Nothing gets you more energized to go play some golf than when you get new clubs. My new Sub 70 949X 4-Hybrid and Callaway Rogue ST Max Driver came on Friday and Saturday. I couldn’t wait to get out there today and try them out. I got a 12:30 tee time at one of my favorite tracks, the Links at Dardenne, strapped my bag to the pushcart, and headed out into the 50-degree sunny January day.

I am in love with both of them. The Max is just as forgiving and feels just as good all over the face as it did when I hit it in the bay. My driver swing is still a trainwreck. I had more than a couple pull hooks, but the new driver helped them more than the old one. I finally just committed to hitting the fade during the second 11 holes I played (you can make a mini loop since the first 9 holes go away from the clubhouse if you play through the par-3 7th and then hop onto the 15th tee to the right of the green and play your way back in).

The hybrid flies arrow straight. I can hit it high and spinny or low and runny. The most important thing is it didn’t go left once, which is always the big concern with hybrids. It has plenty of pop for where it sits in my bag, so I would be fine if I never hit a draw with the thing. It could very easily be my favorite club in the bag shortly. It’s already giving the U-Wood a run, and I haven’t even tried to put the bump-and-run into play. If I figure that out, forget it.

It was a pretty great round for the Fairways and Greens philosophy. The fairways number was only as low as it was because although I piped the first drive on the widest fairway in the county, it took me a few holes to get the timing with the new shaft and head down. I had literally never hit a ball before the first tee ball. That greens number is absurd for how small and elevated the greens are out there, plus it was blowing around 10 mph like it always seems to be there. It should have been higher, but I bladed an 8-iron into the creek on 17 and made a quad because I was trying to be too fine with an 8-iron cut instead of just hitting a 9 full and getting on the green, and then I left 40-yard pitch one small bounce from the green instead of getting it past the front pin and taking the birdie putt. I have to remember to refocus on the F&G plan throughout the round and not get caught up in trying to attack pins.

I’m not sure I have mentioned before, but Links at Dardenne is my favorite course in St. Charles County to walk. It’s relatively flat to walk but has some interesting humps and bumps around the greens and in the fairways that make the golf interesting still. It’s a shame it’s so often soggy and slow. There was a couple week period this year where it was rock hard and the fairways were running like the Old Course. If the Whittaker family is looking for tips to make that course more profitable, find a way to make it play like that more of the year, and I will drop my membership with the new owners of Whitmoor and just play there. I would also shave the humps and falloffs around the greens. That fact you have rough there makes very little sense for the name. It just catches balls. It would be way more fun to see them take a slope and roll 10 yards away (in a dream world it would be 20 or 30 like in Scotland but let’s not get greedy). They do this best on the par-4 9th, which is funny because it’s a crazy green and probably the hardest to hit on the course, but it should be like that everywhere.

I will write more full reviews after I play with the clubs for a while. I don’t like writing my reviews until I have a very good idea of what the club does and what is just me making bad swings. It takes more than 29 holes for someone of my caliber to figure that out.

Back at it again tomorrow with a shot at Nicklaus from the Reds on South.