Before you follow my footsteps, please note that the Callaway FT-i Tour clubs are 45 inches long. The regular FT-i drivers are 45.75 (46) inches long. (Let’s give the people who are having trouble hitting it straight a longer club!)

So, I took my driver down from 45 to 44 inches. If you’ve read about this at all, you know that this also decreases the swingweight by 6 points. Here’s where I had a bit of a problem. The club didn’t FEEL like it had a D4 or D3 swingweight to begin with? Does anyone else feel this way? It simply felt too light? Perhaps the overall weight of the club is light?

In any event, I’m still pretty strong and the extra grams don’t bother me. I first attempted to use these very cool “HOT SPOT” weights that look much better than the lead tape I’ve used in the past. I put them on exactly as the manual describes and let them sit over night. I anxiously went to the range the next day with my Cut Down FT-i with shortened shaft and weights and BAM - first swing - the great looking little weights went zipping off into the distance…..

So, I reworked my approach. I used a 42 gram grip (the Winn black grip) - you can get as low as 39 grams with the Golf Pride Dual Durometer lite. Shaving weight on the grip end actually does make the head feel heavier - this will net you about 2 pts swingweight. Next, I took out the good old fashion grip tape and did a simple wrap along the perimeter of the head. It measure out to about 11 inches. Voila! I’m actually a little heavier than previously - who cares how it looks?

I’m sure this increased the MOI too, but the most important thing is having even more confidence in hitting this already awesome club. When I was playing my best golf I was using a 42.5 driver. 45 inches just feels too long to me. I also knew it was bad when I started compensating early in the round before I felt confident. I’d choke up or shorten my backswing a little to ensure good contact.

Forget that. I want to step up there and rip it. I can do that when the club is back down to 44 inches.

Final note: I spend thousands on Callaway equipment EACH year. I went to a custom fitting in Palm Springs last year to buy my irons. I shopped them for a shorter FT-i. Strangely, they just don’t seem to offer it? Instead, they walked me through a plethora of 45 inch shafts trying to find the right one. I explained I simply “wanted a shorter shaft” and that I’d cut down the shaft if necessary. They didn’t like it. They tried to talk me out of it - tried to talk about how much more forgiving the club is, etcetera. Finally, a Callaway rep mentioned that the actual Head probably wouldn’t be USGA legal with a shorter shaft because of the increased weight. Maybe he was speculating? I don’t know, but it makes sense. They are already dangerously close to the MOI limit and since they measure the head irrespective of the shaft - maybe they had to lengthen the shaft to get it under the limit?

In any event, I’m crushing the club almost as far as I was my X460 - but I simply don’t miss the fairway. It’s amazing. I’ll play tomorrow morning again and can’t wait.

If anyone wants pictures, please let me know and I’ll post them.

Buying new golf clubs is fun. In the last couple years I’ve collected a bunch of high quality clubs as I’ve tested out hybrids, square drivers, numerous wedges, putters, etc.

I keep my “ideal” clubs in my bag - until a couple weeks ago, this generally meant the most expensive, newest models of each club that I had. This approach had a couple problems:

1. I didn’t have confidence in some of the clubs in my bag.
2. I simply hadn’t hit as many shots as I should’ve with some of the clubs.
3. I had the nagging feeling that I should’ve brought a different club.

Then, I had a moment of clarity and ebayed, donated and traded my way down to my ideal 14 clubs. In some cases, I sold my newer, much-more-expensive clubs in favor of my old standby clubs. For instance, I sold a Ping G5 13 degree 3 wood with a stiff Aldila-NV shaft in favor of an old Callaway Steelhead 15 degree 3 wood.

Ditto for my Ping G2 5 wood with Fujikura custom shaft. That got sold in favor of my old Callaway Hawkeye with a steel shaft. (My most memorable eagle was thanks to this club - planted a 248 yard 2nd shot 3 feet from pin on a difficult par 5 when playing with my boss). Needless to say, I feel like I have an illegal weapon in my hands when I have this club. Confidence abounds.

I regripped everything after I painfully made my way down to 14 clubs. I went with Lamkin Dual Density Torsion Control grips - blue in color (eek). They feel nice and tacky. Not sure how they’ll perform over the long haul yet, but my initial impression is that I like them.

Guess what? I went out and shot my best round of the year immediately after doing the “get rid of the excess clubs” exercise. The decreased mental chatter alone was well worth the effort. Plus, I actually netted some extra $$ after selling off all of the unused clubs - and I earned some points with my wife for clearing some space in the garage!

Stretching for your Golf Swing

Unless you partake in other athletic activities (running, judo, etc.), chances are that you are stiff as a board. You don’t need to go crazy and “implement” a stretching routine. Instead, make daily stretches a part of your life. For example: before you go to lunch, reach over and touch your toes to stretch your hamstrings. In the restroom, do the lift-your-leg-from-behind quadriceps stretch. Stretch your arms over your head as your driving along in the car (one at a time on an open stretch of road!). You’d be amazed how much pressure you can exert on your shoulders/triceps using your headliner.

Then, the ultimate stretch is to work the core - twist both ways and really stretch your obliques and stomach muscles. Find positions to stretch everything from your glutes on up through your lats to your shoulders and traps. Crazy stretch: Pretend you had to give yourself an injection in the buttock? How would you twist your body into position so that you could have both hands in the correct position. One to hold the body object and one to hold the make believe plunger. Trust us, it’ll force you to stretch in ways you haven’t imagined.

