MGP

I have a Sky Caddie SG3 GPS. I find it interesting how many people are against them as "unfair" or some kind of technological advantage. They are really nothing more than an electronic yardage book as they don't measure anything -- they tell you where you are standing and how far to front/center/back of the green and other points of interest on the hole (doglegs, bunkers, creeks, lakes, etc.). Same as having a caddy with a good yardage book and pin sheet. Since most courses I play don't have caddies or yardage books I don't see a problem with using a GPS that has that same information. I also don't play the same course all the time (some I may only play one time) so making a yardage book for myself is not a possibility. I like that I can download an accurate course map quickly and easily and don't mind paying a small subscription fee to do so. I look at is as the same thing as buying a yardage book at courses that actually still have them. Are you guys that think you should just go by course markers also opposed to caddies, yardage books and pin sheets? I could kind of see being opposed to rangefinders as they measure the actual distance to an object (very accurately I might add). Still, a good yardage book and pin sheet will get you within a yard or two as well and they've been used in the game for decades. One other thing, my GPS has improved my speed of play considerably. No more trying to find some kind of marker and pacing off distance -- I simply look at the GPS as I have arrived at my ball, take any prevaling course conditions into account, pick my club and hit the shot. This can save a good amount of time over a typical 18 hole round. It saves even more time when off the beaten path of the fairway.

Golf club pricing is based almost solely on perceived value and what the market (golfers) are willing to pay. The manufacturing cost difference between a top of the line driver and a bargain basement model from a given manufacturer is only a few dollars (I'm talking OEM shafts here, not premium "aftermarket" shafts). The price differences are strictly how they are advertised and sold and what people think they are worth.

Sure, but most high cappers would be best off with a driver of 11.5° loft or more, no longer than 45" and no lighter than 65 gm. shaft. A driver with those specs will be reasonably easy to hit and have a decent launch angle with a moderate speed swing.

I have an SG3 (same case as the SG4). These models are based on the Magellan eXplorist 300 & 400 GPS units so pretty much any of the accessories for the Magellan eXplorist GPS units will work with the SG3 or SG4. When I bought my SG3 last year they threw in the Sky Caddie leather case for free but I haven't used it for the reasons you cite. I did find a great neoprene case though and I use it all the time. It has a belt loop or can be hung from your golf bag -- that's what I usually do with mine, hang it from my bag. Here are some links, I bought mine from GPSGeek. GPSGeek - Neoprene GPS Carrying Case for Magellan eXplorist 100-200-210-300-400 GPS Receiver Ebay - Neoprene GPS Carrying Case for Magellan eXplorist 100-200-210-300-400 GPS Receiver Gilsson MEN - Neoprene case for eXplorist series

ClicGear -- best push cart made, IMO. And you can get them on sale right now too. ClicGear 2007 Push Carts

