better player irons.

i currently use G20's which are game improvement irons. I tried a friends I20 and the pro's Titleist CB's and seemed to get on with them alright. Which got me thinking, to take my game to the next level, should i change to better players irons? ive struck it pretty well recently and got my GolfShake handicap down to 10. (15 club handicap) opinions please?

Can't give you any advice regarding your query.

But I'm puzzled how you can claim a 10 H/C on here, but be a 15 at your club! Surely the lowest H/C that you can legitimately claim should apply everywhere you play?

If you're good enough to get down to 10, but play off 15 at times, you are getting an advantage of 5 shots over your apparent level of ability!

i understand what you're saying Bob, it is mainly due to lack of competitions i am allowed to play in at my club as i am classed as a junior. our junior organsier is poor and only gives us about 4 comps a year.

Liam

I use Titleist CB's and they are great clubs. There's so much you can do with them and they are a dream to play with. With your handicap you would benefit from a better iron in my opinion

Bob

You only have one handicap, and if you have a CONGU handicap that is the one you play to. As Liam alluded to, your handicap is only adjusted in qualifying comps. As you can put every card into Golfshake there can be quite a difference between the two unless you manually adjust the Golfshake one to match the official CONGU one

Liam, your official handicap is 15 but in the spirit of the game you should use 10. I think that this will spur you on to even greater things and it does sound as if you're ready for better clubs as well. Sounds to me you've more or less talked yourself into the titleist's.

I have posted on this topic a few times as it appears to be a common thread. I swapped my cobra improver irons for Titleist mb's late last year and struggled hugely. The biggest problem was the x100 shafts but I still found the heads extremely small. Since then I have been custom fitted by titleist for some new 712 ap 2's. They are beautiful clubs with s300 shaft, but I am still struggling to get the same quality of strike as I did with my old cobras. I don't have the time needed to practise so my confidence is very low at the moment. I know that I need to strike down rather than sweep but changing my swing is hard when I can only get out once a month. Anyway, my advice to you would be - be prepared to put in the work and you will benefit from the change of clubs but don't get them thinking they will help unless you really need them. The score you post is far more important than the clubs you use to do it.

Liam, Your G20's will be helping a lot with mis hit shots etc. You have to be sure when you switch to better clubs your ball striking is on form, if not you'll notice the difference straight away as Tim did.

Hi Liam.

This is just an overview but gives you an idea of what is about:

http://www.golfshake.com/news/view/4018/2012_Players_Irons.html

Hi again Liam Played a singles round this afternoon to really give the new ap 2s a go. AMAZING !!! Had to attack the back of the ball and still can't believe the size of divots I am now taking but enjoyed it so much. The heads still seam small at address but the feel off the face is brilliant. I am really looking forward to hitting them again asap. I am now changing my advice to you, go for it with the new set. Mind you a bad session next week and I may change my advice back again lol.

Pleased for you, Tim, your game will now progress further instead of just stagnating by using those other monstrosities.

Another world will now open up to you in shot making abilities. Your interest in the game will surge with your new found thoughts on how to play the many different shots that will now be open to you. I am quite sure that your handicap will now start to move in the direction you have been aiming for.

Tim, chuffed you went for the AP2's, already regretting selling my 710's and sniffing around other forged options including the Ping Anser........come on Santa let me put them on my list!!!!

I bought some Mizuno TP9's from the internet when I started playing about 10 years ago. I didnt have a clue about game improvement clubs and to be honest I dont think there was as much choice then. I just remember going for a lesson with my club pro and him saying that even he would struggle to play consistantly with them. That said, I think it gave me a good grounding in how to strike a ball because there was no room for error. I think its made me the consistant player that I am today. I now play Titleist AP2's with Project X shafts, I've had them for 3 years I think and have no desire to change them as they are top drawer.

Liam

Your true handicap is your CONGU handicap of 15. If you want to get your CONGU handicap down to the level you think is correct, you have another option to prove this. You are entitled to submit up to 10 Supplementary cards per year. All you need to do is follow your club's procedure for advance notification for submission of a Supplementary (your club is obliged to have such a system), have another club member mark your card as you play the round and the submitted card will be assessed against the SSS of the tees used. The Supplementary system was introduced for players such as you who, for any reason, are unable to play enough qualifiers.

My Advice Liam, don't think you are better than you are two quickly, there are a lot of tour pro's that use clubs with forgiveness, maybe not game improvement, but with an element of forgiveness for miss hits, bearing in mind they practice and hit hundreds of golf balls every day, do you? probably not, just bear that in mind or your scores may suffer.