cm70056

I used Shipsticks.com and it was extremely pleasant. After you setup your trip, put the dates in ship sticks to get costs and delivery dates. After that, all I had to do was print the ship sticks provided shipping labels and have my clubs boxed. Ship sticks schedules a delivery pickup (or you can drop-off at many locations) both ways. I think I paid about $75 total for shipping to and from for my vacation from Illinois to Phoenix, AZ I highly recommend them

I appreciate the input from everyone. Thank you for the help.

Hello all! After about a year's worth of research I have decided that I want to construct my own putting green at home using Pencross bentgrass. I have decided to do this because I have recently had a new baby daughter and I am not able to get to the course 2-3 times a week for 4-5 hours like I used to. I do not see that changing for the next few years. Between my daughter and my job, it is getting more difficult to get golf in. I believe I have found a good solution by building a putting green at home with a chipping area. I firmly believe that if I can just get outside a few nights a week and practice some short game for an hour....my itch will be satisfied until I can get out for my round on the weekend. You might be thinking, heck a putting green is going to to take up more time per week maintaining it than playing a round of golf. Maybe true.....but the way I see it is, at least I will be at home in the yard and can have my daughter outside with me and spend time together. I plan to start small. I have a great spot available in the side yard that will make a perfect home for a 15' diameter green. Here's where my question starts. I know in Illinois the best time for seeding new grass is when the weather is consistently 75-80 degrees. Realistically that means my ideal time to sowe is going to be mid-September. I do not think I will be able to buy a good reel mower until this winter. What kind of trouble can I get in if I plant in September and can't mow to what we would consider a greens-height until next spring when I have the reel mower? I was wondering if I can plant this fall, mow with my regular push mower at the lowest setting, and then come in and spring and cut to about 3/16?" Please do not lecture me on putting in a synthetic green or "you don't know what you're getting into - it's so much hard work." I like yard work and I have a genuine interest in Agronomy. Not to mention I think it will be a beautiful addition to the home when complete. I just have a unique question that I have not been able to find a specific answer for.

Picked up a dozen of these a couple weeks ago and thought I would share my experience with them. I have currently been gaming the Q-Star most of the year with great results. I bought these because I was intrigued by the marketing from Wilson being "long and soft." I paid less than $20 for the dozen with hopes of finding a new ball in the $20-25 range. I took the balls to the putting green for practice. I was thrilled at the soft feel of the ball while putting and chipping. Spin and bite performance was excellent and very tight. I felt the Wilson had a slight edge in bite performance over the Q-star when chipping & pitching. I was impressed and ready to take the ball to the course. Normally at my home course I can usually hit 70-80% of fairways with the Q-Star driving the ball on on average around 245-255 yards. With the Wilson, I only hit one fairway and it was close to the edge of the rough. Off the tee box, this ball spins a lot! I did not get a straight ball flight on any drive. Most balls had significant pull draws that I could not control. I would consider my "normal" drive a baby 10yd push-draw. I made a few changes during the round to try and correct the ball flight with the Wilson, but could not minimize the spin enough to be effective. I feel that the cover of these balls are so soft and sticky that they make it difficult to be long and straight off the tee box. From around 150 yards and in, the balls played well, but were a little too soft feeling on the face of my Mizuno MP-54s for my liking. I did not get good feedback on my iron strikes with this ball. Stopping performance with my irons was good. I have suffered with these balls through 3 rounds, with the only negative impact still being very inconsistent driving. My scores have been higher by 2-3 strokes a round because of missing so many fairways. I retired these balls and went back to my Q-Stars. Driving returned to normal accuracy and my scores did the same. In my opinion, the Q-Stars are extremely tough to beat for the price and the Wilson's just weren't the ball for me. Summary Positive: Great soft feel on and around the green Decent/good stopping performance with irons Price Good looking ball Summary Negative: Poor feedback on irons due to softness High-spinning makes driving extremely difficult (in my situation)

Awesome! Being a Manufacturing Engineer, I love the behind the scenes look of manufacturing facilities. I see Ping has implemented a lot of MES Systems and mistake-proofing procedures to help with quality and delivery.

