Sean_D

Power Line cut across three holes at my home course. I hit them all the time... With the best shots of my round. The power lines have saved me a few times, however. One of the holes has water on the right, a few shots destined for the drink have hit the power lines and saved me from the one-stroke penalty. I think the thing I dislike the most is the damage power lines do to urethane covers. Each ball that hits a power line goes straight into the practice bag.

In my third year of golfing, Lower index to <11 This high level goal will be achieved by achieving the lower level goals below. Increase fairways hit to >50% (currently at 42%) Working with my coach Performing drills to improve face-to-path, optimize launch angles, increase swing speed Increase GIR to >45% (currently at 28.52%) Focus on ball striking with middle and long irons as my GIR numbers drop significantly at 150-200 yards out. Increase Scramble (<50 yds.) percentage to >35% (currently at 26.6%) Scramble drills at short game area Learning to hit short game shots with different trajectories using clubs from my 9i - 60*. Reduce 3-putts to <10% Practice lag putting Participate in at least five tournaments Finish "In-The-Money" in at least one. Repeat as champion of my Monday night league. Repeat as top money winner of my Thursday night league Complete 54-hole challenge on the summer solstice. I track all my stats using Shot Scope.

I have gotten my used clubs at Callaway Pre-Owned. The clubs' condition are generally understated, they are authentic, have multiple shaft options, and are priced really well.

Go to Callaway pre-owned. You will find every Callaway driver with an assortment of shafts. I recently purchased a Callaway Rogue Sub-zero in like new condition for $200 with an Evenflow Blue shaft. By shopping at Callaway pre-owned, you don't have to worry about getting counterfeit clubs and they underrate the condition of the clubs they sell.

When I was of a similar mind, I played the Top Flite D2+ Feel balls. They are a very good ball and are really inexpensive, especially when Dick's runs the 2 for $30 deal (almost always). I would also use a $10 off coupon and get a 2 for $20 deal. The D2+ feels come in 15 ball packs so 30 golf balls for $20. It plays as well or better than the supersoft, soft feel, velocity, and just about any other 2 piece ionmer cover ball. Once I became a better golfer, I started using the Snell MTB Black and will be trying out the MTB X when I purchase the next 5-dozen golf balls.

I am at a point where I have started to consistently break 90. I had a few areas of focus which helped. 90 is 17 bogeys and 1 par. Get as close to GIR on every hole as possible. Avoid penalties and 3-putts. I used to get really disappointed in carding bogeys all the time and it caused me to attempt shots which led to penalties and 3-putts. Once I figured out that I could get close to the green in regulation and chip and 2-putt and still break 90, it made shot selection much easier. It also made me realize when I made two or three pars, I had a double in the bank when it crept up. As many here have said, the full swing is the path to low scores. I spend the lions share of my training on my full swing, especially my driver. When I get off the tee well, I tend to par more often than not, and even get the odd birdie.

Check out Callaway Pre-Owned. I just bought a Rogue Sub-Zero in my shaft for $230 in like new condition. From what I understand there is not much difference between Rogue and Epic Flash (certainly not as much as there was between Epic and Rogue).

I chose Ping. My long clubs (driver through 4H) are all Callaway, I have the G400 Irons, Cleveland and Callaway wedges, and a Ping putter. I chose Ping because I almost bought a G410 Driver instead of the Rogue Sub-Zero and I have heard really good things about Ping's hybrids and wedges. I don't know anything about the Ping fairway woods.I did not like any of the Callaway irons I hit and I have never been a fan of the Odyssey putters. I could also possibly also go Srixon/Cleveland.

According to my NCGA app, my scoring average is 87.6

Thanks for the compliment. practicing everyday and shooting 18-36 holes a week has made that possible. I have 4 differentials which are in the 17-21 range which I should bump in the next three weeks. My most recent differentials are in the 12-14 range.

Through my golf journey which has now spanned 18-months, I have gone from a 36 handicap to a 15.8 and in the next few weeks I expect to be at or below 14. I no longer consider myself a high handicap golfer, mostly because the people I get paired with and all but a small few of the people in my league are a higher cap than I. So my question is pretty simple, When is one no longer a high capper? A a certain index? single digits? consistently shooting in the 80s? just better than those around them? What are your thoughts?

