I was at the range last night sharing the mat with a friend who also takes some lessons from Ron. He doesn't get out that often, but he's been playing a long time, and he's got a decent swing.

I saw he had a G10 driver, which I have heard good things about, so I pulled it out of his bag. It had that really flexy ProForce shaft that I was talking about elsewhere. I hit a few balls with it, and it was ugly. Then I took out my driver and hit a few, everything fine. Later, he was hitting the driver, and it was the same weak fade as it was for me. I got him to try my driver, and it was straight and clean.

I looked in his bag, and he had some ugly Adams clunky irons. I remembered his iron shots had been drifting left. I got him to try my irons, and they all went straight and pure and had a sweet sound coming off the clubhead.

It was the most dramatic example I've seen of how clubs can make a difference. He switched from clubs that are "easier" to play to "players" clubs. I wonder how many people are victims of this trap?

Similarly, the man who most regularly chastises me for having a 3i in my bag has become very fond of my 695 MBs. He finally tried my 3i yesterday, and nailed it. He remarked how easy it was to hit for a 3i.

The first friend borrowed my clubs for his round this morning. The second friend has appeared at the range w/o his bag lately. Since he didn't have his clubs with him, and he wasn't going to hit many balls, he was happy to use mine. This is great fun. Of course, they can't have my clubs; they are like family...

Does anyone have stories like this? I am supposed to be doing chores and errands before I go to the course, so, away I go...

nothing this obvious. Only thing close was getting fitted for clubs and trying different Project X shafts going from 5.0 up to 6.5 and seeing the difference in the results. Or stepping through different driver shafts and lofts and seeing the results. But your story is better.

I get the same response just about every time I let someone try one of my 75 gram shaft driver. They tell me how nice and solid the club feels, and how well they hit the ball with my driver. Especially when it's my Cleveland Launcher Comp with the Graman 780 shaft. I only let good golfers hit my expensive drivers. so only good golfers have tried it, but every one of them has been impressed with my Comp.

Sometimes yes, but haven't we all played with someone who had a hodgepodge of old mis-matched clubs and they beat the pants off of everyone? If you are a good ball striker you'll get it done with whatever club you have in your hands. If you are really skilled you can adjust to the properties of the club you are swinging. My instructor, whom I'm sure plays stiff flex in everything, can hit his clubs, my husband's regular flex clubs, and my senior flex clubs straight and true.