Got to meet Wes Roach and Ricky Barnes at work on Wednesday. Pretty cool guys got to sit down and talk for about 45 minutes. Wes had a good round Thursday.

Thank you for the advice. I will try that next time at the range.

I've been Playing Golf for: 2.5 years My current handicap index or average score is: 9.4 My typical ball flight is: Baby-Fade The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Pull and Straight-Draw Videos:

Since the driver is physically the longest club in most bags, it's going to be the hardest to hit if you have swing flaws. Since the club is longer, any small flaws in your swing mechanics are more dramatic because the head gets further out of line. Try to make sure you are keeping your arms in that nice "V" shape and concentrate on your swing path. To do this, you are going to have to slow your swing speed down. Make sure the club head is square at impact and you aren't on an out-to-in plane (cutting across) when coming across the ball. I used to have the same problem, but I am much happier with a 250-260 yard drive that finds the fairways 80% of the times vs. crushing a drive 280ish and only hitting a couple fairways a round. My instructor gave me some really good advice once that stuck with me. On the range, hit balls with your driver, but only take the back swing back about 2 feet. Do this very slowly and then accelerate through the ball. Try to imagine you are "pushing" the ball off the tee with a square face instead of hitting it off the tee. The ball needs to be flying straight. If it isn't, you are breaking your wrists on the backswing and not getting them back before contact. This drill is going to train your wrists and muscles what position they need to get to before contact. After you've mastered this from 2 feet, keep taking the club back further and further until you are back to around a 3/4 swing. Anytime I start to see flaws in my driving, I go back to the range and hit hundreds of balls using this technique. Regarding the balls, there are higher spinning balls out that may amplify your swing problem, but the root cause is the swing.

The most important question is.....if you don't spend the money on fitted clubs, are you constantly going to be wondering if your game is lacking because you don't have "properly" fitted clubs? For me, the extra money seemed worth it because I could take the clubs out of the equation. I knew I had been fitted properly, so now I know if I get a bad result, it's because I made a bad swing. I spent a lot of money and time putting my bag together and since completing it, I have yet to wonder if I've got the right clubs in my bag. When I first started golfing with lower-grade equipment, I was constantly blaming the clubs because I had that doubt in my head that better/fitted clubs would help me improve. They have, but I firmly believe a lot of my improvement is because I'm not worrying about proper clubs anymore. Just focusing on making good swings and proper technique.

I played with my settings almost every time I went to the course for the first month I had the driver. After that, I found that I had the best average results at 10.5 degrees and I haven't changed the loft in over a year. I loved the idea at first, being able to dial in the loft to match every hole distance, but for the average handicap player who is already hitting inconstant distances, it basically negates the purpose of the adjustable loft. From my testing, I just didn't see much difference from 11-2.5 degrees of adjustments when I am getting a difference of +/- 20-25 yards on a non-changing loft setting. When I am through with this driver, I wouldn't hesitate to go back to a non-adjustable driver (that is, if any of the OEMs are still making any non-adjustables!)

I am always paranoid of losing clubs. I try to make a conscious effort of counting all 14 clubs every 3-4 holes. That way if I do forget one, I don't have to back track very far to try and find it, and it reduces the amount of groups behind me who may have come across it.

I have made the switch to Pro V1s this year and have been experimenting. I started off buying OEM Pro V1s and obviously I got the best balls with this. I then began experimenting with X-outs and refurbished balls. I could definitely notice a difference when comparing the OEM ball to a refurbished ball. The refurbished ball just does not have the some consistency from ball to ball. I am sure that this is because you are not getting the same year, model, or run of ball like your getting in the OEM package. The refurbished balls gave me a bad impression and it only took 1 dozen to decide I wouldn't buy them again. I then switched to the OEM X-Outs and had pretty good results. I have bought 4 dozen X-Outs so far and I only found 1 tiny paint imperfection on 2-3 balls. Most of the balls could pass as brand new mint condition. The X-Outs played very well for me and are very consistent. My only complaint with the X-Outs is I'm never sure what's going to be in the sleeves. I have gotten Pro V1 and Pro V1X. I prefer to play a Pro V1 over the V1X and feel I have noticeably different results with each ball, so I am thinking about just sticking with the OEM packages of Pro V1. I may continue with the X-Outs since they are usually less than $30, but only for practice rounds. When I am playing a serious round, I ALWAYS want to put an OEM Pro V1 in play.