I design a lot of battery powered devices for a living and can probably give some advice from practical experience. LiIon batteries don't like to be fully discharged or over-charged. They have a limited lifetime measured in charge/discharge cycles. The more deeply the cell(s) are discharged the more it eats into the lifetime of the cell. The datasheets for most of the LiIon cells I've read give a typical cell life of 200-250 cycles. This is full discharge/charge cycles but each partial cycle also takes away from cell life at a lower rate. As the cycle count increases the capacity of the battery also decreases a small amount. So by the time you have 100 cycles on a pack you may only see 50-85% capacity of the cell compared to when it was new. So if you typically run your GPS until the battery is depleted and you have 100-125 cycles on the pack then I would expect the pack will only have maybe 60-70% of the capacity that it originally had. You see this with laptop batteries all the time. One thing that will prolong the life of LiIon cells is to keep them fully charged all the time. That way the discharges won't be so deep and will prolong the life of the cell. A properly designed charger will not shorten the life of the cells and will keep the cells "topped up" when plugged in all the time. As an example, I keep my cell phone on the charger anytime I'm not using it. The battery pack is 5 years old and is just now showing signs of losing capacity. It's a Samsung phone and has a very good charging stand -- it charges the cell full and keeps the cells topped up without overcharging. I have no idea what kind of charger the SG4 has so I can't recommend whether leaving on charge all the time is a good idea or not. I would definitely charge the unit every time before I was going to play though. Me, I bought the SG3 somewhat for this very reason. Some devices out there have really crappy chargers and will eat cells and the replacements are expensive. I decided I'd rather stick 2600 mAh NiMH cells in my SG3 that I can charge and replace at will -- they are cheap and I can always carry a spare set (or a set of alkalines) in my golf bag when I play. Really only true for NiCads. Some NiMH cells benefit from periodically being discharged fully (say once every 3-6 months) depending on the cells and the device using them. For LiIon or Li Polymer cells this is a good thing. Your phone probably uses NiCads (continuous charge = BAD) but the laptop almost certainly uses LiIon cells. If continuous charge kills the cells then the charger is a crappy design. (Probably a Dell -- I've replaced more battery packs with Dell laptops than any other ) An excellent site and accurate battery information. I've referred many of my clients to that very site. You are correct. The OP may also want to look for replacement packs for the Magellan eXplorist 400. The SG3 and SG4 are based on Magellan eXplorist hardware (eXplorist 300 and 400 respectively). I'm pretty sure the LiIon packs for the Magellen GPS 400 units will work fine in the SG4 and probably be cheaper. SkyCaddie accessories tend to be expensive (not unusual for someone using re-badged hardware). Added: Yep, it appears the replacement batteries for a Magellan eXplorist 400 will work fine in the SG4. It also appears that they can be had online for about half the cost of the battery pack from SkyCaddie. Here's an example: http://www.infinitybatteries.com/p-2...FQINPAodMkRcWw A search for "Magellan explorist 400 battery" turned up loads of potential sources. Most manufacturers won't tell you the things that prolong the life of cells since they make a LOT of money selling replacement battery packs. It sucks and in my opinion is borderline dishonest.

Well a replacement putter shaft costs about $5, probably less than $20 total to have it installed and re-gripped. If you like the putter then I'd seriously consider that. If you are wanting to use it as an excuse to buy a new putter then that's understandable too. For me, the putter must be pleasing to the eye at address, feel balanced & solid when I strike the putt and most importantly sink putts. The grip is really important to me too. I get along very well with Winn Excel AVS grips and all my putters have them.

Sure it can. Anything that puts more stress on the shaft-hosel connection can cause problems. Hitting off mats is harder on clubs than hitting off grass for the same reason. Another cold weather factor is that the epoxy used to attach the heads to shafts is more brittle when it's cold. Really cold weather and hard impacts can cause epoxy joint failures more easily than playing in the middle of summer.

Pretty much all of the Maltby heads are high quality. I don't play any of the irons but I do have several CT250 Ti drivers that I've built and play regularly. I'm considering some of the KE4 hybrids for a winter project too. I'm slowly getting almost all the OEM clubs out of my bag. I like building clubs and tweaking them exactly to my liking. You might also want to sign up for their mailing list on their web site ( http://www.golfworks.com/ ) and also get their full catalog mailed to you. I get an online sale email almost every week, they have sales quite regularly. You can also order almost anything you'll need for clubmaking from their website. I picked up the CT250 driver heads for $45, 50% off.

About a week ago, last time I played and the weather was really nice for late in November. I was out mostly to test the new shafts in my hybrids and also two new drivers I'd just built. I was playing about to my handicap, nothing spectacular but putting quite well. We got to the Par 3 18th hole, which is 192 yds. from the blues and about a 100 ft. vertical drop. It's just nasty trying to club that shot because of the elevation change and from the blue tees you can only see the very back edge of the green. There was a pretty stiff right to left crosswind, about 15-20 mph which made matters worse. I decided on the 4 hybrid and struck the ball cleanly, playing my normal fade against the wind. Right as I hit the shot my playing partner and I both said "that could be really good" at the same time. The ball held online with the flag just left of the pin and stuck almost in it's ball mark. About 18 inches for birdie, that was a sweet way to finish.

I'm going to have to add that one to my list of descriptive phrases!

Sure, they make a VS Proto for drivers -- I have one in my Maltby CT250 driver I just built this past month. It plays great and in my opinion is a much much better shaft than the NV or even NVS. It is a pricey shaft though, it retails for about $180. I picked up a mint quality professional "pull" from a factory Bridegestone driver on ebay for about $50. It even had a brand new Bridgestone branded GP Tour Velvet grip on it (which is what I play anyway) so that was a plus. Great shaft, especially at that price.