First Practice Day at Range of Year (prescription)

This prescription is like a strong dose of bad tasting cough syrup, but it’ll put things in perspective.

1. Do whatever meager stretching routine you normally do. 
2. Pull out a wedge and take 3-6 shots to “warm up” shots. Probably not bad, but not good either.
3. You know you want to do it. Pull out the Driver and hit another 3-6. Probably 1 acceptable shot in the bunch. I’ll bet $5 you either: (1) missed entirely, (2) toed it, (3) heeled it, (4) topped it, (5) skied it or (6) sent a forearm shivering blow to ground kicking up dirt or scuffing the turf.
4. Okay, let’s begin again. Grab a 9 iron and use it to stretch your triceps. Then stretch the hamstrings. Then the quads.
5. Your goal is now to hit one ball with the 9 iron and stretch a body part.
6. Keep doing this until you hit a couple consecutive good shots.
7. Go home on a good note. That is the best you can hope for a first day at the range. The note to take away is that you must be warmed up and stretched out to play golf - DON’T FORGET IT!

One of my fondest teenage memories was fighting a “Black Belt” in Tae Kwon Do. This guy was a non-athlete who apparently was very good at large roundhouse kicks, flying sidekicks, etc. In other words he had very pretty moves that would look good in a movie.

We were fighting because of a girl. Go figure. He assured everyone his technique would enable him to beat me to a pulp. He was arrogant. I was quiet as I had already been in several fights at this point.

It started by us circling each other. I glanced up. He did too. I shot in and tackled him (double leg for those familiar with wrestling). My head was at his chin as he was probably a foot taller than me, so I head butted his lip/mouth as I tried to inch up to head butt his nose. He freaked and rolled onto his stomach. At this point, I could have finished him off in a dozen ways, but -  for some odd reason that only a 16 year old on roids will understand - I repeatedly elbowed his ear and head alternately as he attempted to cover until he was a bloody mess. It was over in about 50 seconds.

Get it? Golf is the same way. You can spend hours at the range working on making your swing pretty. Fussing with your grip. Video taping yourself to look as elegant as possible. The only thing that matters is getting the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible.

You can never anticipate every divot, bad lie, tree branch and hot drink cart girl that will foul up your game.

If you really want to score, you need to scramble, kick, scratch and punch your way into the hole. You need to fight for every stroke you can.

What does this translate to out on the course? Something uncommon in recreational golf: uncommonly smart play using PUNCH shots.

Forget about hitting a nice, high soft shot when you can punch the ball up there and let it roll onto the green.

Don’t try to hit a high draw over a tree to stick the green from 210 out. Punch the ball back onto the fairway for a good look at the green.

Got a long 230+ par 3 with trouble all around? Let me guess, there is nothing between you and the green but grass? The hole is surrounded by trouble. Punch the darn ball up as far as you, wedge onto the green for a par putt. Worst case, you walk off with a bogie. (Try getting a bogie when you’re dropping 3 on a slope lie with a wide bunker between you and a short green with trouble in back.)

Instead of trying to POWER THE BALL OVER A TREE, punch the ball low and run it to the edge of the green.

If you’re a mid to high handicapper and you’re not playing this shot at least a handful of times per round, you are leaving some strokes on the table.

Punch Punch Punch.

Oh, the other corollary here: quit trying to make your swing pretty and get to course to play!

As this picture of Tiger points out, it’s entirely possible to have your left arm completely straight at the top of your backswing. Okay, so you may not be Tiger, but read on.

That is admittedly a hard position to attain without a great deal of flexibility. However, if you are having trouble with accuracy, you should DECREASE THE LENGTH of your backswing to preserve the ridigity of your left arm.

Let me say that another way. Keep your left arm straight and go back as far as you can without bending it. That is the height of your optimal backswing. Forget about “power” and swing length and all of it for now. This is an adjustment you can try on the course when you’re having a cruddy round.

Here’s the Drill at the Range: Take a 5 iron and work the left arm drill.

(1) Ascertain where your left arm breakpoint is - take some easy swings without hitting a ball and focus on feeling out where your left arm is breaking. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT HOW FAR BACK YOU ARE ACTUALLY GOING. Take a “mental picture” of where your arm is and how it feels for it not to break. Imagine there is a board strapped across the back of your elbow. 

(2) Address a ball, balance yourself, aim, take the abbreviated backswing with left arm straight, and let em fly. Hit about 10 balls this way. Record the distance you are hitting the ball.

(3) Take both full swings and left-straight-swings with all your clubs. Get a feel for the difference in distance and write it down on your “Implosion Card” so that you can pull it out on the course.

(1) club-head speed. The faster the club head is moving at the moment of impact, the longer the ball will fly.

(2) optimal contact with ball. There is a scientifically calculated “optimal” position for the clubhead to be in throughout its entire contact with the ball. What this means at a practical level is that the club face should hit the ball perpedicular to the target line while traveling in the straightest line possible toward the target.

(3) proper impact in the middle of the clubface. This one speaks for itself. You’re not going to hit the ball a mile by hitting it off the heel or toe of the club.