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00:00I am a three handicap golfer and it feels like I've been a three handicap golfer for as long as
00:04I
00:04remember and I'm fed up of playing average golf and not getting any better so I have made some
00:09significant gear changes to my bag to help me arrest that decline in my progress and shoot
00:16some of the lowest scores I've ever had in 2026 and I've done it through making five key equipment
00:21changes which I'm going to talk you through in this video. You might learn something and hopefully
00:25it might inspire you to make a few gear changes of your own and turn your scoring around this year.
00:30So without further ado let's dive into those five equipment changes I've made already in 2026.
00:49Right now the first thing I've added to my golf bag in 2026 is a higher lofted driver. Now I
00:55was lucky enough to go to TaylorMade HQ in Carlsbad the kingdom and get fitted for the new
01:01Qi4D driver. What became apparent during that fitting was clearly I'm not able to move the driver as
01:07quickly as I used to do. Now this is no slight on TaylorMade's aerodynamic claims this is more
01:13my body telling me it's entering its 40th year and those days of swinging it at 110 miles an hour
01:19are long gone. So while I used to play a nine and a half degree driver sometimes 10 degree driver
01:24I got fitted into the core model Qi4D and in a 10.5 degree lofted head set on the standard.
01:32So clearly I'm getting more loft than I was accustomed to and as Duane my fitter reminded
01:35me during the fitting loft is your friend. I think more golfers than you think might benefit
01:39from playing a little bit more loft especially when you consider the core heads these days
01:44in a lot of different brands not just TaylorMade do tend to offer a little bit lower spin than
01:48they used to. So you can afford to play a little bit more loft to get that optimum ball flight
01:52of high
01:52launch low spin and more distance. What I noticed with my 10.5 degree head versus my nine and a
01:57half
01:57degree head that I had before was that the ball flight wasn't actually that much higher it was
02:02very playable it was sort of the windows I was hoping to see my drives going and I'm going to
02:08demonstrate that for you now hopefully. Obviously shaft plays a part with your flight windows as well
02:13but let's see if I can hit a good one here for you. Nice. Well it's pretty much straight down
02:22the
02:22middle not much deviation there I'm really happy with that one so hopefully you saw that on the
02:25flight there wasn't too high wasn't too low it was that perfect sort of flight window for a driver
02:30so while I haven't actually gained that much distance switching into this new driver I've
02:34definitely noticed an increase in my accuracy on finding a few more fairways I've been playing a lot
02:38over the winter and those sorts of shots sort of down the middle of the fairway have become thankfully
02:42a little bit more frequent which I'm really happy with so first change high lofted driver definitely
02:47something more golfers should consider gives you a little bit more control over where the ball's going
02:52and with that lowest spin profiles or a lot of these heads these days might just unlock a little
02:57bit more distance as well. Now the second change I've made to my equipment this year already is
03:01using ribbed grips as you can see here now a ribbed grip for those who are not familiar is a
03:07grip that has
03:08a ridge or a spine running along the back of it and the idea with a ribbed grip is it
03:12just gives you a
03:13sense of where your fingers are positioned on the grip and it allows you to do that on a more
03:19consistent basis so you're feeling it in the same part of your fingers every time. Now me specifically
03:24I've gone for the Golf Pride Align grips here in the MCC Plus 4 and I have to say I
03:29was a skeptic when
03:31it came to ribbed grips I've never really liked the feeling of something sticking into my fingers when
03:35I'm holding the club but decided to give the Align grips a try when it came to sort of trying
03:40to
03:40arrest the decline in my iron play and while it felt a little bit uncomfortable at first over time
03:46that I did seem to get used to that feeling and I definitely noticed an improvement in obviously
03:51positioning my hands in a more consistent place and that feeling of confidence you get over the ball
03:56when you know that you're holding the club in the same way every time is actually sort of quite
04:01invaluable you look at people like Scotty Scheffler who is very meticulous about how he holds the
04:06club and he has that special training grip to make sure that he holds the club in exactly the same
04:11place every time that's one of the secrets behind his consistency especially when it comes to his
04:16irons and his wedge play his make sure he's holding the club in exactly the same way at exactly the
04:20same
04:20place every time and I think an Align grip is a really good place to start with that you know
04:25if
04:26you haven't played Align grips or rib grips in the past having something like this which is quite a subtle
04:31ridge it's a good entry point into this sort of design obviously Golf Pride has recently launched
04:37the Align Max which has a more pronounced ridge on it and I did try that and that felt like
04:41a bit too
04:42much of a step change for me from going from no rib to quite a pronounced so this is a
04:46sort of a nice
04:47middle ground because that sort of subtle ridge and in the ends of your fingers or the sort of the
04:51middle of
04:51your fingers and just gives you that reminder of where you need to be feeling it in your fingers
04:55every time and that for me out on the golf course has led to I would say a couple of