I have had both the 3W and 5W V-Steel fairway woods for almost two seasons now. I've also hit the R7 steeel fairway and I prefer the V-Steel regardless of price. The V-Steel 3W is very long for me, especially off the tee. I play one course that is short but hilly and position is everything. On many rounds there I will only hit driver one or two times the entire round and give up very little distance by using the V-Steel. I also have an Adams RPM LP 4W that I'll bag in place of the V-Steel combo when I want to add another hybrid to the bag. Overall, I think the V-Steel is one of the best all around fairway woods ever made. One other thing -- the graphite shafted V-Steels do tend to feel a little on the lighter side (static weight) and maybe a point or two less on swing weight than the steel shafted version. I have been toying with the idea of re-shafting my V-Steels with steel shafts. I did that with my hybrids a couple months ago and my hybrid shots improved quite a bit. It also took the static and swing weight of the hybrids up a bit as well.

It's all about clubhead speed, launch angle and backspin. If your swing type and speed hits the 11° driver and produces a good launch angle with the right amount of backspin then you'll hit the ball a long way (relative to your swing speed). Not knowing how high you hit the ball off the tee or with what kind of spin numbers, it's hard to say what's right for you. Getting on a launch monitor is the best way to find out. That said, most amateurs use a driver that's too low loft. I recently switched from a 10.5° (actual 10°) driver to an 11.5° (actual 11.0°) driver and gained a solid 10 yards avg. because of a better launch angle and spin. If what you have now works for you then keep playing it. Don't let what others are playing influence your choice in clubs -- what's good for them may not be good for you and vice versa.

Do you have a cover on your driver? Fairway wood? Hybrids? Gee, that's "dorky"! Who cares what people put on their clubs to protect their investment (or whatever other reason they may have)? As long as it doesn't slow up play I could care less. As for dividers and irons covers I personally like both. I also like the Ogio "Woode" divider system -- is that "dorky" too? After a full year of playing with my new irons using dorky iron covers and my dorky divider bag guess what? Other than normal sole and face wear, my irons still look like new. The Sun Mountain already mentioned is a good one. I have a Burton CXS hybrid bag that is a good stand bag with individual dividers. It's not cheap but it also doubles as a decent cart bag. You migh also check Datrek -- I'm pretty sure they have some stand bags with 14 dividers. The Golf Warehouse (TGW) carries all the bags I mentioned and they have very good online specs and pictures. Burton Hybrid CXS Cart-Stand Bags Sun Mountain Flight Stand Bags Sun Mountain MPB Divider Stand Bags Adidas Velocity ST Divider Stand Bags They are out there, you just have to look around.

My handicap only dropped about 0.5 this year but I am playing my best golf of the year. I spent most of the year building, testing and tweaking clubs so my bag is pretty much set for next year. I hope to play and practice a lot more in 2008 and hopefully my index will drop at least 2-3 points.

I just settled on this solution myself. I wanted to start carrying a lob wedge and jockeyed around a few club combinations until I found a 4w that fits my game.

TT Dynalite Gold These shafts and I really get along well.

This is what I do as well.

I just had my bag fall off the cart last Tuesday by the green on the first hole. It happened on a paved cart path just as I was approaching the green and hit a little bump. I heard a "clunk", looked back and there was my bag on the cart path! It's an Ogio AMP cart bag and it fell off because the cart strap lock down lever opened up. After checking the lever it wouldn't stay locked down and I didn't notice that when I secured my bag. I told the pro shop about it and even showed one of the guys working there, I hope they fix it so it doesn't happen to someone else. I moved my bag to the other side of the cart (I was riding alone) and it stayed locked in place fine for the rest of the round. I was very glad upon inspecting my clubs for damage that I use head covers on all my clubs. Four of the iron head covers were fairly well shredded from the cart path impact. The irons themselves were undamaged. I hate to think what my beautiful P2 blades would look like if I hadn't had the headcovers on them. +1 for iron headcovers.

Interesting idea. I have a couple friends that organize scramble tournaments every year and they are always looking for new ideas that will make the tourneys more fun. I'll have to pass this along to them.

