Scott Dolan

Probably not. But, maybe we're better for it. Too much of a good thing...

Vee haft vays to make you talk!

Yep.

That would be a definitive First Amendment violation if true.

"You can if you have the forum to place our banner internet store runoff-24." That's a pretty lazy spammer. No links, no nothing.

Will do, brother. The thing weighs almost as much as my first car!

He's here:

Agreed. Regular is just fine. Likely my preference as well. I never could figure out which club to use on the hole with the windmill... Try using your rescue club on that one.

Archie Shepp and Dewey Redman are two tenor players I thoroughly enjoy, but need to get more material of each.

I have no idea what you just said, but I will admit that I enjoyed reading it.

Not really, because if you pop in but then have to leave, for whatever reason, without reading everything you wanted to they may not repopulate the next time you log in.

Yeah, I definitely prefer steel shafts as well. I can live with graphite shafts, but I prefer the stiffest ones. The super flexible ones make it feel like you're swinging a garden hose.

He always struck me as a good cat that thoroughly enjoyed what he did. His health was obviously declining the last several years, but I'm sorry to hear of his passing. R.I.P., Mr. Ebert.

Good god, Tim... It seems like the lighter the worse, doesn't it? At least to a certain degree. My buddy that gave me my Firesteel had a custom made Titanium set. The difference in weight between the Firesteel and his driver was absurd. The Firesteel, IMO, retains the "proper" amount of weight. His Titanium driver felt like a piece of paper. And with that super bendy graphite shaft. There's a happy medium out there somewhere, but the super lightweight stuff just feels... ...thin? Lifeless? Hard to explain, but I'm pretty sure you get what I'm saying. The R-9 I swung seemed to have the "right" amount of heft to it. I'm assuming your R-7 does as well.

That's cool, brother. Hey, people have to go with what works. To do otherwise would simply make no sense. I've swung an R-9. Very nice club. BTW, just a theory of mine: it seems to me the smaller the club head, the greater the level of concentration. At least that's what I think is the case for me. Kind of hard to explain beyond that general statement, but even going back to my first cheapo set of clubs the one club I'd sometimes over-rely on was my 7 wood. I could consistently smack that puppy 200 yds. (I could barely hit my driver any longer than that back then) And usually just as nice and straight as it could be designed. But my driver/3W/5W? Dicey. Spray and pray. Read recently that Tiger still works out with a custom built Persimmon. As do a few others on the Tour.

Timely story from our trip to the range yesterday. Our golfing partner, Scott, met us out there yesterday. Now, as a brief background Scott has actually played golf longer than Wynton and I have, but a couple of years ago he was struggling with it so much that he actually came very close to simply giving up the game. He couldn't keep a club for more than a couple of weeks before it was completely destroyed/dented/cracked, and after spending $200 on a driver only to decimated it a few weeks later he decided to not even bother using a driver anymore. Well, last year we all started getting quite good as he and I both made substantial mechanical changes to our swings. So about a month ago he ended up buying a driver from a co-worker and he brought it with him yesterday. He was grumbling and griping about how much he hated it, and after seeing him take a few hacks with it I could see why (Wynton and I swung it quite a bit as well and actually liked it a lot). The head on it is 380cc, so I gave him my Firesteel (300cc) to see if the smaller club face helped. It did a little. He had always been afraid to swing any of my drivers for fear that he'd tear them up. But now he at least trusts himself enough. After that I broke out my Persimmon driver (Mr. Simmons, I call him) and showed Scott this thing I do at address that we now refer to as the Dolan Prayer. So he tried it, swung Mr. Simmons, and continued to for the next ten minutes. It was love at first swing. He was absolutely destroying the ball. 250+ every swing, and right down the middle. He's going to play with some co-workers this weekend and asked if he could borrow Mr. Simmons for the day. Watch out ebay!!

I've only listened to it once so far, but I thought the second disc was actually outstanding. But, it's what I started out with. Either way, Blue Hour has been one of the most pleasant surprises I've encountered in some time. I owe Mr. Gould big time.

