Being the “Club Ho” that I am, I was eager to check out the Golf Digest 2008 Hot List.

In the players iron category, I was pleased to see that my brand new Mizuno MP-57 Irons got a gold rating.

I think the Taylormade R7 TP iron was their top pic for this category… of course I disagree… although they’re a fine set of irons, they’re a little too loud for my liking with Taylormade’s typical ”in your face” colors and design. 

In the players iron category, it appears that over at DeepRough.com they share the same fine taste I do. 

The Mizuno MP-57’s made the Deep Rough’s 2008 Top Pic’s List.  I love seeing the different of opinions when it comes to golf equipment… you can’t please everyrone and what’s beautiful to one is ugly to another (hey some guys like blondes, some like asian girls and other like Big Mamma’s).

My dad used to say…

 “Each to their own, said the old lady who kissed the cow”.

And he’s right… for whatever reason we all like and are attracted to different things.

Luckily for me and you, there’s plenty of options and choices out there in the golf world, so surely there’s something to tickle your fancy (my new Mizuno’s tickled mine).

Sean Cassidy “Real Men Swing Fast”

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Ahhh, I just love them. 

My new mizuno irons and wedges that is (heck, I’ve even kicked my wife out of bed so they can get a good nights sleep… pics below)

Here they are after a hard day in the field…

I got myself the MP Fli-Hi 21 degree #3, MP-57 Irons 4 to PW and an MP T 51 Wedge and MP R 58 wedge.

I’ll probably end up with another MP T wedge in there… I’ll pull out my 3 & 5 woods and replace them with a 4 wood, allowing me an extra wedge.  I’ll bend the 51 to 50 and get an MP T 53 wedge (bent to 54).

I don’t like chunky short irons and wedges, but I don’t mind that extra size for confidence in my longer irons, so I may also replace at least the 4 iron and maybe even the 5 with a couple more MP Fli-Hi irons (I love them for confidence over long iron shots).

Kimba hard at work guarding my new Mizuno Irons!

As you can see security is tight on my new mizuno’s… not even a hardened criminal could get past this aggressive and highly trained guard dog!!!

My Wife’s New Bed 

As you can imagine, my wife, Danielle is a little upset about the new sleeping arrangements… but I told her because I spend more time with them than her, it’s only right that they sleep in the bed with me.

Cheers

Sean Cassidy “Real Men Swing Fast”

ps - before you go bagging me about the graphite shafts in these, let me tell you Mizuno has done an excellent job with these, they’re awesome…

“they play like steel without the pain of steel”. 

I suffered for a couple of years with golfers elbow and no matter what I tried I couldn’t get rid of it.  As soon as I switched to graphite the elbow pain went.

A big thank you to two PGA professionals (Mark Victorsen (Vico) and Dave Saunders) for putting me onto graphite shafted irons… without their suggesting them, my ego would have stood in the way switching and my elbow would still be killing me.

First set of graphite shafted irons I had were too lite for my liking… the mizuno exsar IS2 tour spec graphite shafts are much closer to steel in the way they play, the ball flight and their weight.

My only complaint (and this goes for all graphite iron makers) is that they look like graphite shafts (with the branding and colors).  I for one would much prefer my graphite iron shafts to be “iron” like silver in color.  I’m sick of being asked why I have graphite shafts.

Anyway, you being the smart reader now know why… they don’t hurt the crap out of your body!

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As much as I admire and love learning from Butch Harmon… when it comes to swing speed and golf I think he’s wrong (especially when it comes to the majority of golfers in the world - the non-tour players).

You see in his must read book “The Pro” - Lessons about golf and life from my father, Claude Harmon Sr. - Butch Harmon brings up the subject of clubhead speed (swing speed).

In his example he talks about a golfer named Jack Larkin, who was a brilliant junior golfer… winner of the U.S. Boys Junior Championship (he never went on to become the tour player he could have been).

Apparently young Jack  was dead eye dick with his irons… they were lazer straight and accurate.  Trouble for Jack came when someone told him he needed to hit the ball longer if he was to have any success (lack of length didn’t stop Zach Jonson at the Masters, or Corey Pavin back in his hey day).

