glock35ipsc

Then you have guys like Robin Arthur (who put Grafalloy, AND the graphite shaft on the map) who come along and say "hey, y'all are getting screwed if you think that $400 shaft is worth $400!"

For certain, the shafts aren't always what they seem. But most of the heads are the same that is available to us (at some point down the line), but the biggest difference is the specs are measured down to a gnats ass to be what that players wants. Bubba's driver head says 8.5°, but really measures 7.5°. At one point, Tigers driver head said 8.5°, but actually measured 11.25°. Look closely at these shafts.... on the far right is a stock Nunchuk shaft. Far left is a Nunchuk dressed up to look like a stock RBZ shaft. The middle one is a Nunchuk dressed in R11 clothing. When he won the Greenbrier Classic, Ted Potter Jr. used one in his 3 wood, and was dressed up like an Aldila VooDoo 80x shaft.

Go give the Cobra AMP a swing, you will be very surprised. It's not your grandpa's Cobra anymore.

Larger grips help me to keep a more relaxed grip on the club. If my grips are too small, I tend to grip the club too tight, thus the club head coming through the ball open and causing a push or slice. When I have a more relaxed grip, the club head is able to come through the ball square.

No. I use PURE Grips, which are meant to only be blown on and off. But I blow on just about every grip I replace, with the exception of some Winn grips.

The wife and I love our kettlebells. The smallest ones we have are 12kg (26#), and it rarely gets used except for her bootcamp classes she teaches. FWIW, I'm setting aside my usual compound lifting programming and following Sean Cochran's Performance Golf Fitness program for the winter. For the 2 arm kettlebell swings I use a 24kg (52#) bell, and a 16kg (35#) for 1 arm swings.

I forgot to add.... Bubba's grips are probably 1/32" oversized because when stretched as much as they are over the tape, the wall thickness is probably stretched back to what might be considered a normal wall thickness.

One of the things that helped straightened out my ball flight was thicker grips. I went from no tape at all, to 3 wraps top to bottom, and it was just enough of a size difference that I could definitely notice it. My reasoning was exactly the same reasoning as Bullitt5339..... I was gripping too tightly with the smaller diameter grips, and as a result I was holding the face open through impact. With a little larger diameter I don't feel like I need to grip it as tightly. I'm going to play around with a midsize as well and try various numbers of wraps under it to see what difference it makes. Also, FWIW, I blow my grips on and off, so I can change the wraps at will. So since I don't use double sided tape, I use 1" wide blue painters tape. I wrap it in a spiral up the shaft, so there is no "seam" to be felt. Which, if most installers are using 1" tape, that's how they will do it. If using 2" tape, then there is a risk of building up a seam or rib. I doubt there are too many tour players using mid size grips. They are the ultimate "feel" players, and since the wall material is thicker on a mid size grip, they would lose that feel. Using a standard grip with more wraps might even make the grip wall thickness thinner, since it is being stretched. BUT....as WUTiger said, Bubba (being the anomaly he is) uses like a fricken roll of tape on his, and they are a 1/32" oversize Ping 703 Gold grip. With so much stretching going on there, they are naturally shorter too compared to a 'normally' installed grip. Furthermore, this grip has a 'reminder' rib, and that is clocked to 8:00. All that goes to show the importance of grip fitting, and how far some go to get them just right!

Either lay a few strips of wide blue painters tape down in the direction of your "target" line, or sprinkle some flour or talc powder on the mat. Either method should let you see where the club is striking the mat. If using the tape, you could make a small line then set the ball right on top of the line. Should be very obvious where your club hits the tape from there.

The best thing I have done for my putting game is to forget the "mechanics" of the putting stroke. After reading Dave Stockton's book Unconscious Putting a few times back-to-back, my #1 focus is speed. I don't even look at the ball anymore, jut a spot an inch or two in front of the ball. I focus on speed, and rolling the ball over that spot. My putting has improved beyond my wildest imagination. I can't wait for the snow to melt on the course now.

Depending on the differences in the balance point of the shafts, the swingweight might not even change at all. Or it could increase, or decrease.

