xrayvizhen

While on vacation in Punta Cana a few weeks ago I played with rental clubs, Mizuno Pro 245's with KBS Tour Lite steel shafts. Surprisingly, I was blown away, not only by the distance, trajectory and dispersion I was getting but also about how soft and buttery they felt. It got me thinking.... IT'S TIME FOR NEW IRONS! Just yesterday, at my local Golf Galaxy, I tested them again side by side with the JPX Forged (recommended by the Mizuno rep who happened to be there) which also felt pretty good. Not as buttery soft as the 245's but they did produce slightly better numbers on off-center hits. Also, I haven't played with forged clubs with steel shafts in 10 years thinking I was getting too old and that I needed the lighter weight but these clubs with that shaft felt really, really good. So that's my long and drawn-out intro to my question: Does anyone here at TST play with either of these clubs and if so, what's your opinion?

$50??? You're not serious, I'm sure. The only thing a $50 driver will be good for is to whip your horse as you're rounding the far turn heading into the home stretch. Seriously, go to a big box store. They all have used clubs up the wazoo and you should be able to find clubs at a reasonable price. Also, talk to the guys there. You'll be able to tell just by conversing with them which ones are interested in helping you and will provide good advise. Those companies are usually pretty good about weeding out the bad apples who are only interested in making a quick sale. The commission the big box stores pay is so miniscucle anyway that sales guys are usually brand agnostic.

Strata are decent clubs for newbies, usually furnished in a complete boxed set, with putter and bag. They're an excellent way to get going in the game and to see if you want to stick with it. If you don't, you're not out too much money but if you want to progress, you should get fit and buy better clubs with newer technology that will help you out. Most places I know of (ie: Golf Galaxy / PGA Store) charge you for the fitting which is then credited back to you when you buy the clubs, so it's essentially free. (I know GG does that...not sure about PGA.) Once you have clubs that fit you rather than you having to maybe contort yourself to fit the clubs (depending on your height/arm length/swing characteristics) you can progress and get better. Ultimately though, as the saying goes, "It's not the arrow, it's the Indian."

There is no dispersion data presented but based on your average smash factor, I would guess that you're hitting the ball pretty much in the middle of the face, or pretty darn close to it. If that's the case I might suggest the Titleist GT3. It's not quite as forgiving as the TSR2 but if you hit the ball in the center of the face, as you seem to be doing, you'll feel the ball absolutely explode off the tee. (That's what I feel anyway with my TSR3.) I also think you might be launching the ball too high. There's an optimal launch/spin chart on the Titleist website that you should look at. You might want to dial down your hosel setting on your driver from A1 to D1 for example.

I don’t know what the record is for the longest duration thread on TST but I figured, I started this thing, so I may as well add to it, almost 4 years later. So, where was I? At the start of the golf season two years ago, I switched from the cheap Adidas Tech Response 2.0 spiked shoe to the spike-less Adidas 2SG SI. It had the three main features I wanted; comfort, waterproof and under $100. They have proven to be and still are, extremely comfortable when walking and the one-year waterproof guarantee has proven to be more or less accurate. In wet conditions, the fabric upper does develop a dark stain, but the dampness hasn’t penetrated to my foot, at least not yet anyway. It basically does what a golf shoe is supposed to do, provide stability when swinging the club, good traction and to top it all off, the tread, after two years and probably a hundred rounds, is still there…it hasn’t worn down hardly at all. So, what’s my problem? Well, it’s kind of embarrassing, but in my advancing age, I’m developing a bunion on my right foot. It’s not one of those ugly bulbous things, and it doesn’t hurt, but it’s there. I think I need a little more room in the toe box so I’m considering going back to True. But…which one? I’m looking at the “Original 1.2” but I haven’t seen many reviews of them. My main criticism of the Original Trues I had many years ago was the nubs on the bottom wore down pretty quickly and I could feel every rock and pebble I walked over. Are they still like that? Other than the fact that my price limit is now around $130, my main prerequisites remain the same; comfort, waterproof and durable. So, let’s keep this thread going. What’s the latest opinion on shoes?

Maybe. 50 guys in the league, 10 seniors (75+), but less than half of them actually play from the senior tees. Perhaps that could solve the problem; a smaller prize for the contest with less people competing. Anyway, the managers took a poll of all the members and the results were pretty much 50/50 for and against so we'll just do what one responder suggested...table the whole question until next season.

