Without going the Slave1 route (which likely will result in your wedges being non-conforming, strictly speaking), they reckon wedges should be replaced for amateurs roughly every 100 rounds.
So chances are, if you've got 2nd hand and have been playing with them a couple of years, then you likely would get a benefit from replacements.
There are often deals for a pair of wedges, and you can usually get a good price on last years models which will be great wedges anyway.
You dont need to be able to "put spin" on them. Wedges will naturally generate spin by their design
I have one of those tools in my kitchen drawer, don't think they make all that much difference to be honest. Perhaps only temporarily.
As far as getting fit for wedges, I wouldn't say that is the be all and end all. As a high-handicapper, bounce is your friend. Higher bounce wedges are a lot more forgiving than low bounce ones. Especially in bunkers and in Irish parkland conditions. Plus, McGuirks only usually fit people for the new stuff so it'll be expensive to go down that route.
As another poster said, probably best to wait until the start of next golf season. Greens will be softer from now until then so you'll get more benefit from fresh wedges next spring.
https://www.mcguirksgolf.com/c/gents-wedges-and-chippers/1228
There are piles of "2 for ..." deals on their site, including prior generations.
If youre comfortable enough with the spec around shafts to select online relative to the rest of your bag, there can be value there
MOD EDIT, stop spamming please
Non-conforming is a rabbit hole, I've seen decades old clubs in use which would all be non-conforming, one of my buddies lost a weight from his driver and still uses it, that's non conforming, crappy fitted grips that bulge are non-conforming, sharping to reinstate groove pattern back to when new is fine. I'd just watch your hand though, the pricier ones are lethal sharp should anything slip. Oh, you can sharpen before/after your round but not during, that's non-conforming!!!!!
Not sure I'd agree its a rabbit hole, the rules are fairly straightforward (except for those early 2000s drivers, difficult to judge that), just because you see plenty of older clubs that are non-conforming doesn't mean we should all just turn a blind eye (not that you are suggesting that). Sharpening grooves is dodgy IMO, how is any average person might to know how to reinstate them to their original pattern. I'd argue anyone using those sharpeners is on dodgy territory. It doesn't bother me a whole lot but it should at least be pointed out to people and I wouldn't encourage their use personally.
As regards wedges, most higher handicappers should be using something like the CBX from Cleveland, especially if wedge play or short game is a struggle. Playing something like a Vokey or MG4 on full shots is going to be significantly harder than a cavity back wedge.
Yup, agree with all of that @ivefoundgod.
I'm a 12 handicapper, My old wedges were Cleveland cb wedges, & my current wedges are Titleist Vokeys. I prefered the Clevelands tbh.
A bit like Hiace vans, I thought 100,000 low handicappers couldn't be wrong. Except I found the weight in the head of the Clevelands much more reassuring, & lead to more consistent, solid chipping for me than the light feeling vokeys.
The feel of the vokeys is probably a bit better alright for 'touch' chippers, but tbh, I'm not that good, I just need a blade that will ideally give me a fairly consistent feel & strike off the full variety of lies. The Clevelands do this better for my level of chipping imho, and I used to get far less fluffs, fats &/or thins with them as a result, and they were far more solid from the rough also with the extra bit of muscle & weight in the heads.
Coming to think of it, I might rescue them from my beach set & put them back in my main bag for this winter coming. Back to the future!!
playing waterford castle next week.
Anyone play it recently??
cheers
Do committee members get paid in any clubs? I just noticed it on our minutes from last year's AGM, 3 of the committee members in our place get a payment of €1800 I think it was. I assume this is highly unusual. It's said to cover unvouched expenses, but why would you not just submit the receipts and get reimbursed? Maybe give the captain an entertainment allowance or something, but a flat fee for committee members?
I've been on gaa committees and managed a team for a couple of years. In reality, as well as a decent amount of work those positions end up costing you money. Aside from a few managers who get paid (and shouldn't), people just do them because they want to. I'd be disappointed if it's different in golf clubs.
Never heard of a committee member getting paid.
That sounds odd to be honest. Is the payment every year and does it go to particular people or particular positions on the committee?
I struggle to see what "unvouched expenses" a committee member might have.
3 honorary members. Secretary, treasurer and one other too. And it's annual. It was increased last year to 1,800.
Never heard of that before, would it be to cover cost of using personal phone, equipment, etc for club related activity? It's an odd one.
Sounds very odd to me.
Secretary or Treasurer would require a lot of work beyond your normal committee member which might discourage the preferred members from taking on these roles.
Maybe it's just a small incentive to reward them for their extra work?
It's not a lot of money when you see the joining or membership fees for some clubs.
Of course, that's just my guess, might be completely wrong.
Very unusual in my opinion. You can justify reimbursing genuine expenses of course but that should be on a receipt by receipt basis but not a fixed sum to be given out. Sounds dodgy to be honest and I know I wouldn't be happy for my subs to be going towards unvouched expenses for a select group.
I think some club officers get their subs for free, or heavily subsidised as a 'reward' for their voluntary work in many clubs. We do this at our club & tbh I think this is fair enough. However I'd be very surprised if your officers get paid net. Maybe this a double entry to effectively cover paying their subs?
If you're not happy with this & i wouldn't be either, I'd query this at an agm, & bring a motion to close this down if you're still unhappy. It sounds like it could be an inside gravy for the big cats 🐈 scheme otherwise...
"That positions which are Honorary it therefore follows that membership fees are regarded as paid."
