Bman

UPDATE: I tested the club by hitting a few shots with both the store's club (same loft, same reg flex) and this one I bought from eBay. The results were very similar, this club actually averaged a few yards longer, so it's confirmed a real TaylorMade club, not a fake. I then took it to the driving range, all shots were long and straight, even the mishits were only slightly off target and still went long. This TaylorMade SIM MAX is long and very forgiving for my swing, I'm now a believer of the Twist Face technology. Just FYI, a couple of months ago I played with a friend who has this driver in his bag, I tried it on the back 9 and hit all 7 fairways so I've had my eyes on this club for awhile now. I bought this one because it's a JDM version with a lighter shaft 50g (vs 60g shaft US version here) which is more suited for my slower swing speed (~88mpg clubhead speed). By the way, it took only 2 days shipping for the club from Japan to Canada which was impressive. I also just found out from several online reviews that the seller, GolfPartnerUSA, is the real deal as well, apparently it's the biggest golf store chain in Japan so I would suggest anyone looking for Japanese clubs to check them out.

Yes, that's my biggest concern, are they actually the real TM screws or are they trying to make a replica looking like the real thing? They don't look like the genuine TM screws on your club. I'm planning to bring this club to Golftown and ask them to let me try a SIM MAX driver with same specs then compare 10 hits between the 2 clubs. I think this is the only way to tell if it's real of fake. There are a couple of YouTube videos in which people hit the real and fake clubs on the course, and they all found that the fake drivers are so much shorter and very inconsistent.

I bought a TaylorMade SIM MAX driver from eBay, the seller (Golf Partner USA) in Japan has great feedback (99.9%), the 2 negative rating was about shipping, no complaint about club. Over 2200 feedback and all were happy with their clubs. The reason I bought from this seller is because the driver is the Asian version 10.5 loft with the Tensei 50g shaft which is more suited for me. I received the club this morning, from what I've read, the best way to tell if it's a fake is the screw in the face's speed injected port where the real one has an actual screw but the fake one is just one is painted on. The screw is so small it's hard to tell, I took several pictures and I still can't tell. At certain angles, it looks like a real screw with a hole but at other angles it looks faked, like painted. I don't have a real SIM MAX to compare so I can't really tell, the pictures of some of the real club looks like there's a gap between the screw and the face housing but I can't really see a gap between the screw and the face. The top half of the word Made in the logo TaylorMade has a darker color than the rest. Anyone has a real SIM MAX that can compare my pics and let me know if this is a Fake or Real? Thanks

There's a big difference, the lady in the post wanted to be with her husband golfing but it seems he doesn't want to. I've asked my wife to play golf (tried to get her into it many times) so we can spend time together on the course, but she's just not interested. The last game we played we left after 9 holes because she had enough, didn't want to go out again after that. She doesn't like the game not because she's a duffer, she's actually not bad at all, she connects well off the tee, on the fairway, even chips and putts. To her, it's a huge waste of time and money smacking a ball around.

- Definitely complained, not just poking fun. - Yes, talked several times, told her it's a hobby that I love, she said we should pick up a new lobby that both can do, not just me by myself. I tried to get her to play the game several times, she just doesn't like it. - Enlist her help? it's extremely rare that someone even agree to this. She had been to the range various times and actually played golf various times over the years, I've tried to get her back into the game every few years but she could never get any interest, she considered everything related to golf is huge waste of money and time. Asked her why it bothers her? yes, she said she doesn't like it that I spend time and money on a hobby that she has no interest in. Regarding time: As mentioned earlier, I play hardly once a week, and always book tee time on the day she's working so she's never home alone when I'm out golfing. We also had several arguments over the money, she hated that I "waste" so much money in golf. I've spent less than $2000/year on green fees, I've only purchased 2 sets of clubs in 25+ years playing (current set is over 12 yrs old, I go the the range maybe once a month. And it's not like we have any kind of money issue, we're actually financially well off, I'm an executive making over 200K/year, we have no debt and also have decent amount of funds in savings & investments, the amount of gifts (BD, anni, xmas, etc.) I buy for her every year is at least 4X my golf expenses. We've been getting into a fight every time we talk about golf which is getting very frustrating. Anyone else has constant fight with their spouses because of golf?