Here's my 'backyard" range. You can kind of see where the pasture has been cut once a year or so ago (yes, I know it's crooked! Hahaha). Where the red circle is at top, I now have an elevated tee box built that will get sod laid down come spring, and there is a bunker dug out on the right side of the tee box. It's about 190 yards to the road, and about 205 to the other side. Until the sod is laid, I just drag one of my old mats out there to hit off of. After I'm done, the kids get on their 4-wheelers with a shag bag and go gather up the balls. They have as much fun shagging balls for me as I do hitting them! Since I have water in the area, I'm thinking of building another tee box in the upper left corner so I could hit down towards the bottom right corner. That's about 300 yards. Only problem is, if I hook one, there is a LOT of glass in the front of the house!

Might look better, and would probably hold up longer, if you took them down to bare metal then blued them, then you could paint fill the stamped letters. Then rub them down with gun oil. That would look sweet! Or, strip them and parkerize them. That would definitely be different! Hmmmm, that makes me want to take an old wedge head I have a parkerize it just to see what it would look like, and how t would hold up.......

Interesting, considering they are privately owned.

How about this Erik.... one guy I play with on occasion, on every tee shot, will lay his club down along his toe line (from behind the ball, lays it down while lining it up from behind). Then he will take his stance along the club, pick it up then play the shot. Is that OK to do since he does not leave the "alignment aid" in place?

I just sent a HUGE box of clubs, balls and tees to the Birdies for the Brave Foundation. They are going to forward them to Afghanistan. I would try to see if you have a First Tee local to you first. If not, B4B is a great option.

I use the AlmostGolf balls too. I chip inside the house with them nightly. I even hit flops up into my loft/bedroom! And no, you won't be nuts using them. If you start rocketing balls over the green on the course, you have other problems to address.

I keep a few yellow DT Solo's in my bag. They are great for when the sun starts to get low, when I can't see the white ones too well, but the yellow ones jump right out. But this time of year, when there are leaves everywhere, then they can be impossible to find.

Ft Collins

Wow, they are crazy cheap too! Not one kit over $25, and thats for everything... head, shaft, grip, and head cover. Might have to pick up a few of those! Beachcomber -Your welcome! Backweighting made a BIG difference in my putting.

Dave2512 - I'm an hour north of you. We should meet somewhere in the middle and play a round sometime!

Here is what I used, last couple of pages. http://www.balance-certified.com/share/Drop-In%20Fitting%2009.pdf

All you need is in that pic. The weights install with a simple Allen wrench (pictured), but there's a good chance you already have one. When the wrench it turned, it slightly expands the diameter of the weight so that it is compressed inside the shaft, locking it in place. The silver gizmo to the left of the Allen wrench is what goes in the drill to cut a hole in the butt of the grip. This tool not only cuts a hole, but countersinks it as well, so that when the weights are installed they sit flush with the butt cap. I think the major difference between the kit Golfworks sells and the Opti-Vibe is that the latter can be installed at different depths in the shafts. This is handy for changing the balance point in a driver or iron, and some get a different feel when placing the weight at different depths (more in the hands, above or below the hands, etc.) with the putter. Unfortunately, I can't be of much help with either of these products. I did my backweighting the frugal way..... with a clevis pin: I happen to have a bunch, but they are cheap to buy, a buck or so each. I cut several to different weights, then installed each different weight and tested the results. I blow my grips on, putter grip too, so changing the weights was quick and easy. I had to grind a little of the head off so that it ended up about the same diameter as the shaft, and put a wrap of duct tape around the bottom end so it didn't rattle inside the shaft. I can't find them right now, but I "hopefully" saved the fitting charts i had found where you insert a certain weight, make a few putts and note the balls distance, distance off line, etc. After trying several different weights, you pretty much had a map of which weight fit you the best. **EDIT - Oops, I missed the second post!

If you liked the Cobra S3, then give the AMP drivers a swing. They can be had for about that same price too. I got my new 10.5° AMP for $140, and it's flat out the best feeling, longest and straightest driver I've ever swung. They are very similar in a few ways; E9 face technology, adjustable face, etc. The AMP has the dual roll that keeps the loft closer to spec at above and below the center of the face. And I think the shaft in the AMP is much better too. The AMP is much lighter than my Callaway Diablo Edge was (Cally 320g vs AMP 299g), but I can feel the head of the AMP WAAAAAAY better than I ever could with the Cally. The AMP certainly doesn't feel as light as it is! Which is good, because me and light driver have never got along well. Until now......

Golfworks has counterweights as well: I have my putter backweighted as well, and love it. After testing with different weights, I put an 80g backweight in my putter.