I have been playing out the 4 dozen K-Sig 3-Piece balls during my non-competitive rounds. I still find they spin more than other 3-piece balls. They are a decent ball. I like the MTB Black better. My next Snell purchase is going to be 3 dozen MTB Black and 2 dozen MTB X.

I live in Northern California where summer temps regularly hit 100 and often go as high as 110. I started wearing pants this year and absolutely love these: https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/adidas-mens-ultimate365-golf-pants-16adimltmtpntblckapb/16adimltmtpntblckapb They keep me cool and repel water nicely. I usually wear them with long sleeve Under Armor Heat Gear and stay very comfortable. I also usually play most of my rounds in the afternoon during the heat of the day.

I wear my glove for the entire round. Often I forget to take it off after a round and don't realize I still have it on until I get to my truck.

I second what iacas said. I bought my first push cart a couple of months ago and got the ClicGear 3.5+. It is a great cart, built like a tank. I look at push carts like hand tools. Buy the best you can, buy once - cry once. It will pay for itself in about 17 rounds, so spending a little more for quality is easily justified.

For those who may still be interested... From my testing last year, I decided to play the Srixon Q-Star tour and played them through May of this year. When those balls ran out I decided to try our a couple of other golf balls and see how they performed. So I ordered two 2-dozen packs of the Kirkland Signature 3-piece ball and two dozen Snell MTB Black golf balls. Last week I took 2 Q-star tours, 2 Snell MTB Blacks, 2 K-Sig 3-piece, and one ProV1 (which I found on the course earlier that day) out to the Executive 9-hole course where I volunteer and put them head-to head in several situations. Situation 1: 50-yard pitch shot with 58-degree wedge to an elevated green with a false front and the pin located in the middle at the edge of the false front. I hit five rounds of shots (35 shots total) Situation 2: 115-yard par three with a bunker at 95-yards with a 50 degree wedge. Also five rounds of shots. Situation 3: Short chip shots on the 115-yard par 3. Downhill, from the top of the bunker, and essentially all over. Situation 4: Driver off elevated tee box on a straight, rather narrow par 5. Two rounds of shots. The Kirkland Ball - This ball spins a lot!!!! With my short irons and wedges, I tend to spin the back significantly. I have had several shots when I have spun the back off the green. The higher spin seems to translate throughout the bag. The ball is generally shorter than each ball I have directly compared it with (Q-Star Tour, MTB Black, ProV1, and ProV1x). I have also noticed my "draw" (read hook) is more pronounced with the K-Sig 3-piece. I like the feel of the ball and it putts and chips well. I actually prefer this ball from within 50-yards because of it high spin. I have started deploying the ball on short par threes with the pin toward the front of the green. It gives me confidence that I can hit a shot toward the middle/back of the green and the ball will stop and spin back toward the front of the green. The Snell MTB Black: A great ball all around ball. The MTB black spun "an appropriate amount" for my swing. All the pitch, chip, and 100-yard shots either stopped just past it's pitch mark or spun back shortly, but always within about two feet. The distance off the driver and other clubs was as long or longer then the ProV1 and longer than the Q-Star Tour and K-Sig 3-piece. On the short chips and pitches the ball spins enough to allow me to be aggressive in those shots and not worry about the ball running too far away. I really like this ball and at this point it is the ball I plan on playing this year. ProV1: Performed exactly as expected. There is a reason this ball is the benchmark in golf. It is the Goldilocks ball. Not too much or too little spin, Great distance, easily controllable on chips and pitches. Were this ball not $50 a dozen, It would be the ball I choose. But I get the same performance from the MTB Black and < $30 a ball. Q-Star Tour: Easily the lowest spin and shortest distance (except for K-Sig and not by very much < 5 yards). A very good ball, and one I enjoyed playing. But each of the other balls outperformed it. So there are the results of my most recent testing. I hit a lot of shots some very good and some very bad. This isn't meant to be anything scientific or even applicable to anyone other than me. For now, I'll be playing the MTB Black on everything other than short par 3 with a middle front pin location, then I'll play the K-Sigs until I exhaust the supply. At that point I will not be repurchasing the K-Sigs. When I find a ProV1 or V1-X I'll play those as well. I plan to buy some of the MTB Black-X and see how they do. At this point in my journey, I am losing balls much less frequently so it may be awhile until I need to purchase more balls and get to test the Black-X. When I do I will test it in a similar fashion. Thanks for reading.

