Podcast #4 - Wie's detractors, ground game, (more)

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Brian Manzella

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I comment on Michelle Wie and why her detractors are wrong, why the ball is supposed to roll and it will at St. Andrews, what to expect from golf lessons, equipment for golfers with slow swing speeds and what ABC-TV can do to keep from ruining The Open (for me).;)
 

hue

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quote:Originally posted by brianman

What ABC-TV can do to keep from ruining The Open (for me).;)
They ruined it for me this year. I normally get a job with them as a spotter but this year they were fully booked up after straight after last years Open.
 

jeffy

Banned
Also couldn't find it on iTunes but podblaze works fine...

On equipment, you touched on my pet peeve with the OEM's, which is the "conventional" makeup for a set of irons. Starting with Ping about 25 years ago, manufacturers have been taking loft off the short to mid irons and lengthening the shafts so the golfing public thinks they're hitting it further. A standard pitching wedge used to be 50*; now you probably can't find one with more than 47* or 48* of loft and some are 43*. Of course this leaves huge uncovered ground to a normal 56* sand wedge so the goofy "gap" wedge was born. Now, if you want to carry a 3 iron through 60* lob with consistent loft/length stepdowns, you need four wedges and seven irons, for a total of eleven, leaving room for the putter, driver and only one fairway or utility. If you want to carry a 64* wedge or a couple of fairways/utilities, you have to compromise and drop an iron or wedge.

Given the proliferation of worthwhile specialty clubs that players want to add to their bags, it makes complete sense to both reduce the number of irons and eliminate the gap wedge. An easy way to do this is to start with a 35" long, 50* loft pitching wedge and then increase the length by 0.625" (instead of the normal 0.5") and decrease the loft by 5* (instead of 4*) through the set. This ends up with six irons and three wedges when you add a 55* SW and a 60* lob. With this makeup you can then carry two additional fairways or hybrids and still have only 14 clubs. Until some well-known players start using a set like this, though, I really doubt an OEM would offer it.
 
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