Clubhouse Grille (*** NO LIV DISCUSSIONS ***) (*** NO POLITICS/RELIGION ***)

[braincramp52]

1 hour ago, TiScape said:

All I know is like BC, I’ve played multiple rounds with pure MB blades, players CBs and GI irons. Scores essentially stay the same. All clubs fit properly for lie, length and shaft flex 

Fastest road to lower scores is getting  really good from 100 yards in. 

Edited March 7, 2024 by braincramp52

[BIG STU]

8 hours ago, dashanks said:

I'm dead in the water if proper grammar and spelling are required.

Me too after all I am a Southern Born redneck hippie and I do things my way right or wrong. I have never had anyone in here fail to understand what I say in all the years I have been here

[BIG STU]

36 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

Fastest road to lower scores is getting  really good from 100 yards in. 

When I was scratch and below and playing the Minis and gambling that was where I made my hay so to speak or saved myself. Wedges and putter and getting out of jail with a 5 iron. I was long even by persimmon standards but not straight. I did not hit a lot of FIRs. I am getting back to it wedge wise but my putting is streaky.

[scotee]

We have arrived at the present.  2024

 

Can't wait to see the future.

[Reasonability]

1 hour ago, braincramp52 said:

Fastest road to lower scores is getting  really good from 100 yards in. 

 

Amen!  

 

We stand on 14 tee boxes that might require driver.  Where did all the other strokes go?  

 

It occurs to me we're GUESSING out there a lot.  Our best read for a putt is a guess.  Born of experience and hopefully a well-educated guess.  Our idea of what break and speed combined amount to.  We're guessing.  How we apply feel or technique to achieve what we just imagined... best guesses piled on guesses.     

 

Yet we're supposed to fully and confidently commit to each and every putt.  Every shot for that matter.   Can't play this game without commitment.  

 

Are we golfer cursed or blessed?  We seem to own the ability to make full-on commitments to guesses! 

 

I once heard the term "confirmation bias".   Once you believe something is real, then it is. Personal example.  I want to look down and see a relatively thin topline on the iron.  Prefer minimal offset, and not a fan of fat-bottomed soles.   I've come to believe that's the way to fly.

 

Why then was I shooting in the low to mid 70s back when phone booths were a real thing - swinging a set of Ping Eye's??   Cause I believed they were the bomb.  I didn't know they were - I just believed they were.  

 

 

 

 

[Reasonability]

6 hours ago, Conrad1953 said:

 

All the years I hear about that buttery forged feel but I wonder. Is it just relative because mishits

feel so bad with small head forged irons? I have played with various forged irons and forged

blades and I have never felt a buttery soft feel when I flushed any of them. 

 

Just one in the universe of golfers here. 

 

I've never bought one stick that came with a guarantee the unguided missile will never happen.     

 

 

Edited March 7, 2024 by Reasonability
grammure and sptelling

[Soloman1]

4 hours ago, Reasonability said:

I once heard the term "confirmation bias".

 

it’s really interesting how the human flaw of confirmation bias applies to science and experimentation, not just social issues.

 

once a theory is considered accepted in a field, any experiments or observations that are counter to the theory are strictly analyzed to search for flaws in the method, equipment or data.

 

yet the same scrutiny is not applied to those that support the theory.

 

——-

 

have any of you been around f-35’s in your area? sooooo loud. i’ve never heard any aircraft so loud, including old kc-135’s (a 707 converted as a tanker with pure jet engines, not turbofans), b-52’s (8 pure jet engines), f-4, f-14, f-15, f-16, etc.

 

yesterday was overcast, so flight ops at the air force base where i played was amplified. all day long, flights of f-35s are doing touch & goes.

 

how loud ? they’re doing wide patterns and about 1,500’ over the golf course on the downwind leg. they’re not at full power, guessing maybe 60%. it was impossible to hear someone sitting next to you in the cart. teeth-rattling loud. and it was near constant all day. the runway is about a mile from the course and afterburner climb out was louder than aircraft overhead.

 

turns out i’m not more sensitive to it than others.

 

ok, the decibel scale is logarithmic. an f-16 at military power (full, but no afterburner) is 94 dba. f-35 is 115 dba. since it’s logarithmic, 10 decibels more is twice as loud, and 20 decibels more is 4 times as loud.

 

a rock concert general sound is 100 decibels and the front row is 110 decibels, twice as loud. f-35 is twice as loud as the front row at a rock concert. 115 decibels is the point where “serious hearing damage” can occur.