Their membership fees are covered too. But our membership fees are tiny, 210 or something (but we pay about 30 per round). I wonder is it in place of a more normal membership fee that they feel this is appropriate. From reading the minutes from last year it seems it was discussed then so I won't be bringing it up. Also, I've played once this year and once last, so I'd want to be more active to contribute to the AGM really.
I also heard that the club is awash with money, so I also wonder if there an element of them thinking, sure the club has it, we might as well reward those doing the most work. But the financials aren't distributed without being requested, so I don't know for sure. But the prizes for our jubilee year last year were absolutely ridiculous. I'd be more in favour of really modest prizes and the doing well in / winning a comp be the reward, but I know I'm on my own in that. I also heard there's a free bar at the captain's dinner. Again, that's crazy.
Given that subs are relatively low, this could be viewed as a notional payment to cover subs as a contribution of the work undertaken. Saying that, its worded very poorly and should be amended to reflect so. The €1800 covers the sub and 53 rounds of golf at €30 a round. That balances out over a year.
But the financials aren't distributed without being requested, so I don't know for sure.
Very strange the above..but then again its all very strange.
I know Captains sometimes get free membership for their year, but pay for Captains Day prizes
What does the Constitution of the club say re this?
Possibly a perfectly good reason for it but the optics aint great in fairness, has a stench of a cover up.
Especially when financials have to be requested rather than being issued as a matter of course.
Given the current situation with clubs having to comply with the Companies Act and egms to ratify constitutional changes for same,it all appears very 1970s ish
Captains usually don't have to pay green fees in away clubs either for their year of being Captain (or is that still a thing)
Think its the year after their captaincy?
I agree with this. It all, at face value, seems a little odd. I've never heard of committee members getting paid. I can get on board with captains getting something towards entertainment they'd have to do as part of their duties, attending inter-club matches etc etc. which seems fair enough.
Yup, that's what it seems to be alright. But tbh, it still reeks of milking it, as they could just stipulate that these club officers get their subs & competition entries free while they're in office, simples.
So no giving them €1800, just don't charge them for their subscription or for their entries into club competitions in their year(s) in office. That's the way this should work, so this scheme reeks of greedy pigs with their snouts stuck in the trough!!!
Anybody watching the Internet Invitational on YouTube? I don't watch a lot of YouTube golf but I thought that this was excellent.
Basically the format is 48 content creators playing for a first prize of a million dollars. The first round is 2 teams of 24 with the losers eliminated, 2nd round 2 teams of 12 etc., until there is 2 teams of 3 left in the final.
The genius is that they went with a wide range of golfing abilities. I reckon it would have been dull if it was 48 scratch or plus handicappers. At 1 end you have got a guy has played in the Masters, at the other end a guy that might have never broken 100.
Plenty of drama, controversy, comedic moments with some decent golf thrown in as well. A few of the participants will have given their online career a big boost. Equally a few will have done themselves no favours.
Also a stunning venue in the Big Cedar Lodge Golf Resort.
I'm half way through it all. Production quality is excellent and some very good golf mixed in alright.
Really impressed with yer man Chaz, think they said hes the number 1 ranked in the world in his category.
I just struggle a lot with the full on frat-boy americanisms, so find a large portion of the entrants hard work to deal with
"Frat Boys" was also the phrase going through my head when watching the first episode. I guess it comes with the territory with a lot of American content. It didn't bother me so much by the end. Just took a while to get familiar with so many people and let the individual personalities override the frat boy first impression. Chaz was one of the standouts for me also. Obviously an exceptional player and he seemed to play better every time that he had to hit a shot under pressure.
Yes. I actually stayed up and watched the last episode when it came out live.
Agree about the frat boy comments but the production and venue were top class. I won't spoil it but I think some of the controversy in the last episode were manufactured for the camera maybe ?
All in all very enjoyable with a bit of sadness when one of the competitors passing away shortly after.
Not sure if it is an American thing but the obsession with money is a little off putting for me in the Invitational. As people mentioned you are talking about mostly non professional players and to expect those of lower quality to step up under that pressure is not fair. There will be a pile on now as well on some creators which is a little sad for various reasons as well.
In any case, watching Dalke play I wonder why he never made it professionally. I guess you need more than just the ability to hit it 350 metres and a great short game, there is something else that a player needs to succeed at the top level and maybe he was just unlucky not get some breaks along the way. That and every year there are 30 Brad Dalke's coming in from college to compete every year I suppose.
Hard to not follow any of the highlights if you consume any sort of golf social media! I turned on the first episode last week and seen that it was 3.5 hours long as was like 'ah here' 😅
I've watched a bit of the first episode and I'm not sure what to make of it. If this is a good example of what people are talking about when they say that they prefer watching youtube golf to real golf, I'm definitely not going to be converted. I actually quite enjoy watching a lot of normal golfers as opposed to pros. Normal in terms of ability, not in terms of how like normal people they are. They are not like normal people.
I was surprised at how few of them I recognised because I've watched a fair few golf videos over the years. But Sheils, Paige, Finch, Hovrat and Berkshire were the only ones I recognised. The others I genuinely don think I've ever seen before.
Course looks amazing. I assume it's just too easy for PGA events. Adds to the argument to roll back the equipment. I can't imagine how many amazing courses like this exist but are useless to PGA players.
But the commitment to watching that much of it - it's not going to happen for me. I might stick it on if I want white noise, but it's far too long I'd have thought for youtube content.
