cocky_watchman

Even at my standard I wouldn't use a lake ball. Probably not gonna be anything wrong with them, but in my head I'd be thinking my bad shots could be due to something wrong with the ball. I've seen tests that show if balls are submerged in lakes and bad weather, their performance is compromised. Wouldn't be surprised if the golf companies got some researchers to invent some stats to help convince people that, but still, could be true! Do you use Lake balls Walfice-you are a good player-so maybe if you use them it will convince me to try em!

One thing is for sure-woman players SHOULD NOT be allowed to play on the regular male USPGA, or european tour-this is a disgrace and really annoys me. As for Augusta it's obvious that it is a pretty discrimintaing club, me personally I don't care-not as if Im ever going to get a game there.

Thats interesting. Time to compare a premium ball to my AD333. I wish ProV1 wasn't so good because they are such a rip off! Before someone replies to that statement, Im sorry-they are just overpriced IMO. £31 is the lowest I seen for 12. The new Z-Star from Srixon is £29. So maybe not that overpriced-Im contradicting myself now-Ok, I want to pay £15 for a premium ball-someone make this happen please.

I have it, my pal also has it-he bought it after hitting mine. amazing club-SO forgiving, very straight and long. Its very easy to hit, I have the gold shaft, regular-it goes high and long. My mate actually got the new Monster XLS-Id say the Monster is a little longer and straighetr-maybe 5%. It does have a slightly higher MOI-so to be expected. I wouldnt call it a workable club-its for belting it straight!

You say you don't save money on golf and coffee. Well if that's the case why do all this component stuff-I just don't get the point? And also the brands you have chosen are not top brands, Lynx-I didn't even know people still used them. And aren't snake eyes sort of quality and more budget prices. I just don't get what you're trying to do. Not criticising-just don't get it. Wouldn't it be better to just go and buy some quality clubs-test a load and buy whatever you like-since money is no object to your golf!

With clubs I suppose you could argue the new technology is going to directly influence your game. With new shoes, I think its a little harder to argue this and thus justifying the extra cost becomes hard. I know I just bought a newish Cleveland HiBore XLS Driver, my mate bought a new HiBore XLS Monster driver-I thought the difference would be nothing, but I must admit it is a little straighter and a little longer-all in all it gives you an extra 5%. I'd say thats more significant than the difference a new type of shoe will make compared to last years shoe!!!

The point is, you can get 'good shoes' without having to get the newest expensive ones. Footjoy AQL or a similar quality shoe will do EVERYTHING you require you don't need Synergy or whatever top notch shoe is available. You aren't missing out on anything important by not buying a top shoe. Same goes for gloves, waterproofs and a whole load of golf products.

I checked these out on the t'internet. They look cr*p. The website looks cr*p. No reviews. Prices are very cheap. Begs the question.... WHY DID YOU BUY THEM? You have a very low handicap. You are obviously an above average to good, possibly very good player. Why on earth buy something so cr*p. You could get some used mizuno mx-25 or mx-23 or even mx-200s. Or anything else for that matter. Surely you can send em back. Just break them in some way and claim your money back under guarantee!

There are lots of different CARS. Why buy a ferrari when you can buy a Toyota that will do the same thing? In fact why not buy a little mini. It's the same sort of question really. It's capitalism. There will always be products that are marketed on stupid little gimmicks that we all know don't REALLY make much if any diffference, depending on your finances, status and way you spend money, you either buy it or not. Personally I bought a pair of Footjoy AQL for £40 ish, they are absolutely as good a pair of shoes as you need-to spend any more is a waste of money-it wont save you shots, last longer or be more comfortable. But, if I was very rich Id probably buy the top of the range-just because! In fact I'd get some Crocodile skin ones like Jimenez wears

Hey Andre-I have Cleveland woods inc launcher 3 wood, MX-23 irons, 2 Vokey wedges and a YES! putter (Hanna)-very similar bags in terms of brands!!! ha ha

Well at the moment the more i practice the worse I get. My short game improves massively with practice. But my ball striking doesn't. This has led me to book a series of golf lesson starting wednesday. It's too hit and miss on my own. Do you have a coach? Obviously you know what your doing more than me, but still, if you're struggling it might be worth a lesson (hardly a lesson for you-more of a trained eye to check you out). If you have a coach it might be worth getting someone new to have a quick look at your swing. It does seem fairly obvious what your problem is, even to a relative novice like myself-but as we know, fixing it is always tough!

