I am going out on a limb here by saying that many new shiny golf clubs were resting under the Christmas tree just a few short days ago. These new tools were likely bought off the rack and considered stock clubs. I know this because I have received a few of these awesome gifts over the years. And this is when my inexperience showed when it was time to give it a try.
I am not sure about you, but I know that every time I pulled my new stick out of the bag I was excited. I thought that it was going to fix the hole in my game and I was ready for instant results. Of course my expectations and results never matched because I failed to prepare properly before integrating my new golf club.
What I failed to realize was that any new club (especially those not fitted) is that it would have a different feel and needed to be test run before taking it out onto the course. I realize that this might seem like an obvious point, but in my excitement I skipped that step. Any new club needs to be tested before taken out for a spin.
After years of failure integrating new clubs, I decided to take a different approach. And that is what I did. Last year for my birthday I ordered a stock Mizuno GT 180. It had adjustable loft and lie. This was a new experience for me because at the range I had the opportunity fiddle with the lie and launch angle. I hit about 50 balls and found that neutral everything felt the most consistent. However, I did not like the looks of my ball flight so I lowered my launch angle one degree. My consistency did not change, but my confidence with the club improved. Additionally, this last launch angle was best for hitting the ball off a tee. After running my new club through the paces, I was ready to test it on the golf course.
I found that with my new club, I had to set up slightly different and swing a bit less aggressively. These two changes made a tremendous difference in my learning curve for hitting my new three wood. It was worth the 1.5 hours at the range finding out how to my new club would react to my swing.
As it turned out, I did not really notice any difference from my older three wood on most shots. I did notice a slight difference on very solid contact. The ball seemed to seemed to travel a bit farther, but I have not been able to measure to tell. Regardless, my process of testing my new club before hitting it for the first time on the golf course worked out very well.
I understand that many of you are reading this article thinking that I was foolish in the past to buy a new club and use it before going to the range. Well, lets just call this a lesson learned on my golf journey. It is a process that I have fixed and I thought that you might benefit from my folly.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
Buying clubs off the rack has been hit or miss for me over the years. Not for lack of giving myself time to get used to them. Some clubs just didn’t suit me. That said, my bag today is half filled with off the shelf or rather off the internet clubs and I am not ready to change a single one of them right now.
I’d say the new putter has taken the longest to get used to because of the weight difference between it an the old one I’ve had to relearn speed control and that takes time. It’s not something we can do with 50 putts. I’ve had this one for months and while I found it far easier to aim well, I’ve struggled getting putts to drop often enough to become frustrated more than once. This week though, it’s behaved like I’ve owned it forever so I’m hoping that’s not a fluke and that even better days are yet to come.
That said, if I won the powerball tonight I’ll be at edwin watts tomorrow getting a full bag fitting and starting all over. 😂 There’s nothing like shiny new toys and those new copper colored Cobra Forged Tech irons look awfully sweet to me. 😎
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Kevin,
Good luck winning the lottery! You are right that some clubs take longer than others to conquer, but the journey is always a fun ride…..most of the time. 😉
Cheers Jim
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Jim: I too have done the same thing. Thinking that a new club would solve all my problems.
I recently purchased a new driver from Taylormade. I went to Golf Galaxy for the new club and fitting. I purchased the new Sim2. Without realizing it the man helping with the fitting asked.me what my old club was and I told him it was a Taylormade Burner with the super fast shaft(49 grams). The gentleman fitting me said the shaft was too light,and too flexible. By this time during the fitting was ready to pull my hair out. The new driver had adjustable loft and lie. At this point there was entirely to much input.
I asked the gentleman fitting me to get the new club as close to my old one. I
didn’t realize that a store fitting is not the same as being out on the course. I
took the club home and tweaked it. New shaft, regular flex with a mid kick to the shaft. I believe it is a Tensai 59 gram shaft 45 inches. I have been to the range with it and I seem to get more distance when I don’t try to kill the ball. Only time will tell if I did the right thing.
I did notice one thing. I was having some issues until I went back to my regular
Grip, Golf Pride jumbo wrap. I will keep twerking it till I get it right. But it will be done on the course.
Mike
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Mike
Your adventure sounds familiar to many players. The stories I hear is that the new club does not fit the swing of the player because of the comfort level of using the old equipment. The whole idea of getting fitted is to make the specs of the club fit our swing and sometimes that requires a whole new approach. This journey is a slow one full of challenges and frustration. However, it is worth the effort to achieve the final results.
Cheers Jim
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