BTW, Tim. Serious question: you started our swinging Persimmon clubs, but struggled with them. Then as your game improved you started going with metal "woods". Now, I started out swinging metal "woods", which I struggled with. After my game improved, I started swinging Persimmons. How much of that has shaped both of our opinions? Quite a bit, I'd wager. Bonus question: have you spent any serious amount of time swinging Persimmon clubs since your game improved? The reason I ask is because Persimmon clubs actually improved my accuracy (and let's keep in mind you've got well over 25 years experience on me in this game). I'd have to think if you swung a Persimmon at this point in your game, you'd be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. They are far more forgiving than you remember, IMO. I'd think you'd absolutely kill with one of them. What I'm driving at here (see what I did there?), is that we all started out at some point. And we all struggled. How much did those struggles inform our opinion? And yes, that question could easily be turned around on me, I understand. But, I carry both a Persimmon and a Titanium driver in my bag. So, I'm still constantly evaluating both. Tim, Persimmon is winning...

YES!!! Same exact thing, Goodz! I actually thought about our earlier conversation on the way home just now and thought the more apt description of me would be "golf enthusiast". Right? Think about it. It's like a muscle car enthusiast. They can buy a modern day muscle car that is lightweight, safer, and in most cases has more HP than the older stuff. But, to them the fiberglass and high tech nonsense of modern day muscle cars simply cannot compare with the steel and thunder of the old school stuff. Now, does the brand new Dodge Challenger whip the old Challenger in almost every performance category? Yep. But, to the true muscle car enthusiast does it matter? Not one bit. There's a "total package" involved in the old steel, iron block stompers. And the new fiberglass and aluminum block just seem to be "missing" something. Make sense?

Nah, I used metal woods for three years. It's not so much that I don't like them, just that I absolutely love wood. My Firesteel is somewhat smaller than the newest drivers at 300cc, so it's a slightly better fit. I don't know why I took to Persimmon the way I did, but there's no looking back now. I don't play in tournaments, and I never actually keep score. The sound and feel of the wood clubs wil never be replicated in metal.

Oops, I had my gearing explanation kinda backwards: Q: Do metal woods have gear effect? A: Gear effect is the rotation of the head around it's centre of gravity, which imparts corrective spin to the ball. You can experience it with a metal club, but the effect is less than that of a persimmon wood. Since the centre of gravity is closer to the face there is less gear effect with a metal wood. The centre of gravity on a persimmon head is deeper in the head. This deeper centre of gravity creates more gear effect and you are better able to work the ball. This also allows for greater correction on a mis-hit shot with a persimmon driver.

No, I play with them. I've been using a Persimmon driver, 3 and 4 wood for over a year now. I have really grown to dislike metal clubs of any kind. The new 460CC oil can drivers are far harder to control and can spray balls in almost any direction at any time. By the time I'm done, even my irons will be replaced with Persimmon. Well, except for 9-PW. Louisville doesn't make wood replacements for those clubs. My experience has been exactly opposite of what you're saying. I've studied up on them and most experts also agree that smaller Persimmon heads give you greater control. One of the reasons is because of what is referred to as "gearing". It allows the ball to self-correct more in flight and move back towards the intended target. And I've noticed it quite clearly since I got my dad's old Persimmon driver last year. Even my buddy remarked how it tends to move back towards the target more. What is given up with Persimmon clubs is distance because they are heavier which diminishes club head speed. But, I'll give up 10-20 yds to keep it in the fairway more. Besides, a nice *thwack!* beats a wimpy little *tink* any day of the week, IMO. I've got some older clubs that Wynton and I are going to try our hand at restoring. Have you considered trying that with your wife's old clubs? Some of those fully restored Persimmon sets are fetching impressive dollar amounts on Ebay.

OK, I gotcha...

Huh? But, I'm right-handed...

I'd hate to be left-handed and try to take up golf. Many stores don't even carry left-handed clubs. They order them for you. And right-hand gloves aren't exactly plentiful either.