Here’s how Butch Harmon described Jack Larkins pursuit of increased distance,

“Jack Larkin chased a phantom called clubhead speed, one he was never going to catch, and as a result he lost some of the accuracy that had made him so great”.

To me clubhead speed is NOT a phantom… and it can be caught! 

… if you know how.

Having said that, it sounds like Jack Larkin made a very costly error in how he went about increasing his swing speed. 

When it comes to increasing your swing speed, you can increase it by making changes in one of three key areas:

• Technical Changes (your swing technique)

• Physical Changes (flexibility, strength, power, speed, timing, balance etc.)

• Equipment Changes (shafts, club heads, golf ball, launch monitor fittings etc)

It’s possible young Jack chased the increase in speed through changing his swing technique… which totally screwed him up.

For a guy who was already a good ball striker and very accurate with his irons - swing technique changes were not the place for him to be chasing extra clubhead speed (sadly for Jack, this strategy was a phantom).  Back then, technology and precise club fitting were not what they are today, so equipment changes weren’t going to give him the extra speed he needed.

Had he known how, Jack Larkin could have added swing speed and the desired distance through “Physical Changes”… without having any negative impact on his superb iron play.

Now if you’re no Jack Larkin and your swing sucks, well then, there’s plenty of extra swing speed to be had by identifying and correcting your major swing flaws. For me it’s been releasing my wrists too early and poor weight transfer (I’m glad to say in just a few sessions I’ve improved my ball striking by doing special drills to get the feeling of the correct movement patterns.)

No doubt you’ll have some tendencies in your swing that are less than perfect.  Spend a little time “drilling” the correct movement in place and watch your ball flight improve and feel the increase in speed.

Swing Speed IS more trainable than many believe!

Butch also shared another of his beliefs on swing speed and it’s a similar thought that I heard from many team sports coaches when I was working with professional football players as their Strength & Conditioning Coach.

The belief:

That you’re either born with speed or you’re not and you can only improve it a little.

To an extent this is true.  The old saying that you can’t make a racehorse out of a donkey does have some influence on the maximum swing speed you may achieve… but it doesn’t say anything about how much you can improve. 

“Give me a donkey with some desire and I’ll train it to get past a few racehorses!”. 

Just for laughs here’s my M+ rated version of the donkey/racehorse saying….

“You can’t make strawberry jam out of pig shit”. 

Maybe you couldn’t make strawberry jam… but you sure could make it taste a whole lot sweeter

So, if you feel you’re lacking some natural talent in regard to your swing speed… don’t let that hold you back from significantly adding to what you’ve already got - SWING SPEED IS TRAINABLE (if you want more of it that is).

Swing speed is important, it is fun… but whatever you do in pursuit of it, don’t screw yourself up like poor Jack Larkin did.

Cheers

Sean Cassidy “Real Men Swing Fast”

(”The Pro” by Butch Harmon is definitley a book to get into - I’ve read it 3 times so far)

ps - as for Butch Harmon’s book, “The Pro”… I found it one of the most interesting, instructional and moving books based around golf that I’ve ever read. 

Heck, the part about the cashmere socks in the cupboard brought a tear to my eye (yeah, I’m a self confessed emotional softy - I think it’s the yin side for my angry yang side). 

And Hogan’s strategy for playing some par 4’s and 5’s is one not to forget… especially in this age of “Bomb & Gouge”.

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Ball Speed Vs Swing Speed - What’s More Important?

All things being equal… the higher your ball speed when it leaves the face of your driver, the further it will go.

It’s simple physics.

So what’s more important?  Ball Speed or Swing Speed?

Well, both really.

You see, there’s a high correlation between your swing speed and your ball speed.

Without a high swing speed… you ain’t going to get the ball rocketing off down the launchpad of the lush fairway before you!

And that’s why I firmly believe that the number one limiting factor to how far you hit your driver is your swing speed.

There’s other variables in play, but your swing speed is numero uno.

If you’re swinging it fast, but you feel you’re not getting the distance you deserve… it’s likely you need to work on improving the quality of your ball striking (sorry swing speed alone doesn’t solve all your golfing problems).

