A GolfTEC Holiday Photo Shoot to Remember

Thanks for stopping by to check out our holiday-photo-shoot slideshow. We hope you got a few laughs out of watching it (we certainly had a good time putting it together). And by the way, to stop the slideshow and the music, click on the stop button and the speaker icon in the top left (the music gets old, quickly).

In case this if your first time here on our blog, know that this slideshow is just a fun thing we posted. We certainly like to have fun, but golf is what this blog is really focused on. Feel free to spend some time looking around, and if you want to stay connected with us, you can subscribe via email to receive content whenever we post something new.

Also, Steve Atherton — GolfTEC VP of Research and Development and PGA Master Professional — is now going to be a regular contributor on this blog. His focus will be on our ASK STEVE feature, where he answers questions for our readers (that’s you). He would love to hear any golf-related questions you might have — you can leave them in the comments section of the last ASK STEVE post.

If you came here from our newsletter and want to finish reading it, you can get back to the December Momentum Newsletter here.

Happy holidays.

ASK STEVE: Bounce and How It Affects Your Wedge Game

The first post from Steve Atherton – GolfTEC VP of Research and Development and PGA Master Professional – in response to last week’s poll. (Follow Steve on Twitter: @AthertonPGA)

Well, we had a good response to last week’s poll on bounce and how it affects your wedge game. 82% of you hit the nail right on the head. Bounce mostly affects how cleanly you strike the ball from varying lies.

That’s the short answer, but you may still have questions about bounce. To give you a better understanding of bounce and how it affects your game, I’ve provided a brief explanation below.

What is bounce?

Bounce is defined as the angle (in degrees) between the leading edge of the club and the part of the sole that rests on the ground. The more bounce, the higher the leading edge of the club will sit off the ground. The most common bounce measurements for wedges would be in the neighborhood of 4-14 degrees. So that’s what bounce is, but there’s a more important question…

What type of bounce should you be playing for your wedges?

Unfortunately there is no cut-and-dried answer to this question, as some of the answer lies in what you feel most comfortable with, and that can be different for everyone. However, here are some basics to start from:

Play more bounce if:

1. You play in soft, fluffy sand or lush, thick fairways

2. You attack the ball with a sharp, downward-angle of approach

Play less bounce if:

1. You play in hard, firm sand or tight, dry fairways

2. You sweep the ball at impact

Keep in mind that you don’t have to match up the bounce in your lob, sand, gap and pitching wedge. It’s very common to have different bounce with each of those wedges. Just use the above suggestions and work from there. If your course has dry, firm fairways but soft sand, you might play a gap and pitching wedge that have little bounce, a SW with more bounce, and a lob wedge with little bounce. Also consider the type of shots you most commonly play around the greens at your course. If you typically have lots of shots to tight pins from tight lies, less bounce will help. If you have more shots from thick rough around the greens with the ball sitting up off the ground, more bounce would be the way to go.

Fiddle around with different wedge lofts AND bounce combinations until you find a set of wedges that gives you the confidence you need!

What’s your question for me?

So those are a few of my thoughts on bounce. Next up: YOUR questions. That’s right, I want to hear from you. In the comments section below, ask me any question you might have about your golf game. I’ll then choose one and personally answer it in a later post. Now, I know you may be hesitant to ask a question in the comments section. But seriously, just give it a try.

I’m looking forward to answering your questions and helping you play better golf.

Blended Iron Sets: How They Can Help Your Golf Game – Part 2

In part 2 of his guest post, Zach Lambeck — GolfTEC Coach, Houston, TX — gets down to the details on blended sets.

Part 2:

The Blended Set

In the last post (Part 1), I introduced the idea of blended iron sets.

More specifically, we looked at some of the common problems golfers face and how switching to a blended iron set can help solve those problems.

In this post, I’ll explain exactly what a blended iron set is and how you can build one. So let’s get to it.

Many of my students struggle with their mid-irons but don’t want to give up their existing short irons. Even though they can only hit half the irons in their bag, they love the feel of those short sticks and can’t imagine playing a more forgiving pitching wedge. If this sounds familiar, here is a step-by-step guide to building your blended set:

• Take the mid-irons (typically 4-7) out of your bag
• Set them in the back corner of your closet
• Go to your favorite club manufacturer’s website and pick out a few of their forgiving irons
• Visit your local GolfTEC or Golfsmith to try out each model
• Purchase the replacement mid-irons that you like best and throw ‘em in your bag

An example scenario:

You play Mizuno MP-52 irons, but you want a more consistent mid-iron game. You try out the MX-300’s and MX-1000’s—finding that the MX-300’s are the perfect fit for your mid-iron game. So, you switch out your MP-52 mid-irons for the MX-300’s and stroll out on to the course with your confidence-boosting blended set of irons.

