Unforgiven93

Yes, I am a data nerd, so I am super looking forward to having quantifiable number to show improvement. I'm going to be stretching and working out 5 days a week, and working on my swing with the GC2 until mid January, when I'll be able to get back outside again. I would love to have HMT, but the GC2 was extremely expensive as it was, so I did not purchase it. I would also assume the FSX skills challenge you mentioned comes with the FSX software, which was crazy expensive so I didn't get that either. I'm planning on getting Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf as well as a membership at onlinegolftour.net for the practice challenges and data tracking they make available. This will cost me about 1/10th what the FSX software was going to cost. If I end up not feeling like it is good enough to do meaningful practice with, I'll probably just buy FSX.

I just bought a launch monitor (Foresight GC2) so I can keep practicing through the winter. Just curious what everyone's thoughts are on the best ways to use this device to improve. One big thing I will be using it for was inspired by DJ talking about using his Trackman, get precise wedge distances ingrained. Right now from about 70 yards and in, I go entirely by feel. I'd like to use the GC2 to basically be able to hit a shot in 10 yard increments very precisely. So my body knows exactly what to do when the flag is 40, 50, 60, 70 yards out. I'll also be using it to get a better feel for carry with my irons and wedges, I already have that though from hitting on a Trackman. But it will be nice to have more than just one hitting session's data.

Yeah, my last recorded one at least. I got lazy and stopped recording in July. But to be totally honest, I've been in such a big slump that there is a decent chance that was my true most recent anyway 😔

You would be surprised, I bet. I average around 11 GIR/round. Most of those misses come from inconsistent iron shots.

I'm not trying to justify preferences at all, I genuinely wanted to know if there was a reason better players don't play them. If @iacas and that article are correct, absolutely there is a reason. If center hits aren't as consistent on GI irons, I don't want them either.

@iacas, if you thought they performed as well as player's irons on center hits, but were more forgiving everywhere else thus leading to lower scores, would you consider them then? Despite not liking the looks and feel. Machines do make sense, but real players make sense too. Using real players incorporates two of the things you mentioned not liking, look and feel. Those two absolutely affect player confidence and consequently shot outcome, thus I think it is something that should be included when comparing a blade and a game improvement iron. I think if all the testers hit 50 balls or so with each club, the results would be plenty statistically significant to make conclusions.

Sure! I don't have any physical scorecards, but I can post a pic of my most recent from my score tracking sheet

Wow, this thread is a graveyard of dreams for me. Makes me a little sad reading through it. I started this thread in the summer of 2011, as a junior in high school, right when I started taking golf semi seriously. I didn't get to play college golf like I wanted, despite being about +1 handicap by the time I started college. Didn't play much in college, but I was able to get to +2.2 at my low via practicing in summers. Then posts of me wanting to attempt a year of mini tours after graduating college since I hit +2.2 so quickly with so little work and no instructor... I graduated with my engineering degree May of 2017, I chickened out and didn't try mini tours directly on graduation, but I had a plan: work for a year or so like an adult, lose weight (success! 40 pounds down), all while practicing hard and getting instruction from a top level coach for the first time in my life. See where I got, then make a decision. The answer was right back to +2, but making swing changes is hard so I was satisfied with that. I told my coach I wanted to try playing professionally for a couple years (he is a swing coach for a couple PGA players) and he was encouraging. Time to build a new plan. While still working full time, I played in a few one day mini tour events... didn't play well at all, best round was even par and I lost by 6 shots in that one. I fell into a massive slump and played the worst I had in years, probably because I was putting so much pressure on myself to play better. My instructor told me that if I can't handle a slump like that, then golf isn't the right game for me, and he still thinks I should give it a shot (heh). I met another mini tour player through my instructor, he offered to let me stay with him and practice/compete against him daily out by TPC Scottsdale if I wanted to try playing professionally for a few years. I have a fitness plan, a stretching plan, a place to stay, a mentor and someone to compete against and practice with every day, and a very good swing coach. My next goal is to understand how to best spend practice time so I can build an effective game improvement plan. I plan on leaving my engineering job and moving to Scottsdale in January to spend 3+ years playing on mini tours and Monday qualifiers. Realistically it will take +6 or so to have any success, so I am still a long way away, but with dedicated, smart practice and everything I listed above, I want to see what will happen. ANYWAY..... This is a swing thread, not a life story thread. So here is what my swing is looking like as of two days ago: It isn't that much different.

