The Measured Golf Podcast

Blades Or Forgiveness

• Michael Dutro, PGA • Season 6 • Episode 19

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 42:03

Send a text

The TV lights are back on in Hawaii, and we’re riding that surge of energy into a candid gear and tour reality check. Rory McIlroy stepping away from blades says a lot about where performance lives today, and it pushed us to ask the same hard question we ask our players: do you want identity in your bag, or ball flights that hold greens and dodge water? We walk through a practical build—cavity backs in the scoring clubs, hollow bodies up top, slightly softer shafts, and a driver with more loft—to make height easy and misses survivable. The goal is simple: less grind, more fun, better scores.

We also get into wedges, where most golfers quietly lose strokes. Grind matters more than the bounce number on the stamp. If you play in soft turf or fluffy bunkers, a wider sole and smarter heel-toe relief lets the club enter and exit the ground quickly. That’s why K‑style soles have been winning on leaderboards. On firm turf, blending lower bounce with the right relief keeps the leading edge tight and offers versatility from tight lies. Add in higher-launch fairway setups and spin-friendly shafts to fix gapping and raise peak height, and your long-game decisions start working for you instead of against you.

On the tour side, Brooks Koepka’s return highlights the financial realities of pro golf and the rising intensity of the PGA Tour’s schedule. We talk legacy, signature events, pathways, and why team formats could be the key to younger audiences and bigger stories. Meanwhile, take a look around any big-box putter wall: mallets and low-torque designs have won the market, but there’s still room to keep a blade if it truly fits. If you’re ready to trade ego for outcomes this season, this conversation gives you a clear blueprint.

Enjoy the show? Follow, share with a golf friend, and leave a quick review so more players can find it. What would you change in your bag first?