One thing to consider: Because a blended iron set consists of two different club heads, it is critical to get the entire set fit by a PGA Professional or certified club-fitting specialist. It may be a blended set, but it is still a set, and like any set, it needs to work together. Whether you purchase your set at GolfTEC, Golfsmith or another retailer, make sure you take the time to get the entire set fit—specifically loft, lie and length.

Also, I’ve heard many golfers ask about purchasing individual irons and the extra cost involved. It’s a good question, but it’s not something you need to worry about. Irons are priced per club and can be purchased in any mixture at no extra charge, so don’t be afraid of extra fees!

I’ve seen the blended set work for many of my students. If you want to see improvement in your mid-iron play, talk to your GolfTEC Coach and make the switch!

Thanks to Zack for providing his insight on blended iron sets. So what do you think about blended sets? Questions about them? Leave it below.

Blended Iron Sets: How They Can Help Your Golf Game – Part 1 of 2

A two-part guest post from Zach Lambeck — GolfTEC Coach, Houston, TX — discussing blended iron sets. Check back shortly for part 2.

Part 1:

The problem

At first it doesn’t seem like there is a problem. In fact, it seems like a perfect day on the links. You have your game figured out today. You’re throwing darts with the short irons. That 3-hybrid you just added to the bag this week is the greatest purchase you ever made. So what is the problem? There is an all-carry 4-iron coming up. A little off the toe, maybe a little thin, and all of the sudden you’re in the drink, dropping with a penalty stroke. Another great round turned mediocre. Then it happens once more with that 6-iron you never hit well—chalk another round lost to the Golf Gods.

How it all starts

The majority of my students do not hit mid-irons well, and for many of them, it is the weakest part of their game. Short irons offer a good chance at center-faced hits thanks to their shorter length, providing more control over the swing. When it comes to the longer clubs in the bag, equipment has evolved: Drivers, fairway woods and hybrids provide the maximum amount of forgiveness possible — giving golfers a great opportunity to hit a good shot, even if the ball isn’t hit perfectly in the center of the club.

When we look at the 4-7 irons, however, there is potential for significant improvement. Two questions about your current iron set:

1. Do you love your short irons but struggle with mid-irons, as even a minor miss-hit sends the ball off the target line?
2. Does your 6-iron ever go the same distance as your 8-iron?

If you answered yes to either of those questions — or you just don’t feel quite as confident with your mid-irons as you do with your short irons — you should consider playing a blended set of irons.

So why should you care about blended sets?

Because of the larger sweet spot and increased forgiveness, that’s why.

Imagine if you hit a few extra approach shots per round on or next to the green. Imagine if you had confidence that your 5-iron would clear the water (most of the time). Imagine if you had equal confidence with your 4-iron and 9-iron!

That wraps up part 1 of our look at blended iron sets. Check back in a few days to read part 2 — where we’ll take a closer look at blended sets and how you should go about building one.

QUIZ: What Do You Know about Bounce?

A few weeks back we asked you how many wedges you carry. The results are in:

1. 47% carry three wedges
2. 29% carry four wedges
3. 24% carry two wedges

Overall, we aren’t surprised by the results. We didn’t have anyone on either extreme — carrying only one wedge or carrying five or more.

As always, we don’t ever want to leave you empty handed, so here are a few bits of wisdom from our own Steve Atherton — GolfTEC VP of Research and Development and PGA Master Professional in Instruction — on choosing how many wedges to carry.

• Longer hitters should consider playing four wedges (which includes your PW) — the resulting increased yardage-gap between clubs can be minimized by carrying an additional wedge.
• Match your wedge selection to the course you’re playing — each course presents unique challenges based on the conditions.  Adding specific wedges to your bag according to the course can give you an advantage.
• Consider not just the lofts that you need, but also the bounce…

…which happens to lead us to today’s poll, or rather, quiz.

Related to this quiz, we have an idea: we want to make Steve Atherton (follow him on Twitter: @AthertonPGA) a familiar face on this blog — which makes sense considering he is our top pro and this is, afterall, the GolfTEC Blog. Currently, we’re considering a weekly or biweekly Q&A type post. Basically, we open the floor up to all of our readers (that’s you) to ask any question they have related to golf, and then Steve chooses one and offers his insights.

Pretty cool to have the opportunity to get personal advice from a PGA Master Professional and Golf Digest Top 20 Under 40 instructor, huh?

We think it will be a great way to connect with our readers. It may work, it may not, but we’re at least going to give it a shot.

To transition towards getting direct questions from our readers, we’ll start with a few quizzes. Here’s how this works: below you’ll see our quiz; click on the answer that you think is most accurate.  We’ll gather the results, and then Steve will provide his additional insight on the topic in the next week or so.

So let’s get to it — what do you know about bounce?