I've been golfing for about 25 years, first 10 years didn't play much, mostly just company tourneys, then I got better and got hooked on it, started playing more often. About 10 years ago, I started playing about once a week, but my wife kept complaining that I played too much so I cut down to twice a month since then. During Covid (2020 & 2021) I barely played at all, started playing again this summer, and got back to playing 1 round a week (either Sat or Sun). My wife got used to me not playing in the last 2 years and now complains that I golf too much. To be fair, I had encouraged her to take up golf, she tried but didn't like it. I've never complained about her regular frequent visits to shopping malls, hair salons, nail salons, spas, etc. as a matter of fact I've always encourage it. BTW we're now empty nesters, no kids to take care of, and I do most of the cooking & cleaning in our house. For those whose wives are not golfer, is 1 round a week too much? How often do most people play?

I played very little during Covid (probably 2 or 3 rounds a year), just started playing more again now and I've been struggling with consistency. I notice now that my left arm (right handed) bends a lot on my back swing (even with shoulder turn) so I've been practicing to keep the left arm straight (with just 3/4 back swing with shoulder turn). However now I have another issue, in order to to keep my left arm straight on the back swing, I feel the tension on the whole arm including my grip, When I try to relax my hand to have a loose grip my elbow bends again. Does anyone have any advise or drill on how to keep the left arm straight with the tension only in the arm to keep the elbow straight while relaxing the hand/grip?

Hey Gboroman, the toe-up to toe-up worked wonders at the range last night, I was very (pleasantly) surprised how this simple drill is not recommended in any of the shank fixes that I viewed. I can now feel confident hitting full swing with my irons again, I can't wait to get back on the course, I will post after my next round this Friday. Thanks again for posting your advice, and congratulations on your closest-to-the-pin achievement.

I thought the toe-up to to-up drill is for fixing fade/slice, I remember using this drill a lot in my early golf days when I had a bad slice. But I certainly will try your suggestions, will be heading to the driving range this evening.

In my case, lining up the ball really helps my putting. I've started lining the ball a couple of years ago and I've sunk a lot more putts since then. However I only use the line on the ball to line up the putt for sinkable putts, like within 10 feet with reasonably straight line. Longer distance I just pick a mark on the green in front of the ball as my line. When I play casual rounds like going out with customers, I don't line up the putts and I miss most short putts (3-5 feet) and rarely ever sink 5-10 feet. But when I line up my putts when playing competitive golf with buddies, I rarely miss short putts and sink a good percentage of 5-10 feet putts. I can't recall where I heard from, but someone said that we all have a dominant eye which causes your aim line to be slightly off when standing over the ball in the putting position. In my opinion, it probably only takes an extra 15 seconds to line up the line on the ball to where you want to putt, but when you save an additional putt, then you save a lot more time time than 15 seconds, you're actually speeding up your time on the green. But on the other hand, people shouldn't try to line up a 30 foot putt as there's usually no hope in hell to sink it, as I said earlier, I only line up the ball if I think that the putt is sinkable. It also may just be the state of mind, because I'm more confident that I have the right line, the putting stroke is better, resulting in a true roll that gets the ball into the hole. Either way, if it helps, why not.

I've been playing golf for almost 20 years and developed a fairly consistent swing over the years. I shoot in the mid 80s most of the time, and have more rounds in the 70s every year. About a month ago, I suddenly started shanking shots with mid and short irons. I've done a lot of research, read about causes and fixes, watched several instructional videos, checking my grip, my posture, my swing paths, everything, but it still happens occasionally. My last 2 games had been horrible, I was so afraid of hitting the shank, my irons now suffer 1 of 2 things: Half of the time I either hook my irons left (I'm a righty), or the other half of the time trying hard not to hit with the sole of the club ending up hitting too soft and ended 20 yards short of the green into hazards. It is so frustrating that I normally could hit the green anywhere from 170 yards in, now I can't hit the green from any distance, even with a pitching wedge. I usually hit 10+ GIR per round, the last 2 rounds maybe 2-3 GIR. I'm not a long hitter which is why I rarely ever loose a ball, but the last 2 rounds, I've lost a lot of balls with the iron shots, I've played 3 off the tees from many par 3s from either hooking into bushes or O/B, or hitting short into water, etc. It got so bad that I don't want to play anymore, I think my issue is the mental block, I keep seeing an image of shanking a ball that I can't even swing a club properly anymore. Please provide suggestions on what I can do to bring my game back to normal.