I just finished my first year of serious golf. One year ago I was a 36.5 index, today I am a 19. I consistently break 100 and I am flirting with consistently breaking 90.

It was a very trying/taxing day, and as a friend would say... I built a lot of character. I have been recovering from strained back muscle the last couple of weeks and resting, icing, stretching... Whatever it took to be ready/healthy for this tournament.I live in Northern California and the temps have been hovering around 55-60 degrees with a lot of rain in February and the beginning of March. My tee time was at 9:00 AM and to get to the course by 8:00 I had to leave home around 6:45. For some strange reason, I woke up at 4:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. When I got the the course the temp was 35 degrees and the tourney was put back a hour for frost. The forecast was for rain at around 12:30, With a tee time at 9, I thought I would be on the 13th or 14th hole by the time it started raining. We teed off at 10 and it started raining, hard, at 11. I found my cart before my partner and went to the range to hit balls and warm up. When I got to the first tee, the guy who I thought was my partner, actually didn't read the last names on the placard and was the wrong guy. So I quickly went around the course searching for the correct "Troy" and didn't find him. When I abandoned my search and figured he was probably waiting for me at the first tee, I learned there was a mix up and I wasn't playing with Troy at all. Troy had called the tourney organizers and corrected a mix up of his (not putting his preferred playing partner in the online entry form) and the placards didn't get corrected. So we get that all sorted out and finally start playing golf. On the third hole, a short par 4, I go to hit a 3-wood off the tee. Right as I make contact with the ball, I feel my back tweak. My back is now in some pretty good pain. So much so, that even the bumps in the cart path (which we had to stay on all day) caused my back to hurt. Fortunately, one of the guys in my foursome is a physio and works with golfers recovering from injury. He had this plastic fish hook looking thing to work the tightness out of my back muscles and he also stretched me out when we were waiting on the group on front of us. Another partner had ibuprofen and let me have some. All-in-all.. I ended up shooting a 106 (4-ball net) and my partner and I ended up posting a net score of par 72 (T-15 overall). TO say my partner carried me is a huge understatement. This was the first 100+ round I have shot in 6 months. If I ever wanted a painful day of golf in high wind and freezing rain... then my wish was granted. They can't all go this well... Can they? For as bad as things were, I got to play at a course I had not been before and met three great guys. Somehow, it ended up being a positive experience. My golf season opens in full force in mid-April with a golf trip on the 14th and league starting the week after and four more tournaments scheduled this summer. The sad part is I am going to have to avoid my golf clubs for at least two weeks for my back to heal... and just as the sun is starting to come out.

I have been hitting golf balls on a golf course for most of my life. It was really only golf in the sense we used golf balls and clubs and hit from the tee to the hole. We didn't know the rules, took as many mulligans as we wanted, and drank copious amounts of alcohol. I would play about two "rounds of golf" a year. Then, one day I stopped for about 15-years. Now to, what I consider, my first round of golf: I normally take the day after the Super Bowl off to recover from the previous day's debauchery. Last year (2018), I woke up on that fateful Monday feeling quite good and the weather was a balmy 70 degrees outside. Being bored, I decided to dig up the old clubs and beat some balls around a local muni course. I shot a 98 on a par 66 course without counting my penalties or mulligans, but I became absolutely hooked. The very next week I went and bought a new set of clubs. I read and learned the rules and started playing by them... all the time. I was tracking my index on a website which showed my index to be a 36. Unsatisfied with my level of performance, I started lessons, joined a work related league and played as often as I could get out. Fast forward to today. My official March 1st index is 19.0 and I am playing in my first tournament tomorrow. I practice or play about two hours a day. My coach and I have set a goal for me to reach a 12 index by the end of the season.

