.
 

Doug Beerabelli

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Curious to ask the SoSH golf collective - are you still running into 6 hour rounds on weekends? Seems like there may be a glut of courses, and with the game on the downside of the boom, this would reduce crowding. Or incenting clubs to make offers for private or semi-private type memberships to get the revenue more sthat way, and payoff is reduced crowds and potentially lower revenues caused by that.

I've been a member of a private club for awhile (started as a work thing), and don't play enough golf on my own to get my money's worth on a cost per round basis, but OK with it because wife and kids play, club has tennis, pool and good restaurant, and my son does the golf and tennis jr. programs during summer. The most valuable thing for us is easier access to the course - the ability to show up on an afternoon, play 6 holes in random order, and leave without worrying about cost or logistics too much. I don't venture out to other clubs unless work related outings or travel.
 

TFP

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Not even close. I average around 4:30 on public courses, then have an equal number around 4:00 and 5:00 depending on circumstances. It's not great but it's not terrible around here either. The one big drawback of joining a club that I can see is that you feel guilty paying to play anywhere else. So you end up playing your club course all the time. But the positives still outweigh all of that to me.

I can't wait to join a club. Living in the city has made it basically impossible, combined with the fact that I play with my friends (who aren't members anywhere). But the routine of rounding up people, deciding on a course, finding tee times that work for everyone has gotten extremely tiresome. Unfortunately I don't want to commit to a club since there aren't any that are in a convenient location.

Long story short - I need to move out to the suburbs first.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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There may have been some hyperbole in my 6 hour round statement. But on the north shore, there are way more private courses than public and the public ones many years ago filled up fast and were slow when I played them.

As stated above, the convenience factor is huge at my club. I show up anytime I want and unless it is the peak 6 weeks of the season, I can be on the first tee box in 5 minutes. I can play 9 holes, or 14 (course is set up weird with relation to the clubhouse) and not worry about cost or getting my money's worth. There are always people to play with, people to meet, and the practice areas are superb.

If I am with 1 or 2 of my regular golfing partners, we can be done with 18 walking in just over 3 hours. My membership is worth every penny to me, and I don't see myself ever leaving.

TFP - move north, good deals to be had around here, easy commute.
 

Doug Beerabelli

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Good info. I've done Fridays where I'm the one of the first few to go out in the morning, walk, fight the lawnmowers etc, but finish in 1:20 and be at work by 930 a.m. It's a nice perk for sure. Also being able pack it in after 5 holes when golfing with kid if he's had enough, or getting in cart and dodging slower groups. Two weekends ago I played 1, had my son want to head in to an event at club where my wife was (he walked in) and then I skipped over to 15 when I there was a threesome ahead, played two balls 15 to 18, and then joined the event. It's great to be able to do that.

I still have negative memories of a tee time as Bass River in Hyannis many years ago on a Saturday morning - turned into a 6 hour round, three groups on almost every hole, always at least two on a tee. Just awful - I think greedy owners putting tee times too close together.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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There are quite a few courses here in the Nashua area where you're in for a 5+ hour round if you play at prime time on a weekend day. 8 minutes of separation between tee times on a busy public course is bullshit. I have found that the key is to either go play somewhere north or west that is in the middle of nowhere and usually fairly empty or snag a tee time before 7 AM. Combine these two strategies and you're almost guaranteed to pretty much have the place to yourself.
 

jercra

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Slow golf is the most perplexing (and infuriating) thing to me. I just don't even understand why it happens. Just hit the fucking ball. If you can't find it, spend a minute or two looking, then drop one and hit it again. Call it a lateral, call it a mulligan, who fucking cares unless you're in a tourney? If you hit one that looks like it may be near OB, tall grass, woods, whatever, hit a provisional. And be ready to hit a provisional. Have a ball in your pocket and hit again right away. You don't need to wait for the rest of your group to hit first. You're not on tour. Hit another one OB? Well, your score is fucked anyway. Drop one near where it went OB and take your ESC score. Unless you're in danger or someone else is in danger, go ahead and hit. Don't wait for whoever is away. If it's reasonable, go hit your ball before you help your buddy find his. Putt out. Marking and reading 2 footers is for tourneys with lots on the line.

Honestly, what makes people want to golf slow?
 

FL4WL3SS

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Slow golf is the most perplexing (and infuriating) thing to me. I just don't even understand why it happens. Just hit the fucking ball. If you can't find it, spend a minute or two looking, then drop one and hit it again. Call it a lateral, call it a mulligan, who fucking cares unless you're in a tourney? If you hit one that looks like it may be near OB, tall grass, woods, whatever, hit a provisional. And be ready to hit a provisional. Have a ball in your pocket and hit again right away. You don't need to wait for the rest of your group to hit first. You're not on tour. Hit another one OB? Well, your score is fucked anyway. Drop one near where it went OB and take your ESC score. Unless you're in danger or someone else is in danger, go ahead and hit. Don't wait for whoever is away. If it's reasonable, go hit your ball before you help your buddy find his. Putt out. Marking and reading 2 footers is for tourneys with lots on the line.