0 sixes on par 3s, 14 sixes or higher on par 4s, 9 sixes or higher on par 5s - over my 24 rounds this summer. Only 7 out of 24 rounds did I have no 6s or higher. I had three 9 hole stints with only 4s or less, but I never made it 18. I ❤️ par 5s. Given that I probably play about 2.1 or 2.2x as many par 4s as par 5s, that makes 14 sixes on par 4s and 9 sixes on par 5s more reasonable, but you can clearly see I struggle more on par 4s still, given that those were doubles. Averaged 3.19 on 3s, 4.21 on 4s, 4.83 on 5s over the summer.

That is an annoying gap for sure. 20 yards right in a common distance to the hole. Also, looking at the distances I posted, I forgot a club... add a 200 between the 191 and 208. 😆

Those seem like good gaps to me. You can't really make them all 10 yard gaps or you won't get out there long enough at the longer clubs. It seems like having smaller gaps on shorter, more precise shots would be more important. No justification for that though, just my feeling. On trackman my carry numbers were 100, 113, 125, 135, 145, 160, 175, 191, 208, 220, 235, 260, 280 currently. It seems pretty ideal for me. If I could carry more clubs I would make those gaps 10 yards, but I can't, so I won't. Edit: meant to put this in my previous response as an edit instead of double posting, oops.

Thanks for the article. So you agree with their conclusion then? That well struck shots are significantly more accurate on player's irons than GI irons? Looks I understand, nothing looks as good as a blade. What don't you like about the feel? Someone needs to test this more in depth. Take a group of scratch golfers, 10 handicap, and 20 handicap, set them up on Trackman or equivalent, hit all the different types of irons and see which types come out the most accurate/consistent for each handicap level. From the article you linked, blades would be significantly more accurate on well struck shots. The testers that saw significantly more accuracy in the mygolfspy test of the Srixon irons were spread from 0-15 handicap, so there is a chance that the higher handicappers skewed the accuracy data to say the GI irons were more accurate even if the 0 handicap actually hit the cavity back player's or blade more accurately.

Do you have a link to the robotic testing study? I'd love to see that. I hate making decisions based on opinion, I love data. Which is why I liked mygolfspy so much, since they try to be unbiased and data driven. I also found another review from golfwrx where they used two guys who swing with similar speed to me, which is perfect: http://www.golfwrx.com/395250/review-srixon-z965-z765-and-z565-irons/ Unfortunately they don't have any accuracy data like mygolfspy did. This is what I'm hoping my reaction will be if I decide to switch... Thanks for chiming in, exactly the experience I was hoping to hear about - regardless of the results.

I'm trying to understand why better players don't use game improvement irons. The general reasons you hear are that better players like workability and feel over forgiveness. Well, I'm a better player, and I don't understand why that would be the case. I am aiming at the center of the green anywhere outside about 135 yards, and generally trying to hit it straight about 95% of the time. It isn't like better players don't still miss hit the ball. So, someone convince me I should keep my semi-players irons instead of going to game improvement. The reason I'm asking is because I'm considering getting new irons. I have Z765s (cavity back player's iron) right now, and I'm thinking about getting a few extra yards and some extra forgiveness by going to the new Z585 game improvement irons. I don't care about looks, I want lower scores. This comparison from mygolfspy of the 65 series shows my point: https://mygolfspy.com/tested-2017-srixon-z-series-irons/ 565 is game improvement, 765 is cavity back player's iron, 965 is a blade. The game improvement iron is more accurate in every case, and longer in two of the 3 cases (although it does have slightly lower launch and spin). Can you all provide some thoughts on this? Does it make sense for me to go to a game improvement iron?

Thanks everybody! Checking out Pinehurst and the RTJ trail in Alabama now. Which of the Pinehurst courses would you recommend the most?