 

great course, great conditioning, but i’m bringing ear plugs next time. my ears are still ringing after 12 hours.

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2024 by Soloman1

[dashanks]

1 hour ago, Soloman1 said:

 

it’s really interesting how the human flaw of confirmation bias applies to science and experimentation, not just social issues.

 

once a theory is considered accepted in a field, any experiments or observations that are counter to the theory are strictly analyzed to search for flaws in the method, equipment or data.

 

yet the same scrutiny is not applied to those that support the theory.

 

——-

 

have any of you been around f-35’s in your area? sooooo loud. i’ve never heard any aircraft so loud, including old kc-135’s (a 707 converted as a tanker with pure jet engines, not turbofans), b-52’s (8 pure jet engines), f-4, f-14, f-15, f-16, etc.

 

yesterday was overcast, so flight ops at the air force base where i played was amplified. all day long, flights of f-35s are doing touch & goes.

 

how loud ? they’re doing wide patterns and about 1,500’ over the golf course on the downwind leg. they’re not at full power, guessing maybe 60%. it was impossible to hear someone sitting next to you in the cart. teeth-rattling loud. and it was near constant all day. the runway is about a mile from the course and afterburner climb out was louder than aircraft overhead.

 

turns out i’m not more sensitive to it than others.

 

ok, the decibel scale is logarithmic. an f-16 at military power (full, but no afterburner) is 94 dba. f-35 is 115 dba. since it’s logarithmic, 10 decibels more is twice as loud, and 20 decibels more is 4 times as loud.

 

a rock concert general sound is 100 decibels and the front row is 110 decibels, twice as loud. f-35 is twice as loud as the front row at a rock concert. 115 decibels is the point where “serious hearing damage” can occur.

 

great course, great conditioning, but i’m bringing ear plugs next time. my ears are still ringing after 12 hours.

 

 

 

But, on the other hand, if one of those F-35's was actually coming after you, "serious hearing damage" probably wouldn't be your immediate concern.

[bladehunter]

44 minutes ago, dashanks said:

But, on the other hand, if one of those F-35's was actually coming after you, "serious hearing damage" probably wouldn't be your immediate concern.

Partially related story alert - 

 

 

one day around 2003 ish I was out back of the shop pulling parts off a parts car.  So I’m under the hood bent over kind of immersed in what I’m doing.  It’s a very clear sunny morning.  No wind etc.    fairly quiet , just birds sounds etc. 

 

all at once I’m startled to an upright position, I focus toward the sound and it’s two Apache helicopters flying nose to tail at tree top level directly over me.  They were so on top of me before I heard them it was jarring. I had barely enough time to recognize what the sound was , and throw a hand up to wave …. The second pilot threw a hand up to wave back …. As they went over it was deafeningly loud.  But before they were directly over me it was near silent.  From 100 yards out it was silent.  I have no idea how.  But that day is the day I knew first  hand , that if they were hunting me , I’d be dead before I knew they were in the world.  
 

it’s not rare to see them my way.  Just never saw them that low.  We also see big planes doing touch and goes all the time too , or even dropping airborne guys  for practice. 

[bscinstnct]

31 minutes ago, bladehunter said:

Partially related story alert - 

 

 

one day around 2003 ish I was out back of the shop pulling parts off a parts car.  So I’m under the hood bent over kind of immersed in what I’m doing.  It’s a very clear sunny morning.  No wind etc.    fairly quiet , just birds sounds etc. 

 

all at once I’m startled to an upright position, I focus toward the sound and it’s two Apache helicopters flying nose to tail at tree top level directly over me.  They were so on top of me before I heard them it was jarring. I had barely enough time to recognize what the sound was , and throw a hand up to wave …. The second pilot threw a hand up to wave back …. As they went over it was deafeningly loud.  But before they were directly over me it was near silent.  From 100 yards out it was silent.  I have no idea how.  But that day is the day I knew first  hand , that if they were hunting me , I’d be dead before I knew they were in the world.  
 

it’s not rare to see them my way.  Just never saw them that low.  We also see big planes doing touch and goes all the time too , or even dropping airborne guys  for practice. 

 

They comin for ya blade!

 

 

 

blade be like

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dashanks]

  

40 minutes ago, bladehunter said:

Partially related story alert - 

 

 

one day around 2003 ish I was out back of the shop pulling parts off a parts car.  So I’m under the hood bent over kind of immersed in what I’m doing.  It’s a very clear sunny morning.  No wind etc.    fairly quiet , just birds sounds etc. 