I'm probably an outlier, but I have so many brand new balls in boxes from a variety of companies, there's no way I could be devoted to one brand. Presents, free sleeve samples handed out at big box stores, boxes of balls won at various company golf outings, etc. Plus, I'm not adverse to reusing found balls as long as they're in decent condition. Also, when my swing goes haywire, as it has recently, I hate staring down at a brand now Pro V1. All I see at that moment is a five-dollar bill with the real potential to go sailing off into the woods so that's usually when the found balls get put on the tee.

I'm in a golf league whose member's age range from the mid-30's to the mid-80's. Currently, those classified as "Seniors" (75 and up) can play their rounds from senior tees and their handicaps are adjusted per USGA guidelines. No issues at all with that. However, a furious debate has erupted over the weekly Closest to the Pin contest. Currently, seniors are required to play the designated par-3 from the same tee as everyone else, the men's or white tees, however some seniors are complaining, saying they should be allowed to play that hole from the senior tee. Others say that wouldn't be fair to everyone else reasoning that regardless of age, it's easier to hit a ball closer to the pin the closer you are to the green. I'm just curious what other leagues do.

Yeah, I just saw the news item on him an hour ago. He had Parkinson's. A funny, funny guy. His stand-up act was unique. He always held a sheaf of disorganized papers in his hand as if he had made notes that he was referring to. I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything on them. עליו השלום

I recently started working out every day on a rowing machine. I read somewhere that rowing works more muscle groups in the body than any other form of exercise. I bought a Concept 2 machine and I've been diligently following their "Workout of the Day" which is sent to my phone every morning. The phone connects wirelessly to the machine's monitor and it, in turn, steps you through the workout that lasts anywhere between 25-45 minutes. Results? Abdominal muscles that have been MIA for a decade are reappearing, definition in my shoulders and biceps has returned, my thighs are now as hard as rocks and best of all, if the Trackman numbers at my local Golf Galaxy are any indication, my swing speed has returned to what it was five years ago. I don't know if this will help my golf scores or not but regardless, I just feel better.

This week's episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 12, Episode 3) is a hoot. Larry is sitting on a bench watching a pro give a lesson and starts paying special attention to the tip being provided, "Vertical Drop, Horizontal Tug." The pro gets pissed off and tells him to book a lesson, which he refuses to do. On the course he's blasting his drives (he hits a guy in the fairway he thought he couldn't reach) and shoots his best round of the season although he does get called on the carpet by the president of the club. (He has a rather unusual solution to that as well.) I tried it...it works. Vertical drop...horizontal tug, the secret to golf!

Two guys run our league at a Resort/Public course. The pro shop used to do it but the handicap method they used was bazaar to say the least and also, it often took them weeks to publish the scores. As a result, we took it over and have been running it ourselves for the past 5 years or so. Results and recalculated handicaps using the WHS formulae are published the next day. The only thing the course does is reserve our tee times and collect our green fees.

I've heard many people in the golf industry (instructors, equipment sales people) admit, "it's not the arrow, it's the indian." But, at the same time, that doesn't mean a fitting won't benefit a high handicapper. A new golfer would do better by first getting some lessons and learn the basics; grip, stance, backswing, downswing, follow-through. Then, get a fiting. It will help. It really will, even if you have to pay for it. Why contort yourself to fit the clubs? Get the clubs that fit you.

I too have been considering a new bag. My current Datrek bag is about 7 years-old and a hole has appeared on the side of the bag near the top, just below the collar. Datrek is, I believe made by Bag Boy and has been almost perfect for my needs except for the fact it doesn't have legs. There's a cooler pouch that's pretty effective, all the pockets are conveniently located and other than the hole I just discovered, it's been pretty sturdy. My walk/ride ratio is about 50/50 and so I have been considering the same bag Iacas has recommended, the Titleist Hybrid 14. However, bags have increased in price dramatically (along with everything else) so I've also looked at a Maxfli Honors+14. The Titleist is $265. The Maxfli, which looks almost identical, is $65 less. On the one hand, I don't like being a walking billboard, although I do play Titleist clubs. On the other, I can't tell from looking at both bags side by side in the store if one is made better than the other. While not identical, they have the same features I want (legs, cooler & full-length dividers) and I have a sneaking suspicion they're both made in the same factory in China. I haven't seen any other bags from the other "neutral" companies, Ogio and Sundowner, that I like. Decisions, decisions.

I guess I'm just curious how the math works when combining scores from two disparate courses like a Par-3 with a normal course. So the differentials at each 9-holr course are calculated separately and then added together?

