firstcut

Good stuff. I get up earlier on Sat to play golf than I do for work.. This game is messed up..

I've had these bad boys in my trunk for a week and finally got them out today. For *me*, they are the best "premium" ball I've ever played, including the Pro-Vs. I feel like I lost some distance over my Nikes, but they were more consistent and *seemed* to be straighter off the tee than other balls. I say "seemed" because as a 21+ HCP I have good days and bad and it's not always the ball. They also felt very good with the short irons. Soft with very consistent distance. Even mis-hits came out pretty good. I'll probably buy some more. That said, when I bought these, there were only two boxes left and I've heard they are very hard to find? I've also heard that for a hacker like me, the B330-S will play very similar. I may buy a box of those and test as well. As a side note, I also bought a box of dt rolls to play with. I played the last 3 holes with them. After using the B330's, the DTs felt like rocks.. Rocks that carried a lot further..

From their website: "The Ballfinder Scout™ is equipped with a low noise vibration alert. When white is detected, it will vibrate for the period that the white remains in the frame." That pretty much keeps me from making a purchase. With my pasty white legs that thing would be giving false positives all day. I think Faldo could bottle his farts and make more than 15k. I'd hope he either made a bunch more than that or the product really works for him to put his name on it... Preferably the latter...

Because you suck? Sorry, with all the serious posts in here I can't help but be a smart ass once in a while. Enjoy the game.

At the risk of getting totally flamed, I will admit to not only owning a chipper, but being dumb enough to buy the expensive Odyssey one. Why? With kids and work I get to play golf 5 hours a week (If I get to play that week). That's one round on Saturday. My chipping sucks and is not likely to get better without practice. When chipping I stub the club or top it with short irons and crush it with my hybrids. In short, my UBER shot game sucks. It got to the point where I was using the putter even when I had 10' of apron to putt through. The chipper solves all those problems. It swings easy, takes little practice to be "decent" with and takes dumb frustrating strokes off my score. EVERY game that I've played it I've gotten multiple "nice shot" comments from around the green. Something that NEVER happened before. My first week with it, I chipped one in from 15'. IMHO, it's a crutch, but it helps me enjoy the game more. Oh.. As a side note, apparently one of the guys at my local GolfSmith uses his out to 100 Yards... It's kind of a running joke that everyone is waiting for him to snap the head off it. But, supposedly he's pretty deadly with it...

I bought mine at Golfsmith. I think it's their brand, but I can't remember the name off the top of my head. Red label. Sticks VERY well. Ya, I've read something similar which is why I posted this.. Even if we subscribe to the "not enough weight to affect center of gravity", I *think* there are two factors missing.. 1. More weight reduces club head speed. 2. More weight adds flex to the shaft. IMHO, that's more than just being able to feel the head better, although that may incorporate into what you mean when you say "feel the clubhead". I've been wondering if the tape is slowing down the clubhead and I'm getting my wrists turned over faster vs the weight keeping the head turned in itself? Regardless I'm going to try an experiment this weekend. As I've taken tape off, the hook has decreased. I don't know why. Instead of taking more tape off, I'm going to add the amount I've take off to the outside top of the club. If the weight is simply adding feel and helping my wrists to turn faster, then the tape on the outside should simply increase my hook. If the tape is in fact moving the center of gravity around the head, then I should see the hook straighten out. As a side note, I'm hitting a draw bias driver to begin with, although it didn't seem to help pre-cut and tape. That *may* be helping as well? Anyone know how much weight a manufacturer adds to a club to make it draw biased?

I had a Yes!. It putted great in the store. It hit GREAT when you hit it perfect. For me an "off" hit would mangle the shot pretty badly. Also, I just could not get the distance right with the club. I *think* it has to do with the way the C Grooves are positioned. It could also be that I had been hitting a Odyssey XG Rossie and was used to the insert. But, I'm just a knucklehead 22 HCP so it's hard to say for sure. I do know that I ended up returning the club and taking a %10 hit at Golfsmith to do so. I'm not saying the Yes! is crap, it just wasn't a good putter for me. For a lot of others it is working great. That said, hitting it "right" really made me a believer in the groove technology, so I went and tested a Rife 2 bar hybrid. It has a grooved insert where the grooves run uniformly accross the entire face. I am putting MUCH better with the Rife. Better than I did with the Rossie I used for two years. Good luck in your search.

A while back I cut down my driver in an attempt to get a little better accuracy. I got a quick lesson in shaft/head dynamics and learned that by doing so I actually made the shaft swing stiffer, which for me is a bad thing. Since then, I've been goofing around with lead tape at various sizes and locations on the driver head. I've been amazed at how much difference it makes. i.e., I've gone from a pretty consistent slice to a pretty consistent draw/hook, although the hook is getting better as I move or take off tape. I've read various articles on the net about how it does or does not help. Obviously it really seems to be helping me. I can't believe no one told me about the miracle of lead tape until I almost destroyed my driver. Anyone else use it? Do *you* notice a difference?

I have always done well with the Nike rescue clubs. I started with the original red ones (CPR?) and now have a 5 and 6 in the old black style (slingshot maybe?). For some reasons the Nike just fit my swing. I actually carry the 5 *just* for getting out of fairway bunkers..

I would like to take a minute to confuse this topic a bit further. If you have an iPhone, there is a scorekeeper app called "TeeShot" that will track your stats AND give you your handicapp. It's not cheap, but it's a good app and I would buy it again. Good luck!

OK, consider it jacked for just a moment. Happy you found a putter that works for you though.. As mentioned on another thread, putters get hit more than drivers, but for some reason we're all willing to trade out drivers much more often. It's nice to find a good putter. Please let me know how it goes. The 2 bar hybrid lets you add and remove weight so you can play it on fast or slow greens if you like. The insert is perfect IMHO. If you were willing to put up with a high hcp player and drive up to Pleasanton for a 7AM sat game sometime I'd even let you try mine.