 

all at once I’m startled to an upright position, I focus toward the sound and it’s two Apache helicopters flying nose to tail at tree top level directly over me.  They were so on top of me before I heard them it was jarring. I had barely enough time to recognize what the sound was , and throw a hand up to wave …. The second pilot threw a hand up to wave back …. As they went over it was deafeningly loud.  But before they were directly over me it was near silent.  From 100 yards out it was silent.  I have no idea how.  But that day is the day I knew first  hand , that if they were hunting me , I’d be dead before I knew they were in the world.  
 

it’s not rare to see them my way.  Just never saw them that low.  We also see big planes doing touch and goes all the time too , or even dropping airborne guys  for practice. 

Definitely wouldn't want to be on the bad side of anything our military puts up in the air.  Marine 1 and 2 fly directly over the local golf course when Biden is making his hops between Washington and Wilmington, De., which is fairly often.   I've seen them a number of times.   I remember using my range finder to get a better look the first time.   They were flying kind of low and for a second I thought about hitting the button to get a measurement.  Luckily, I immediately realized what a bad idea that might be.  

[SnowbirdTom]

Having worked on fast movers for a couple decades, you will never know what hit ya.  I retired before the F-22s hit production.  You wanna see holy crap?  Google up a video of a Spectre gunship in action.  Imagine a killing field with bullets hitting every six inches in less than a minute.

 

Here ya go. ->

 

[braincramp52]

3 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

 

it’s really interesting how the human flaw of confirmation bias applies to science and experimentation, not just social issues.

 

once a theory is considered accepted in a field, any experiments or observations that are counter to the theory are strictly analyzed to search for flaws in the method, equipment or data.

 

yet the same scrutiny is not applied to those that support the theory.

 

——-

 

have any of you been around f-35’s in your area? sooooo loud. i’ve never heard any aircraft so loud, including old kc-135’s (a 707 converted as a tanker with pure jet engines, not turbofans), b-52’s (8 pure jet engines), f-4, f-14, f-15, f-16, etc.

 

yesterday was overcast, so flight ops at the air force base where i played was amplified. all day long, flights of f-35s are doing touch & goes.

 

how loud ? they’re doing wide patterns and about 1,500’ over the golf course on the downwind leg. they’re not at full power, guessing maybe 60%. it was impossible to hear someone sitting next to you in the cart. teeth-rattling loud. and it was near constant all day. the runway is about a mile from the course and afterburner climb out was louder than aircraft overhead.

 

turns out i’m not more sensitive to it than others.

 

ok, the decibel scale is logarithmic. an f-16 at military power (full, but no afterburner) is 94 dba. f-35 is 115 dba. since it’s logarithmic, 10 decibels more is twice as loud, and 20 decibels more is 4 times as loud.

 

a rock concert general sound is 100 decibels and the front row is 110 decibels, twice as loud. f-35 is twice as loud as the front row at a rock concert. 115 decibels is the point where “serious hearing damage” can occur.

 

great course, great conditioning, but i’m bringing ear plugs next time. my ears are still ringing after 12 hours.

 

 

 

Damn! It's not even 7 a.m. here and I've already learned something. I did not know decibel levels were measured that way. Or if I did I forgot it. Grill is awesome!😄

[Duct Tape]

13 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

had a senior moment and put the 38 year old, saber-like mizunos in the bag today.

 

was firing lasers all day. mostly short of greens.

 

unbeknownst to me, felt like the 8-iron might be 52°or close to it. i need to hide them in a box, or take all of the grips off.

Well played!  

[scomac2002]

On 3/5/2024 at 10:53 PM, aenemated said:

Very sad news tonight. My old girl Leo's heart started to give out on her ... so we had to say goodbye. 

 

Maybe my favorite among thousands of photos - nothing she loved more than laying in the sun. 

 

 

RIP sweet girl 💔

 

So sorry to read of your loss.  We are at the crossroads with our cat.  It’s always hard when faced with this decision.  May her memory fill your days with smiles of a good life lived together.

[bladehunter]

40 minutes ago, dashanks said:

  

Definitely wouldn't want to be on the bad side of anything our military puts up in the air.  Marine 1 and 2 fly directly over the local golf course when Biden is making his hops between Washington and Wilmington, De., which is fairly often.   I've seen them a number of times.   I remember using my range finder to get a better look the first time.   They were flying kind of low and for a second I thought about hitting the button to get a measurement.  Luckily, I immediately realized what a bad idea that might be.  