What is the target demographic? Are you looking to provide fitting level information or are you just looking to have course sims so anybody can get together and play some virtual golf courses? If you are looking to serve the super technical golfer, the the GC2 or similar would be OK. If your target market is someone who just wants to play a virtual golf course then something like SkyTrak which offers a yearly subscription to several virtual golf courses could be the better option. The tracking data is less accurate, but if the target market is not looking for super specific data and only wants to play a few hold of golf at their favorite bar/restaurant, then the SkyTrak at $2k is the better option.

I am definitely better than I was 1 year ago. I started my full-on golf addiction the day after the Super Bowl in 2018, so next Monday marks my golf anniversary. I was shooting scores in the 130s and had an unofficial index of 38. Today I shoot in the high 80s to low 90s and expect my initial official index (coming on 2/1/2019) to be 20.0 according to the trend metric in the NCGA app. I have taken lessons all year and I practice something golf related every day. Every aspect of my game has improved significantly, and I am expecting that to continue through 2019 and I have a goal to lower my index to under 14 this year.

Thanks for all the ideas. Right?? I pretty much know this is what I have to do, but any way out is better than cooking... If I could just convince my wife to get up early...... I've competed and coached in hundreds of tournaments and big games/meets/matches in other sports and I agree with not doing extra or something different, but what I normally do is unavailable due to an earlier than normal (for me) start time, and I want to avoid the meltdown (and not just because I'll be playing in a tourney). I may very well be. I have always given nutrition in competition serious consideration and have a lot of hardware (not in golf) as a result. With teams I have coached I have seen markedly better performance from my athletes when they ate appropriately before/during/after matches. While my eating habits should not affect my round, I experienced what not eating does to my round... and I certainly don't want that to happen again. I still have several weeks and I will probably just heat up some leftover chicken in the nuke before I go, and I am certainly not going to obsess over it in the meantime. But I really appreciate the ideas. I keep a supply of protein bars, and will take one of those for the back and probably a Gatorade for some quick energy

I needed two more rounds to get my initial GHIN index and was able to get a round in yesterday. Normally, I play in the afternoon and will stop by Chipotle and get a burrito before a round and that is usually enough food and a good balance of macro nutrients to get me through a round of golf. Yesterday, I didn't eat before my round and I started off well and went into the tank quickly. One of the significant factors was hunger and I could feel my energy and focus draining quickly. I recently registered for my first tournament, which is on March 9th and starts at 8:00 AM. After posting a score about 12 strokes above my average I started to think about how I can avoid this when the tournament rolls around. I won't be able to get my usual pre-round meal as Chipotle does not open until 10:45 and my usual breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal. The tourney is about an hour away from my house and I generally like to warm-up for about an hour before I play. I see myself having to get up at 5:00 AM (I normally wake up at 5 for work, so this is not a big issue) for an 8 AM tee time. I will not have a lot of time to make a decent breakfast and I am not too thrilled at the idea of stopping by a fast food joint for the crappy food they serve. How do you prepare for an early tournament tee time? Do you have a large meal to get you through a round? Do you prepare lots of little meals to eat through your round? Or, do you just wait and eat at the end? I really want to do well at this tourney, and as it is a low level tournament, I think nutrition is not something my competition will be giving significant consideration. Anyway, what has worked for you in the past?

I was/am in the exact situation as you. I decided to get fit for a new set of irons, and it was absolutely the right decision. I tried AP1, AP3, Srixon 585, Ping i210, i500, G400, P790, and Callaway Rogue and Rogue Pro. When I went in I was pretty set on AP3 or P790. When the fitting was complete, I walked out with Ping G400s and I couldn't be happier. My recommendation is to definitely get fit and pick the clubs which give the best result regardless of make/model.

SAM Putt Lab, I believe. I have been researching the Edel process and I will inquire about how SAM deals with aim and speed/distance control.