I’m not working out. I’m not taking lessons. I’m not doing speed training. Here’s what’s actually keeping my game from falling apart.
By GHIN standards, I’m a slightly above-average golfer. By the standards of our readers, I’m average at best. My handicap has bounced between 8 and 14 in recent years, and when it was on the low end of that range, I was doing the things you’re supposed to do: taking lessons, working out with some regularity, dabbling in speed training. In recent years, I’ve done none of the above. I’m on the wrong side of 50, and I’m not doing much of anything to fight the decline.
That’s on me, but I’m sure you understand the consequences.
My swing speed has dropped a bit although I’ve managed to salvage some distance by increasing my attack angle. But beyond that, the only thing that’s kept me from sliding further in the wrong direction is a series of equipment changes. Not swing changes. Not fitness. Gear.
I realize the equipment editor telling you equipment matters is about as surprising as a weatherman telling you to bring an umbrella. But hear me out. These aren’t “buy the newest thing” suggestions. These are practical, sometimes humbling, changes that made a measurable difference in how I score.
I swapped my 3-wood for a mini driver
I loved my 3-wood. Loved it. I was “a 13.5-degree, maximize distance off the deck, don’t hit it much off the tee” kind of guy. And sometimes it was brilliant. In a member-member event, I hit the middle of the green on a par-5 from 260 out. (I also four-putted but we don’t need to talk about that part.)
I hit plenty of good shots with strong 3-woods over the years but, with proper reflection, I’ll also concede I hit plenty of bad ones: hard hooks OB and something well beyond a power fade that found trouble right more often than I’d care to admit.
With that, the 13.5-degree mini wasn’t a one-for-one replacement and that made the switch daunting. It’s not that I never hit the mini off the deck but I’m much more dependent on the lie. It basically has to be perfect to slightly uphill. Anything less and I pass which, if we’re being honest, means fewer bad decisions.
Where the mini shines is on tight driving holes (I sometimes wonder if I should try an 11.5-degree), where there’s too much risk in a driver and, arguably, too much risk in a 3-wood, too. Keeping the ball in play is at least half the battle and the mini excels at that.
I ditched my hybrid for a 7-wood
The 7-wood is all the rage right now but I’d like to think I got in on it early. Once considered an “old man” club (that’s fine, I’m almost there anyway), it’s now not uncommon to find one in a tour player’s bag. For me, the 7-wood was a one-for-one swap with a hybrid.
With the caveat that wind is not your friend with a 7-wood, it’s not just easier to hit in the air. It’s easier to hit straight and it lands softer, too, making it ideal for hitting into greens when your tee shots don’t go quite as far as you want. Or as far as they used to.
I joined big iron nation
I love compact player’s irons as much as the next guy. Maybe more. But approach play has long been one of the weaknesses in my game. This was never news to me but I still avoided bigger iron designs the way a bald guy avoids visors. You know it’ll probably help. You’re just not ready to admit it.
That changed a few years ago when Titleist fitted me into the original T350. Frankly, I wasn’t thrilled. I wanted T150s. But I figured I’d play a couple of rounds with them for no other reason than to confirm I hated them.
(Sigh.)
I loved them. Hitting good shots, finding greens, making more pars. Dammit. No more sexy single-piece forgings for me. It took some time to come to terms with the larger footprint but I’ve since been fitted into new T350s and PXG GEN8 XPs and I’m finding myself gravitating toward bigger designs almost by default. I love COBRA’s 3DP MB but my better sensibilities draw me to the 3DP X.
It’s not lost on me that between the rising cost of wedges and the reality that most golfers have, at best, a rudimentary understanding of wedge grinds and bounce, suggesting you add another wedge to your toolbox is a big ask. But even if your swing is relatively consistent, course conditions can vary, sometimes dramatically, even if you play the same course every day.
I’m a ride-or-die Vokey T Grind guy but there are limits to my devotion. When conditions get soft, the extreme low bounce of the T Grind transforms it from versatile scoring weapon to trenching shovel. That’s great for installing a sprinkler system but for delicate shots around the green, it’s sub-optimal.
The solution was to travel with a higher-bounce alternative for when conditions make the T all but unplayable. For me, that’s a V Grind, but the general idea applies broadly. If you play low bounce, keep a higher-bounce option handy. If you’re a high-bounce guy, consider having something lower available when things get firm and fast.
Yeah, a mid-bounce option is the safe compromise but the safe option is rarely the right one.
I got smarter about the golf ball
Golf ball performance can be nuanced and while plenty of golfers say they can’t tell the difference between one ball and the next, the differences are real. I’ve been fortunate enough to go through an in-person ball fitting more than once. That’s ideal. PING’s Ballnamic tool is a hell of a good start, too.
I’d suggest you concern yourself less with feel and focus more on finding the right combination of flight and spin for your game. But at an absolute minimum, play the same ball on every shot.
In our 2025 ball test, at slow swing speeds we saw distance differences of up to 8.5 yards off the driver and 13.4 yards with irons. Those gaps only get wider as speed increases. On partial wedge shots, the gap from the lowest-spinning to the highest-spinning ball was more than 3,000 rpm. The ball is the only piece of equipment you use on every single shot. It’s critical to how we score but it’s often the piece of equipment golfers put the least thought into.
The bottom line
None of these changes required me to overhaul my swing, join a gym, or pretend I’m 35 again. They required me to be honest about where my game is, where it’s going, and what I can realistically do about it. For my money, that’s the part most golfers skip. We’d rather grind on the range (not that I’ve spent a lot of time on the range, either) than admit the clubs in the bags are costing us strokes.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you equipment fixes everything. It doesn’t. But if you’re not willing (or able) to put in the work on the physical side, the gear side is where you still have leverage. Use it.
Have your say
What equipment changes have helped your game? Let us know in the comments.