I can see you at gitmo now …” I was just trying to get a yardage “…..    🤣

[braincramp52]

7 hours ago, Reasonability said:

 

Amen!  

 

We stand on 14 tee boxes that might require driver.  Where did all the other strokes go?  

 

It occurs to me we're GUESSING out there a lot.  Our best read for a putt is a guess.  Born of experience and hopefully a well-educated guess.  Our idea of what break and speed combined amount to.  We're guessing.  How we apply feel or technique to achieve what we just imagined... best guesses piled on guesses.     

 

Yet we're supposed to fully and confidently commit to each and every putt.  Every shot for that matter.   Can't play this game without commitment.  

 

Are we golfer cursed or blessed?  We seem to own the ability to make full-on commitments to guesses! 

 

I once heard the term "confirmation bias".   Once you believe something is real, then it is. Personal example.  I want to look down and see a relatively thin topline on the iron.  Prefer minimal offset, and not a fan of fat-bottomed soles.   I've come to believe that's the way to fly.

 

Why then was I shooting in the low to mid 70s back when phone booths were a real thing - swinging a set of Ping Eye's??   Cause I believed they were the bomb.  I didn't know they were - I just believed they were.  

 

 

 

 

The lowest official handicap I've ever carried was a 5. The year I did that was the year I worked the short game thing. We had built a house across from our local course and I used to go over as soon as it was light and go to the 100 yard marker and play the hole. I did that 4 or 5 days a week. I got really good with wedges and the putter. Never did it again but that was all I needed to prove to myself where strokes are gained and lost the most. Not that the rest of the game doesn't matter also though. My league partner hits it a mile and fairly straight but not a night goes by where he doesn't end up 30' from the hole after a 30 yard chip shot. He'll shoot a 47 when if he had a ounce of short game he'd shoot a 40. 

[Duct Tape]

8 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

Damn! It's not even 7 a.m. here and I've already learned something. I did not know decibel levels were measured that way. Or if I did I forgot it. Grill is awesome!😄

Anyone who was in the Metrodome in 1997 when the Twins won their first of only two World Series saw the decibel count on the big screen the entire game.    
 

The Star Tribune must have written about the logarithmic scale in at least three articles that week. Northwoods rednecks, a subspecies I didn’t know even existed as a new transplant from their headquarters in Arkansas, were suddenly educated. 😀
 

I still have the picture in a box somewhere of my first born son (8/97) lying on the newspaper front page with a huge picture of Kirby Puckett.  Love that guy.  And Hrbek too. 

[braincramp52]

2 minutes ago, Duct Tape said:

Anyone who was in the Metrodome in 1997 when the Twins won their first of only two World Series saw the decibel count on the big screen the entire game.    
 

The Star Tribune must have written about the logarithmic scale in at least three articles that week. Northwoods rednecks, a subspecies I didn’t know even existed as a new transplant from their headquarters in Arkansas, were suddenly educated. 😀
 

I still have the picture in a box somewhere of my first born son (8/97) lying on the newspaper front page with a huge picture of Kirby Puckett.  Love that guy.  And Hrbek too. 

Oh, we exist! We ain't much for book learnin'. 😂😂

[Hickory4ever]

17 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

The lowest official handicap I've ever carried was a 5. The year I did that was the year I worked the short game thing. We had built a house across from our local course and I used to go over as soon as it was light and go to the 100 yard marker and play the hole. I did that 4 or 5 days a week. I got really good with wedges and the putter. Never did it again but that was all I needed to prove to myself where strokes are gained and lost the most. Not that the rest of the game doesn't matter also though. My league partner hits it a mile and fairly straight but not a night goes by where he doesn't end up 30' from the hole after a 30 yard chip shot. He'll shoot a 47 when if he had an ounce of short game he'd shoot a 40. 

I agree. In my younger years, I was always trying to hit the ball further and had a lot of success. As I aged and lost club head speed, cleaning up the short game paid big dividends and still does. I have several friends that still don’t get it and don’t spend nearly enough time on their short game.

[scomac2002]

11 hours ago, Hickory4ever said:

And if you buy SGI irons and they don’t work, you should get double your money back 😆. 