Website : measuredgolf.com

Instagram : @measuredgolf | @theforceplateguy

Contact Us : info@measuredgolf.com

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Measured Golf Podcast, where you, the listeners, sit down and join me, Michael, as we discuss all things golf. And it is a great week to be alive if you are a fan of the professional golf scene. As we have golf back on TV after the somewhat brief winter hiatus, we've got the golfers playing in prime time down in Hawaii. There's a lot of news in the golf world, including Brooks Kepka returning to the PGA tour. Uh, and a lot of the equipment junkies are absolutely losing their minds over Rory making a big change with the equipment and moving away from his uh Roar's Protos Tailor-Made Irons, which are very much a blade into more of a cavity back, just simply stating that he's looking for a little bit more forgiveness. So a lot of things going on out there in the golf space. And as you can tell, uh I am not sitting in my office in Ann Arbor as well. So I'm just uh wrapping up a brief vacation uh down here in Naples, Florida with my wife. We've had a tremendous time. I'm full of crab. Uh, it's been great, got some sunshine, sunburn on my head is fresh, uh, but it's been a great little reset because next week I will be over in Orlando, Florida for the PGA merchandise show. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing everybody there. Uh, it's kind of a great week of the year to where everybody's kind of in the same locale at the same time, and you kind of get to see everybody that you haven't seen in a while. And in addition to getting to see a lot of people that I don't get to see throughout the year, I will also be presenting for Smart to Move, uh, which I'm very excited about. Going to be doing a cool conversation about how we connect ground reaction forces to club delivery and how some of that goes together. So I think that's going to be a lot of fun. And I don't think there's a lot of a lot of people who have presented for both force plate companies. I know I was thinking about it. Uh, I think maybe Mike Adams is the only other one to do so. Uh, but I think I'm in pretty rare company uh presenting for both Swing Catalyst and Smart to Move at the PGA merchandise show. So really looking forward to that, looking forward to seeing some people I haven't seen. Uh and also looking forward to, you know, it's it's really kind of a cool event. Uh it's not a consumer-facing show. So as much as people think you go down there and it's just clubs and and this, that, and the other, uh, it's really for the industry and it's an industry-facing show. So uh you not only get to see a lot of the stuff that maybe uh a lot of people haven't been able to see yet that's coming out because they're wanting you to pre-book and do your ordering there, but you're also getting to go and see some things that aren't even in the marketplace yet. So they do this really cool area called, I think it's like the inventors uh area. I don't know what it's called. I'm I don't know even why I tried to remember that because I didn't know in the first place. But they have this really cool kind of section of the show uh to where they have, you know, people come and present and share their new ideas and their new inventions and gadgets and training aids. And that's really cool because you get to see uh really some cool things that you know don't exist yet. So I always look forward to that. Always look forward to seeing uh, you know, some of the new training aids where people's heads are at, what people are trying to accomplish. Uh, get some great ideas for myself when I get back to coaching in Ann Arbor. Uh, but it's been a busy month, you know. So I was uh at the Honors Club a few weeks ago down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is a special, special place. Uh I can't say enough amazing things about that facility. Uh, excited to go back there in April uh when the course is actually opening it to get to see what that place is like when it's actually running at full operational strength. Uh, really enjoy the people I've met down there. Uh good southern hospitality, but just an amazing course, uh, very difficult, has hosted the NCAAs, a lot of AM golf. Uh, I think they're hosting the women's am this coming year. So just an amazing, amazing property has a slope of 155. So everything you would ever want, and then some in terms of a golf course, they have it, but it's very much pure golf. Uh, and I'm uh excited to go back. Uh, I don't always say that, but I really am uh excited to go back and spend some more time there. I really enjoyed working down there. Um, and then from there, I was here in Naples with my wife getting a little RR. And then, as I said, next week at the PGA show. So uh been a busy month, uh, really good month. You know, it's it's fun um being able to get out a little bit. It's I believe there's about six inches of snow back on the ground in Annover, Michigan. So I'm definitely not missing that. As a golfer, uh, we all hate snow. It's it's the one one condition you really can't play golf in. So uh definitely excited to be down here in the sun, down in Naples, uh getting some time away and just kind of resetting and getting recharged and ready to go. Because once I get back from the PGA show next week, it's pretty much full tilt to the start of the season in terms of coaching and you know, just busy with the facility. So a lot of people, you know, maybe don't realize this, but owning measured golf in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the wintertime is actually our busy season. So in the summertime, I tend to travel more because a lot of the people that I see all winter want to be outside playing golf because we all get a pretty good case of cabin fever there in Ann Arbor, uh, being stuck inside all winter. So, you know, the wintertime's our busy time. It's a great time to actually get some work done. A lot of our golfers, you know, are very uh very much staying put. They're not traveling a ton and they're not playing a ton of golf