04:59things the first
05:00being slightly more better ball striking and also slightly more consistent start lines especially
05:06with my irons I was really struggling with my irons and sort of the direction they were going in
05:10but I'd say my dispersion has tightened up a little bit with my irons and I tend to be striking
05:15the
05:15ball a little bit better as well so definitely something to try if you struggle with your grip we know
05:20how important the fundamentals are whether it's your grip your stance your posture alignment all
05:24those things are pros value that incredibly highly and an aligned grip is a really good place to start
05:30get your hands on the consistent place on the club every time and you should start to see your shots
05:35improve right the third change I've made to my golf bag this year it's a big one I've jumped on
05:41the
05:41bandwagon of high lofted fairy woods and I've added a seven wood to my bag the hybrid is out and
05:46the
05:46seven wood is in and I have to say I've been really positively surprised about the impact it's had on
05:52my game and hitting shots from a variety of different places around the golf course and
05:56it's a change I wish I'd done sooner frankly so this seven wood I've got here is the TaylorMode QI
06:014D
06:02it's 21 degrees aloft in the standard setting and there's a few reasons why I really love the
06:08seven wood the first thing was I was worried about hitting shots with it how I'd sort of nearly hit
06:13myself in the left nostril with how high it would go it would go too spinny too high and it
06:17just
06:17wouldn't give me the optimum ball flight and carry distance I was looking for but oh how wrong I was
06:22if you when I was hitting shots with it off the deck the actual flight window was only a tiny
06:28bit higher
06:28than where I'm used to seeing my three would go so I think that's a sort of misconception that people
06:32have about seven woods gonna go too high too spinny not gonna be practical but actually it was
06:37definitely not as high as I was expecting it to be and you can still knock it down
06:42in the wind if you want to so that's the sort of option you've got with seven woods but what
06:46where
06:47it's really helped me in this particular situation so where the lie is not terrible but it's not great
06:53I'm in the rough it's winter it's wet obviously it's not ideal but the ball is just sitting down
06:57a little bit and I would really struggle with hybrids to get clean contact on shots like this but with
07:03the seven wood it just feels like it pops the ball out a lot more easily hopefully I'll demonstrate one
07:07for you now so as I said not sitting the the best but this seven wood up till now anyway
07:14there's been
07:14a very good extracting balls from this sort of situation so hopefully I can demonstrate for you
07:19now pushed it a little bit very clean contact I have to say actually distance wise it's pretty
07:30comparable with where my hybrid is so my hybrid was getting about 216 carry on average in the golf
07:35one of the performance lab and the seven wood when I tested it it's going around 220 so a little
07:39bit
07:39more distance but not too much but with the seven wood you're also getting a lot more stability and
07:45forgiveness so a little bit more help on those off centre hits so those distances are a bit longer
07:49and they're a little bit more consistent but then also crucially you can use it off the tee as well
07:54so
07:55if the hole is a little bit tight and you want something that's a bit of a fairway finder the
07:58seven wood is
07:59going to give you that option if you need it and the other thing I really like about the seven
08:02wood versus
08:03my hybrid is it has a little bit more right bias to it in terms of shot shape so my
08:07hybrid would
08:08tend to miss left a little bit whereas with the seven wood they've made a little bit flatter
08:12inside the the weighting of the head actually promotes a little bit more of a straighter ball
08:16flight rather than a left flight so that shot in there is a classic example it's just missed target
08:21on the right hand side which I'm okay with I'm happy sort of I'd rather it's sort of missing right
08:25than pulling or or hooking to the left because that's when you can get into some serious trouble so
08:29uh well I'll just get the mud off this club face and just say to you the seven wood it's
08:33been a
08:34revelation in my bag I'm really excited to see what it can do for me in 2026 and if you've
08:38not tried
08:39one I really would recommend at least trying one versus your hybrid that's in your bag at the moment
08:43or a long iron give it a try look at the numbers and then take it on the course and
08:47see how it can
08:48perform those different situations because it could be as it has done for me a really versatile edition
08:57now just a reminder if you are enjoying this video do click the like button and do subscribe
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09:09featured in this video so you get your hands on those for the best price in your area right that's
09:14enough of that let's get on with the video now the fourth change I've made to my golf bag in
09:192026 is
09:20a set of fresh wedges now I've been pretty skeptical about how often golfers actually need to change
09:25their wedges over time especially in the winter you sort of get a full sense of security of actually
09:30balls are stopping quite quickly because it's soft so you maybe think that you don't need wedges but
09:35they all will become apparent I'm sure to you in the the spring and the summer months when chips
09:39start running away from you and you persisted with those old wedges and it's going to start costing
09:43you shots around the green so I've gone for some new wedges I've got the new Titleist Vokey SM11s