My best game of iron striking last year was the first game I played with my old set of BeCu Ping Eye2 clones.  That included a nutted 3 iron from the fairway that went 200 yards!  I don’t hit a modern driver any further!!  Those irons were sublime in all respects that day.

 

Having said all that, I will still play my modern Ping G’s the bulk of the time.  I score more consistently and they’re much easier on my body.

[braincramp52]

2 minutes ago, Hickory4ever said:

I agree. In my younger years, I was always trying to hit the ball further and had a lot of success. As I aged and lost club head speed, cleaning up the short game paid big dividends and still does. I have several friends that still don’t get it and don’t spend nearly enough time on their short game.

If you sit down after a round and really look at where you lost strokes, it usually leads to on or around the green. Unless you spend a lot of time bouncing balls off trees.😅

[Jim53]

27 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

If you sit down after a round and really look at where you lost strokes, it usually leads to on or around the green. Unless you spend a lot of time bouncing balls off trees.😅

Most definitely for me, if the putter is at least trying to cooperate it takes 4-6 strokes off the score. The wedge game is normally decent but again you never know and playing only once a week at best the feel comes and goes.

You have inspired me to again look at irons, maybe the Callaway ai smoke. Pretty good looking head and quite a bit of tech in a fairly small package.

My eyes and ego want to play CB's or blades and I get along great with the APEX CB's in the 8-11, but I believe it you are swinging decent anything will work for those lofts.

[braincramp52]

2 minutes ago, Jim53 said:

Most definitely for me, if the putter is at least trying to cooperate it takes 4-6 strokes off the score. The wedge game is normally decent but again you never know and playing only once a week at best the feel comes and goes.

You have inspired me to again look at irons, maybe the Callaway ai smoke. Pretty good looking head and quite a bit of tech in a fairly small package.

My eyes and ego want to play CB's or blades and I get along great with the APEX CB's in the 8-11, but I believe it you are swinging decent anything will work for those lofts.

I'll tell you what Jim, take a look at PXG. They look great at address and feel fantastic. You either love or hate the looks of the screws but the new double chrome or all black Gen 6's are sweet. I'll post a pic of the XP 7 iron if you want. Just let me know. With their veteran discount they aren't any more expensive than others anymore. 

[Triple Lindy]

11 hours ago, braincramp52 said:

Fastest road to lower scores is getting  really good from 100 yards in. 

And the fastest road to blowing up a round is chipping (or not) right around the green. Which for me, usually means I missed that mid-short iron in. With travel and now an arm injury, I’ve only been out once this year and those short chips probably cost me 8 strokes. Skulls and chunks - so aptly named.

[braincramp52]

1 hour ago, SnowbirdTom said:

Having worked on fast movers for a couple decades, you will never know what hit ya.  I retired before the F-22s hit production.  You wanna see holy crap?  Google up a video of a Spectre gunship in action.  Imagine a killing field with bullets hitting every six inches in less than a minute.

 

Here ya go. ->

 

Very Cool! When I was stationed at Dyess in Abilene Tx we had a lot of C-130's. None of those things though.😆 

[Triple Lindy]

17 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

I'll tell you what Jim, take a look at PXG. They look great at address and feel fantastic. You either love or hate the looks of the screws but the new double chrome or all black Gen 6's are sweet. I'll post a pic of the XP 7 iron if you want. Just let me know. With their veteran discount they aren't any more expensive than others anymore. 

So you went from the G410s to PXG? I’ve hit lots of clubs in hitting bays, but could never find anything that I could hit significantly better than my old Cobras. Then one day at the range, I found a G410 9i that someone had left at the chipping green. Looked to be the right length for me. Before turning it in at the clubhouse, I hit a few shots with it and absolutely loved it! Granted, that’s not much of a trial, but it has me on the prowl. Which is why your comments about Ping vs PXG got my attention.

[braincramp52]

7 minutes ago, Triple Lindy said:

So you went from the G410s to PXG? I’ve hit lots of clubs in hitting bays, but could never find anything that I could hit significantly better than my old Cobras. Then one day at the range, I found a G410 9i that someone had left at the chipping green. Looked to be the right length for me. Before turning it in at the clubhouse, I hit a few shots with it and absolutely loved it! Granted, that’s not much of a trial, but it has me on the prowl. Which is why your comments about Ping vs PXG got my attention.