Man, I was thinking the same thing.. If I could only get 14 strokes out of my driver I'd be in great shape! Then again, based on my pre-Rife putting, I was pretty happy with 39 putts!

May I humbly suggest you look at the Rife 2 bar hybrid mallet as well? I've been pretty happy with the one I just bought. Didn't demo the Nike tho..

I am a high HCP player and am happy when I break 100, extatic when I break 95. I play with Adams A3 OS. I bought them after playing Adams A2 OS for the past few years. I hit the A3 OS better than the A2s. So, if I can feel the difference between the same manufacturers set of clubs from year to year, I'd bet that I would feel the difference between a "set" of cheap clubs vs my Adams as well. I don't think it's psychological, I can feel the difference in the clubs. I'd also say this. I'd bet a good player would play better with a crappy set of clubs than I would. The better swing should hit the sweet spot more often than me. But, we would both notice off shots. They just might not affect him as much because mine would tend to be "more off".

Ahhh... OK.. I thought you were still on the "run".

Dude... Talk about throwing the jinx on yourself!

There are dirtbags everywhere. I'd say the majority of golfers are more honest than the average person, but you must have run into a bad one. At one of the courses I play at, the groundskeepers will find balls and leave them in piles next to (or on) the greens or drive up and offer them to you. It's pretty cool. In fact, until I got on this forum, I never even worried about leaving my clubs anywhere on a course. Now I always keep an eye on my gear. I'm not sure if that's good or bad? Why would this make you cynical? Do you think you *deserve* something for doing the right thing? This should make you feel good about yourself, not bad about others. That is your "return". As an aside, I've had that happen too. The average human mind, when in panic mode, is VERY serial in thought. i.e. "one thing at a time". Once she calmed down, I'd bet she had regrets about not thanking you better.

Not the 5, but I'd be willing to bet they play close: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16847

Not really a funny shot, but a funny situatin if you don't take the game too seriously. A few months ago I'm playing with a good friend who I only see a few times a year. He plays by a very liberal set of rules. He essentially plays "winter rules" year round, OB rocks are free drops, etc.. We're playing for a fun but competitive score, so I'm happy to cheat with him if that's how he wants to play. We also play a mulligan per 9 that I'm happy to take. Somewhere near the 15th hole I'm about two shots ahead and he ends up BURRIED in the green side bunker. He doesn't think I notice, but I watch as he digs out the sand from ALL AROUND the ball with his SW. I'm about 40 yards away and just turn away so he can't see me lauging my ace off. He's had a frustrating last few holes, so I hide my laughter and let him do it. Of course he chips it within 2' of the hole and pars it. The par actually frustrates me a little, I choke on the final three holes and he ends up "winning". Then he's got the balls to tell me "And I won without taking two mulligans like you did". He was so serious about it that I laughed for 20 minutes on the way home. There's just nothing quite like playing with friends and "friendly rules".

Gonna be a lot of opinions on this one. I like most of Odysseys white hot XG putters. Used a Rossie for a long time. If you like the insert I think you will find one at a good price point that will work for you. Although I liked the Rossie, I Switched over to a Yes! Tiffany. The Yes! hit great in the store, but I found it to be very unforgiving and innacurate on mis-hits. But, when you hit it right, it was a dream. That putter pointed me towards the putter I use now, a Rife 2 bar Hybrid (center shaft). The Rife is easily the best putter I've ever hit with. It's out of your price range by $50, but I'd at least look at one. Also, I saw a post in the sale section for a Rife 2 bar mallet for $160 shipped. That's in your price range and I'd look at that as well. Good luck!

I thought one of the points of having a hcp was to even things up at times like this? Sounds like you guys are throwing hcps to the wind and just playing? You might as well have me as a partner if you're going to do that against a 1&2... Good luck!

A few quick thoughts. 1. A lot of shops cannot re-shaft the FT-i. I've been told it has something to do with the material of the head. Maybe they are steering you to a new purchase for a reason? 2. Callaway will reshaft the club for you at a reasonable price. 3. If you're slicing the heck out of a stiff shaft, test a few Regular shafts in a shop before getting this one re-shafted. 4. the 10 degree head is closed 1 degree according to Callaways web site. I *think* the draw is induced by weight in the head though. 5. Since you are going to reshaft anyway, you could also play with cutting the shaft down. Cutting the shaft *should* help accuracy and induces stiffness. BUT, it also decreases weight (and messes with balance). So, you have to add weight somewhere (often the head) to even things back up. You can do that with lead tape. This has the unfortunate side effect of slowing down clubhead speed though.. Not too big a deal if you'd rather just be straight.. It also increase flex... It's a tough balance and I'm not sure you could make it all work with a senior flex.. That said, adding weight to the head in the right places coupled with a shorter shaft could give you some interesting and maybe positive results. It has for me. Please note that #5 is mostly *knowledge* I've gained over the past month monkeying with my own FT-i, talking with guys who monkey with clubs and reading a lot on the internet. I *think* the worst you could do is screw it up so bad as to make it unusable until you re-shaft it. So, use it at your own risk.

Agreed.. I'm thinking that *must* be the "hookers and coke" option.

Ya, sucks to live here, eh? I moved back here from TX. In TX you HAD to tee off first thing ebcause by noon it was too hot to play. At least out here a late tee doesn't add heatstroke to your game. Good idea about he smaller spots.. I'm in the East Bay and it seems like they are all packed.... Mostly Callippe. www.playcallippe.com

Send me the $200 and I'll buy the $169 one on ebay and send it to you.