tomwalshco

My 2 cents.... These 2 questions are related -- Are you really hitting it on the button most every swing? How long is your driver? My belief is that golf manufacturers have sold us a bill of goods with these "now-standard, mile-long" driver shafts. Stick them in a machine that repeats itself to 1/1000th of an inch every time and yea, it goes farther. Not so with us humans. For all the yardage you may gain on the once a round flush hit, you'll lose the other 13 times on off-center hits. Regardless of how massive the new titanium heads are, the sweet spot is still a spot, the size of a pinhead, not the size of a silver dollar like they try to convince you to believe. You can put masking tape on the face of your driver to see where impact is on every hit. Off by a 1/16" and you can kiss 20 yards goodbye no matter what Fred Flintstone driver you're using. Trouble is - the size of these things makes it feel like you hit it solid when you really haven't. Feels good, but goes crappy. Then we blame it on the ball. Read some time back that when Tiger was kicking arse and bombing drives halfway to Mars, he was using a 42.75" driver. It's all about contact. That technology hasn't been invented yet, so they have to trick us with shiny object fixes.... I cut all my drivers down to 43.5" and hit it longer and hit more fairways, honest. Use lead tape to get it back in balance.

As far as the taking it seriously part goes ........ Entry fees for some of these things are $125-$250 a player, generally played somewhere really nice and for a big time charity like autism or breast cancer. So a lot of guys aren't out there for just the grins and giggles. You could play Sawgrass and get a dozen Pro Vs for that..... maybe a twilight 9 at Pebble.

Will try to stay out of the fray... I play a lot of public courses and many times play with strangers. I truly believe people just don't know any better. It's not laziness or apathy, it's ignorance. I always fix 2-3 on every green and hope that my behavior rubs off. I keep 8-10 cheapie plastic jobs in my bag all the time and have been asked on many occasions to borrow mine - I just give them one of the spares. $10 for 100 on ebay.

Funny.... all these replies and no one has fessed up to being on a team of cheaters. I was and it was brutal. I was the A player, but guys in the other cart were keeping the score. Knew exactly how we were doing at every moment, but after the scores are turned in, our team mysteriously ends up 3 shots better than we actually shot. Hmmmm. What's a guy to do - call out your guys publicly as liars and cheaters?? They were all strangers and I just kept my mouth shut. Luckily, a couple of groups of "better" cheaters came in with miracle scores. Since the charity wasn't losing anything, I rationalized it was just thieves stealing from other thieves. Whatever. Mostly avoid the format now. Also - if you do well and finish in the top 3 or better, the guy on your team that did absolutely nothing is the one bouncing around afterward acting like he carried the whole team on his back.....

I bought one used a while back. It goes squirrely now and then. I pull the batteries, change the batteries, or let it sit (turned on) for a while. Sounds like it's not communicating or it lost it maps in memory or wherever it holds that data. Call Garmin and get someone in tech support. They're helpful. What happens when you put it in "Preview" mode?

Saw some at Walmart the other day. $19 maybe. When the golf stores pull the old model stuff, they usually end up at Wally's. I'm sure they buy truck loads for next to nothing.....

Want a ball that feels good, goes deep and won't break the bank - Wilson Staff DUO - $19.95. Actually bites pretty good around the green, too. I'd play it all day, but they don't make 'em in yellow, which is a must for my old eyes. Noodle+ ain't bad, either (no yellow). Q Star - too hard, skids. NXT - too expensive. Pinnacle Gold - no grab.

I agree with this 100%. Fast play rules and whatever it takes to keep people moving is fine with me. The reason these remarks are so popular on Sat afternoon - Pick it up. That's good. Just lay one down. Move it out of there. Just throw one down where it flew over Elm Street. Throw one down here, that's full of snakes and poison ivy. Get yourself a good lie over there.... need a tee?

I much prefer "down", but will nudge it now and then depending on circumstance. Never while betting, though. Unfortunately, if everyone played it down, weekend rounds would slow to a crawl. Bad enough already. Look around on a muni on any given Saturday - and everyone nudges it (thank god). Have friends who pick it up almost every time. Make a bet with them on a "down" only condition - and they will be practically paralyzed 10-20 times a round. Bare spots, buried in 4" of rough and they're dead. Not counting the times they grab it absent-mindedly and you catch them. And the same guys that are chronic nudgers, will also do it in hazards, bunkers, on the green, from behind trees, under bushes, etc. It steps on the true spirit of the game - to me, anyway - but so do 46" space age material drivers, no-side-spin golf balls, 460 cc Fred Flintstone drivers, anchor putting, putter inserts, high-tech grooves..... But I did grow up on hard-packed tee boxes, chick weed fairways (or dirt), crabgrass rough, poa annua greens that rolled like washboard country roads.

