MGP

I'm in definitely. Never played my home course from the Reds, should be interesting. It's not a long course to begin with but course management should be interesting. Will take the teeth out of the really long par 3 and par 4's that usually eat my lunch. Shawnee Golf & CC I've played Alvamar a lot of times but not this year and never from the forward tees. That should be interesting.

Agreed with all said above. I have a pair of Tifosi Forza with prescription GT lenses. Best sunglasses I've ever had. I also have a very narrow face and they wrap around my face nice and snug but are incredibly comfortable. I often wear them for an entire round of golf and never take them off, sometimes I don't realize I have them on! These are also great glasses for bicycle riding too, since they fit so close to my face and offer great bug protection.

This is really good advice. In general, hybrids have their weight concentrated much lower in the clubhead than a typical long iron so they tend to lauch a ball higher relative to their loft. Longer and lighter shafts also tend to make a hybrid fly farther than an iron of the same loft. Adams does indeed do a good job matching loft, length and club weight in their integrated sets so they are fairly seemless in their distance gaps. In my case, I play shortened hybrids (about an inch from "standard", although there's really no such thing as a standard length between manufacturers). My hybrids and irons now have even almost exact 10 yard gaps from 3H down to PW in my set. I also added tips weights when I assembled them to swingweight very close to my irons so they feel much more like irons when I'm swinging them than a fairway wood.

That is incorrect. According to the latest MPI Compression and Cover hardness ratings (lower numbers are "softer"): Bridgestone E6 -- Overall Compression: 58 Cover Hardness: 95 Top Flite D2 Feel -- Overall Compression: 56 Cover Hardness: 95 So the Top Flite D2 Feel is a slightly softer ball with exactly the same hardness cover. (this jives with my personal experience playing both). For comparison: Titleist Pro V1 -- Overall Compression: 80 Cover Hardness: 88 Titleist Pro V1x -- Overall Compression: 86 Cover Hardness: 89 MPI is an independent testing lab that tests golf balls using multiple samples acquired independent of manufacuturers (i.e. they buy/acquire them from retail outlets).

Yes, I understand that. I was talking about building a set using the Pinhawk SL heads.

I'm seriously thinking about building a set of these irons for next season. The clubhead design is very very similar to the Acer XP905 Pros that I have been gaming the past two seasons. I already have a bunch of FST Pro White iron shafts and like them so the cost will be very reasonable. Should be an interesting experiment.

Hireko Golf is also good for same reasons as above. Acer and Dynacraft are their brands and are quality clubheads.

I have three Exotics drivers and a CB1 4 wood. The 4 wood is the best fairway wood I've ever hit, long and has that sweet titanium face "ting" when you sweet spot it. The Exotics drivers are excellent as well. 450cc, more of a classic pear shaped head and the crown is the most beautiful pure black with no marks whatsoever. They have classic understated looks at address and I like that. I hit mine straight, which is why they're in the bag.

I have a pair of Tifosi Forza's with prescription GT lenses. I bought them about 2 years ago. They are by far the best prescription sunglasses I've ever had and are great on the course. They fit the shape of my head perfectly and the lenses wrap around my face tightly enough that I don't have any problems in my peripheral vision like you do with some glasses. I wear them while putting -- I've found the GT lenses make the grain easier to see and also find it easier to track the ball in the air than with my regular glasses. They were about $225 but it was money well spent. Non-prescription version was about $40 so not too expensive.

I think you answered your own question. A shorter shaft works for you, you've proven that. The grip being thinner bothers you (same here). So get the club shortened. I've done it to almost all my drivers and fairway woods. A decent clubmaker or shop can do this in about 10 minutes and shouldn't charge you much for it -- maybe $20 (or UK equivalent) and the cost of a new grip. It's dead easy to do.

