Let me admit I have not hit any of the Nike clubs, but I will say those blades are very beautiful. Frankly, I think they have nothing whatsoever to do with his "troubles." We are talking about a chunk of metal on the end of a steel shaft. This is 1950's technology, and believe me they can make those "prototypes" an exact copy of the Titleist blades he used. Interestingly, both he and Mickleson played with and loved Ping Eye 2's as juniors. I read that Ping badly wanted to sign Mickleson to a big contract when he went pro, but he would only do it if they allowed him to play Eye 2's, which by then had been discontinued. They refused. I don't see how the Nike driver can be a problem either. First of all, all these drivers come out of the same Chinese or Taiwanese foundries. You can buy the same thing as those $500 "proline" drivers for $100. The shaft is more important for someone at his level and you don't get more accurate than steel. He in fact has tried graphite shafts, but he doesn't exactly need the length. I think his erratic driving is more a matter of going after the ball too hard. He might be better off using a longer shafted graphite driver and going after it easier. But I'm pretty sure he and Butch know a little bit more than I do about that subject.
gotta disagree with you there AAA.....there is a difference in equipment and the tiniest of divergence makes a big difference....the BIGGEST change in TIGER's game since this time last year has been his consistency hitting the fairways....it seems like everytime he drives now it's kind of an adventure....the other HUGE thing that has changed has been his second shot....For a long time there TW could hit a 3 iron 250 yards and go for the green on his 2nd shot or more importantly, use a 9I from 170 and drop it on the green....I think the clubs have something to do with this....I also believe he is not playing enough.
After I wrote my comments about the equipment, a few things occurred to me. First, I think we all know that Tiger is not using "off the rack" irons or woods, but I would venture to guess that some manufacturers, as much as they try to perfectly match the specs for a given player, come up short. After all, if Nike were really efficient at building equipment, and all the other tour players knew that they could have Nike build their prototypes, why would the majority still go with Titleist. Notice how many of the top players are playing a version of the Titleist 680 forged or 690MB. In my opinion, Mizuno and Titliest make the best forged irons hands down... The thing about Tigers distances back in the day...He has commented quite a few times that back when he first got on tour, he had a few swing flaws that also helped him crank his irons longer. He mentions that he often trapped the ball into impact, which effectively closes the face slightly and probably skewed his yardages a bit...If you remember, back in 1996-98, Tiger hit alot of "hot" irons from the middle of the fairways. He was just flushing too many iron shots and was not controlling his yardages well at all...Then he followed the path of Greg Norman, (another student of Butch Harmon, who made Tigers iron swings shorter and firmer with less of that "trapping motion". Thats what catapulted Tiger to the top... Also, one other thing about iron distances...If you ever notice the loft specs on different irons, they vary quite a bit...Some blades will have "stronger" lofts, so what appears to be a 7 iron is really a 6 iron...I think quite a few tour players play with stronger lofts and try to hit flatter ball flights, so when I hear some of the yardages these guys are supposedly hitting certain irons, I think its the result of juicing the lofts in their sets...
Aphie is a golf pro or works at a pro shop, as I recall. Wonder what he thinks? Personally, I don't understand the argument that one manufacturer's identical blades are somehow superior to anothers. This is not magic guys. There is a loft, lie and weight, and you can bet Tiger's are spot on. They use the exact same steel, the exact same shafs, the exact same grips, and the balls are dialed in for the player. There have been guys who switched manufacturers and had trouble. Typically however I think this involved a change in the club design, ie going from a blade to a cavity back or a club with more offset. Payne Stewart had this problem and won his last US Open using Miz blades that were a design from 20 years or so ago. I also don't think you can make much sense out of the British Open. The course design introduced a lot of luck into the mixture and had more to do with the outcome than any other factor, other than Bjorn's crazy bunker penalty. If that tournament had been at say, Pebble Beach, I bet Tiger wins going away.
If that was true,how come nobody uses the Kmart blue light special brand of golf clubs??? There is a lot more craft involved then what you think ....don;t you think reebok and addidas would make clubs too?
I am guessing AAA doesnt value our opinions much..FWIW, I played Division I golf and have played with a number of different club manufacturers. The best set of clubs I have ever owned were a set of 1991 Titleist Tour Blades...I still play with them on occasion...Each set of blades has a different feel to them...Some have a very dead feel, others a much more centered feel...Golf pros rely alot on feeback... BTW, I think Aphie works in a golf shop, pretty positive he is not a golf pro...
Hey , c'mon vulture, I don't think that's fair. I'm not trying to put you guys down. All I'm saying is, I think Tiger's clubs are as good as they can get. Do you honestly think that the metal knows it is going to be stamped Titleist and not Nike? We're not talking about building a race car here, it's a simple steel forging. The other thing is there are plenty of component heads available that are every bit as good as the big brand names. The ReMax Long Drive Championship was won by Integra and SMT drivers two of the last three years. Try buying one of those at a country club pro shop. Check out www.drive4showgolf.com .
Fair enough. I also agree that the more overlooked aspects of club selection are the most important ones. Many people would be surprised at how inconsistent their shafts are, if they buy off the rack. And then Rifle came along with frequency matching and really put some consistency into irons. I would say I am on the fence as far as this whole debate goes. I agree that most equipment, if customized, will do the trick. But on the other hand, I know there are subtle differences in feel with some of those blades. For instance, Hogan Apex forged irons feel completely different from say Mizuno or Titleist blades. You are also correct that most of the players who entered slumps shifted from forged to cavity back or some version thereof. Interestingly enuf, cavity backs are out of style nowadays and forged irons or "muscle backed" have made their comeback again...
I work at an indoor golf training center. I am not a PGA professional, but work with them at our center. One of the things that I have noticed about amateurs over the past few years that I have worked there is: a) This biggest problem with the typical amateur golfer is that he doesn't have a proper alignment, grip and posture at set-up. GAP (Grip, Alignment, Posture) is critical to hitting consistently. A lot of players have horrible posture and grips and generate all these funky compensations throughout their swing to try and get the clubface square with the ball at impact. b) Not enough time devoted to practice and too many lessons to compensate for lack of practice. A typical lesson will generally present the golfer with enough material to practice for at least several weeks. c) There is the "graphite" camp and the "steel" camp. Generally, I see the better amateurs using steel **BUT** the technology has come around where either may be suitable. I prefer graphite because of the weight difference. We carry Taylormade products and I can tell you that everyone seems to love the new 580 driver. Their Rac irons are also great. I believe Tiger came very close to winning the British Open. Remember, had he not had such a horrible first hole where he was three over par, he may have finally one his first major in quite some time. However, getting off to a start like he did with such a major disappointment can leave the player at a tough psychological disadvantage. Tiger enjoyed the intimidation factor he had over other players when he was near the top of the leaderboard. However, he hasn't been playing the same type of golf he was in the past. I'm not sure if it is his course management, his equipment or something else, but he's definitely suffering from some setback in his game.