DougE

Yes, I am a 100% Titleist brand snob. Balls, bag, wedges, irons, hybrid, fw and driver. All have the same classic Titleist logo. I am a traditionalist. They treat me well with the best customer service in the business IMO, their clubs fit me well, and I like the strong, high-end brand they have created over the past 85 or 86 years. They have proven themselves as one of, if not THE top brand in golf going back to the 1930s. Name me another golf brand who has been doing it at that level for even 1/2 that time. They have earned my respect. Been playing exclusively Titleist since the early 2000s and have no reason or desire to change. Even though there may be other top manufacturers out there who can offer a little something more, here or there, overall, I feel the whole Titleist brand (the sum of the parts) outweighs all others.

I know LaCava personally. We aren't buddies or anything, but I have played golf with him a couple times at his favorite course in CT, where he lives one town over in Southbury. (I was a member there for 8 years.) He's a nice guy, but not a dominant, highly opinionated guy, like Steve Williams seems to be. Joe is just like one of the guys when he hangs out in the club bar watching sports after his round. He doesn't talk much about Tiger. He does not act as if he thinks he is special because he is on Tiger's bag. That said, personally, being a huge Tiger fan, I would like to see Joe more in control of the Big Cat when they are on the course together. The old Bones McKay/Phil Mickelson approach instead of a "Whatever you say, Boss" approach might be a good thing for Tiger, who is a guy who thinks he knows everything there is to know about golf, but has proven he sometimes makes stupid course management mistakes. Again, I like Joe. He seems to be a nice guy, from what little time I have spent around him in CT. But I have never seen him fire up his player or lead him in a different direction when he sees Tiger taking the wrong path. Maybe that's what Tiger wants, but I believe he needs much more than that. BTW, Joe has a decent game. About a 4 or 5 handicap.

Been awhile since I have visited this forum. I was trying to find out more info on the MG Senior ball and was directed here by Google, and another site I visit from time to time, MGS. I was there earlier and posted the following: I found one sitting in the water a couple days ago. Having played the MG-C4 many times, thought I would give this one a try. The C-4 is a great ball. I am a regular ProV1 player. Always thought the C4 played quite similarly to the ProV. So, when I found this MG SENIOR, I was curious. I had not even heard of the Senior, so had no idea they were non-conforming. Off the driver it was hard to tell for sure if it was longer (without a side-by-side comparison), but it certainly wasn't any shorter. It got out there. Could have been a few yards longer. The feel off the clubface was quite satisfying. However, the feel off my irons was even nicer. I normally hit my irons well for my advancing age, but using Titleist AP2-716 players irons, my distance is just average, maybe a touch longer than average for a 61-year old, 8 indexer. This Senior ball definitely added yardage to my irons on well-struck shots. I surprised myself a few times on shots that just rocketed off the clubface. There was a distinct feeling of awesome speed. I played it for 7 holes until I hit one so far with my 7 iron, it bounced one hop into a hazard 193 yards from where I hit it! I normally play my 7 iron to go about 150 yards. Granted, this shot was somewhat downhill from a lofty lie in the rough, but I was expecting no more than 170. 193 was unfathomable. Again, I did not realize these balls were non-conforming at the time. I just found out when I looked online to find a review on them. Though I would like to mess around further with the MG SENIOR for fun, I don't want to get used to the longer distances I might get with them, particularly when I go back to my ProVs for my GHIN posting and tournament play. I will say though, I felt 10 years younger (and 4 index points lower) hitting the MG SENIOR for those 7 holes.

Here in CT, when it is 50*, I seem to lose at least 10-15 yards off driver. Maybe more if it is 40 degrees. We also tend to "feel" more wind when the leaves are off the trees than when they are full, which also affects distance....a lot. A15 mph wind in the summer is not as drastic on ball distance as a 15 mph wind in winter when there is less protection from it due to the lack of leaves. Normally, I hit my 6 iron about 155-165 yards, but yesterday, it was 50 degrees and windy. So after watching my playing partner hit 7 iron and come up woefully short, I used my 6 iron off the tee on a rangefinder-measured 138-yard par 3. I hit it flush, as good as I could and ended up only pin high. Granted the wind was against me and howling, so the distance was more affected by wind than temp. In reality, when wind is not factored in, I would say I notice about one club difference on average when it gets cold vs warm. Driver, about 15-25 yards when it really gets cold...in the 40s.