Sorry, I'm on a roll here with all these posts because of several confusing situations I ran into over the weekend's round. My buddy hit an approach shot over a pond onto the green, the ball went across the water, landed on the fringe of the green but then it rolled back down into the water. One guy said that the rule is that he has to drop the ball "where it first entered the body of water" which is on this side of the pond and hit across again. I've always thought that the ball has to be dropped where it actually enters the water which is on the other side. Can someone confirm where is the proper place to drop this ball?

One of my golf buddy hit a nasty snap hook and ended on an adjacent fairway. The 2 holes run parallel to each other with a small "forest" of huge trees between the 2 fairways. We all said his only option was to aim back towards our tee box, or take a penalty stroke and re-tee because he could not advance forward through the trees. However he knew the course well so he intentionally hit down that fairway then hit across back our green. He said there was no stake so he can continue to play on, he said he only needed to re-tee if there were white stakes between the fairways. It actually became a short cut because our fairway dogleg around the trees where the 2 greens of these 2 holes came back closer together at the end. Is there any rule against playing on the wrong fairway intentionally? I can understand if someone hit a bad hook or slide ended on the wrong fairway, but continue to play on the wrong fairway is just seem wrong. Bad course design is one thing, holding up the players on the other fairway should be a no-no, but it's also unfair for the rest playing a longer par 5 around the trees.

I was playing at a course that's has been receiving a face lift with new sand traps and added lots of trees along several fairways. I hit a slice on 1 hole and the ball landed under a new planted tree, there is a 2 feet radius circle around the tree where the soil and tree barks are raised up with 2 metal supporting stakes on opposite side. I checked the local rule on the scorecard and there was no mention of these newly planted trees. I think it should be a free drop because these are new planted tree requiring supporting stakes, however a friend of mine said that free drop is only for trees under 6 feet high. So I had to declare ball unplayable, took a penalty stroke and drop the ball. So, is it a free drop? or ball unplayable? One more question: there's also no local rule on fences (course is nested in a community where fairways run between houses), is it a free drop of 1 club length if a ball is within a club-length from a fence?

Thanks to all those who provided suggestion. I found a local ad for a set of Bridgestone J33 CB, they were all in mint condition, the clubs looked so good with the thin top line and traditional design so I bit the bullet and bought them for $200. Went to the range and they were great, I was able to adjust to them just after a few swings and hit all my target with each club. I can't wait to use them on a course this weekend. Thanks again.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out

Thanks for your suggestion, but I've never been a fan of Callaway because of the thick topline, I feel very uncomfortable with any club having a thick top line, it's also the reason why I lost interest in the AP1 as soon as I address the ball, the topline was more bulky than I expected. Not sure why but I'm much more comfortable when addressing the ball with a thin top line club, I've only played 3 sets of clubs in the last 17 years, all have thin topline. I don't think my setup was any different with the AP1, all the short irons' shots I made were good contact, straight and high up in the air, but always rolled 20-30 feet when landed on the green, looked to have same ball flights as my old irons but my old irons checked up every time. I think it's the difference between the blade design of my old short irons and more cavity back in this "game improvement" AP1 irons.

Thanks for the suggestion, the reviews on the Ci11 look interesting, but the local Golftown store here is selling the set for $650 which would cost me $734 with taxes, a lot more than I want to spend.

4 of my irons were stolen at a driving range a couple of weeks ago when I was in the washroom. I'm trying to replace them with either the same set (TA Morph) or get a newer set and need suggestions. I'm about 12 handicap, I don't play often (about twice a month) so I'm looking for irons with forgiveness but still workable. I played a round with my friend's Titleist AP1 irons last week, they hit longer than my TA Morph and are very forgiving, however I didn't like the short irons at all, eventhough my ball flights are high, short irons (8-P) shots keep rolling the balls off the green where as my TA Morph short irons shots were always stick on the green. Furthermore, I can't get comfortable with the thick topline. I looking for a set of irons targeted for mid-handicapers that would have a thin topline, forgiving with a bit of workability, not a game improvement irons like the AP1. Since I don't play that often, I don't want a set of blade irons as I don't make solid contact all the time with mid and long irons. Also with a growing family, I would like to spend less than 500, I don't mind older models (2-3 years), any suggestions are greatly appreciated.