Does the second nine-hole score need to be from the same golf course? Because if it is, it will be quite some time (like maybe a year) before I play that one again. And I can't come to grips how a score from a nine-hole par-3 course can be combined with one from a conventional course. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I was invited by a friend to play with him on a nine-hole par-3 executive course. It’s part of a 50+ community where he lives and I was very surprised to learn when I got there it has been officially rated by the USGA; Index=26.8 / Slope=72. It's a nice course, well maintained, designed by Arnold Palmer with some challenging holes but overall, I found it pretty easy and shot an even par 27. I feel weird about posting the score onto GHIN as the resulting differential, .31, will knock my handicap down by a full stroke. Not that I mind that, but I’m just wondering two things. Is it legit and should I even bother posting. It just seems….wrong. On the other hand, by not posting, would that be wrong. I’m conflicted.

You've given me a couple of good ideas. First of all, while not an answer to my original question, I LOVE the idea of a double-header. That's a great way to make up a rainout without having to mess with the schedule or go too deeply into October since that also becomes a problem when playing into the early evening and it gets dark earlier. (We tee off at 3pm also.) As far as the "quorum" question goes, it seems the consensus is no quorum - to just call it as you see it and if people bitch, they bitch. For this week's rainout some did since the storms cleared out earlier than expected, but about 75% said cancelling the round was a good call.

I’m wondering if other leagues are ever in a similar quandary: What percentage of a weekly golf league’s membership needs to play in order for a round to be considered legitimate? We have a weekly 50 man 9-hole league that lasts for 20 weeks with weekly and year-end cash prizes. On the average about 30 people play each week and by the end of the season just about everyone manages to play at least the minimum 15 rounds which is needed to be eligible for the overall season prizes. There is no written rule or bylaw that specifically addresses this issue. There probably should be. This year, we’ve already had two rainouts and one round was cancelled due to the recent Canadian wildfires so we’re already under pressure to get all 20 rounds in. Everyone is free to decide on their own if they want to, or can play in any given week but a problem arose last week when we cancelled (notice sent via text and email) due to the unhealthy air, but about 10 people showed up at the golf course anyway, played their round, turned in their scorecards and felt that that the weekly cash payouts should be awarded to the winners and that their scores should count towards their overall season scores. Management said “No, we cancelled, and that’s that.” Needless to say, there are some unhappy campers. There have been other instances in past years when a round was cancelled due to a threatening forecast, but the storms never materialized, and people played anyway with the same argument ensuing afterwards. So, is there a number / percentage, like 25 guys or 50% or some other number/percentage of the overall membership needed to legitimize a round or should we just say, “Management decided the round is cancelled, so it doesn’t count?”

This is going to sound mean, and I don’t mean it to be, but frankly, I’ve never read your blog. The reason? I don’t read anyone’s blogs, tweets or Facebook posts. I don’t “follow” anyone because very few people in this world influence me in any way mainly because other than my family and maybe Warren Buffet, I don’t care too much about what anyone else is doing or thinking. I don’t understand this need for people to follow anybody or to be “influenced” by anyone. So, why did I read your last post? I was intrigued by the title of your post and because apparently, you’re a person who has finally, at long last, come to the realization that all you do is, as you say, just “blab” and whatever it is you have had to say, either in the past or have to say now, is not very important and pretty much akin to opening a window and shouting into the breeze. But, if it makes you feel good to blab, go right ahead. I just won’t be paying attention. Don’t feel bad. It’s not personal. Every now and then I’ll post something on one of the forums here, usually in response to someone who has a question about a product I may have experience with, or a golf swing issue or something of that ilk but I very much doubt if anyone else actually pays attention to anything I’ve posted. In fact, the more I write here, the more I’m thinking to myself, “Nah, no one’s gonna read this crap” and I’ll delete it. But maybe I will post it. We’ll see. If it’s here, you’ll know the answer.

This narrative is EXACTLY why I bought a Bat Caddy. I absolutely KNEW there could be problems, and I didn't want to deal with shipping back and forth to wherever the importer had a facility. Bat Caddy's are made in China but service is local (local to me - I'm in NJ) with a service center in the Allentown/Bethlehem, PA area. FYI - MGI's are sold by Golf Galaxy. You would probably get better customer service, or at least an easier refund if it craps out, if you bought from there. In response to the O.P.'s original question about a trolly that automatically follows, I would seriously reconsider such a purchase since #1, I doubt it would work perfectly and #2, these things are NOT 100% stable on uneven ground. Side-hill lies, depressions in fairways from underground drainage, transistions from cart path to grass...ALL of these conditions could cause the trolly to tip over. And specifically, for those with the "automatic follow" feature? What happens when you're ahead of the trolly, it's going over a footbridge over a creek behind you and you've veered off in a different direction for your ball? I'll answer that. Your clubs, bag and trolly are getting wet. These things are great, but not yet perfected. I'm happy with mine and it has a remote that quickly becomes intuitive to handle. But even so, when I'm on bumpy ground or going over a bridge, I'm right there hanging on to the trolly, just in case. I do NOT want it following behind me. I want it in sight at all times.

