IrishAndy

Erik, you seem to have lots of accomplishments, and know your stuff. You also have the makings of a good site here, largely thanks to some really good people on here, albeit it can be a little slow-moving. Other than the occasional site crash I think I'm starting to understand why... Regardless of your apparent accomplishments you do, however, have the ability to act like a complete child at times. Disagreeing with you comes at a price it seems. Thankfully not too high a price, though. @aasimzkhan simply mentioned that his hands were continuing to drop. I offered a simple suggestion having struggled with exactly the same thing. It worked for me. He thought it was working for him. You do love the jabs, though. Don't worry... it's just immaturity and many successfully grow out of it. I won't offer any advice for that, though, as there are plenty of qualified professionals that can help you with your own struggles. Good luck growing the site. Seriously, I mean that. Lessening the childish behavior will help, but you'll be fighting the ego and that's a tough one for anybody. I'll leave you to it. I have other places to be. @aasimzkhan - I have no doubt you'll be as good a golfer as you want to be. Not because of advice you receive here or anywhere else, but because you have a great attitude and are willing to do what it takes to get better, and whether it's golf or anything else, they're the best attributes anyone can have. Good luck!! Andy

I had a fitting at the UK Mizuno fitting center way back in the day when I picked up my MP33s. Very good experience. The best part? I was standard loft and standard lie. Cheapest outcome possible. The MP18s look gorgeous. I'd love to see them in real life to see how thick the top line is, but they look amazing.

I had full-on carpal tunnel maybe 12 years ago. It took more than a year to eradicate. Not caused by shock in my case, but by gripping too hard and over swinging (young guy trying to swing for the fences). The first morning I had it I couldn't make a fist. I had to run hot water on my wrists to get my hands to close. I tried to play golf and the club slipped straight out of my hands. An incredibly frustrating illness. You can give it months to heal, and rehab, and it can feel completely normal. Then you swing a club and you're all the way back to square one.

Thanks! I think I'm willling to give one a go. I can't see anywhere that the Fiberbuilt does anything at all to punish fat shots. I'll take something over nothing. Looks like I'm pulling the trigger on that plus the Tee Claws. Agreed, that more is worse than less, but for a given number of shots I'd prefer to be hitting something that's forgiving vs. unyielding. It's the jarring motion that my body really objects to. As an example, I just hit flop shots and chips this morning. Maybe three buckets of flop shots. From such glancing blows I don't even feel like I've hit a ball today. Hitting mid irons is a different story though, it just feels like range mats provide more of a jarring shock than makes sense to subject the body to.

Ah - got it! OT, but helpful nonetheless, so thanks! Tried the string this morning before my lesson. Very effective too. Will be investing in Tee Claws, but am also really interested to see if anyone has tried either of these mats. If not, I'll just pick one and be the guinea pig.

Cheers. Tee Claw is new to me - thanks! Won't help with hitting off the deck, but for driver that's sweet!

Thanks. I probably do hit too many balls, but I have some weird forms of practice (involves hitting deliberately bad shots) which ups the count. Definitly starting the string.

Thanks. I'll try that this morning. I often put a little leaf behind, or some sort of debris lying nearby, but if hit tends to fly away and then you're searching for something else. I'm imaginging string will move, but stay in the same general area, so I'll definitely try it. I definitely would like to limit the blow from the mats. I hit a lot of balls, and I feel like an injury is likely at some point, and I'd just like to avoid it as much as possible. I know I'll be 'that guy' bringing extra stuff to the range, but if it makes golf more enjoyable then I'm in.

I'm looking for a mobile golf mat that I can bring to the range to both soften the blow of the mat experience, and also to give additional feedback on fat shots. I'm looking at FairwayPro and Fiberbuilt Flight Deck. Has anyone tried these? I know that FairwayPro is meant to give feedback on fat shots, but I'm not sure of that's the case with FiberBuilt? Opinions welcome.

Umm, not sure, but this seems to be getting a little 'testy'? Maybe? Maybe not? It's a Sunday morning, so I'm deliberately not going to engage with the same level of energy... I think if you look at my first post I never alleged that 'Virtually every golf course' was lengthened. They couldn't. They'd be unplayable for most, and a complete waste of money, if not physically impossible for regular courses. I was answering with regard to Tournament level, and hence my inclusion of DJ and Donald in the description. Sorry if your thought otherwise. Just to be clear, I do not mean uniformly (I.e. A fixed percentage) I don't believe with equipment it has to be that way. A portion of the optimization has been to knock the spin off of driver shots that the dimples were intended to create. No doubt they can make the ball do what they want it to do. In the politest way possible I'll have to disagree. I could set up a kid's obstacle course with a high obstacle in the middle that half of the kids couldn't get over and half could. That would be 'fair' to some because it's the same course, but that doesn't make something intrinsically 'fair' IMO. We'll just have to disagree, and that's just fine. And I'll directly answer. Tournament golf was changed bacuase of some long hitters, the changes actually hurt shorter hitters. Any change benefits one type of player and not another. I just didn't like that change. And that's OK. Some may think it was the best thing to ever happen to golf, and that's OK too. I tried to go to great lengths to explain what I see as the specific 'golf-wide' effects in terms of heath and safety. Not effects on the typical local course as far as I'm concerned. Having said that I see my local is building tee boxes on one hole about 40 yards back. I haven't asked, but it could be because people have started driving over the trees to the green on a dog leg par 4. The green can't be seen at all from the tee box, so it's not very safe. I've seen someone do it. They had no clue if anyone was there. Again, I can't get too excited about this, but offered what I thought was a reasonable counterpoint. Good points on all sides.