Honestly, what makes people want to golf slow?
A number of factors that people that play a lot will never understand. I try to be understanding when I'm out there.

For the weekend warrior or the busy dad that only gets to play once or twice a month, the enjoyment of the round matters more than speed. It's a chance to get away from the chaotic lives they live and play a relaxing round. I also don't fault these people looking for their balls. If this is their one round a month and they are trying to play their best, a lost ball can kill your round.

Now, I will agree that complete ignorance is what kills me. There's no excuse to not be playing ready golf, some people are just completely oblivious. These are the ones that I save my rage for.
 

steveluck7

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May 10, 2007
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Honestly, what makes people want to golf slow?
"I'm out here to relax and enjoy myself, i don't want to feel rushed"

hear that a lot from someone i play a few rounds / yr. with. He's reinforced in that belief by his father-in-law. It's maddening but there's an upside... he and I play a heads up round every year with some sort of decent stakes. I just start to act annoyed that we're playing too slowly, casually dropping things like "wow, those guys are catching up." he proceeds to get completely off his game.

Anyhow, not enough spacing between tee times is a huge problem. I get that courses want to maximize revenue but it likely costs them a good amount of revenue via repeat business. If i play a new course once and it takes 6 hours, i'm never going back.

Also, on-course marshals do nothing to speed play up. In my experience, they rarely tell the real slow-playing culprits to pick up the pace.
 

steveluck7

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I also don't fault these people looking for their balls. If this is their one round a month and they are trying to play their best, a lost ball can kill your round.
True, but if it's taking that long to find a ball, it's buried somewhere that won't really allow you to have a good shot at it anyhow. Taking a drop is usually the best option for your score.
Like jercra said, take a free drop... i don't really care if we're out screwing around. I've found that people looking for lost balls is far more about the actual ball than their score.
 

jercra

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Ok, the dad's out on a relaxing Sunday is understandable and I'm not advocating for 3 hour rounds on a nice summer weekend. But if 4:15-4:30 isn't enough time for you to relax then take up fishing.

One guy looking for their ball for 3 minutes is fine if the rest of the group is hitting their shots. 4 guys looking for 1 person's ball, then the next person's ball, then waiting for it to be their honor makes me want to murder people. While I'm at it, I have 2 more pet peeves on the course. 1) Rake the fucking bunker. Your caddy isn't going to handle it for you and I don't need to be hitting out of your footprints. You're not special. Pick up the rake. 2) If you spit sunflower seed shells on the green you should be ejected from the course (if not the planet). If I sprinkled gravel all over the greens literally everyone would think I'm a giant asshole (that doesn't already). What kind of inconsiderate person spits shit out of their mouth that has the likelihood of fucking with someone else's putts until the next mow the greens?
 

TFP

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Is this the airing of the grievances? I'm in!

Overall I agree with the slow play pet peeves. I'm an extremely fast golfer, to the point where I have to remind myself to slow down or stop worrying about the rest of my group. All of your first post about speed of play is dead on jercra. I totally get and can understand the idea of being out for a relaxing round, but for me it's relaxing not having to wait for other people and spend 5+ hours on a round. Although what REALLY sucks is when the group in front of you is waiting for the group in front of them and is playing excruciatingly slow themselves. So you can't even get mad at them because you're watching them fuck around or take forever, but then they're waiting on the next tee so it wouldn't have mattered. So ultimately that's the course's fault.

I have shamed my friends enough now that they all play reasonably fast now. Don't wait for your turn to figure out yardage, don't wait for your turn to read your putts, etc. Often I'll walk around the hole while others are lining up their putts so that when it's my turn I'm ready to go. Same with distances on approach shots - get your number while other people are hitting. If they're looking for their ball, hit yours then help look. Drop your cartner at his ball, get the yardage/club and go to yours (or vice versa) and meet in the middle after. Have one guy take the cart up to the green while the other walks up. Etc etc etc.

Also - I never see sunflower seeds on the green but finding cigarette butts on the course sends me off the deep end. It's infuriating.

Ok - I feel better now.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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A lot of it definitely falls on the courses. Played nine at an empty course on Saturday afternoon but the clubhouse let a sixsome out ahead of us and they refused to wait on the tee to let us play through until the 7th hole. Nothing beats a nearly 3 hour nine hole round.
 

jercra

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Oh man, that would be hard to take. I don't even mind fivesomes and sixsomes. If they play to pace then I don't care. If they let you through then who cares (presuming there's not lots of groups to play through)? I wish there was a way to fix it beyond "people need to suck less". Either the courses need to actually address it with rangers, and some do, or there needs to be more education or we need to go to Scandinavian model having golf licenses. I think it would be awesome for some courses to get together and make prime tee times available to only "licensed/certified" golfers until 24 hours prior to tee times. That would keep the oblivious off of courses at prime time without costing courses any amount of play. Would require a lot of courses to participate and maybe someone like Golfnow to administer and such. People who travel a lot get preferential treatment with seating preferences, faster checkin lines, faster security lines, etc. Why not for golf? (Any yeah, I realize I just chose the travel industry as a positive model of something). I wonder if it would work?
 