Yea, and kinda remember logo balls were considered inferior. Sorta like any ball with someone's name on them. Sam Sneads, Cary Middlecoffs, Gary Players, Palmers, Tony Lema - all ended up in the shag bag...... even Hogan and Nicklaus balls were looked at with raised eyebrows. Hagens and Trevinos got thrown back in the creek.

Been playing for 55 years. When I was young, big golf ball names were Spalding Dots, Dunlop Maxflis, Wilson Staff, Kroydon and Royal. Titleist was Acushnet and made Club Specials - good, cheap ball. Don't recall seeing logo balls until the 60's, but have seen them on ebay from the 30's and they were just text stamped on balls from various companies.

Wilson Duo - $19.95 and they give you a 2 pack free, too. Excellent - long, I mean really long and they bite great for a 2 piece. For a little slower swing speed, but what the hell. Unfortunately, not made in yellow and I am in love with yellow balls. They are so popular with geezers like me, they are hard to find. Just came out this spring. Bridgestone e6 is an excellent all around ball (and they make it in yellow).............

Not an engineer or chemist, but seems to me that adding that much pigment to cover material must have some effect - but I can't tell any difference whatsoever. They probably have to add just as much white pigment in to make whites, too. Found an orange Bridgestone e6 a week back and played it for the last 6 holes of my round. It was excellent. Like a bottle rocket in the air and was very easy to follow. Long and straight. Didn't hit it in the rough once, so not sure how findable it would be in heavy grass... Wanted to buy some, but no one has them except Edwin Watts which is 25 mi. from my house and always retail+. Some on ebay, but shipping is a killer.

They were fine. No better than any other top-line of the day, really. The Hogan name and connection has added to the mystique of the clubs a little. They did look nice, though. Been around golf equipment since the early 60's when I caddied at a local CC. Titleist was Acushnet and didn't even make clubs then. Seems like clubs named after living people never did worth a darn - see Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson, et al. Best seller was probably Sam Snead Blue Ridge because they were inexpensive and sold through department stores. Spalding Top Flight and Wilson Staff outsold all the fore-mentioned. And tour endorsements became big - so Lee Trevino wasn't going to be running around with Jack Nicklaus plastered on his golf bag. And if you didn't like Jack Nicklaus because he upstaged Arnold Palmer, then you weren't going to buy his stuff, either. Ben Hogan was a bit frosty to his fellow competitors and was not well-loved like a Fred Couples today. So other touring pros weren't going to play his stuff.... 2nd level clubs like Northwestern and Ram sold way better than any Walter Hagen or Byron Nelson or Tony Lema because they were sort of agnostic brands. Marketing people figured it out so you never find a set of Natalie Gulbis or Bubba Watson clubs at your local golf store. Anybody interested in buying a Bill Clinton tie or dress shirt? Or an Oprah Winfrey mini-van?

Bought 5 drivers this year so far and this is the best of the lot by a mile. Reason they are so cheap is that there is obviously a design flaw with this unit that causes some to snap off at the hosel. Didn't know this until after I bought it and did some research. Also tried to move the shaft and the retaining nut was screwed on so tight, I bent/broke the wrench. Maybe the problem is that the machine was set wrong at the factory and many of these heads got screwed on too tight which obviously stresses the threads and could lead to fracture down there. Mine is still together and have played 6-7 rounds with it as well as numerous buckets of range balls. Keeping my fingers crossed. It flies long and straight, feels great, shaft feels perfect for me - UST AXIV. As long or longer than any of the Nikes/Taylormades I bought. Got a spare from ebay for $50 in case mine snaps. Golfsmith will replace it if they have any left in stock. M75T is a different animal. Haven't hit it, but head is a different shape and it doesn't lay flat at address. Sits on a high point, don't like that. I love this thing...... Golfsmith does own Macgregor Golf, lock, stock and barrel. No tour contracts so they save a bunch of money there.