In the world of long drivers and launch monitors they talk about the “Smash Factor” … it’s a ratio between your ball speed and swing speed.

Basically your “Smash Factor” tells you about the quality of your club face contact with the ball.  The higher the smash factor, the better the transfer of energy from your club head to the ball.

A smash factor of around 1.5 is widely regarded as a good number.

e.g. if you’re swing speed is 100mph and your ball speed is 150mph (150/100 = 1.5) your smash factor is 1.5.

If you’re not striking the ball towards the middle of the club face, or you’re hitting the ball with a glancing blow instead of dead solid,
then you’re smash factor and ultimately how far you hit the ball will suffer.

So now you know…

To hit it further you need to increase your swing speed and improve the quality of your contact… which in turn turbo charges your ball speed and sends that little white, dimpled creature away from your clubface faster than it’s ever gone before.

That’s the plan at least.

Sean Cassidy “Real Men Swing Fast”

ps - If you want to know swing speeds, ball speeds and smash factors of tour pro’s during tournament play… there’s a great article over at The Deep Rough that’s worth a look.  It’s called “Ball Speed and Carry Distance at the Skins Game”.

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I’m a self confessed “Club Ho”… you’ll see why in a minute.

Talking about Ho’s… how stupid is it that in many places Santa Claus is not aloud to say Ho, Ho, Ho!

Sometimes the powers that be are a little too sensitive and way too Politically Correct!

Here’s a list of my “current” clubs:

The Driver – Taylormade Burner 9.5 Stiff Flex (worste driver I’ve ever had)

Previous driver was a Titleist 905T… sure I can hit it longer at times with the Burner… but I could definitely hit more fairways with the Titleist.

As for my current driver, I’m over it.  Don’t know whether it’s the shaft, clubhead or what, but changing to it I’ve almost forgotten what a fairway looks like.  Dare I say it, but sometimes it’s best to sacrifice a little swing speed for greater accuracy.

Frank Thomas from franklygolf.com and from http://www.thegolfchannel.com/ (Let’s be Frank section) says that they should sell “Snake Bite” kits with these longer drivers… I couldn’t agree with him more.

Here’s a little of what Frank said…

“It seems the number one thing we all want is distance. Some manufacturers are now increasing the length of drivers to help give golfers what they want, without concern for the effect this may have on accuracy. I have suggested that a snakebite kit should be included with these new $500 drivers, just in case we encounter a vicious reptile while looking for our stray-but-tremendously-long drives. “… read the full story here:

Needless to say the driver will soon be history to me… eBay here it comes.  I’m finally going to book in for a launch monitor fitting session and test drive a whole bunch of drivers, with different specs to find what really works best for me (I’m strongly leaning towards the PING G10)

I’ll use the information from the launch monitor session to narrow down the field, and then I’ll play the top two off against each other until there’s a winner (at least until something newer and shinier comes along ?).
3 Wood – Srixon 15 degree M-Steel

This is a fantastic club… it flys off the club face and gives a great ball flight.  I tend to use it more and more for tee shots.  Unless the hole demands a really long drive, then I opt for the more conservative but more successful approach (when ego gets the better of me, more often than not I pay the price with a bad score).

5 Wood – Srixon 18 degree M-Steel

I really like this club.  I have played a number of hybrids, and I must say that I prefer a 5wood over them… although I really like the Srixon AD Hybrid that I swap in for the 5 wood from time to time.

Irons & Wedges

I’m on my 3rd set of irons in the past 12 months… and it’s not because I’ve worn any of them out.

I started with Titlest 735 CM’s, then went to Taylormade R7’s and now I have Mizuno MP 57’s (prior to these I had Henry Griffitts Green Backs and some KZG Evolutions).

I liked the 735’s but after a few training mistakes, I ended up with a good dose of elbow tendonitis and my elbow was against the DG S300 shafts. 

Steel shafts are fine if you don’t have any joint pain or tendonitis, but they’re just brutal on your body if you do have problems.  I tried out a number of steel shafts with the so called shock absorbing inserts, in my ever so humble opinion… they’re USELESS!

