Swing Thoughts

I’m guilty.  I just have NOT talked enough about sports in this blog yet this year, most particularly, golf.

But golf season’s just really getting underway, and with the PGA set to visit Torrey Pines in San Diego starting tomorrow at The Farmers Insurance Open, I can assure you that will start to change.

Over the Christmas holidays, I mentioned, in fact, that Santa brought me a self-imposed present: Some Ben Hogan “Red Line” irons, circa 1988.  I found them from a nice gentleman in Illinois via eBay, and the day they arrived via UPS at my folks’ place, where I was visiting, there was a few inches of snow on the ground.

Finally, later that week, back in Austin, I got to give them a go.  I’ll remind you these are the same clubs that Tiger Woods won a U.S. Amateur with back in the day, and a range of pros (including Austin inhabitant Tom Kite) played with these clubs at one point or another.

I’ll also remind you that I’m no Tiger Woods or Tom Kite…I’m a mid-level handicapper working his tail off to drive that handicap down into the single digits.

Since that first round, I’ve played a few more, and I LOVE the clubs.  But last weekend, just for grins, I went out and swung my Mizuno MP-25s, my original Mizuno set which are cavity-backed (what Mizuno calls their “Hemi Cog”).

So how did I hit those clubs now that I’d been out flirting with some blades for a few weeks?

Well, suffice it to say, my first five-iron probably sailed close to 180 yards and had this amazing trajectory and ball flight that made my want to cry.

And that happened again. And again. And again.

Ever since golf school last summer, there’s been no doubt my game improved. But, I don’t play enough as an amateur to consistently hit a thin blade in that oh-so-small sweet spot.

So, this weekend, I’m going to take the forged clubs and see what happens at a challenging course out in Blanco (the Texas Hill Country). Assuming my short game doesn’t completely fall apart, I expect to see my score drop back down into the lowish 80s, but we’ll see.

Do I regret the trial experience with those blades?  And will I ever play with them again?

No, and abso-frickin’-lutely.

Playing with those blades drives focus on the swing like you’ll never have with a forged club, because they’re not nearly forgiving. For that reason alone, I’ll continue to bring them out, because they force you to find the center of the club.

But when it comes to playing to score, and to have the most fun I can have on the golf course, I realize now more than ever why they make those forged clubs — so we “hacks” can fairly consistently hit those beautiful iron shots that we so admire when Tiger or Ricky or any other pro step up to the ball and make it look so easy.

I can’t wait for my tee time on Saturday.

Kicking Off The 2012 PGA Tour

Today has to be one of my most favorite days of the year.

The par 73, 7,411-yard Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii, is the course of the champions, site of the PGA TOUR Hyundai Tournament of Champions starting today and featuring an elite field of previous year's PGA TOUR winners.

And not because it was the day that New Mexico was admitted into the U.S. As the 47^th state, although that’s pretty cool, too.

No, it’s the start of golf season.

If you harken back to an earlier blog post, I didn’t have to wait too long at all, huh.

To be precise, it’s the start of the 2012 PGA Tour.

Golf fans everywhere are ready, I think.  Tiger finished off his own year for a victory, sure, but it was Bill Haas who took the Fed Ex Cup for 2011.

But now it’s a whole ‘nother year, and it’s anybody’s guess who’s year it’s going to be.

There’s a nice mix of 20-something flat bellys, 30-something seasoned golfers, and 40-something veterans, and as 2011 demonstrated, a member in any one of those groups can take any given tournament.

As for my own golf game, I laid off a bit last summer and even some early winter, but I found myself in Golfsmith this Christmas looking for a present for my father, when I wandered into the “pre-owned” section, where I found a nice set of Mizuno used MX-25 irons on sale.

I’ve always heard great things about Mizuno, but had never owned any, so I went out to the range and after a few swings had fallen in love.

Ah, why NOT treat myself to a Christmas present.  It’s the holidays, right?

So I’ve played with them a few times now, including with my father on his home course, the Denton Country Club — not exactly a simple track, certainly not short, and with bent grass greens that most courses only pray for.

As with most golf games, it’s the short irons (and short game in general) that weaken first after a layoff, because those shots are typically all about touch.

The longer irons (the set was 3 through PW) are just…well, you know how it is when you hit a sweet shot right in the center of the club. But, Mizuno forged clubs are a lot less forgiving than your Callaways or your Titleists.

Sweet spot shots are key, and so the fundamentals (head down!  smooth swing!) become that much more critical, because there’s just not a lot of forgiveness.

But like I said, when you hit that near perfect shot…well, let’s just say you start beaming a smile, like you just got away with something, especially when it strikes the green in the general vicinity of where you actually wanted to hit it. We golfers live for those shots.

And that’s the part of golf that I think is so easy to forget. At the end of the day, golf is a target game. Some think it a distance game, and while distance is also important, the closer you are to the target, so the theory goes, the less strokes you can expect to get it into the hole.

So, the closer you can get to the hole on the green in that all important regulation stroke, the better chance of a lower score.  So, distance is key, but accuracy is critical.

I’m hovering right around a 16 at the moment, but my goal is to be back down to a 12 (or less) by the end of the year.  I’ll keep you posted.

But in the meantime, check out some of the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tour of Champions. Kapalua is a beautiful track, and the wind there on the Plantation Course could be the great equalizer this weekend.