MGP

I'm not kidding and it's true. It has nothing to do with the polyester between your phone and the sky, but your body mass, which to an RF signal acts like a sponge and kills the signal. If you read the antenna manufacturer's data sheets they tell you this right in the document. It's basic RF antenna design stuff. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't happening. If you look at the actual GPS satellite receiver data output you'll see that it drops and adds satellites to it's view continuously. When you reduce the antenna gain by placing the antenna in close proximity to your body then the weaker satellites are not received anymore. That's a fact. And the more satellites in the GPS constellation that can be used for positional calculations, the more accurate the GPS positioning will be. Typically, a consumer GPS will use a "Patch" or "Chip" antenna because they are cheap and work OK but they are also are susceptible to gain loss caused by large masses, such as your body, being in close proximity to it. There are more expensive antenna types that can minimize the effect but consumer gear rarely uses them because they cost $4-5 instead of $.50, even in large volumes. Your cell phone is subject to the same kind of signal loss too but it's signal is much much larger than the GPS signal (1000x or more) so it's not nearly as noticeable. This stuff really happens -- continuously -- but the software of the device hides it from you. You don't have to believe me, but I test it and see it on an almost daily basis.

This is a really bad idea that will affect your GPS accuracy dramatically. Putting a GPS device in your pocket or wearing it on a belt clip kills satellite reception. Close proximity to the human body de-tunes the antenna and you'll lose about half the satellites you were receiving when the device is out in the open. You'll also lose the SBAS (WAAS, EGNOS, etc.) satellite which is what allows the GPS receiver to typically be accurate +/- 3 ft. or less. For roadmap level accuracy that's fine but it kills the precision you want on a golf course. It takes about 15-30 seconds typically (sometimes longer) to re-acquire the satellites and SBAS signals once the receiver is out in the open again. I've designed a bunch of GPS receivers for one of my clients in the agriculture mapping and navigation business and have seen the results firsthand. Oh yeah... I keep mine in a neoprene case with a carabiner, clipped to my bag.

First thing I do when I get a new club is to stow the OEM headcover and put a generic looking one on the the club. First they are usually better headcovers and Second, I don't care to advertise to club thieves that what I have in my bag may be to their liking.

Hireko bought Dynacraft and still makes clubs under their name. They have been introducing new Dynacraft models every year since they've bought them. They have some cool new Dynacraft Prophet Tour irons this year.

My bag is about 2/3 Hireko clubs. I can play anything I want but I really like the clubs I've got now. Hireko makes great quality heads at a reasonable price. I'm a club builder so I fit and assemble my own but they can custom make clubs for you that will the same or better quality than what OEM "off-the-shelf" clubs cost or less. If they have somthing you like, don't be afraid to give them a try. They have great customer service too.

Golf shaft epoxy also has a much higher shear strength than general purpose epoxy. It isn't as brittle as general purpose epoxy when it cures so it takes the torque of the head hitting the ball better and there's much less of a chance of the epoxy bond cracking. I've fixed several clubs that were "fixed" with general purpose epoxy and every one had a cracked epoxy joint on the head. A few failures resulted in heads flying down the fairway. Use the right epoxy. It's cheap and readily available.

They are both really good fairway woods -- classics really. I have a V-Steel 3W and 5W, even though I game a Tour Edge Exotics 4W in place of both of them most of the time. Occasionally I drop the V-Steels back in the bag and pull my 19º hybrid. I hit them well -- the V-Steels are just very solid clubs. For quite a few years the V-Steels were the most popular fairway woods on the PGA tour and for good reason. Same with the Cally Steelhead Plus. I have a good friend who plays a Steelhead Plus 3W and 5W and I doubt they'll ever leave his bag until he literally breaks the heads. Pick which one you like the best (look at address, etc.) and also consider which one's shaft will likely fit your game the best. Either one is very solid and if you can't hit them don't blame the clubs.