For my handicap, if I lost 10 yards going from a Srixon AD333 or NXT tour-which both have a little spin, to a Titleist Pro V 1 with exc ellent spin, well, it would not be worth it. I'd rather have the distance and spin compromise. 10 yards is going to be a club and I am not consistent enough to be hunting pinbs down to need the spin control. Plus the ball is almost double the price. Id live with a yard or 2 difference, but 10 yards is actually quite a bit. Im gonna test some premium balls soon when its a little drier. I might just buy a sleeve of prov1s since they have those readily available at the course-for the price of a sleeve I can buy a dozen AD333 !!!

looks like you take the club back shut and not on plane. Nice tempo and flow to the swing, seems like you generate some power. Better than my swing, ha ha. But so is your handicap. WIthout sounding too harsh, it doesn't look like a 1 handicap swing. I'd predict you hit quite a few shots left.

Srixon AD333-soft for a 2 piece, good al rounder and cheap. Im an 18 handicapper so doesn't matter too much on ball as long as the ball is soft enough. Spin isnt going to be important when you miss most of the greens. I generally lose a ball or 2 each round. Is Srixon not popular in the US? I haven't heard it mentioned in this thread once

I the only way I can really see the the changeable head being a real help is if you say get lessons and change your shot shape. I have a draw biased driver, Im hoping to eliminate my over the top motion, I would then possibly want to lose the draw bias. In my case that means getting a new driver, if I had bought an R9 I could of just got my wrench out-thats how I'd sell it if I was a TM rep.

Happy Birthday-glad to see you're harsh on yourself as well as everyone else! I actually like people who tell it as it is. Definitely get the strippers in.

What did he do? Is this the first time you caught him out? I remember playing with this kid as a junior, the worst cheat EVER. He would take 3 swipes to get it out a bunker and then calmly say "I got a 3 there", he was older and had a low handicap (I wonder why!) so I just didn't know what to say. I just left him to it and sent an anonymous complaint to the head of juniors! I remember once, in an October medal, 3 groups of juniors played the last 2 holes all together in pitch black darkness. It was almost impossible to find your ball. Anyway, people were a bit dodgy with the scores if they couldn't find the ball-I got 2 bogeys sort of thing. This guy though, same cheating lad, I'm scoring for, he claims he finished with-2 birdies-Ha ha, the last is a 200 yard par 3, I don't think I ever birdied it-he claims to birdie it in pitch darkness. This guy was such a cheat he 'developed' a 7 handicap and got junior county training on the strength of it. Ridiculous. In my experience a lot of people don't play to the exact laws-I guess it depends what you call cheating. The kid I talked about was a pure cheat.

I find this VERY hard to believe. First a 25 handicap with 120 ss, unlikely? Second 300 yard plus drives, highly unlikely? Third, how can you have such problems with irons if you are hitting such amazing distances-on the courses most people play you would only need to use and 8 iron and wedges with your huge distance? Are you 4 putting or something? All sounds a bit dodgy to me. But as everyone else says if you are that long practice your putting and chipping. I am a 18 handicap (not 14 as stated I must change it). I am playing badly at the moment but scoring better than for a while purely because I bought a fitted putter and practiced chipping and putting so much over winter-it has knocked lots of my game. Well saving me from my poor play really. i had 28 putts during my round on Sunday-I have before now had 40 plus putts! So forget the big drives and concentrate on the putts. I love HAPPY GILMOUR-one of my top ten films ever!

They do go a bit off white-I found that too. Doesn't mean too much though trying a used ball-who knows what has happened to it!!! Part with your cash and buy a sleeve as everyone else says, pro v 1s arev the most available ball to buy. they are everywhere! So very easy to get hold of. Plus one of the few balls that they always have a 3 sleeve, so you don't have to buy a dozen like other balls-this annoys me, if I'm trying a new ball I don't want to buy 12-even if 3 pack work out more per ball I'd still rather buy a 3 sleeve to start with!

I have a simple solution. Each course has a marshall who goes round the course observing play. Anyone who is caught taking too long is given a strong warning. If they are observed continuing to play slowly they are warned again. A third warning, using the American term is 3 strikes and you're out. All of the group are taken, handcuffed, round the back of the clubhouse, where quicker players with good etiquette pay a pound/dollar a shot to hit a driver (Hi Bore XLS Monster) from 20 yards away at the tied up, naked group members. The group members have their butt cheeks painted with a simple target, hitting the target gives you scores and as always-POINTS MAKE PRIZES...WHAT DO POINTS MAKE???......PRIZES. Oh yeah. that would quicken up the riff raff. I'm happy to help run a pilot scheme if any course is interested????n Just PM me