See what's in my bag! It's not a giant putter, about the same size as a Odyssey 2-ball... but it's about twice as heavy. I love this thing, picked up a second one this winter for $49 as a backup. 3 ft. putts fear me now. Haha. Boccieri Golf - Heavy Putter/ Seriously though, a heavy putter is not for everyone and it took me a while to get used to it. It makes short putts almost automatic. I play on very fast and very undulating greens and short putts require a firm stroke to take the break out of them. Any twitchiness and you are dead. This putter fixed that problem. In the end whatever putter you end up with will be all about feel and repeatability. Find that and you are golden.

I'm kind of a wedge junkie, I think I have at least 6 sets of wedges. My favorites are: TM RAC TP Satin -- I have a 52º/8º, 54º/14º, 58º/6º and 60º/6º Inazone CNC Spin Milled Satin -- 50º/8º, 54º/14º, 58º/4º (No one has probably ever heard of these but they are really nice wedges, very Vokey SM-like). Being a club builder I like to experiment and these wedges have found their way into my bag as I have been hitting them really well. For wedges on a budget, the Adams Watson Classic satin wedges are hard to beat. Very good quality at an inexpensive price.

Last year I replaced my 3i, 4i and 5i with hybrids. I did the 3i and 4i first then decided to do the 5i as it worked so well. Best move I ever made. I don't have the clubhead speed anymore to really hit a penetrating 3i or 4i and I generally play off fairways with fairly tight lies and being in Kansas we have a lot of wind. All of a sudden I was hitting my 3H and 4H like I used to hit my long irons, high and penetrating with a nice soft landing. I love the 5H now too as I hit nice high shots that drop and stop, great for medium range par 3's. I found a great deal last year on Nickent 3DX DC Ironwoods with Proforce V2 shafts (closeouts at Rockbottom Golf for ~$40 each!). I love the look of them at address and I hit them neutral like irons but a lot more solidly. One thing I did do though was shorten them all 1" as Nickent hybrids run 1/2" to 3/4" longer than most other manufacturers. I also wanted them to be a little closer to iron length to help match distance gaps with my irons, that worked out perfectly. I have a matched set now and the distance gaps through my whole bag are perfect from 4W down to PW.

Straight to the source, Aldila... Aldila DVS Shaft Data Aldila Shaft Trimming Info As I suspected, they are a butt trim only shaft and not meant to be tip trimmed. A lot of the "VS" Aldila shafts are butt trim only. Edit: Also meant to add... the "65" series Aldila shafts are OEM versions of the "60" series shafts. Trimming is the same as the aftermarket version. The OEM versions tend to play a little softer than the aftermarket versions. There's nothing wrong with them, they are quality shafts -- I play a VS Proto 65S in a couple of my drivers and hit them great. I like them because the "S" is in-between what most people would call Regular and Stiff - and that's where my swing speed is so they suit my swing.

The Pros have a lot less offset too.

Which driver? I think I have (9) at last count... OK, I only play six of them regularly. Of those six, they have three different shafts in them: Aldila VS Proto 65S Graphite Design YS-6+ Stiff SK Fiber Tour Trac 80 Stiff These all play to the softer side of stiff which is right where my swing speed is at -- between the tpical regular and stiff ranges (low-mid 90's). Lately I've been favoring my Tour Edge Exotics 12º - VS Proto 65S driver. I'm getting a nice high launch with low spin that's giving me a big carry. Most of all I'm hitting it very straight!

I've been building clubs seriously for about 6 years now. I started with putters and wedges (they're the easiest and least expensive to mess with). I've built about 10 sets of irons, lots of wedges and putters and maybe a half dozen drivers, fairway woods and hybrids. All told I have about 6 or 8 complete sets of clubs, some I've given to or built for friends. I can't even count the number of clubs I've re-shafted and re-gripped, literally hundreds. I get nice comments about the clubs I've built all the time. No real duds in any of them. Golfsmith and The Golfworks are good component suppliers and have some good tutorial videos and information on their sites. Ralph Maltby (The Golfworks) has written several good books about golf club building repair and design. Hireko Golf is also good for components and building tips. If you are serious about it you'll want to get some basic equipment -- it makes a huge difference between something that looks "slapped together" and a professional looking set of clubs. If you start with a few simple clubs you'll know fairly quickly whether it's for you or not and whether you want to make a commitment to going further with club building. Study up a bit and see if it's for you.

