What are your equipment quirks/preferences?

[kwcsports]

Gotta have rounds grips, any rib drives me nuts. I have to use white tees, I can't tee off with anything else. I hate shaft labels and always remove them. I always install grips logo down, can't play if it's logo up. Yeah I have some issues haha.

[SurfDuffer]

I carry and use a blade 2-iron. People will see it in my bag and want to check it out. Immediately they almost always say they could never hit that thing. They're already defeated. Main reason I carry it is there are two tee shots on my home course that I really struggle hitting the fairway with a driver or fairway wood but I am quite confident putting it in the fairway with a 2-iron.

[iamchrisstuart]

I lign my ball up diagonally for putting, don't like relying on a straight line so did it to focus on everything else, been maybe 10 years doing it now

[Valtiel]

Gotta have rounds grips, any rib drives me nuts. I have to use white tees, I can't tee off with anything else. I hate shaft labels and always remove them. I always install grips logo down, can't play if it's logo up. Yeah I have some issues haha.

 

I found a hot pink tee on the course once that I used on three of the best drives i've ever hit to close out the round on the last three holes. I swore that was my magic tee! :D

[NRJyzr]

I prefer old school driver length, I cut down at least a half dozen drivers last year to 43.5", and one to 43.25". A few years ago in a fitting session, I found I swung a 43.25" steel shafted club 3 mph faster than the 90g graphite shafted 44-44.25" driver I'd been using at the time.

 

A corollary to the above, I alao prefer shorter fairway woods. At the end of the year, i was using 42.5" with my 3w, but will be going to my preferred 42" for 2019.

 

May be obvious, but i also prefer heavier graphite shafts. 75g is about as low as i can stand, and prefer 80-90 and up.

 

In contrast, I've always preferred longer club lengths in my wedges. For years, 36" was my minimum, but I've since relaxed that to 35.5". Any shorter feels odd (I have somewhat short arms).

 

Lofts are very weak by modern standards, being roughly based on the FG-17 lofts (20/30/50 for 2/5/pw). That said, i am not fond of 3* gaps in the long irons and will tweak them to suit, possibly skipping the 2i and going straight to a 1 iron at 18*. This past year, I played a set of irons from a 20* 2i to a 52* pw, with only a 58* sw on top of that. I alternated between a hybrid and a 1 iron in that 16* or 17* slot.

(I also have a set of TW282 at 19-51 for 2-pw)

 

Swingweight is around D5 for irons, trending towards D8 in wedges.

 

Don't know how quirky this all is, but there it is....

[ThreeBoxers]

I like a clean iron cavity. Colors/badges annoy me. Since that generally means players irons, and I suck, I have yet to replace my MX-23's...

[Chowdah86]

I only use a 44* pw and 56* SW. Gasp!! I know everyone in the golf world will plot out those numbers on paper and say Im doing it all wrong.

 

I play off 6 and my shortgame is the strongest part of my game. I think 4* wedge gaps is splitting hairs and completely unnecesarry. Its just dinky. Like, get out your damn protractor and compass inside 100 yards becasue you have 5 wedges to choose from. Yes, the whole golfing world’s approahc to wedges is dinky in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

. Seve Balledteros and his contemporaries were not dinky.

[gentles]

Fun thread idea. Here are mine

• Grips have to be exactly the same size. I use calipers to measure the butt diameter at different points of the shaft, and then add build up tape so the shaft has the exact same size when the grip goes on. Figuring this out was a game changer for me.
  
• Woods have to look square to open to my eye...can't stand anything that sits too upright or closed
  
• Wedges have to match
  
• Wood shafts have to match, but can be different weights. Currently have 75x in driver, 85x in 4 wood, and 105x in DI.
  
• Don't mind wear, but can't stand wear that is "out of place" e.g. skymarks, paint chips, dents etc. Bag chatter and wear on the impact area is fine.
  
• I care way too much about the numbers stamped on a club - e.g. I would struggle to use a 54* and a 56* bent to 58*, or having a hybrid that says "3" and a 3 iron at the same time.
  
• Don't like stock headcovers
  

No doubt I'll think of a bunch more!

[pierso2]

Aside from being left handed which is a quirk within itself, I prefer to have one more wrap of tape under my lower hand so it's usually 3,2 or 4,3. Other than that, I tee off with the small side logo of the ball pointing towards my target. That's an old habit from setting up the old Bridgestone launch monitors when I worked for them. Also helps me swing down the line. But the text has to be upside down. Yeah now that I type it out, I realize how crazy that sounds...

 

Sky marks on fairway woods or hybrids drives me up the wall. Almost to the point where I won't play a club with damage to the crown. Always put my headcover back on the club after I use it (hangup from caddying days).