A mate of mine got me to try the Taylormade R7’s with graphite irons.  Being one of “the boys” and not over 70 years of age, I was dead set against graphite iron shafts… after all, that’s what old men and woman play (or so I thought).

A couple of mates of mine (Mark “Vico” Victorsen and Dave Saunders), who are PGA Professionals, both had graphite shafted irons and I figured if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me. 

Vico had also suffered with elbow tendonitis and agrees with me, that graphite irons are the only permanent cure to the problem.

Anyway, the graphite shafts in the R7’s were a little too light for my liking and the heads on the short irons were a bit too chunky for my liking… especially playing off closely mown fairways or tight lies.  I probably should have gone for the heavier shafts and smaller heads in the R7 TP irons.

Not entirely happy with the R7’s I was again on the hunt for new irons… I also disliked the ugly Taylormade colors so I was happy to change clubs.

Sidenote:  since changing to the Taylormade Burner Driver and R7 irons from the titleist 905T and 735 CM irons… as of right now, my handicap has gone up by 2.5 (so much for extra forgiveness).

On with the story… I hit some Mizuno’s at a demo day and fell in love with them. 

I really liked the MP 60’s, however, the new MP 57 irons were about to come out and I liked the confidence of a slightly bigger cavity (but without looking like a shovel). 

The other thing that sold me on the MP 57’s was that Mizuno have a fantastic graphite shaft for their MP Irons (Mizuno Exsar IS2 Tour Spec graphite shaft ).  The shafts are blue and white, I love these colors, so the irons are much more pleasing to my eye. 

I would still prefer plain black or silver graphite iron shafts… but every manufacturer wants to brand them with their colors. 

I love the smooth feel from the Mizuno heads and graphite shafts. 

All going to plan, I’ll keep these irons in the bag until I wear out the grooves in the clubfaces… then again, I’m a “Club Ho” so you might see a set of MP 60 irons in my bag in a few months.

Here’s the details for my irons and wedges:

#3 21degree Mizuno MP Fli-Hi Exsar IS2 Tour Spec Stiff Flex
Mizuno MP 57 Irons 4 – PW

51 degree Mizuno MP-T series Black Nickel (6 degrees bounce)
58 degree Mizuno MP-R series Black Nickel (10 degrees bounce)

I love both these wedges.  The MP-T series has better alignment for my approach shots inside 100.  I prefer the more rounded MP-R wedge for a lot of shots around the green and out of green side bunkers.  There’s not much in it, but I prefer the Black Nickel finish over the chrome.

I’ve played with 4 wedges in my bag before (a Dave Pelz recommendation), but for now I’m playing with 3 wedges (PW, 51, 58) and very happy with them.

Specs for Irons and Wedges

Length + ½ inch (35.25” 5 iron)
Lie 3 degrees upright (63.5 degree 5 iron)
Shaft – Mizuno Exsar IS2 Tour Spec Stiff Flex

Putter
Never Compromise GM2 Exchange #7 35 inches (loft)
70degree lie angle
3.5 degrees loft

I’ve figured out that I putt better with face balanced putters… I always kept going back to them, and finally the S.A.M Putt Lab confirmed this for me.

I’m over the mallet putter though and on the hunt for a more traditional looking face balanced putter (possibly Yes Tracy or Mizuno Bettinardi C 06).

Bag – Callaway Carry Bag (nothing special but does the job)

Rain Suit

Mizuno  This thing is awesome.  I finally shelled out a few bucks and got myself a top of the line golf rain suit.  It’s worth the money to get one of these, they keep the rain out like nothing else, so while everyone else is soaking at the end, you’re still nice and dry.

Shoes

FootJoy Dry Joy Pro

I’ve got two pairs of these.  One black and one white with black saddle.  Good shoes and they keep your feet dry.

Balls

Srixon ZURC (they work well for Jim Furyk)

I’ve tried Titleist ProV1x & V1, Callaway Hex Tour and Hex Tour56 and a bunch of other balls… then I found these.

The Srixon ZURC for me are long off the tee, yet still offer great control around the green, I love them.  

Sean Cassidy

“Real Men Swing Fast”

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