Having recently switched back to forged muscle-back blade (there are no truly pure blades made anymore) irons, I totally agree with
Bob Tway's comment: "You have to be more precise with a forged blade," said Tway, who won the 1986 PGA Championship using cast Ping irons but now uses Mizuno's forged MP-33 blades. He explained:
With a [more forgiving] cast club you can get sloppy with your swing. That creeps into other clubs, like the driver. I think my mechanics have gotten better since I went to forged [blades]. If you look at the top of the money list, they're all playing forged [blades].
I'm a self-taught golfer who learned the game using my grandfather's old Hogan Blades. When I had become a decent golfer (14-handicap) with solid ball-striking ability, I decided that I deserved a new set of irons. Through Callaway propaganda, I became brainwashed into thinking that the best irons were designed to maximize distance with the largest cavity-back and the greatest amount of offset. So, naturally, I bought a new set of Big Bertha irons.
I was crushing the ball at first and I thought that I owned the irons of my dreams. The sweet spot felt like it was all over the clubface. The only drawback of these clubs was a tendency to produce a drawing ball flight. I worked at the range to straighten this out and it seemed fine for a while. However, I soon became aware that I was starting to hit the ball with a slight push-fade. Eventually, that worsened into a severe push-slice. I also noticed that my ball-striking wasn't as "crisp" as before and my divots were inconsistent. I had no clue what was going on and I panicked that I was turning into
Ian Baker-Finch. It was inconceivable to me that my problems could have stemmed from my irons since I had believed that they were the best that money could buy.
I now realize that those forgiving super "game-improvement" irons were ruining my golf swing. The wide soles and extremely low center of gravity of the Berthas allowed me to get away with a poor swing. As a result, my once consistently solid ball-striking evaporated. The Bertha's excessively thick top-line and drastic offset wreaked havoc on my setup and alignment. This in turn affected my take-away, backswing, etc.
Because these irons are designed to straighten a slice swing (the most common swing flaw for amateurs), they tend to produce a hook for a perfectly sound swing. Therefore, to hit these irons straight, you need to have a slice swing. Unbeknownst to me at the time, these irons were teaching me how to slice!
Like a house of cards, my swing collapsed and my handicap ballooned. According to Ernie Vadersen, a former top designer for Spalding and MacGregor, "
Oversize cavity-back clubs allow you to play lazily, and lazy habits promote poor play." Oh how I wish I knew that
before I bought those friggin' Callaways!
It took me several years to realize the error of my ways, and now I'm back to playing forged blades.
With blades, I instantly feel the difference between a good shot and a bad one. The good shots feel super sweet, while the bad ones punish. This feedback has allowed me to fix many of the swing flaws that I had developed under the Callaway years.
Most people don't like blades because they believe (primarily through marketing) that blades feel harsh. Well, they only feel harsh when you put a bad swing on them.
Play with blades and they will force you into a good swing.
As Vadersen says:
...golfers want better feel when they hit the ball. When you hit a ball off the heel or toe of a classic forged [blade] iron, you know immediately, without even looking, that the shot is off. That's vital information. In that respect, no cavity-back club can compare with a forged blade iron. In simplest terms, the forged [blade] club gives you more information. The way I look at it, it's like having someone help you. By that I mean, if you find you are hitting the club on the toe, the computer in your brain will actually start adjusting until you start hitting it on the sweet spot. If you're striking it on the heel, you will eventually automatically make the adjustment to make a better shot. We've learned the best teachers tend to use forged [blade] clubs for this reason. They are teaching you how to make shots, and a good forged blade, because of the information it imparts, aids in that process — a game-improvement iron in the end.
Remember, it's easy to hit a target with a shotgun, but it will never help you become a SWAT team sniper. Still,
blades aren't for everybody. If you are having too much difficulty hitting them, traditional-styled cavity-back or "player's" irons will still allow you to develop and maintain proper swing mechanics. At the very least,
you should have a blade or two to practice at the range to stay sharp. But I must emphasize,
avoid the super "game-improvement" irons like the Callaway Big Berthas and the Nike Slingshots if you really want to improve your game.
Congrats to Tiger on winning his Target World Challenge this past weekend. His new swing finally looks like it's working as he hit some unbelievable shots. To the left is a pic of Tiger and the winning hardware.