I HATE SLOW PLAY-no excuse for it at all. I am relatively fast player, although I'm starting to take more time than ever to line up putts and the like, purely because there is no point playing quickly, since I will only have to wait on the next tee. It is helping my short game too, but I still get on with it in the areas where it counts regarding saving time. Things like, getting off the green, marking your card when you are waiting, playing a provisional etc. I think a big part of the problem is that everyone accepts the round is just going to be slow so make no effort to play quicker, well not quicker more time efficiently I'd call it. I could easily go round in under 3 hours on an empty average length course. Yesterday was Mother's Day, so it was fairly quick and we went round in 4 hours. The previous week was 5 hours-that's TOO long for a round of golf for me. I find myself playing worse due to frustration and just getting fed up with it all. So it is a problem in UK too, but not as much as the US by the sounds of it. Municipals open to the public can be appaling-I have had 6-7 hour rounds in peak summer municipal rounds-I avoid those courses. They attract more 'non golfers', kids and first timers, so to be expected I guess. It's more unacceptable when seasoned golfers are just plain ignorant-I can honestly say it's very very rare that I have been let through, people just hate doing it. I think they see it like admitting they aren't good players. The main problem is people play 18 hole courses who shouldn't. I only played a 9 hole pitch and putt when I was a kid. I didn't progress to the 'big course' until I was about the 120 shot average for 18 holes(I was only 11!!). I think that there should be a kind of minimum standard. It's not much to ask. i see guys with all the kit taking huge swings and the ball goes 20 yards into the rough, they then proceed to slowly walk after the ball and hack it forward another 20 yards-you know it's going to be a long day. These guys would take 150 shots if they scored honestly, and they take so long searching for the ball, parking trolleys in the wrong side of the green etc. It's a difficult problem, as I know people are not going to change-some of these people are in denial, in their heads they seriously think they are good golfers and have every right to take hours planning their shots. having said that, you can plaqy awful golf and be quicker, it's just a tougher ask.

Absolutely right, these kind of posts are almost poimtless, since everyone just states the brand they play!!! I would just get a golf magazine, read a little (or check the web) and hit the highest rated 3 or 4 clubs. I like the Cleveland Hi Bores woods, so just bought a hybrid without ever testing it. Silly I know, but it was £30 brand new on ebay from a genuine golf shop!!!! Anyway, it worked out as I absolutely love it. Easiest club ever to hit-so I'd be happy to recommend trying that too!

Yes I think it is driver! I agree with the short game fitting being more important. The only club I have specialy fitted for me is my putter!!! And having my putter fitted has been very helpful in improving my game because its in the scoring zone. That is why I am now concentrating on the ball a little-going to help in the scoring zone for my 100 yards in problem area! Im going to try the Srixon Z-Star balls and possibly some Bridgestone. I do like Srixon balls, very good quality and good price. I still think there is a confusion here though. I'll explain. I am being told the X ball, the harder ball, will go further for pretty much everyone. Even if you have a slower swing speed and can't fully compress it. Yet Bridgestone have their B330RX, specialy designed for slower swing speeds so they don't lose distance. But looking at the ball spec, it is essentially just a B330 with a softer core-so softer for more distance in Bridgestones eyes. In other words they seem to subscribe to the hard ball NOT being playable for a slower swinger, I assume because you can't compress and wouldn't get distance. Isn't this two conflicting views here?

Well I think we have established you just have to try some! As far as I'm concerned I just hear lots of different pieces of information off lots of different sources. If I was as good a player as you I would probably buy a box of all the premium balls X and non X!!!! And test them out. Seeing as you are gonna be consistent the test will also be more meaningful than it would be for me. Thats the problem of a test for an average joe 14 handicap like me. Although Im not a bad ball striker, Im not good enough to say for sure "those 5 yards extra are down to the ball"-more than likely it could be my ball striking/technique. Thats why you kind of want someone to say this is the ball you will want, or these 2 balls. But when the marketing and information isn't consistent it's very hit and miss.

Yes, Erik-agreed. From the points you make it's clear you do have to try the 2 balls and probably different makes too if you are going to find the ball that benefits your game-it's not the simple choice the marketers make out. And this is backed up by the fact some people swear by say B330RX and others try it based on the marketing but find the B330 works much better for them, when they are led to believe it shouldn't. I think the pros probably chose the correct Pro V1, i.e. X or just Pro V1! based on how much spin they get on the greens. And whether they want more-stick with Pro V1, or a little less go to X. You can see why it's so confusing. I'd like to think you can try the X version of any brand and compare with the non X of that brand-and based on that comparison you would know whether X of any of the different brands is for you, rather than the non X, or not, but I don't think you can even do that! Again, I think you just have to try some balls and see what works, spin wise and distance wise. As I mentioned this is tough since buying 12 of each is a little too expensive for me. Why dont they sell 3 packs-particularly with more ball options than ever-I would of thought it would be good for customers and good for profits? I will select a few and do a little comparison at the start of summer. They don't have any ball fitting launch monitors round here that I'm aware of. Until the start of summer I'm sticking with the Srixon AD333, which gives enough control on wet greens anyway. Next thing they will bring out a SrixonAD333X-at that point I'm retiring!