Yes, The Times They Are A' Changin (Part 4) The Driver Continued

      I am not a great lover of change, especially when someone else is trying to get me to change.  I don't respond to fads and I don't have to have the "newest and best" even though that whatever it is makes loud claims it will totally improve and revolutionize my golf game. To me, skill and what you can do with any club is more important than the club doing the work for you. I think it is more the archer than the arrow--I cleaned that up so that I don't upset anyone and get sued--that is important to playing the game well.
      I was happy as a clam hitting my MacGregor 985 set.  The irons and woods--solid, oil hardened persimmon--had a very special feel to them.  I would crush the woods and make the forged blade irons sing. I could work the ball, producing a fade or draw when that shot was needed. When the ball hit the green it would dance.
      I used a balata ball back then, I realize some of you don't know what I am talking about but there was nothing like hitting a balata ball even though you could only get about four or five holes out of them because they would cut. You knew you hit a bad shot because they would smile back at you. Those were the days my friend--I won't say I thought they would never end because we didn't sing and dance forever and a day and I have already quoted Bob Dylan in the title of this blog series.
       Those days did end. I found myself playing a lot less golf as life was getting in the way of my golf game. Because of the things of life such as wife, children and job I wasn't going to the course or range nearly as much as I used to. In my glory days, I would play up to five times a week as well as practice at the range. That frequency went down to once a week or twice if I was lucky with no time to go to the range.  My game suffered and I decided that it was time to move to more forgiving equipment in the form of a set of Cobra clone irons and a new driver. I put the 985's up on the shelf along with the driver, but I kept the three and four woods as I just couldn't part with them.
       Somehow, I wound up with and fell in love with a Top-Flite Intimidator Titanium with that black muscle shaft and 10.5 degree loft. The bombs were back. I could hit that driver a very long way and could work it, including hitting a driver off the deck. It was great for getting out from under trees if I needed a low boring shot. Go ahead and say it. Why would I need that shot if I wasn't under a tree. I heard that, but it happens you know. You have to be ready for anything when you play golf.
       I played that driver for a long time and my game improved or at least stabilized. I stayed around an 18 handicap which was good for me because I was not playing as much as I used to. I would shoot mid eighties but most of the time I was consistently in the high eighties to low nineties. This was fun, until Florida and disaster struck.   Stay tuned for the last part of my driver change saga.  Check it out in my next post.

Bye-bye little white ball.