I've been a huge Ping fan for years. I can't say the PXG Gen 6 XP's are more forgiving than the 410's but they fit my eye better from address and they are so soft feeling. I played some really good golf with the 410's but I hated the feel(sound) they made unless you played a really soft ball. Maybe I just didn't hit the center enough times.🤣

 

And to answer your question I probably had 6 sets of irons between the 410's and PXG's.😇

Edited March 7, 2024 by braincramp52

[BIG STU]

1 hour ago, braincramp52 said:

The lowest official handicap I've ever carried was a 5. The year I did that was the year I worked the short game thing. We had built a house across from our local course and I used to go over as soon as it was light and go to the 100 yard marker and play the hole. I did that 4 or 5 days a week. I got really good with wedges and the putter. Never did it again but that was all I needed to prove to myself where strokes are gained and lost the most. Not that the rest of the game doesn't matter also though. My league partner hits it a mile and fairly straight but not a night goes by where he doesn't end up 30' from the hole after a 30 yard chip shot. He'll shoot a 47 when if he had a ounce of short game he'd shoot a 40. 

The way I honed my short game was on the little Par3 course inside the loop at the course my old man ran. Our house was right in the middle. Had like a 30 yard walk to the 7th on the Par3 course which BTW was the largest green. If the big course was busy on weekends in the summer I would get like a 4 hr break because I usually started about 4AM or so and I put up the carts at dark. No one would hardly be on the Par3. I used to chip and wedge a lot to that green. I used to keep an old Wilson SW propped up on a tree inside our yard and an old cloth bag with 5 or 6 balls. Sometimes I would do my loop which was not in view of the clubhouse because after all I was supposed to be napping. I would play that hole cross over and play 3 4 5 6 and 7 again. The 12 years I lived there I more than likely played that Par3 thousands of times. I started on it around age 5 or so and played it over the years with anything from a cut down 5 iron to a 56* wedge. Longest hole was 100 yards. I never played the "big 9" as we called it until I was 14 or so. I also played little gambling games there like one club matches with either a wedge or 5 iron. I held the HIO record there with 198 of course percentage wise I guess it was a good percentage considering how many rounds I played. LOL BTW I have never had a HIO on a regulation course. The last week the course was open I tried to get the last 2 to make it an even 200. I worked there briefly in 93 just to have something to do. I found the old Wilson wedge leaned on the tree where I had left it 20 years before. The old cloth bag with balata balls was there decayed and the balata balls busted open. The leather grip was long rotted off on that wedge and the shaft darn near rusted in two. The face and sole was worn slap out. And yes it was a hallowed 58 Wilson Staff. No wonder I have an affection for Cleveland 588 wedges. Knowing what I know now about 58 staff wedges I think maybe I should have saved the head but then again it was worn slap out and I do not really feel guilty because it's time had came.

Fast forward to today. Back in the fall I started to play a little Par 3 course up by the airport with the wife. The yardages remind me of my old course but this one is more difficult. It is about 500 yards off the ocean with small undeleting greens. I always play it with the vintage sticks and either a balata or a wound ball. The wind is always blowing and shifting. I get to hit a variety of shots in the course of a round. I started doing it to walk some and get some exercise plus my wife loves it. My short game and physical health has reflected because of it.

[Nard_S]

45 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

If you sit down after a round and really look at where you lost strokes, it usually leads to on or around the green. Unless you spend a lot of time bouncing balls off trees.😅

I've audited my game to nauseum and maybe played with 6 guys who can really "play". Both confirm my thinking on this. 1) the tee ball is THE shot in the arsenal and 2) short game prowess, the ability to get down in two from 100 feet with high consistency is where the priorities need to be. Great tee ball allows for higher GIR number, great short game facilitates a more relaxed approach to GIR game. I hovered at 11 GIR's for two years and it was tee ball, not the irons, that allowed that. Guys who shoot 76 on a meh day, their tee ball is rock solid, their short game super-efficient, their iron play is the least impressive thing to watch. They know where to miss.  I lose most strokes off tee, lose 2nd most on short game, last is approach play. 

 

So when popular talk is about "what irons to play", my thinking is a) the weight & flex you bind with is much more consequential and b) you 're looking for score improvement in the wrong zip code. Iron type matters but not near as much as it is purported to be. That said, I practice, like it more than playing to be honest, but if I decided to stop that, I would have a minimum of CB's in lofts below 35*, if my swing speed drops b/c of age, I'll lighten things, otherwise, I play lofts and gear I aspired to play 30 years ago.