because of the weather. So it's a great time of year to get some work in, and a lot of people take advantage of that. So it's kind of our busy time of year. So it's gonna be a full-on sprint to golf season uh once I get back from the PGA show. Some travel coming up here and there, going to some different facilities. Um, that's really been taking off here lately. But, you know, all good things. I love getting out on the road, uh meeting new people, getting to work with new people, and then also, you know, being around different coaches and and learning from them and you know, what are they having success with, what are they struggling with, and how do we kind of figure out a way to move through some of that? So really cool stuff. Um, I myself uh am actually maybe looking forward to golf a little bit myself. I I didn't think that was the case a couple weeks ago. Um, but you know, kind of going back to what we talked about at the at the start of this, um, you know, Rory kind of made waves when he went away from the Blades and basically was asked about it was like, yeah, I just want some more forgiveness. And it it kind of really got me thinking about things. Um, you know, golf last year was a tough year, and I've talked about this on previous episodes, but you know, last year, you know, two years ago was probably one of the better seasons I've had in a while. And then last season was just really not the season I wanted it to be for a lot of different reasons, but you know, I think a lot of it's ego. And I think it's interesting to hear Rory kind of go, yeah, you know, blades are cool and all, but I kind of want something I can miss a little bit. And I kind of thought about that because I, as you probably know, am a huge blade freak and love my miras and love my national customs and love that kind of club. But at the same time, you know, I'm not playing amount, I'm not playing much, uh, I'm not practicing much, and I'm really busy coaching, which is great, and I love it. And honest to God, and I tell people this all the time, they think I'm crazy, but it's true. If if you let me pick between spending a day on the golf course playing golf versus spending a day on the golf course coaching golf, I'm gonna pick coaching nine out of 10 times. I really love it. There's not a better drug on the planet for me. I truly enjoy getting to work with golfers and help them play better golf. There is nothing better on this planet for me. But with that said, I still am a golfer. I still enjoy playing golf to some level. I just don't want to play bad golf. And a hard part for me over the past couple years has been not so much missing shots that happens. We're human beings, we've talked about that, and you know, setting goals and expectations, but it's just how much harder it has become with the limited amount of playing and practicing I do. And then to hear Rory kind of go, yeah, you know, like the blade thing's cool, but I want some more forgiveness. Well, maybe I do too, and maybe it's my ego that won't let me do this. So interestingly enough, um, the other night I just really was kind of jonesing um on that idea and kind of thinking to myself, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do it. And I I actually did it. I ordered a set of clubs that are not mirrors. This will be wild for me to show up to a golf course without a bag full of mirrors uh as I love them so. But, you know, I've got a set of uh mixed set actually of Tailor-made P770s and P7CBs. So I've got the cavity backs and the seven through wedge, and then I've got the 770s six through four. And I'm gonna give it a go. I'm gonna see what that does for me. I've ordered them a slightly softer flex of shaft. Uh, I'm going away from the X back into the stiff, uh, looking at something that's much easier with the long irons to hit higher, which is why I went with the mix set and a 770. Um, obviously a hollow body head. I've said a lot of bad, discouraging things about hollow-bodied heads, uh, but I think I think it could help. I think it could make golf a bit easier for me. And so many of the guys at the honors want me to play golf with them at the honors. And when you start looking at tracks like that and realizing how difficult they are, even on a good day, you know, a little forgiveness, a little help getting the ball in the air, uh, I don't think that's going to be a bad thing. If anything, I think we're gonna enjoy that a little bit. So um that was kind of my rationale behind it. Um, I think that, you know, as much as I love blades, as much as I believe in that kind of style of golf, I don't think I'll ever go a season without getting them out and playing with them. Uh, this offseason, I purchased a set of the Mira baby blades. Uh, I purchased a set of the uh KM700s from Mira as well. So I have that in the uh tournament set, the 101s. So I have three sets of mirrors. They're definitely going to be back in the bag. Uh, I have no doubt about this. But my little experiment uh is gonna be playing this mixed set from Tailor Made and just kind of seeing like, does it does it make it more fun? Does it make it easier? Do I get the help I'm looking for from those golf clubs? And, you know, like I said, it's an experiment. So I might get out there and can't stand it and pretty quickly run back to my blades that I've played the past two years, or maybe jump into the KM700s, who knows? But I'm uh I'm pretty interested by it. And I've also kind of been thinking and looking, and you know, one of the things that really stood out to me this past year was the success of the K grind, the K-Star uh wedge from Vokey, uh Bob Vokey titleist, uh, the success that it had on tour, as well as the vintage shafts. There were there were like some clubs and shafts and and heads out there that really had a lot of success this past year. And that K-Star grind has really had a lot of it. So uh I've actually ordered a few Vokey wedges as well. A plus grind, K-Star grind, uh, a couple different wedges, gonna try those out, see what those are like, uh, see what kind of um relief or help we get