Find the Best Equipment for Your Game

Good Morning,

In lieu of a cold open this Friday, I wanted to quickly regroup and refresh our new subscribers on what BTG stands for, and why I am here writing this newsletter.

I love the game of golf. I cherish solo walks outside in the early summer mornings, carrying nothing but my golf bag. I love hitting putts in the dew with the flagstick in, optimizing for pace of play. I love the games traditions, etiquette, and attire. I love playing with new interesting people on finely manicured grass, and sharing a few stories along the walk.

I’m here because I want to preserve and share that with each and every one of you. I want you all to revere and respect the game, as it will teach you more about life than you could ever imagine. I want you to have the composure, etiquette, and poise required to walk onto any golf course in the world and hold a conversation with anyone for 4 hours.

We’ve started to cover some of those concepts with the first few posts, and I can’t wait to continue writing for you all. If you’re new here, I’d recommend starting with the basics on how to dress on the course, and I’ll link them below. Thanks for reading, see you at the bottom.

How to Dress When Playing Golf

Golf Shoes for the modern club member

Why Dressing Well Matters

From the desk of BTG: Our resident mini-tour pro is back for another edition of his “Club Corner”. If you missed the first one, you can read it here: Tour Equipment - Worth the Hype?.

Hello BTG readers,

I am back for week 2 of the Club Corner. Last time we discussed the differences in tour-issued equipment and started talking about how to find the best clubs for your game. 

Over the next couple weeks I will break down the really nerdy stuff about golf equipment, but for now I am going to focus on different types of shafts throughout the bag and how to pinpoint what might be best for you. 

Wedge Shafts:

Wedges are the cornerstone to a good bag. Wedge shafts tend to be the heaviest in your bag (or they should be) and you want to find a softer version of what you play in your irons (most of the time). For example, if you play a project x 6.5 iron shaft (x-stiff iron shaft) I would recommend a project x 6.0 (stiff) in the wedges. These softer shafts help you with feel on the shortest clubs in the bag and also help the ball to spin more on off speed swings. Many companies are now coming out with wedge specific shafts, so if you have a shaft that you like in your irons and the company makes a wedge version, that is usually a good start!

Iron Shafts:

Iron shafts are fickle. I have been playing the same iron shafts since I was 14 (Dynamic Gold X100). I am very used to how they kick and how to control my spin. If you are just a beginner to the game this is where you want to start your bag fitting. The irons are the most used shafts in your bag and you want to find what feels best. The great part about finding an iron shaft that you like is that you can match up those iron shafts to the shafts in the top of your bag as well! 

When building your bag, something important to note is the progression of your shaft weights. For me, I play a 70 gram driver shaft, and it increases in weight as I move down my bag. The reason for this is that as the clubs get shorter, you want more control versus distance. With Driver we are trying to maximize distance over control, but that can’t be said for the 60 degree. We want that club to go a very specific distance, so we need a shaft that helps us limit dispersion as much as possible. 

Driver/Wood Shafts

Wood shafts serve a very specific purpose. If you look at many bags on tour, you will see some players playing the same shaft in driver and 3 wood, but others who play different shafts in those clubs. In my opinion, Driver and 3 wood serve different purposes, so you need to find a shaft or shafts that are multifaceted.

The way a shaft feels when struck is personal. Something that I may not like, someone else may fall in love with. The key to club fitting is matching how you swing the golf club to the profile of the shaft. If you're someone who can't launch your driver because you swing 2-3 down on the golf ball, you may need a higher launching shaft or a driver with more loft on it or a combination of both. If you're a player who hits it to the moon, you might need a driver with a lower launching profile and less loft.

Final thoughts: If you plan on getting fit, do your research. Look up shaft companies like Fujikura, Mitsubishi, Tour AD and others. Shafts are just as important as the heads they come with, and marrying the two can be the difference in you winning a casual match against buddies, or winning your club championship.

As I progressed my way through junior golf in preparation for college golf, I realized the key to low scores isn’t always excellent putting, it’s excellent ball striking. Sure, you may get lucky and make 2 or 3 30 footers in a round, but to shoot low scores (par or better) you need to consistently give yourself good looks at birdie inside 15 feet.

Yes, you have to be a good putter to make those putts, but more importantly you need to hit a lot of greens, and hit it close on those greens. This means your long-game must be built to create consistent and repeatable outcomes. Eliminate one side of the course, build yourself a fairway finder swing etc etc.

If you’re anything like me and flirt with breaking par every few rounds, I recommend working hard on dialing in your short irons and wedges to give yourself more makable birdie putts. Irons are your scoring clubs!

I suggest not talking or asking about work when you’ve been invited to play at a private club, especially if you don’t know your host all that well. It comes across as a little needy and “networky”. If your playing partners ask you about work, thats fine and a signal that you can return the question, but I advise against probing too deeply during a round of golf. Enjoy the walk, play quickly, and get them talking about things that excite them outside of work.

The obvious exception here is if you're playing with clients/entertaining, then all bets are off.

Talk soon,

-BTG

Email me: [email protected]

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