Posts Tagged ‘brian blackburn’

Golf Club Thriver

(guest author Brian Blackburn, aka The Club Ho)

Well I bought a new club and am going to share it with you… it’s called a thriver, which I will get back to.

First let me say I carry a driver, 5 wood, and a 3 hybrid as my longest clubs.  I can’t hit a 3 wood off the fairway with any dependability, and seem to hook any fairway wood off the tee.

When I am on a tight driving hole and want to leave the driver in the bag, I end up dropping all the way to a 3 hybrid, which loses me somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 yards, a big jump to club down.  Plus since I know I have to go all the way to 3 hybrid I tend to hit driver more than I would normally, especially when the hole is a bit longer.  This lack of an option has me sometimes playing too aggressively or sometimes too conservatively.

I had been playing around with choking up on my driver for more accuracy and it seemed to help some.  While browsing the web I came across some people talking about building a thriver, which is a high lofted driver usually 12 on up to 16 degrees.  Most people seemed to go close to 15 degrees like a three wood.  Typically it is cut shorter to around 3 wood length, or 43″, some less some more.  So essentially a thriver is a cross between a 3 wood and a driver.

The main thing is to have something shorter and higher lofted than your driver as a go to club for drives where accuracy is essential or for those days when your driver is just begging you to snap it in half!

A few things I have learned, if you trim the butt end of a shaft it will stiffen slightly, so keep that in mind during shaft selection.  If you want regular flex, you want one that is a bit soft for a regular or possibly a senior flex. Just depends on where you want it to end up.  I chose a senior flex, and now it feels just the same flex as my regular flex driver.  But you know how different shaft manufacturers vary all over the place with respect to their flex ratings, so you have to guess a bit.  For faster swingers, you probably want to err on the side of stiffer since accuracy is the foremost consideration here.

Also when you take a couple inches off the shaft, your swing weight is lowered, so again, if you pick a driver that feels a bit heavy to begin with, you may be fine, many people end up trying lead tape, but it seems you need quite a bit to make up for two inches of shaft.  It is also possible to have lead added inside the club head, or so I have read.

I bought a Tour Edge, Bazooka Geomax driver, 14 degree in senior flex ($39.00 on Ebay).  I just lopped off almost an inch and a half from a 44” shaft and re-gripped it.  I did not worry about the flex or swing weight, but like a said, I picked a heavy and flexible club to start with, and it feels fine to me.

Now one drawback to this club is making room for it in your bag, since most people use a full size (460cc) driver head which is usually hard to hit off the fairway.  Some people were using an older (smaller) driver, or just a lower profile face to keep the option of hitting it off the deck.  For me, it’s like I am carrying two drivers as I am not likely to ever hit this thing off the fairway.

RESULTS SO FAR

Just the driving range, two trips so far, but it seems to be a pretty hard club to miss.  In fact I find it easier off the tee than my 3 hybrid, but you know how the driving range does not always carry over to the course.  It has a very high ball flight and ends up maybe 15 or 20 yards shorter than my driver which is 10.5 degree and 45 inches.  I am pulling a very seldom used wedge out of my bag to accommodate this club, which I am certain will get plenty of play.  This club should have me hitting one club longer on my approach shots versus my driver, but if it stops me from hitting one or two balls OB or into a hazard, it will certainly save strokes for me.  Time will tell and I will follow up with real results next time I play.

Tour Striker Review

Welcome Guest Author Brian Blackburn, aka “Club Ho“

Well my equipment ho ways continue with this training aid I purchased not long ago.  It is called Tour Striker and is designed to teach you to swing your irons with your hands in front of the ball…..making a descending blow……hitting the ball first then the ground.  I am sure you have all heard these things before….and I have read many times that this is a very common amateur mistake.

Well I thought, I might as well give this a shot.  What do I have to lose besides some cash.  I started checking eBay and could not find one cheaper than around $100.00 and thought like most of my other purchases….if I don’t want it I can put it back on eBay and get all or most of my money back (sometimes I even make a few bucks).  It arrived about a week later and I was lucky enough to get the box off the front porch before my wife spotted it.   The club comes with an instructional DVD that is fairly simple.

The way this club works is this, it has a rounded leading edge at the bottom of the face of the club.  If you cast your club from the top, or if you flip your club at impact your bottom lead edge will hit the ball first as opposed to the sweet spot in the center of the club face.  It is also called “scooping”.  If you hit this way with the rounded bottom of the tour you are likely to get a skulled ball, or worm burner.  With a typical “game improvement” iron you are likely to get a high shot that lacks power.  So basically you get better feedback if you are impacting the ball too low on the club face.

I took it to the range immediately and noticed that among my many, many swing problems, this is not one of them.  No skulled shots for me.  It did hit the ball lower than any other “8 iron” I use but that would be expected since it is thinner at the very bottom, the opposite of any other clubs I use.

The other thing I learned is that “trying” to hit down on the ball causes the exact opposite.  When I made an effort to ensure that I was holding my wrist cock through impact, or that I had a descending blow….I achieved the opposite.  This is the only time I skulled this club.

So the club did not work for me and will be going on eBay soon where hopefully I will get all my money back.