from those type of wedges and those grinds. A lot of the mirror wedges, you know, they tend to be a pretty thin sole, uh, and which is great when you're playing, you know, really firm conditions. But where I play, excuse me, in Michigan, tends to be pretty soft, uh, pretty lush. So I'm looking forward to maybe playing a little more bounce in the wedges this year and kind of seeing what we get from that. And once again, nothing more than experiment. We may get out there, play a couple rounds of golf with them, uh, and not think much, but I'm excited to kind of get out there. I haven't had a Vokey wedge in the bag in probably, you know, the better part of 10 years. So excited about that. Um, we've got a couple different drivers we're trying out this year. Uh over the winter, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a titleess GT3, um, which I just I couldn't get away from. I think the GT2 was probably going to be a better driver for me, uh, but the shape of the GT3 just was so attractive. It really has that classic titless shape, and I think that's that's really just an absolutely gorgeous head and a head that did incredibly well on the tour last year. So uh I've got a GT3 I'm gonna try out a little bit. I've also um one of the other parts of the experiment with a little easier, a little forget more forgiving, is I uh went ahead and pulled the trigger and pre-ordered a Tailor-made QI4D. And I've been a Tailor-made driver guy for a long time. This GT3 is the first non-tailor-made driver I've even messed around with in probably 10 years. Uh, but you know, I fell victim to the hype train, and the QI4D sounds like it's kind of getting Tailor-Made back in the rank and file with the top drivers on tour. A lot of the tour guys have already switched over to this head, having a lot of results with it already. Um, and the big thing for me was, you know, kind of like I like blades, I like nine-degree driver heads. But is it really the right thing for me or not? That's the question. So, you know, I traditionally have played better golf with a 10 and a half degree driver. Um, I just have. So I went ahead and ordered the 10 and a half degree version. Uh, gonna get a little bit more loft in my hands. Uh, obviously it's an adjustable head, so if I need to turn it down a little bit, I can do that as well. But, you know, I think getting back into that 10 and a half degree head, you know, a little more loft, a little more spin, uh, I don't think that's gonna be a bad thing for me. So I'm excited. You know, I'm I'm kind of falling victim to the hype train and I'm jonesing for golf. So, you know, it's uh 7.40 p.m. here in Naples. And when I get done with this, I'm probably gonna be able to catch some late golf coverage uh of the Sony Open, which I'm excited about. And I'm just excited golf season's back. I think uh I think things are returning a little bit more to normal uh with Brooks coming back to the tour. You know, a lot of people have reached out to me and asked me about this, knowing that I work with some live players. And at the end of the day, the players are gonna do what's best for them. And, you know, for Brooks, you know, he he's the ultimate competitor. He wants to compete against the best, he wants to win majors, he wants to fill his trophy room full of trophies. Like that's at the end of the day, what's important to him. And, you know, when we're talking about professional athletes, we have to keep in mind this is their job. And when you're a professional athlete, especially a golfer, you know, there is no guaranteed money. If you're not in the top 20, it's it's really not the financial windfall that people make it out to be. The industry rate tends to be about 30%. So the numbers you hear, keep in mind taxes, agents, caddies, managers, uh, it adds up quick. And the industry rate that these guys are keeping is about 30%. So, you know, I think that a lot of professional athletes die penniless and end up chasing the dream too long and maybe never get there, or whatever the case may be. But I think at the inception of Live, they were offering, you know, guaranteed money. And at the end of the day, it wasn't a little bit of guaranteed money, it was a lot of guaranteed money, which allowed these players to have stability uh within their financial uh life, right? With them being able to set themselves up, guaranteed that you know their kids were gonna be taken care of, uh, and maybe their kids' kids, right, with some of these uh numbers that got thrown out there. So I think for Brooks, you know, the timing was right, coming off a nagging injury that he didn't seem to be able to shake for quite some time, you know, not knowing if he was gonna be able to play at the levels that he was used to. And then the thing that I think really gets overlooked is, you know, Brooks really, in my opinion, and I don't have any insider information here, but really, in my opinion, Brooks signed with Liv because they signed both Brooks and his brother. And I think that's really overlooked. And Chase, I believe it's Chase, uh Kepka, you know, is a great player in his own right, uh, very, very good. But unfortunately, he's not quite as good as Brooks. And it's really difficult to make it onto the PGA tour, and it's even more difficult to make a living on the PGA tour. And I think Brooks looked at it as, hey, I don't know if I've got the goods anymore. You know, he was at a low point facing this injury that kept reoccurring. And not only could he take care of himself and look after his future, but he was also able to look after Chase's future uh and get Chase out there with some guaranteed money, uh, which I think really was advantageous for both of them. So looking back on it, I'm sure that Brooks probably doesn't have any regrets, but I think that it was difficult for him to kind of look at what they were doing on the Live Tour uh and then kind of compare that to the PGA tour. And I think he just missed it. I think he missed that week in, week out competition. The PGA tour uh has become a lot more competitive since the inception of