I have about the same handicap as you and hit similar distances. I did a lot of ball testing this year and the two balls I've found that I play the best with are the Top Flite D2 Feel and the Maxfli Tour Fire. I hit the D2 Feels the longest, spin them well on my approach and chip shots and they putt well. The Tour Fires are maybe a slight bit shorter for me but they have a really nice feeling cover on them and play very well around the green. They both are quite durable but still have a nice combination of distance and feel for me. The best thing about the D2 Feels is that they are about $15/15 pk., a real bargain. I would give them a try -- they are cheap and a really good ball. FWIW I just tried the HX Tours yesterday and I didn't like them. They have a nice soft cover on them but I didn't hit them as far as the D2 Feels. I may not have the swing speed for them, I'm not sure but whatever the reason I just didn't get along with them.

Yeah I tried just about every kind of putter known to man this past winter. For some reason I've never felt comfortable with center shafted putters, same with rounder mallets (a lot of them seem to be center shafted). I guess my eye likes an offset blade look and every putter I've had for 30+ years was an offset blade. This putter is kind of a cross between a 2-ball and a blade. I am thinking about building another heavier 2-ball putter that has a double bend shaft though. It's similar weight to my current putter and I kind of like the looks of it. That's a nice thing about club building, it lets you try some different things (heads, grips shafts, shaft length etc.) pretty inexpensively. It's crazy, I built the putter I'm playing for about $30 total. It's not that I'm cheap, I like messing with the clubs and it was the best of all the putters I tried. Okay, I'm a little bit cheap...

I switched to a much heavier putter this year from a lighter blade I had been using for over 10 years. I was having problems both pushing and pulling putts of 3-8 ft. and it was causing me a lot of 3 putts. I also used to be an excellent lag putter but the past several years it had gotten worse and I was leaving myself way too many 5+ ft. second putts. I have never really liked mallet putters but tried an Odyssey 2-ball blade over the winter and it fit my eye and felt good in my hands. I still had the problem of push/pulls and distance control with it though. Then I read an article about heavy putters and how they help with taking the "small muscles" (which the article claimed cause pushes and pulls) out of the stroke. Since I couldn't find any heavy putters I liked, I decided to look around at components online and found one I liked. I built a putter and immediately liked it. It's a 2-ball style blade putter amd it was pretty inexpensive to build. Here's a picture: Since I have had this putter in my bag this year I've dropped about 4 putts per round from my score. Yeah, it's helped that much and I have been going two or three rounds without three putting now. My lag putts are much closer and anything inside 10 ft. I feel confident I will make. For me it's made a real positive difference in my putting. I putt with a mostly arm and shoulder "pendulum" stroke. I wouldn't recommend a heavy putter to someone that uses a lot of hands and wrist as the heavy putter head seems to make any small errors in the putting stroke much worse. When I hit a few "wristy" strokes with my heavy putter the distance control was all over the place and very hard to control. My new putter head is just over 400 grams. The total putter weight is about 575 grams. Most putter heads are around 300 grams. So in my case, the new putter is about 1/3 more heavy than most putters. You can definitely feel the weight difference when you compare it to say a Scotty or Ping Anser. The Heavy Putters are a lot heavier, about 900 grams. I have a friend that has one and he is deadly with it but it feels just a little too heavy for me.

I had a bad case of tendonitis in my elbow this spring, something I've never had before. I went to a sports med. doctor and he found out I had been hitting a lot of balls off mats at the driving range over the winter. He just shook his head and said to quit hitting off the mats. He told me that he sees several cases a year of golfers with tendonitis in their elbows or wrists from hitting off mats. His explanation was that the mats don't "give" like taking a divot on grass and at impact you get a shorter but more intense shock to your elbow and wrist joints on mats vs. grass. I quit hitting off mats and just hit off grass after that. Within a month or so the pain was gone and it hasn't come back. I'm convinced mats are the spawn of the devil. I won't ever hit off them again. On a golf related note you also don't get very good feedback from mats on how you're striking the ball since you never take a divot. You can be hitting good shots off the mat but discover once you get on the course that you grooved a swing that results in "fat" shots. Hitting a griver or fairway woods off a rubber tee is problematic too as you can't adjust it the same height as you might normally play. Bah. Mats.