So where are the good athelete role models today? How about in women's sports? Mia Hamm, Lisa Leslie and Annika Sorenstam are good candidates. But then there's the case of Denmark’s Mianne Bagger. She or he, is the first transsexual to play professional golf on the Ladies European Tour. On second thought, maybe we should look for role models outside of professional sports...
In my search for a solution to this problem, I've come across something called XTreme Golf. Basically, it combines running with golf. The objective is simple: Shoot the lowest score possible in the least amount of time. In XTreme Golf, competitors jog or run between holes and whack the ball with nary a practice swing. It's all about sharp skills, quick thinking and cardiovascular fitness (all things not needed to write a golf blog). All of this produces sub-hour rounds of golf.
Vijay may work harder than any other PGA pro, but so what? It's not like the guy is digging trenches for a living. He's playing golf. I think that if it were somehow guaranteed that you would play golf as well Vijay if you simply practiced as much as him, most golfers would jump at the opportunity. I know, sure as hell, that I would. Who wouldn't?
However, there are a few energy bars that taste great. I think the best tasting bars are made by Promax. In fact, I like them better than regular candy bars. My favorite flavors are the Double Fudge Brownie, Black Forest Cake and Chocolate Peanut Crunch. If you haven't tried them yet, try the Black Forest Cake. I guarantee that you'll like it. If not, send me the wrapper and I'll refund your money.
I could understand wanting to pull the pin if it wasn't straight in, but not otherwise. To me it makes sense that you would want the stick in the hole to use as a backboard if the ball approached the hole too fast. However, I didn't question the widely-held pin-pulling practice since golfers much more accomplished than myself believed in it.
So Mr. B-Cups bailed out on Acushnet and promptly inked a much more lucrative contract with Callaway. Rumors estimate that Callaway will pay Phil somewhere between $3 - $6 million more per year than the Acushnet deal. My old math teacher always used to say, "greed is a sickness" and it seems that Mick has come down with a very big case of it. However, Phil would rather have you believe that he signed with Callaway for their equipment. In a press release, Phil proclaimed "to help me achieve my ultimate goal of becoming the No. 1 player in the world, I felt it was necessary to switch to the exciting new driver and golf ball technology from Callaway Golf." 
But the main similarity is that these tracks sprung from the mind of the same guy: 78 yr.-old Pete Dye. He makes John Cleese's character in those Titleist NXT commercials look like Mother Theresa.
Well, someone had the brilliant idea to do the same thing to Tiger's Nike cap at the Williams World Challenge several years ago. Tiger jumped at the opportunity to show the world a perfect swing from a first-person perspective. Cleverly, the viewpoint was dubbed the "Eye of the Tiger."
Well, nothing eats at your craw more than someone boasting about their golf game when your's is headed to the sewer. Now you can imagine how much of my craw was left when a kid, who still has 5 years until he can see "Whale Rider," is doing the boasting.
Unfortunately, I've noticed that the wear spots on my irons happen to be all over the face, including the hosel. Yes, the hosel. In other words, I have a bad case of the $hanks(I dare not spell out the actual word as it will certainly spread to you, the reader)! 
It took me several years to realize the error of my ways, and now I'm back to playing forged blades. With blades, I instantly feel the difference between a good shot and a bad one. The good shots feel super sweet, while the bad ones punish. This feedback has allowed me to fix many of the swing flaws that I had developed under the Callaway years.
Surprisingly, Tiger took very strong offense to Butch's comments. Factor in that Tiger has his caddie Steve Williams obstruct slo-mo cameras intended to analyze swings during tournaments, raid the gallery for cameras and other acts of thugery, it really appears that Tiger is turning into Frankie from MTV's The Real World.
Of course, not everything is a bargain. I routinely see special edition Scotty Cameron Putter headcovers exchange hands for $400 and more. Yes, that's correct, headcovers worth more than the putters that they house. If you're going to spend that much money on a headcover, shouldn't you protect it with a putter headcover cover? I guess you could, but I bet those would go for at least $800. Hey, I think I just discovered my next great business idea!
I mean he always looks like some clueless guy that they pulled out of the gallery who was suddenly annointed golf super powers. I can see how the first time it can be considered somewhat endearing (still stretching it). But, for chissakes, when he still acts the same way after several hundred tournaments it's downright annoying.
Golf is such a love and hate sport. Just look at Tiger Woods. For about 5 years he simply dominated the sport. I mean the dude was winning majors by double digit stroke margins! Now, due to a microscopic tweak in his swing, he's been reduced to "Good" as opposed to "Jesus of Golf" PGA player status.