Live with the signature events. Uh, there's really not a lot of tournaments on the schedule anymore that are, you know, just throwaway events. Like every event matters because even the events that aren't signature events, now all of a sudden, you know, you're seeing players that normally wouldn't be in these events at these events because they're trying to qualify for the signature events. So I think it's really heightened, heightened the competitiveness on the PGA tour. I think you're seeing that guys are really getting after it week in, week out. And it's really gotten tough. I mean, there's a hundred PGA tour cards, uh, it's really made everybody elevate their game, and there's just a lot less of a pathway to the tour than there used to be. So uh I think Brooks looks at the competitiveness of the PGA tour. He kind of maybe looks at what Scotty Scheffler's doing and goes, hey, I I want to go up against the best in the world and let's see what we can do. So uh I wasn't surprised that John Rom and uh Cam Smith and um uh Bryson D.C.hambeau, I wasn't surprised that they didn't come back. Um, you know, I don't John maybe, you know, I think John is is that ultimate competitor as well. Um, but I also think that you know John got a huge signing bonus. And I know that in addition to Brooks having to pay uh five million dollars to a charity to come back to the PGA tour, I'm sure that there was some kind of payback of his initial signing from Liv because he cut that. Contract a year short. And I'm sure that John probably doesn't want to go uh into the piggy bank and repay some of that money because it was a big, big number. Uh, I believe it was 400 million, if I'm not mistaken. So uh I'm sure that there are a lot of reasons why these guys do what they do. Uh, but at the same time, I just think that Brooks had a tough time seeing Scotty Scheffler and some of the world's best on the PGA tour and not being uh in the mix, not being in the conversation. And then, you know, honestly, this past year, just really not having his his best when it came to the majors. And whether that's from a lack of competitiveness, whether that's from playing three rounds instead of four, whether that's whatever it is. Um, you know, I think that he just wants to get back out there. I think he wants to win more majors. And, you know, when you listen to him talk, it's definitely majors that motivate him. He is that kind of athlete. He is looking at leaving a legacy. So I think it's cool. I'm glad to see, you know, kudos to the PGA tour um kind of finally coming up with a way to get some of these guys back. Um, you know, at the end of the day, the tour is better uh with Brooks than without Brooks. And, you know, is he the ultimate needle mover? I don't, I don't think so. Um, but at the same time, it's definitely better with him than without him. And hopefully we see, you know, down the road to where there's more of this crossover uh and and not so much dividedness. I know I haven't talked about this a lot on this podcast, but you know, I just it it's kind of got to a point to where the Liv's proposition has really changed, and now they're going to 72 holes instead of 54, and they're trying to get world golf ranking points and this, that, and the other. And it's just okay, like you went from being a disruptor and having a truly different, unique product, and now it it's starting to just really feel like another PGA tour. So um, yeah, I think let's get it back together, but see the best golfers week in and week out. I personally would like to see the end of the signature events. I don't love them. Um, I just think that that creates a tour within a tour and really insulates the top 20 players in the world uh or top, you know, 50 players in the world, whatever it may be. Um, I'd like to see, you know, I like I think there's a lot of things that the PGA Tour could learn from Liv, and I think there's a lot of things that Liv could learn from the PGA Tour. Uh, and I think we're seeing Liv adopting some of those, and I don't think we're seeing the PGA Tour adopt very much, if anything. But, you know, the one thing that's always been a sticking point to me is, you know, when when this first divide happened, a lot of people talked about how people aren't interested in team golf, and that's nonsense. Look at the ratings that the Ryder Cup does, look at the ratings that the President's Cup is doing now. Uh, look at these team events and how much they've skyrocketed. And this is something that I think the tour could really take uh away from Live and really do some cool stuff with. You know, I'm not saying that every week needs to be a team team event week, but I think the teams really could be good. I also think there's a way to use the team format to mix in some of the women in different events and really get some exposure for them as well. But there's a lot of things that the PGA Tour could do to adapt and evolve. Uh, and I think they're gonna have to because the problem is is it's still just kind of old white guys watching the PGA Tour. They're not getting any younger with their demo. You know, I happen to go to a PGA Tour superstore in Naples here earlier today, and I'm the youngest guy in there by you know 25, 30 years, and it's just like the PGA Tour brand really represents, you know, older white males. And it's gonna have to adapt, it's gonna have to evolve, it's gonna have to grow because there's a lot of people participating in the game now that aren't old white guys. So I think they're gonna have to figure out a way to, you know, do something different, whether that is steal a little bit from TGO and steal a little bit from Live and wherever else they can find it. I think that's a good thing. But I definitely don't understand why it's continued to kind of live within its own little vacuum. And I think there's a way to involve the women, I think there's a way to do some cross stuff with Live, uh DP World Tour, whatever other tour you want to use, but I think there's a way to do more instead of shrinking down. And, you know, now the the PGA China