I play a Tour Edge Exotics Driver (have three of them) and a CB1 4w. Really solid clubs. The CB1 is probably the best fairway wood I've ever had. I also hit the Exotics drivers real well and I think they are one of the most beautiful drivers at address I've ever had in my hands -- the head is jet black with no alignment marks and as close to a traditional shape as you'll get for a 450cc+ head.

I'm not sure either but I was playing a practice round this summer with a Tour Fire and found a "one hit wonder" Burner TP. I played them side-by-side for 4-5 holes and I couldn't tell them apart by feel or performance.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the compression numbers -- they feel about like the Pro V1 or Callaway HX Tour to me in terms of overall hardness and cover softness. I'm not a real hard swinger but I hit them about as far off the tee as any pro quality ball. Not as firm as a Pro V1x but then I think they spin a little more around the greens with less than full shots. One of the guys I regularly play with who hits it a ton hit them as far as the Pro v1x, he didn't like them though for the same reason he doesn't like the Pro V1 -- too much spin for him. Daly also played them on tour for most of a year (before Maxfli was sold to Dick's) so they can't be that soft...

The Tour Fires are a 3-piece ball with a soft cover. The regular Fires have a harder surlyn cover and don't spin as much. The Tour Fires are a pro quality ball, John Daly played them on tour for quite a while. I still have quite a few of the Tour Fires in my ball stash and still play them occasionally. They are a very very good ball.

Get yourself a set of Street Caps and wear them around the house all week -- that's what I do with my new golf shoes to break them in. Street Caps

They spin the ball just fine. I've played Watson wedges on and off since the 2006 gunmetal black model. I have 3 sets of them (2006 Gun Metal, 2007 Satins -- my favorite and the chrome 2009 model), I like the shape and balance. About the only thing I don't like is the Adams grips. First thing I do is re-grip them with Tour Velvets. Wedges are personal, like putters. If you like the balance and shape of them (including sole shape and bounce), then they will work for you.

Years ago Ping used to make balls. They had this god-awful half fluorescent orange/half yellow ball I remember seeing occasionally. They are still probably throwing up a little over that fiasco... Edit: Ping Golf Balls A far as ball retrievers, I added one this year as the club I joined has these gnarly thorn bushes in all the tree lined ravines that line several of the fairways as well as a couple strategically placed creeks. It's already come in handy retrieving balls from the thorn bushes a few times. There are some places there that even the the ground dwelling varmints won't go...

I started using Zero Friction tees a few years ago but switched exclusively to Epoch tees last year. I use the 3-1/4" ones for the driver and the 1-1/2" ones for fairway woods, hybrids and irons. I can only ever remember breaking one of the long tees and never a short one. I used to break the tines on the Zero Friction tees which is one of the reasons I stopped using them. I also found the shaft got soft after a while and became harder to insert in the ground on firmer tee boxes. Occasionally I'll lose an Epoch tee otherwise it will normally last many, many rounds. A tip I saw on the Golf Channel (can't remember but I think it was a Playing Lessons with the Pros ) was to insert your tee lower than you want to tee it and then pull it up to the level you want your ball at. The tee isn't so firmly in the ground that way and can fly out on contact easier. I guess it doesn't generate as much force to cause it to spring out of the ground. Since I started doing that the tees don't fly as far. This works really well on the range especially.

I have a pair of Tifosi Forza prescription lenses with the golf & tennis tint. They enhance the contrast of greens and blues and make it easier to see the break in the green and the ball in flight. They weren't cheap, around $250 if I remember correctly but they have been one of the best purchases I've ever made. I also wear them when I'm riding my bike. Most good sports sunglass brands will offer some sort of prescription program. I downloaded a pdf form from the Tifosi web site and sent my prescription to them. They told me what frames they could fit my prescription to and what the cost would be. They use Carl Zeiss Vision labs for their prescriptions and they have been quite excellent. Tifosi Optics: Rx

For years I played a 2W off the tee (13º, probably called a strong 3W these days). I finally broke down a couple years ago and put a 400cc+ driver in the bag. Took a while to get used to and hit correctly but now the results are finally starting to pay off. My driver is a "go to" club now, I find the fairway as often with it as I do a fairway wood and hit it further to boot.