In my personal experience I was 6 years between drivers before I felt the cost was justified. I had a Taylor Made M3 from 2017 that I compared with the latest and greatest from all the MFG's each year starting in 2020. There wasn't enough of an increase in distance, despite the fact that my swing is slowing down as I've been getting older, to justify the expense....that is until a month ago when I saw an eye-popping increase in performance when testing the Titleist TSR-3. The club's actual performance out on the golf course has been even better than what the numbers showed on Trackman so I'm more than pleased. On the subject of fittings, I have a sneaking suspicion that some places like Club Champion and maybe some of the other smaller practitioners make most of their money substituting exotic shafts for the stock shafts offered by each manufacturer. I don't believe Golf Galaxy or PGA Superstore do that and their fittings cost a lot less so just be wary when getting fit.

I obviously haven't read all nine pages (so far) of responses on this topic but I've decided I'm against golf ball bifurcation. It's the golf courses that need to adjust, and they don't have to do it by getting longer which, if they don't have the real estate, they can't do. Why not just dig bunkers, narrow the fairways or add other hazards out 320 - 350 yards from the championship tees to force the bombers to re-think their club selection in the tee box and hit it shorter? Widen the fairways 200-230 from and at the longer distances, narrow them. I blame Jack Nicklaus. He's been whining about rolling back the balls for years. The USGA obviously listened. If the manufacturers do anything, they should stop calling 7-irons, 7-irons and call them what they are...5 irons! I hit a Calaway Paradym-X 7-iron the other day 175 yards and I'm 73 years old. I couldn't do that when I was 30! I checked the specs and saw that the loft was 27 1/2 degrees. I think that's what my 1970's era Wilson Staff 4-iron was.

And the winner is…. Titleist TSR3 10˚, Tensei AV Blue, 55 gr. Regular Shaft. Quick summary: After hundreds of shots and quite a bit of time staring at lots of Trackman data, I determined that carry and total distance, spin numbers, clubhead speed, launch and dispersion were all marginally better with the TSR3. In reality, all of this year’s clubs are pretty good. On the 2nd to last round of testing I eliminated the Paradym and Stealth 2 narrowing the choice down to either the TSR2 or TSR3. A few days ago, I eliminated the TSR2 and so it came time to pin down the shaft. Trackman has the ability to display impact location on the face of the club with a summary of all the shots taken resulting in a picture that looks sort of like an amoeba. I had a visibly tighter cluster of impacts on or near the center of the face with the TSR3 than any other club I tested and with better overall numbers using one of the stock 55-gram shafts offered therefore I was able to conclude that a premium shaft wasn’t going to get me $250 of extra performance. But here’s the interesting thing; despite all the testing and all the pages and pages of objective Trackman data I accumulated, when it comes down to it, I picked the TSR3 because I like the way the TSR3 looks when I’m standing over the ball and the way the ball feels coming off the face. Go figure. I ordered the driver and 3-wood from Titleist today (the store didn’t have the head/shaft/flex combination I wanted in stock) and will think a bit about whether to get a 5-wood or a 3-hybrid. (More testing!)

I did another mini-round of testing this afternoon adding the Callaway Paradym (not sure about the spelling) into the mix. The Callaway reps happened to be in the store when I was there. (What can I say, they gave me a hat!) They took a look at my swing and maybe based on my age, set me up with a 50-gram regular shaft resulting in 92mph avg. clubhead speed, 132mph ball speed, 2765 spin and a launch angle of 14.5˚ = 206 yd carry, just slightly behind the two TSR's. Dispersion was the best of the bunch, +- 14.7 feet, again based on the 10 best shots out of 12 but in reality, the two worst weren't all that bad. I was really impressed with the club. The best thing I was able to do today was to convince myself that spending an extra $250 for a premium shaft is probably not necessary. I could drive myself crazy doing this so to in order to avoid paralysis by analysis I'm narrowing it down to the Titleist TSR-2 & TSR-3 and adding the Paradym into the mix for the final three. I hope to conclude this sometime next week and when I do, will publish the results and the data here.