tour is no more uh the Canadian tour or the PGA Canadian tour, I think, is gone now. You know, there's only a hundred spots on tour. There's obviously a huge demand for golf uh that exists out there. So creating less opportunity to showcase players, to grow stories, to grow players. I I don't understand why we wouldn't take advantage of that. So it'll be interesting to see where it goes. But um, yeah, I think it's an exciting time of year. Sony, uh, the Sony Open looks amazing down in Hawaii. Um, WaiLi is always a cool course. I love when golf's in prime time. Uh big fan of that as well. Gives me something to watch in the evenings as a junkie. Um, and just seeing the level of play, uh, obviously very, very high, even on a very difficult, demanding golf course, especially when the wind blows. So uh really cool stuff. I think it's gonna be a great golf season, hopefully. Um, I definitely kind of feel like it's it's picking up that energy like it does every year. You know, we get to the end of the year and and golf's not really on TV and it's not really part of the narrative. And then we get to the new year and people are like, oh yeah, you know, I can't wait to get back out on the golf course. I'm gonna play better, I'm gonna lower my handicap. Uh, as a coach, it's a great time of year because so many people were inspired to do better. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm super geeked about it. I think it's gonna be uh hopefully a good golf season weather-wise where I live. Uh that's always a big part of it is you know, is the weather gonna cooperate with us? But generally in Michigan, we have great weather, great golf, uh, and I'm excited. So yeah, um hopefully everybody out there is excited as well. It doesn't hurt, you know, when you're in Naples and it's 70 degrees and sunny and you're walking around and flip-flops and a t-shirt, and it kind of feels like golf. And you see golfers, right? Like it was so funny uh this morning at breakfast. I there was a group of golfers there. Uh, I think they were probably getting some breakfast before heading out to the golf course. Like I looked at my wife and I was like, I think they're going to play golf. And I was like, well, wait a minute, we're down in South Florida. Of course they're going to play golf. Uh, and just this time of year, you don't think about it as much. But that's one of the beautiful things about measured golf in Ann Arbor and the facility that I own uh is that we kind of keep the torch lit throughout the year. And like I said, we have a lot of people in working on their golf games throughout the winter and and just getting ready, right? It's it's really that that utter faith that golfers have that if they put in the work, they're gonna get better. Uh, and I think it's gonna be a great season. But, you know, I think it's it's really a cool time to kind of reevaluate and retool. And, you know, like I said, I I know there's there's gonna be a lot of comments on this podcast about me going and playing non-Mira Blades. Uh, I feel like that's coming. But it's and I I wanted to say this earlier, but I kind of shied away from it, but I'm gonna circle back to it. You know, it's it's just how much how much of the club choices, club selection that you make is ego-based versus what's gonna work best for you. Um, you know, and that's really really where I'm kind of coming from this year is I feel like two years ago I had this really strong golf season about things. It's probably one of the better, better years I've had since I kind of got out of playing full time. And uh, you know, I think the expectations from that year really sabotage last year. And, you know, having having blades in the bag, like, yeah, that's it's good. Like for me, you know, I and I I don't mean this to come off the wrong way, but for me, you know, hitting the middle of the club face is not my issue. I can do that pretty well, pretty consistently, actually. Um, the problem for me is that I get a little uh you know, directionally challenged from time to time through alignments and through over curving the golf ball from time to time. And that's where my struggle kind of comes from. But, you know, even though I can hit the middle of the face and can get away with playing a blade, you know, when I get to the six iron, the five iron, the four iron, and a set of blades, the problem really isn't so much hitting the middle, it's hitting them high enough. And that's really where the struggle kind of comes from for me. So, you know, my ego says, well, you can, you know, make it work and you're playing a lot of like public golf courses with soft greens, and who cares if it's a little low because it'll still stop on the greens. But at the same time, like I think it would be nice to be able to match up the ball flight, like I've talked about on, you know, other podcast episodes, to where, you know, the peak trajectory of your four iron should be the same as your pitching wedge. So I think having you know the P770 in the upper end of the bag is just gonna give me a little more forgiveness uh when I don't hit it exactly on the middle. But I think it's just gonna make it way easier to get the ball up in the air. And I'm excited about that. I'm excited about having a driver with a little bit more loft again. Once again, that tends to create a little straighter ball flight, gives me a little bit more span, gives me a little more trajectory. Uh, so I think there's a lot of things that are going to be good there. I think the hardest thing is gonna be selling it to my ego and going out to the golf course without a set of mirror blades, um, because that's what I enjoy to do. But, you know, there's there's kind of like, I don't know, maybe this is maturity setting in, but you know, there's what I like to do and there's what's what's best for me. And I really like eating, you know, cheese crab dip by the gallon. I I love it. It's so good, by the way. If you're ever in Naples, uh it's a little touristy, I know, but there's a restaurant called Pinchers, uh, and they have a cheese crab dip that is