I have a similar swing speed (mid 80's to low 90's) and play the same Tour Edge Exotics driver as you. I also experimented earlier in the year with a 12º driver. I had similar results to yours. The 12º driver launched the ball too high with too much backspin and I lost close to 20 yds. of distance as well. Reshafting the Ping won't help much as about 80% of your launch angle/backspin comes purely from the loft of the club. What I found with the Exotics is that it really likes to be hit above the centerline. Try teeing the ball a little higher (and possibly a little further forward in your stance) until you are striking the ball about 3/8" to 1/2" above the centerline of the face. You get the advantages of the higher loft on the upper portion of the face but also lower spin. The first time you make contact this way you will be amazed -- I literally added 30 yds. consistently to my drives like this, plus I am now getting some rollout as well. Hitting center face drives I was getting 200 yards or so and now I'm regularly seeing 235-240 yds.

I guess you could get some of these to go along with that ballsack... Schwetty Balls

A little late to this thread but here's another alternative to consider... Go to Hireko golf and have them build a set of Lady Acer XP905 clubs. You can talk to their sales people and get a reasonable "online" fitting using all her specifics (height, athletic or not, beginner or experienced, etc.) You can get a near custom set of clubs for a reasonable price. These are great quality components too. I built a set of these for my best friend's daughter and she is thrilled with them. She was considering buying a set of Callaway women's clubs but decided to have me build the Lady Acers for her. She really likes them and hits them well. Best part was that they were about 1/3 the cost of Callaways but very similar quality. You can get a full set, less putter for about $300, custom assembled. Lady Acer XP905 460cc Titanium Driver - Custom Assembled Lady Acer XP905 Fairway Wood - Custom Assembled Lady Acer XP 905 Hybrid - Custom Assembled Lady Acer XP905 Iron - Custom Assembled Hireko is a great company, has been around a while and stands behind their products.

Drivers and putters are a lot alike -- one man's trash is another man's treasure. There are a lot of drivers that make me throw up a little in my mouth when I even look at them, but then the guy who's playing it knocks the heck out of the ball with it and thinks it's the most beautiful driver ever made. Same with putters. I wouldn't bag any Nike driver I've seen or swung so far but I've played with plenty of people that have them and hit them well. Go figure.

I use a golf cart. At my home course it's really not an option. The distances from green to tee box are huge, some are as much as 200-300 yds apart. There's also a lot of pretty severe elevation changes that even the carts struggle to get up. I wouldn't want to walk the course even if I was in spectacular shape. The newest 9 holes of the club's 27 is also down the street a bit and across the road so I wouldn't want to make that hike either. Thankfully, carts are included in the membership and with green fees so virtually everyone rides.

SK Fiber makes great shafts and almost no one knows about them. I use SK Fiber shafts in about half the drivers I build. They cost about 1/4 of what "name brand" shafts that spec out the same cost. The SK Fiber Tour Trac 80 is one of the best all around shaft I've had my hands on and it's $20. That said, the Revolution Lite is a very good shaft. High kick, low launch and fairly tip stiff much like the Prolaunch Red. I'm betting you got a lot better deal on the SK Fiber shaft too. If you tried and liked the Prolaunch Red then I'm sure you'll like the Revolution Lite too.

I've got a bunch of 3DX DC ironwoods w/Proforce V2 shafts in my bag. I like them a lot, hit 'em high and land 'em soft. They are dirt cheap right now at many online golf shops. I paid about $40 new for them at rockbottomgolf.com.

Skycaddie. They have more mapped courses than anyone and their mapping is the most accurate. Intelligreen is a nice feature. I never thought I'd use it much but it's quite useful seeing the green depth and width on your approach shots, especially when you can't actually see all or much of the green. Pretty much all current GPS receivers have equivalent accuracy/repeatability, the differences are in the mapping and points of interest (hazards, layups, carries, etc.).