Ernest, I warm up with both my SW and gap wedges, while doing so, I am trying to get a feel for how firm the ground is that day. My SW loft is 50, same as my 50 gap wedge, but i've got significantly different degrees of bounce between these two clubs. Whichever club is suiting the ground conditions better on that particular play will be the club I leave in the bag to play with (usually i just always carry 15 clubs because I don't play competitively and my playing partners don't care) Sometimes I am amazed at how much difference I can get between the two different bounces depending on the ground condition.

I always start by chipping around the green. I do 6 shots with each club PW,SW,50,54,58 to get my arms loosened up and get a feel for green roll-out. I then spend about 15 minutes putting - 5 minutes of putts within 5 ft, 5 minutes from 5-10ft, and then 5 minutes from greater than 10 ft or studying grain/break. I then move off to the side and take 5 swings with each Iron, hybrid, wood, and driver. I am just focusing on getting my back loosened up as well as making sound swing paths. I head to the tee box about 10 minutes early. Spend most of that time getting everything in place for the round and finish with a little light leg stretching and upper-body twists. I rarely hit balls on the range before a round anymore because I feel that I often try to work on new things and new techniques which often give me some fits on the first couple holes. I have learned to save the practice and technique work for practice days to get best results.

When you say you want a career in golf, what exactly do you mean? What do you picture as your "dream" job? In my opinion, I think you should pursue another degree in sports turf management with a minor in business administration. This dual degree program would make you valuable for golf course operations or business administration. You could probably also qualify for many of the big golf OEMs with a business administration degree in marketing or PR. Personally, I think engineering/research development would be a good field to pursue.

Thank you sir! I already had Estrella on my list....excited to play that course! Wigwam was a new one. I think it looks like a nice course and I would like to play it. Another question I am wondering, is it critical to book tee times with these courses? It seems like they charge more if I try to book a tee time 1 month ahead. What is the possibility of just showing up and "playing in" at Wigwam and Estrella?

Hello All! I will be taking a 10 day vacation starting the 2nd week of April and will be staying in Goodyear, Arizona. I have never been in this area before so I need some advice on where to play. I would like to try 4 or 5 different courses and then pick one public course close to Goodyear that I can play multiple times. I have been looking at a lot of different courses on the internet, but I always feel first hand experience from local golfers is the best. Here's what I am looking for: -I would like to play 2 of my days at a "premier" course with beautiful views of the mountains (I would be willing to spend around $150 per round and willing to drive up to 1 hour) -I would like to know of a few good courses very close to the Goodyear area (I am thinking any nice public courses? $40-60 per round) -I would like to know of a course in the Goodyear area that has a nice putting/chipping green area. (My home courses do not have a fairway/putting green area to practice chipping. I need to spend some time with my new wedges learning them) -I typically prefer afternoon or twilight rounds. What time is sunset during that time of year? -What is the typical pace of play at any course you may mention? Is it easy to get a round in 4 hours or less? -Do these courses permit single players or are they always going to want to group me up with other couples/singles? -Is there a good golf shop in Goodyear where I can buy some supplies so I don't have to ship as much? Thanks for all the help in advance.

Hello all! Need some advice. Since we are still in bad weather here in Illinois, I have been swinging the clubs every night for 1 hour indoors without hitting balls, just focusing on swing techniques. I am having problems getting my hips to "clear" and point to the left (I swing right handed.) I can get my lower body around and get my hips to face square to the target, but I'm having a hard time getting my hips to keep traveling on that path and point to the left of my target for my final "pose." If I try to over-exagerate the movement, I can get my hips pointing left, but it makes me want to pull my lead foot off the ground and twist with my body. Do you guys know of any good videos I can watch to show me some excersises to practice with?