out of this world. And if you really want to change your life and gain some weight, I recommend Pinchers in Naples, Florida for the cheese crab dip. Uh really, really good stuff. But, you know, as much as I like it, it's probably not the best thing for me and my long-term health. So I don't know that just because I like it, I should do it all the time. And that's kind of how I'm looking at the golf clubs this year is, you know, is there anything wrong with going out and and taking the blades out and playing around it? No, absolutely not. I'm I'm sure that that'll happen. But I think from a getting out and spending time on the golf course and trying to play a little higher level, I definitely think having some tools in the bag that are a little easier to hit, uh, get the ball a little more up in the air, and kind of don't make me perform at such a high level to get the expected result out of them is definitely a step in the right direction. So uh I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to seeing how that experiment goes uh because I'd love to do these little experiments, and I really like doing them all myself because then nobody gets mad at me. Uh so uh yeah, we'll see how it goes. Uh putter-wise, I think I'm gonna stay with my traditional TP Mills putter. Uh, I don't really foresee me going into anything else. I know the the the whole rage is. By the way, speaking of the PGA Tour Superstore, I remember, you know, three, four years ago going into a PGA Tour Superstore and they had maybe four or five lab putters. Um then, you know, maybe a couple years ago going into a PGA Tour Superstore, they had like 1015. I've never seen so many lab putters in one place as I saw in the PGA Tours Superstore this year. I mean, they are they are really eating up market share. And I was very impressed. And the thing that really blew me away is how few blade-style putters were actually available. I don't know if you've been into a PGA Tour Superstore, they have like a huge putter section. And, you know, generally it's uh, you know, a grab bag of blades and mallets and face balanced and you know, all this stuff. But dude, it's it's mostly mallets and it's mostly stuff that is, you know, zero torque or low torque or mallet style. Uh not a lot of blade style putters out there anymore. So I think the the whole, you know, for years and years and years, blades kind of dominated the putter space. Uh, but I think the war's finally been won by the mallets and the low torque stuff. But I don't know that I'm gonna go that route. Um, I still putt pretty well uh with my TP mills. I love my TP mills, it's it's so cool. Uh, once again, it's probably my ego speaking. I'm sure I could benefit from a little more forgiveness and actually working on you know fitting myself properly into a lab putter or even the tailor-made low torque spider putter. I don't think that would be the worst ever. Um, but I think for now I'm gonna stay in the TP, excited about the wedges, to give those grinds a go. Uh, I'm a I'm a big believer that grind is way more important than bounce. Uh, I think bounce has kind of been blown out of the water a bit. And I think finding a grind that, you know, A uh fits your delivery with the wedge and B gives you versatility uh is huge. And a lot of people, I think, are picking wedges uh that don't A, have enough bounce, which isn't grind, but I think a lot of people are looking for a grind with a pretty thin sole, and then they are not playing enough bounce to get away with that thin sole. And the funny thing is, is if you look at the K grind, um, which was by far the most popular of the grinds on the PGA tour last year, and I think won all four majors, as a matter of fact, it's a big fat bottom. It really, really is. It's it's the wedge, I think. If you showed most golfers, you'd be like, oh no, that's like a beginner's wedge. But the thing is, is that that big fat bottom and the bounce that it has on it allows for the person A to get into the ground, but B, get out of the ground. And that's what I think the tour guys really like about that wedge is that there's a fat enough bottom on it to where they're swinging really fast in the bunkers and it gets in quick, but then it pops right back out because the bounce on the wedge and the grind of that wedge help get it back up out of the sand. So uh I think that could be really good. I know the bunkers tend to be super soft uh up in Michigan, so I'm looking for something a little faster through the sand. That's what kind of led me to the K grind. Uh, I did the K Star, as a matter of fact, because it has a little more heel-toe relief than the normal K. Um, but you know, I'm kind of I got two. I got the K Star and then I did the A plus. Uh, and I'm kind of interested because the A plus is really designed to be a fast wedge through the turf. Once again, a little fatter sole, uh a little more heel toe relief, but excited to kind of see where things work out with that. Uh driver I already mentioned, you know, going into the QI4D, the core head, uh, not the LS, not the Max. And then uh fairway woods are pretty in hybrids pretty much set. You know, the the Taylor May woods, the past two years have been really good. I've still got a QI 10-3 wood uh that I really like, and then I've got a QI 35-5 wood and uh rescue that are both really good. And, you know, I think the big thing, once again, is, you know, from a gapping perspective, you know, a lot of people do not hit their fairway woods and or hybrids high enough in the sky. And that creates a lot of distance issues and challenges for them. But the best thing that I've done for myself in a long time is putting a Ventus Red into those fairway woods and that hybrid, because the thing just launches straight up. So now getting them in the air is no problem. Uh, it gives me a little bit more spin as well, which stabilizes the ball flight, which is never a bad thing. But yeah, um, a couple weeks ago when I was down at the honors, I was talking about maybe not playing golf this year, and now I'm buying golf clubs. So it's funny how