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paul cowley

I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« on: April 21, 2007, 12:57:23 AM »
Hell, I hardly play anymore and when I do the driver is the easiest to hit....I can move all about and hit it any different kinds of ways and it still does a good job advancing the ball.
Nothing like the old days when my handicap dropped considerably after I started using a three wood off the tee.

Its become a pussy club.

« Last Edit: April 21, 2007, 01:15:55 AM by paul cowley »
paul cowley...golf course architect/asgca

Daryl David

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2007, 01:16:54 AM »
Paul,
I noticed a few years ago that I was hitting driver on the holes that normally called for a fairway wood or even long iron due to tight landing areas.  When asked why I was pulling driver, I realized that it was because it was the easiest to hit and is my straightest club.  World turned upside down.

paul cowley

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2007, 01:46:02 AM »
Daryl....I agree....if nothings in my way, I hit it from off the deck in the fairway all the time....just bunt the sucker along.....why not?
« Last Edit: April 21, 2007, 01:53:32 AM by paul cowley »
paul cowley...golf course architect/asgca

Joe Hancock

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2007, 07:30:29 AM »
Geez, Paul...

I thought this was going to be about your chauffeur. I guess I'll hang on to my resume a bit longer until another position in the company opens up.... ;D

Joe
" What the hell is the point of architecture and excellence in design if a "clever" set up trumps it all?" Peter Pallotta, June 21, 2016

"People aren't picking a side of the fairway off a tee because of a randomly internally contoured green ."  jeffwarne, February 24, 2017

paul cowley

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2007, 09:35:48 AM »
Joe ....sorry about the confusion ;).

Whats really strange though is that I'm not sure where this this thread came from.....and I'm going to ask my 18 yr old as soon he wakes up if this is one of his jokes.
The last thing I remember last night was putting the head cover back on my driver that I had just finished polishing in anticipation of playing tomorrow......very strange indeed!
« Last Edit: April 21, 2007, 09:36:40 AM by paul cowley »
paul cowley...golf course architect/asgca

TEPaul

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2007, 08:13:46 AM »
"Whats really strange though is that I'm not sure where this this thread came from.....
The last thing I remember last night was putting the head cover back on my driver that I had just finished polishing in anticipation of playing tomorrow......very strange indeed!"

If the truth can be told that was the first thing that occured to me too when I read this thread. But that's why I love you man----one never knows what might come outta that ultra imaginative head of yours sometimes. You didn't happen to take your driver to bed with you by mistake instead of leaving her in the bag, did you?

Would you like to talk about your putter? You haven't lost interest in her too, have you?  If I were you, before you go play try to see if you can get your whole bag and all your clubs to be one big happy family again---if you can it'll be just one less thing to think about out there. You might want to take all your clubs, all the balls in your bag, your gloves and any other contents out and lay them all on the ground next to one another and let them work it out amongst themselves. Have you told Dawn about this? If not at the very least I suggest you take her out to play too---if anyone can she can probably help out here.

You know what I think, PaulC? Whatever the hell happened here probably began when you were in Ireland recently. Sit down, relax and think back----particularly if anyone over there used your driver for whatever reason. This may just be a case of simple, albeit it hopefully somewhat temporary and inconsequential infidelity.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2007, 08:46:31 AM by TEPaul »

John Kirk

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2007, 09:34:01 AM »
The new forgiving drivers have changed the fourteen club formula in my golf bag.  I now use my driver to drive on 3-wood holes, by choking up or whatever method is working that day.  The second club is almost exclusively used for shots off the fairway.  For the last couple years, the magic combination seems to be driver, 4-wood, and 7-wood.

Not needing a 3-wood gives me the luxury of adding a fourth wedge, and on 6500-6800 yard courses, I need a club that goes 70-85 yards a lot more than filling holes in my game around 230 yards.  Furthermore, the 60 degree wedge is one of those modern jobs that really spins, and whether the old school guys like it or not, it's great fun to punch a 45 yard shot in low and have it spin to a quick stop.  "Dance!"  It still takes some skill to do it reliably.

I like my modern driver because it's now a club I can manipulate.  With an old wooden driver, you were just trying to hit it as well as you could.