09:48because they look absolutely fantastic what I like about what Vokey have done here is they've not
09:52changed too much in terms of the design and the profile of them it's a it's a like for like
09:56swap
09:57for me from my SM10 straight into my SM11s because actually when you sort of inspect your wedges or
10:03your current wedges like I have here there's definitely these aren't actually that old I had
10:07them in the bag since March 2024 but you know that's nearly two years and they're definitely showing
10:13starting to show signs of wear and tear which is something you need to be cautious of when it comes
10:18to your
10:18equipment and especially if you play a lot of wedge shots into and around the greens that you're
10:22scoring clubs you know I've started to see some of the grooves are deteriorating a little bit and
10:26I've got some scratches and scuffs on the sole of my wedge there's a couple of places where the chrome
10:31finishing has actually come off the wedge I remember I hit a shot out of the rocks once a few
10:36months ago
10:36that's caused some significant damage which is probably not going to help over time so look out for
10:41those signs of wear and tear Titleist say you should look to replace your wedges around about every 75 rounds
10:47so I've played about 50 rounds with these but I've practiced quite a lot with my wedges so if you're
10:51someone who is a serial practicer with your wedges you might find that your grooves are deteriorating
10:56a little bit quicker than maybe other golfers out there and that's why you should consider
10:59more of a faster switch into some new wedges I've got a pretty straightforward shot here
11:05which hopefully my new wedge I'm about to demonstrate just before this golfer arrives on the green
11:09hopefully going to chip on nice and close
11:15you might notice a little bit extra bite it's got nice and pin high with a fresh set of wedges
11:21more spin around the greens especially when the ball's sitting down you can be a little bit more
11:25aggressive with your landing spots and hopefully get up and down a few more times when you're really
11:29short-sided and you've not got a lot of green to work with right and the fifth and final equipment
11:33change
11:34I've made in 2026 is the biggest one it's the one that's had the most positive impact on my game
11:40on
11:40my scoring and that is switching to a golf ball with a stripe design on it and you might see
11:46in the
11:46video I did a few months ago testing no line versus a line versus a stripe and while the line
11:51came out on
11:52top I had definitely had the most amount of confidence with using the old tailor-made tp5x stripe
11:58in that particular example and I've persisted with this since the start of the calendar year and it's
12:03had a massive impact on my putting I feel so much more confident over those it's both sort of short
12:08putts from four to eight feet where I've seen it have the most impact and especially putts that are
12:13quite straight where you start over the ball second guessing yourself about the read having something
12:20like a stripe this is going to give you that confidence that you know on this particular
12:24length of putt you're not really worrying about the pace that's going to happen naturally you're
12:27just trying to start the ball on the line that you've chosen if you read it correctly
12:31more than not it should go in and for me it has been going in the last few months it's
12:35been a
12:35revelation that I can't see myself ever switching back to a golf ball without a stripe I'm not
12:40particularly fussy on brand I've got the brand new tailor-made tp5x stripe here which has a slightly
12:46narrower visually less distracting design it's a bit cleaner a bit more subtle but just as effective
12:52I've also been using this Callaway chrome soft x stripe with the colors on it again visually similar in
12:58concept just as effective but I've got this one lined up here on this particular part which I think
13:04is sort of a right half part what I like about the tailor-made version here it's got this little
13:08dot
13:08on it which I think just gives you the extra point of concentration maybe and sort of over the
13:13ball thinking a last minute reminder about something that you're focusing on whether it's
13:17your grip or your hand position or your alignment whatever it might be but what you've got to do is
13:20sort of what I like about the stripe design in particular is that you know this is lined up to
13:24where you want to be so you just arrange yourself appropriately based on where that line is pointing
13:29so make sure your stance is correct get that sight line all lined up with where the line of the
13:35ball is pointing and as I said don't worry about the pace just focus on returning that putter face back
13:39to
13:40square just like that and then it goes just about on that left edge so yeah big revelation for me
13:48and if you haven't tried a golf ball with a stripe design maybe you're struggling to hold those
13:52makeable putts from between four and eight foot I would definitely recommend trying a stripe design
13:57and failing that a line on the golf ball I was surprised at how impactful it was on my putting
14:02and I'm really confident it's going to help me learn my handicap in 2026.
14:08So there you have it I hope you enjoyed that look at the five things I've added to my golf
14:11bag in 2026
14:12but I really want to hear from you what changes are you going to make to your bag or have
14:16you
14:16already made to your golf bag in 2026 that you hoped are going to turn your scoring around I'd love
14:21to
14:22hear from you get in those comments down below but that's it from me here at Burley Park Golf Club
14:26I'll see you next time
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