quickly the brain of a golf degenerate can change. And I'm definitely a golf degenerate, but I think the sunshine, warm weather uh has maybe stoked the flame in me a little bit, and then probably having golf on TV again isn't a bad thing as well. So uh excited about this year. Uh let me know what you think about Rory switching clubs. I think that's I think that's big. I mean, you're talking about arguably one of the top three players in the world uh moving away from blades, and I've seen it all over the internet. You know, a lot of people were talking about it, but are blades, are they kind of dead? And you know, it's it's funny, it goes like this. You know, there's a period, I think back in the early 2000s, 2005, 2010, uh where blades were really just nowhere to be found. And blades are kind of cyclical, they kind of come and they go and they come and they go. Uh, there's definitely no golf club prettier than a nice set of blades. Um, but there are some challenges there. And, you know, having a cavity back is nice. Having a hollow head that launches the golf ball straight up in the air is nice. So um I think a lot of golfers who aren't great golfers definitely benefit from the cavity back and the hollow head. Uh, I do. It makes the game significantly easier. Um, you know, if we're talking about trying to get golfers to enjoy the game more, I think that stuff helps. Um, I really do. But it's it's also one of those things to where it probably takes a little bit of the pureness away from the game, right? You know, one of the big reasons I think that we've seen such a huge jump in ball speed over the past 15 years is the design of the driver. It's a big watermelon on a stick and it's forgiving and it has less gear effect than it used to. And when you think back to the title as PTs or the 300cc driver heads or even the persimmon heads, very, very small. And if you mishit a little bit, you really paid the price when it came to accuracy and distance. And now there's less of that, right? They're way bigger, they're way more forgiving. The ball still flies pretty good off the heel and toe. And now people were incentivized just to swing the darn thing harder. So I think it's really kind of coming, you know, to a different place to where, you know, is it cool being out there on blades and being able to play blades and and all that stuff? Yeah. Are you seeing less blades on the PGA tour? You betcha. Are young guys that are really good coming up the college ranks and Corn Ferry and all that, are they playing blades? You're not seeing it as much. Um, you're just not. So I don't know if that is just the trends of golf and kind of moving into more of the modern head and a little more away from the blades, or if maybe this is just the way the game is going. And I mean, some of it makes sense, right? Because when we're talking about PGA Tour players and high-level college players, they have speed. They have tons of speed. And when you're playing blades, you know, typically you can create quite a bit of spin with the blades, more so maybe even uh than with the other varieties of holohead and cavity-backed irons out there. So, you know, they are already fighting a spin game. So by playing a blade and creating more spin, that's probably not in their best, best, you know, favor. So, you know, it could be some of that. It could just be, you know, once again, a trend, and we'll see blades make a big re emergence uh here down the road. But I think with the club companies getting creative and making the you know, holohead uh and the game kind of improvement irons look more and more bladey, I think you're gonna see that people just go, hey, you know, the blades are cool and all. But when I'm On the golf course and I miss hit one, I don't want it landing in the water short of the green. I want it to at least carry to the front of the green for me. So there's a little bit of benefit there in terms of performance. Uh, you know, ball speeds tend to be a little higher, all those good things. So I think it it could be interesting to see where it goes. Um, I definitely am not ready to get rid of my blades anytime soon. As a matter of fact, I'm looking forward to getting them out and playing with them some this year. But I'm also excited in this experiment and just seeing if we can't make the game a little bit easier on ourselves and find a little bit more enjoyment in the game again. So let me know your thoughts. You know, what do you think about Rory switching? What do you think about Brooks coming back? Uh, where do you think the game of golf is? You know, that's that's always a good question, right? Uh everybody has their opinions, but you know, you know, where are you at? Are you excited about the golf season come up? Are you excited that the PGA tour is back on TV? You know, where are you at with this? And most importantly, what do you guys want to hear about? You know, it's it's one of those I I'm not I'm not teaching this week. I'm on vacation. So it's probably why the episode's a little bit different because I haven't been in the trenches all week. But, you know, if you guys have ideas, if you guys want me to talk about, you know, a topic or two or whatever, reach out to us if whether it be in the comment section on YouTube, you can send me a note directly um through the website at measuredgolf.com. And you can always reach out to me directly at the forceplate guy or measured golf on Instagram. But I'd love to know what you guys want to think, what you uh or what you guys want to hear, what you think about things. Uh, we definitely want to make sure we're doing content that you guys enjoy. So uh hopefully you have enjoyed the vacation episode of the podcast. Uh, I promise next time I should be back in the studio in Ann Arbor, uh, and I'll be coming off the heels of the PGA show. So hopefully we have a lot of cool things to talk to you guys about uh that we saw and heard down at the PGA show. So thanks again. I appreciate you guys tuning in as always, and until next time, and always keep grinding.

Head Shot

Michael Dutro, PGA

Host