I don't think so. I play Mizunos forged blades and think they have the best feel, but also the most vibrations. I have been playing around with a forged cavity back head (Mizuno MP30?) but noticed little difference. Also hit some cavity backs and felt like the MOI improvements and 'dead' feel help reduce vibrations from off-center strikes with the ball, but I felt like many of my irritations were coming from striking down on the dreaded range mat. I believe yes. I played around with different shafts in the same heads. Project X was miserable, KBS Tour and DG S300 (my stock shaft) were about a 'standard' level of misery, whereas DG XP 95 definitely felt better. Higher ball flight, but in a nice way, if that makes sense. Then I tried sensicore in the same XP95 shaft (yes, I went through a lot of grips!), and that was a big step in improvement as well. Vibration from off-center strikes is so much different, and I think the sound is better too, somehow. Striking the mat was definitely a little better. I then changed all of my irons out that way, and am definitely enjoying the improvements in terms of reduced pain. Short of going graphite (will never happen) I think those are the biggest gains I can make. Ultimately I think I need to take a separate strike mat to the range to further eliminate the chance of future injury. Looking at FairwayPro and Fiberbuilt Flight Deck, if anyone has any opinions. Good luck. Sucky place to be. Definitely worth addressing.

Becuase they were 'Tiger proofed'. This phenomenon didn't start last week. It started with Tiger. Conversely, that's what made bombing such an advantage. It is a skill. That's what I watch long drive for. It would if blowing out your knee brought relatively smaller distance advantages. It certainly wouldn't take that game back to where it was. Agreed, that will never happen. Nothing's ever fair. Tiger proofing courses was extremely unfair for the shorter hitters. Having a water hole where the top 5% can carry and the rest can't isn't fair. Having a water hazard that 0% can carry is at least slightly more fair. Golf is one of the most regulated games in terms of equipment. It's just a matter of how it's regulated, who those regulations benefit the most, and who they disadvantage the most.

I'll offer a counter-argument to many of the posts here. The distance the ball goes is a problem, for a number of reasons, including the fact that it's forcing the redesign/lengthening of courses and making it a 'brute' sport where physicality starts to have an edge over skill (sorry, Luke Donald), and you start to get some farcical endings to tournaments (thanks, Justin). Also, it's becoming a driver-wedge game on TV which doesn't represent how most amateurs play. However, these things are all minor nits compared to health and safety factors: 1) Health: One of the great things about golf is that you can almost play it your entire life. These days even the better players, with all of their trainers and physios aren't lasting for long stints without significant injuries (Justin, Day, Tiger, Casey, Rory, etc.). These guys are taking their bodies to the limit, and sometimes past the limit. Swings are changing to push the margins further, and this is trickling down to amateurs, as they try to mimic the swings of their favorite pros. Health and longevity are suffering. It's not as simple as how far the ball goes, but rather how much father that last 10mph can get you past the last guy. If they changed the ball to ensure the fastest swingers still hit it farther, but a 30 yard differential became a 10 yard differential I'd be all for it. 'Unfair' for may say, however the physics of the clubs & balls are already 'gamed' so ensure a specific outcome, it's just that Trackman etc. allowed a leap that exceeded what the regs have so far accommodated, leading to a less heathy game. The ball alone didn't cause it at all, but it can fix it. When the javelin starts going too far they change the javelin. It doesn't diminish the athleticism, or the bragging rights. 2) Safety: I was playing 2 weeks ago early on a Sunday morning. My five year old son was sitting in the cart. I played the back 9 and was on the 18th fairway. A ball smacks through the trees and lands about yards from me. A second about 15 yards to the other side of me, and a third lands 15 in front after a rare - and particularly welcome - "fore!". All three of these drives were from a group on another hole hitting in the other direction. There were only three people in the group. They were obscenely far from their own fairway, but with the modern combo of clubs and balls (and the tour-validated ethos where beating the life out of the ball, landing in a different zip code and then hitting the crazy - and also dangerous - recovery shot has become culturally somewhere between acceptable and cool. Only one guy (the lone guy who also shouted fore) realized the gravity of the situation when their carts zipped up and circles my cart. He apologized and I thanked him profusely for shouting fore. I didn't get angry, rather I hoped that putting the more conscientious guy on a pedastal would somehow rub off on the other two lunks. I wish this was rare, but It's way too common now on public courses. The relentless desire to continually 'grow the game' has aided in making it cool to play golf 4 times a year, hit it as hard as you humanly can, lose 10 balls a round, endanger others, repair no pitch marks, and consider it a good day out.

Picked up loads of temporary boo boos since getting back into golf. Had a kink in the neck a few weeks ago. For me they last a few days but it tends to be that I wake up one morning and it has gone vs. any miracle cure or particular stretching exercise. They are incredibly annoying. Anti inflammatories definitely help.