This Just In: Hell's Frozen Over
Let's get the confession out right up front. I have fallen off the wagon. I purchased new technology. And I paid (ugh) retail.
For years my mantra has been that if you want value in golf equipment, buy it lightly used, or if you must buy new, seek out stuff that is a few generations old and on clearance. That strategy has served me pretty well, and aside from a few wedge and putter experiments my bag has been fairly stable for the last five or six years.
But I have sinned, and it all began last Friday when a friend waved his TaylorMade Burner Superfast 2.0 Driver under my nose and urged me to hit it. "Not interested," I sniffed with righteous indignation. And I wasn't. I have hit dozens and dozens of new drivers and none has come close to knocking my SMT Encore out of my bag. I wasn't fond of the idea of jumping on the white clubhead bandwagon, and that rebel in me likes having a driver that is out of the mainstream. Furthermore, the Encore has almost always been reliable, producing shots I can live with when I miss it a bit. And good golf is all about the misses. Finally, I could not envision being able to control a driver that was a full 2" longer than my gamer.
My curiosity got the better of me though... and you can guess how the rest of this plays out. I'll spare you all the dirty details, but yesterday I ended up in a local Golf Galaxy and walked away with a new Burner SuperFast 2.0. I would have grabbed a used one to make me feel less guilty, but the $75 TaylorMade instant rebate coupled with a few clubs I needed to trade in anyway made this purchase a no-brainer at bargain basement levels.
So let me officially announce this new relationship. There she is in the corner, all bathed in white and ready to respond to my every wish: low draw, high fade, or long and straight. History tells me that since I have now purchased the club, the honeymoon will be short and not so sweet. But maybe this time, she's the one...
--
Ed Abrams anchors mornings on KYW Newsradio, and you can hear his Golf Reports there on Fridays and Saturdays. He has also created a new website at www.DealTrackerGolf.com, a resource for golfers seeking the best bargains on clubs, apparel and everything golf.