TFP

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The problem is that's it not just quality of play. You can suck and play fast (believe me I do it all the time). Or you can be really good and play slow (Kevin Na says hi). I don't know how to fix it except to put more time in between tee times and create general awareness.

Being able to play 18 holes in under 4 hours would be glorious for me as someone who is very impatient and awesome for my friends who have kids and can't get away for 6 hours a time a pop.
 

jercra

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Yeah, it's a hard problem for sure but there has to a better way. Of course, every time I start typing my better way I end up at basically joining a private course where slow golf can actually be policed so maybe the better way is just private golf.

Or a shot clock ;) You get 5 minutes to hit your ball or the group behind can fire away. Could draw spectators for the fights every weekend.
 

TFP

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Haha a few weeks ago I was playing at Shaker Hills and was on the tee at the par 5 15th (?). The group in front of us had been slooooow all day and we had been flying, as there was only 3 of us. So we finish 14 and the group is at the crest of the hill which is like 200 yards out then it turns and drops so you can't see anything. We watch a guy walk allllll the way across the fairway from the woods to his cart on the other side. Then they get in a drive off. So to be safe since it's been slow and there was time behind us, we still waited about 5 mins. Then I teed off and hit a gorgeous drive over the hill down the right side.

We drive up and they're STILL THERE looking for his ball apparently, the same guy who walked across the fairway for no reason. They must have been in this fairway for legitimately 12 minutes and still hadn't hit their 2nd shot on the par 5. Apparently my ball hit either him or their cart too, so my brother offered to buy them beers after the round, which of course I paid for. They were cool about it but I wanted to be like what the fuck this is entirely your fault finish the fucking hole or at least make it clear you're still there so I don't hit.

Ok, NOW I feel better.
 

Stickman709

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Jul 20, 2014
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I'm with you on that. I stopped playing shaker hills years ago because of the mandated carts and cart paths only all the time. Talk about inserting more time into a round of golf. Carts are supposed to make things faster not slow things down.
 

Byrdbrain

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Jul 18, 2005
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There are quite a few courses here in the Nashua area where you're in for a 5+ hour round if you play at prime time on a weekend day. 8 minutes of separation between tee times on a busy public course is bullshit. I have found that the key is to either go play somewhere north or west that is in the middle of nowhere and usually fairly empty or snag a tee time before 7 AM. Combine these two strategies and you're almost guaranteed to pretty much have the place to yourself.
Don't play Green Meadow.

That place sucks for real. Other than that I don't have any real issues in the Nashua area.
 

southshoresoxfan

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I think carts slow things down in general. When I walk along w 2 buddies playing in a cart its much faster for me to just walk to my ball grab club and hit than two guys to drive to diff spots pick each other back up etc.

Slow golf drives me insane. If i don't get an early tee time at most munis on the weekend then I don't bother.
 

TFP

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I think carts slow things down in general. When I walk along w 2 buddies playing in a cart its much faster for me to just walk to my ball grab club and hit than two guys to drive to diff spots pick each other back up etc.

Slow golf drives me insane. If i don't get an early tee time at most munis on the weekend then I don't bother.
Golf boards are the solution. The mobility and speed of carts but the fast play of everyone going to their own ball and hitting.

Downside: Sitting and being in the shade between shots is a huge positive. Also your stabilizer muscles get a real workout.
 

jercra

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I'm with you on that. I stopped playing shaker hills years ago because of the mandated carts and cart paths only all the time. Talk about inserting more time into a round of golf. Carts are supposed to make things faster not slow things down.
You stopped playing the Shake because I moved and you know it!! There were plenty of 5 hour rounds to had at Canterbury Woods back in the day too.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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Don't play Green Meadow.

That place sucks for real. Other than that I don't have any real issues in the Nashua area.
Ha, exactly where that post was targeted at. I rarely play there. It's by far the closest public course which sucks but it's not worth the aggravation.
 

Stickman709

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Jul 20, 2014
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There still are more than enough 5hr rounds to be had there too but those are not due to them imposing stupid rules about the carts. They actually have better than most just keep your cart in the fairway and out if the rough. Keeps the fairways firm and rough lush.
 

soup17

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Jul 15, 2005
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Considering moving to a hybrid since I can't hit an iron longer than a 5 well and don't play that often so I need forgiveness. I am considering the Callaway XR 15 4 hybrid (since I have XR15 woods and I love them), but actually hit a Taylor Made 4 hybrid the other day and liked that a lot. For those who are hitting hybrids or tried and failed, please pass on your thoughts.
 

Koufax

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I use Golfshot as a phone GPS. I can't say it is the best, it is the only one I have used. It is very good.

I use a Taylor Made 4 hybrid and like it quite a bit. I tried a different 3 hybrid a few years ago and could not hit it well, but it was probably my fault, not the club's. Anyway, I find that it gives me more distance than the 5 iron and less than the 5 wood, so it is a permanent part of my bag. Try it, what have you got to lose? FYI, I am a 21 handicap, so you might want to take that into account. Better golfers might prefer a different club.