hodgepodge – noun: a hodgepodge: JUMBLE (a hodgepodge of styles)
I know, a very funny word, but nothing funny when it comes to your golf equipment. This is the main problem causing variations in the lengths, flexes and grips of your golf bag.
After more than ten years of adapting thousands of golfers to new golf clubs or adjusting the golf clubs they already own, I have concluded that these three most common problems or a combination of these problems prevent the majority of golfers play their best golf. I will explain each one in more detail and also give you the solution.
Golf Club Lengths:
The lengths of the golf clubs must be congruent with each other from the driver to the launching wedge. I mean, all of these clubs are meant to feel the same, so you can simply swing them all with the same feeling of weight or swing balance from grip to head. When one or more sticks are too long or too short, making the series incongruous, the sense of coherence is lost throughout the series. This is the most common way to put your golf club in hodgepodge mode.
Note: The approach gap / wedge, sand wedge, and lob wedge (s) can and generally have a slightly heavier swing weight feel.
(Additional Info: Putters are / can be whatever swing weight / feel that is most comfortable and most important to you.)
Golf shaft push-ups:
This is where so many people get into a lot of trouble! Because all different golf club manufacturers use multiple shafts (not to mention they have their own specifications for each individual flex per product or model), there is no established industry standard for matching apples to apples. To be frank, it’s all bullshit and even the biggest golf brands don’t pay attention to this in their product lines. Most brands that have the same model name on the driver, fairway woods, hybrids, and even their matching iron sets have completely different specs from top to bottom. Talk about hodgepodge!
Golf grips:
You’d think this would be common sense for any golf buddy, but ironically it’s almost always overlooked and taken for granted? Bottom line: If all of your golf grips do not match, i.e. the make, model and grip size (outside diameter), you are losing consistency across the entire golf club set and thus creating a hodgepodge effect.
The hodgepodge solution: what to do now?
While this isn’t rocket science, you need to find out what’s in your golf bag to make sure no hodgepodge has occurred.
First, line up all of your golf clubs flush against a wall from the driver down through your wedges and look for any significant length differences between them. Make a note of the inconsistencies and write them down on a piece of paper.
Second, inspect all shafts and look for different indications of bending on shafts i.e: stiff (S), regular (R)
or greater (A). All of these must match for the best results. Make a note of the inconsistencies and write them down on a piece of paper.
Third, if the 2 steps above are ok, now check all your grips. If they are not all the same, you need to re-fasten them to match as soon as possible and your ensemble should be good to go.
Finally, if steps one and two have problems, these should be solved first by going to a certified golf club technician who knows what they are doing. These are three very simple things for him to detect and fix or let you know “how bad they really are” so he knows where your situation is.
It could be as simple as a little cut here, an added weight there, a new set of golf grips, or a few tweaks. At worst or perhaps best, you need to get a new set of custom golf clubs for you that match top to bottom right from the start. This may be the best option, especially if your golf clubs are getting out of date.