I just recently ordered a new set of Mizuno Irons. I went into the shop figuring I was dead set on the MP-59's and just needed to get the right shaft. My opinion entirely changed when the clubfitter had me compare the the 59's with the 54's. To me, the 54's felt as smooth as the 59's. I couldn't feel a big difference between the two clubs, but when swung with the same shaft in each club, my off-center hits on the 54's were still decent, whereas with the 59's, off-center hits were pretty bad. Knowing I still need a little bit of forgiveness out of my long irons, I decided to go with the MP-54's with TT Dynalite Gold XP shafts stiff. Lucky for you, you should be able to find a club fitter relatively easy that has all those clubs. Go swing them all and see which you like best.

Well I went ahead and ordered a 302 from across the pond last night. Got one shipped here for under $210, which I thought was a pretty good buy. This is the first time i've ever bought a club over the internet without ever hitting it in person. I hope it lives up to all the good reviews I have seen on it. Can't wait!

IMO, you will never know a good fit until you go get a fitting. There are so many combinations out there nowadays that a good fitter should be able to find something for you that makes your swing work. You need to hit something so good that it immediately makes you realize what you are missing in your current set. I wouldn't feel bad about getting a fitting and not buying clubs. Fitting is what many of the shop Pros do for a living and it's part of their normal job duties. However, I think it would be honorable that you make your intentions clear up front that you are not looking to buy at this time, but want a club fitting to look at the oppurtunity to potentially upgrade in the future. It would be generous of you to offer to pay for the fitting, most in my area are around $30 and that seems very cheap for the knowledge you will gain about what equipment combinations work best for you. In my recent purchase of a new set of Mizuno MP-54s, I went to 4 different fittings with 4 different shop pros until I finally found what I felt to be the best combination. I had about 10 hours worth of fitting time before I finally purchased a set. Most of the fitters had me in a similiar combinations, but each fitter was doing a few little things just a bit different to alter the feel. Also, understand that your swing is going to change over time. In my case, part of my final decision in purchasing a set was that I really got along well with club fitter #4 and I got the vibe that he wanted to continue to work with me on the clubs AFTER the sale to make sure the clubs keep up with my game improvement and swing changes. Try to find a fitter like that that wants your business for the long-term relationship not just the point-in-time sale. Best feeling is subjective from player to player and in my case I guess I wasn't so much chasing for a feel as much as I was optimizing my shot numbers. Ball speed, shot trajectory, side spin, yardage, and line angle (pulling left or right) trumped feel in my final decision. The set of clubs I ended up purchasing "felt" a little bit harsher than 2 of the other fittings, but I was constantly putting up better numbers (by a wide margin) on the simulators. I will gladly take a little worse feel at my hands over on the course perfromance any day. Hope that helped. Bottom line, try to go out and get some fittings! They are fun and you will learn alot about your swing for usally about the same cost to play a round!

I am in the market for a new putter to go with my new Mizuno MP-54 Irons and MP-T4 wedges and I would really like to put a Mizuno MP A-Series putter in my bag to keep things matching. I am having trouble finding out how to aquire one. I see a couple on ebay, coming from Japan, but i'm not seeing the model and shaft length combination that I want. I would really like an A-302 or A-304 with a 33.5" shaft. Does anyone have any good advice or leads on how to easily buy one of these in the US?

I puchased a set of Dunlop Tour Black CB irons a year ago to play more golf with. I have been playing with this set for 2 years now and I am starting to see my scores hover in the mid-80s. My driving is consistant and my putting is good (cosidering my putts are on average 10-25' away.) I feel like my iron play from 50+ yards out is now my weak spot. I have a very hard time hitting the ball into a scoring position on the green. I feel like I am swinging the clubs well and don't mis-hit too often. I just can't seem to get the ball close to the pin with my current irons. With these CB irons, it feels like every swing produces solid contact, but I don't get the result on the other end. So my question is, yes lower end CB clubs like mine are forgiving and easy to hit, but is it a common probelm that it is difficult to be accurate with them when my game starts improving? I am trying to make it through the rest of our golf season with this club set until I can go for a proper fitting and upgrade. Would I want to look at Max Game-Improvement irons? I currently have my eyes on Mizuno MP-59's.