I think it was the acquisition of a lob wedge. I remember hitting a pitch shot over a bunker, the sort of shot that would have given me conniptions in the past, and it being so easy, I thought to myself 'I should not be able to hit that shot -- I am not a good enough golfer'. I still think there ought to be a maximum loft on clubs specified in the rules of golf... though how you would enforce it God alone knows.
Me too.
I usually play with persimmon woods and old Hogan blades and a bullseye putter, and I knew that a lob wedge just wouldn't 'fit' in the bag. But then I was in a 2nd hand shop and came across a Hogan Legend 58 - as the name implies, a 58 degree wedge.
It was a Hogan, and it was old and rusty, and so I excitedly realized that it *would* fit.
I put it in my bag. On a Par 4 approach, I went way right -- I had to come over some trees and then over a green side bunker.
I used the Legend 58. It was like I was cheating. All I had to do was swing it, not even all that hard.
The ball flew over the trees, over the bunker, landed 10 feet past the pin...and stopped.
Did I say it felt like cheating?
It did. Half of me thinks it *is* cheating. I shouldn't be able to play that shot. I don't even ever *practice* that shot.
The club did it all. It made moot all the architect's clever work/design - laughed in the face of the risk-reward equation.
I don't care. There, I admit it.
It *is* like cheating. But since it *isn't*, technically speaking at least, cheating, the Legend 58 is staying in the bag.
Forever.