I'm looking forward to making the trip down to Austin for some New Year's celebration. But first, my sights are set on winning the inaugural Speedgolf Texas Pro-Am.
My equipment is pretty much old school. All of it was bought from used club bins at one time or another. In fact, I hear people talk all the time about how expensive buying golf equipment is. Well, I have less than $500 invested in my equipment (and that even includes all of the clubs I don’t use anymore!)
I can cover all my distances with just 5 clubs, except perhaps for the 220-250 yard range.
Driver
Taylor Made Rocketballz 10.5 Tour Model – original XCON-6 Stiff shaft
I use Driver off the tee on reachable Par 5’s and long par 4’s ONLY; otherwise it stays in the bag! Ha ha!
Irons
Titleist AP2 –Project X shafts
3 iron – 185 to 220 yd shots – I hit this off most tees
6 iron – 155 to 185 yd shots – for longer approach shots
9 iron - 110 to 155 yd shots – this is my $money$ club, I’ve had to learn to hit this club a number of different ways as I’ve found that most of my approach shots fall in this range, especially with hitting 3 iron off the tee on some of the shorter tee set ups.
Wedges
Titleist Vokey Design SM4 - 54 degree
110 and under club; plus all chip shots on those occasional missed greens in regulation. Ha ha!
Putter
Odyssey Rosie II – oversized Winn putter grip
The hardest part about Speedgolf is the putting, so you want a flat stick that you can really roll well and are comfortable with. I learned my lesson this year at the World Championships, I carried a lite weight off-brand putter that I really didn’t like. It lead to 6 - 3 putts in the final round and 10 total 3 putts in 36 holes. My putter is clearly what lost the championship for me this year! That is why the Odyssey is back in the bag.
I recently went from carrying 5 clubs to 6. I added a 3 iron to the mix a couple of weeks before this year’s SWC because I had a bad case of the hooks with the driver and was just looking for something that I could get off the tee while keeping it in play. In fact, I hit driver less than 5 times in 2 rounds in Chicago. Now I’ve gotten the driver straightened out I still keep the 3 in the bag, for a more conservative style of play and to fill the huge gap between my 6 iron and my driver.
I was just informed we will be trying out a new Speedgolf format this weekend, where we break the round up into single and multi-hole 'heats'. The low cumulative Speedgolf score still wins, but it will be interesting to see how players alter their strategy knowing they don't have to book it from start to finish. Be sure to follow along on social media!
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