Andy Troeger

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2007, 09:39:23 AM »
I'd like to know what kind of drivers you fellows are using. Of all my long clubs the driver is the worst club in my bag in terms of accuracy just as it always has been. I'm usually a pretty good iron player, but the driver eludes me. I'm assuming its my swing that's the problem though and not a change of equipment :)

Doug Siebert

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2007, 01:10:36 AM »
Andy,

If your driver really is worse than your other long clubs in terms of accuracy then I'll lay money it is one of two things:

1) you are swinging too hard with the driver -- when you swing it, you have "distance" in mind, when you back off to a fairway wood or iron it is because you need more accuracy and thus have "accuracy" in mind.  Just for the heck of it, try swinging your driver with "accuracy" in mind on every shot, even holes that are wide open where accuracy really doesn't matter and you really would like more distance.  You are fighting the years of accumulated negative vibes many of us have associated with their driver from when it was the hardest club in the bag to hit well.

2) your driver is not fit properly to your swing -- I'd check length first, but it could be any number of things.  If you let a dozen golfers choose amongst a dozen drivers, I'll bet 11 of them pick the driver that hits the longest drives, and don't really think about accuracy unless it accentuates their most common swing fault/miss.  They figure they'll get used to it and it'll straighten itself out, or that they are willing to accept less accuracy in return for an extra 10 or 20 yards (whether those yards are real or perceived because they happened to try that driver on a day when the fairways were drier than normal)  They assume that on tight holes they'll just use another club.

Don't look to me for some secret associated with the driver I'm using though, unfortunately!  I'm using a cheap Sasquatch clone I paid like $100 assembled and shipped last year when I broke my old driver (despite breaking at impact, it still hit that last ball right down the middle!)  The "new" driver is really not even optimally fitted to me, I just haven't got around to finding a more permanent replacement.  I have plenty of problems missing fairways with it when my swing goes awry, like anyone.  But pulling it left or my favorite fault of staying too far behind the ball and releasing before impact to create a huge hook are problems that can happen with any club.

But mishits, unless I'm WAY off the sweet spot, have almost zero impact on my ability to hit fairways with the driver, or even to hit it as far as I want unless I'm attempting a carry that's on the ragged edge of my capability.  Plus if I need more distance (like when I'm trying to drive a par 4) I can just swing harder and get another 20-25 yards out of it -- risking the increased chances of a big hook if I blow the timing between my legs and shoulders, but a simple mishit with that higher gear swing often ends up going further than a square shot with my normal swing.

So I think you ought to get properly fit, and if you are willing to give up a few yards in exchange for better accuracy eschew those 46" drivers that everyone's trying to sell now and go with something more like 44.5" like what I'm using.  Then you need to work on your head, and get over the outdated ideas that the driver is the hardest club in the bag to hit.  Those negative thoughts are poisoning your mind.  Once you get used to the idea that its the easiest club in the bag to hit, you find you play a lot of holes differently than what you used to.

I still hit 1 iron off some holes these days, but those are strategic decisions based on the likely patterns of trajectory, distance and dispersion with my driver versus my 1 iron (which has options for low trajectory shots I really can't hit with my driver)  Gone are the days when I look at the hole and say "tight hole, guess that's a 1 iron" because that was easier to hit straight without any "buts".
My hovercraft is full of eels.

paul cowley

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2007, 08:25:33 AM »
"Whats really strange though is that I'm not sure where this this thread came from.....
The last thing I remember last night was putting the head cover back on my driver that I had just finished polishing in anticipation of playing tomorrow......very strange indeed!"

If the truth can be told that was the first thing that occurred to me too when I read this thread. But that's why I love you man----one never knows what might come outta that ultra imaginative head of yours sometimes. You didn't happen to take your driver to bed with you by mistake instead of leaving her in the bag, did you?

Would you like to talk about your putter? You haven't lost interest in her too, have you?  If I were you, before you go play try to see if you can get your whole bag and all your clubs to be one big happy family again---if you can it'll be just one less thing to think about out there. You might want to take all your clubs, all the balls in your bag, your gloves and any other contents out and lay them all on the ground next to one another and let them work it out amongst themselves. Have you told Dawn about this? If not at the very least I suggest you take her out to play too---if anyone can she can probably help out here.

You know what I think, PaulC? Whatever the hell happened here probably began when you were in Ireland recently. Sit down, relax and think back----particularly if anyone over there used your driver for whatever reason. This may just be a case of simple, albeit it hopefully somewhat temporary and inconsequential infidelity.

Thanks my friend......I was just trying to let this thread die, now I'm in therapy ::).

BTW...my putter and Miss Dawn are fine and they both say hello.

I'm signing off now to go check in on the jet plane thread,

Cia ;)
« Last Edit: April 23, 2007, 08:29:07 AM by paul cowley »
paul cowley...golf course architect/asgca

Andy Troeger

Re:I'm losing interest in my Driver....
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2007, 09:07:41 AM »
Thanks Doug. Chances are its #1, even though I don't consciously think of it. If that doesn't work I might move to #2 and see what happens there :)

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