The Adams Watson satin wedges are great wedges, especially for the money! I played a set of them for two years before I built a new set of spin milled wedges this year. The Watson wedges are my backups now but would play them in a heartbeat. They are excellent, affordable wedges. Glad to see the Watson Classic Satin wedges are back, I'd recommend them to almost anyone. Oh, one thing... Adams grips suck. No nice way to put it. I've bought at least a dozen Adams clubs over the years and the factory grips all stink (literally and figuratively). The grips have a funky strong smell and are not as well finished as Golf Pride or Lamkin grips. First thing I'd do is consider replacing the grips. Other than that, I generally like Adams clubs.

I did the same thing last Friday. I played a round with three balls -- Gamer V2, new(er) D2 Feel and NXT Tour as a reference (course was not busy so played 2 balls side by side, rotating all three in play). Gamer V2 was longest and spun most for me on pitches chips and greenside shots. Least amount of driver spin. NXT Tour and D2 Feel about the same length off the tee, NXT Tour spun slightly more but felt harder and "clickier". D2 Feel gave me slightly less wedge spin than NXT Tour but not much less. I like the D2 Feel off the putter best of the three, Gamer V2 second and NXT Tour last, but this is totally personal preference. I used a milled face putter so I like a ball with a softer cover. Someone who uses a putter with a soft insert or "clicky" feel may like the NXT Tour best. Note that I was playing the D2 Feels in the newer, smaller box. Topflite says they reformulated the core for more distance last year and I believe it as the older D2 Feels are noticeably shorter -- for me maybe 5-10 yards off the tee. On cover durablility I'd say they were all about the same. All three left small amounts of cover material in my short irons and wedges but none of them "fuzzed" the covers much at all. I hit good shots with all of them and would play any of them. My home course has fast hard greens and soft zoysia fairways so a ball that stops on the green is a must as is good carry off the tee. High launch, low spin gets maximum distance. Around here the Gamer V2 is about $6-8 dozen cheaper than the NXT Tour so based on price alone I'd play the Gamer V2. I have about 15 doz. of the new(er) D2 Feels stashed away from Target's $3.87/15 pk. blowout last year. I'm playing them as my everyday ball, I don't feel bad about losing one or taking one out of play due to cart path or tree rash.

Here ya go. I have one of these but rarely use it. Almost any grip I remove is going in the trash bin so hardly ever re-use grips. Grip Bore Cleaner

Same here, I also use the Epoch 1.5 inch tees for par 3's or fairways/hybrids off the tee. I tried ZF tees before that but the ball blew off them too often in the Kansas winds. The ball also "rocked" back and forth on them a lot. The Epoch tees are more stable and last a lot longer too. The Epoch tees I played the last round were the same tees I've played three rounds with this year and probably the last 6 or 7 rounds last year. They last a long time unless you just lose one.

I find the Taylormade TP Red plays very similar to the Pro V1x. It's a premium ball and has been discontinued by TM but there are lots of places still selling them. I was in my local WallyWorld last weekend and they were clearing them out for $21/doz.

The weight doesn't have anything to do with the stiffness. The step pattern is different on the two which results in the stiff being stiffer than the regular.

Rust does not create more spin . It is a myth that rusted wedges spin more than non-rusted finishes. Virtually every respected clubmaker will tell you that. The OEM marketing guys night say otherwise, but then that's what they do. It's purely cosmetic. Rust?

haha... I was going to say my favorite asian model has nothing whatsoever to do with golf!