 

Other semi-equipment related things- I always have an older quarter in my pocket somewhere around 1972 (even par). I use it as a ball mark or I'll use something else but always have a quarter from 1974 or older. Also I keep 3 tees in my left pocket.

 

Man thinking of all my quirks makes me realize how nutty I am!

[jjj912]

Only thing that might freak someone out is that I extend the shafts 3/4” to 1” since I’m tall and also that I have to set up a bit away from the ball to be able see it through my glasses (I couldn’t make contacts work and don’t want to risk a bad laser eye surgery). I sold a set of irons to a guy one time and he noticed right away that they were long.

 

One oddity I have is that I want a blade or blade like putter of a standard weight and length. I don’t want a heavy putter, a counterbalanced phone, a putter that doubles as a hockey stick, or a putter with a head the size of an aircraft carrier. The reason is logistics. I don’t want to have to lug around a long, heavy, oversized putter. A classical putter is easy to carry.

 

Another oddity is I only play forged clubs. I blame Mizuno. The first set of clubs I bought were a choice between Mizuno and Titleist. I’d never heard of Mizuno, but my father said he was told they were good clubs. At the store, the Titleist felt like hitting a rock in comparison to the Mizunos. So, I bought the Mizzy’s and inadvertently became a forged club junkie.

 

I suppose my only other oddity is that I keep my tees in the plastic container that replacement soft spikes come in. From what I’ve seen most people keep them loose in one of the golf bag compartments. That would drive me nuts. Related to this, I keep ball markers, divot tool, golf pencil inside another of those plastic containers.

 

 

 

[RH82]

Anything that appears to be glued in the cavity like a badge annoys me. Had CB irons that had the glue peel up in the past. No stock head covers. Putter shaft labels have to be removed and golf bag must be logoless.

[Bohsaucey]

Long putter grips on standard length putters. I don't grip down, but I like the extra handle weight.

[Valtiel]

I prefer old school driver length, I cut down at least a half dozen drivers last year to 43.5", and one to 43.25". A few years ago in a fitting session, I found I swung a 43.25" steel shafted club 3 mph faster than the 90g graphite shafted 44-44.25" driver I'd been using at the time. A corollary to the above, I alao prefer shorter fairway woods. At the end of the year, i was using 42.5" with my 3w, but will be going to my preferred 42" for 2019. May be obvious, but i also prefer heavier graphite shafts. 75g is about as low as i can stand, and prefer 80-90 and up. In contrast, I've always preferred longer club lengths in my wedges. For years, 36" was my minimum, but I've since relaxed that to 35.5". Any shorter feels odd (I have somewhat short arms). Lofts are very weak by modern standards, being roughly based on the FG-17 lofts (20/30/50 for 2/5/pw). That said, i am not fond of 3* gaps in the long irons and will tweak them to suit, possibly skipping the 2i and going straight to a 1 iron at 18*. This past year, I played a set of irons from a 20* 2i to a 52* pw, with only a 58* sw on top of that. I alternated between a hybrid and a 1 iron in that 16* or 17* slot. (I also have a set of TW282 at 19-51 for 2-pw) Swingweight is around D5 for irons, trending towards D8 in wedges. Don't know how quirky this all is, but there it is....

 

Pretty similar on my end to be honest, especially with our iron swing weights which are the same. I played shorter drivers for awhile and ended up trending towards longer lengths because they helped me draw the ball, the extra length made me flatter overall and it felt easier to properly come from the inside -> out. I'm actually thinking about bagging two drivers, my current one 45.25" setup for the long draw and another at something like 44.5" for a shorter, more accurate "fade" driver as I struggle to hit fades with longer lengths. I don't think I have ever gone as short as you though, I prefer heavier weights in drivers which can make shorter lengths tough. Similarly, I also prefer weaker lofts but not quite as weak as yours. I'm just a slightly more modern version of you I think. :D

[craz-e]

I like to look down on a small profile with my irons, wedges and putter. Anything too long heel to toe throws me out.

[tokeyb]

I suppose my only other oddity is that I keep my tees in the plastic container that replacement soft spikes come in. From what I’ve seen most people keep them loose in one of the golf bag compartments. That would drive me nuts. Related to this, I keep ball markers, divot tool, golf pencil inside another of those plastic containers.

 

Yes! Those things are money for organizing all the little crap. My new favorite? An empty 'parmesan cheese' plastic container. Peel off the label but keep the top. Perfect for tees, divot repair tool, shares, and fits perfectly in a drink holder in a cart or pushcart!

(Unscrew the cover to shake out tools/tees at the start of the round, but just open the wide cap to put everything back in at the end of the round. Brilliant!)