Leaderboard

I also received my order confirmation email earlier today! So excited! The people I’ve dealt with at LAB have been incredible so far! Avid putter coverer here! With this LAB I think I’ll try to find a cover for the cover to keep it in nice shape! I created a spreadsheet to help track my on-course putting in great detail. I’m not sure what to do with it quite yet, but I’ll post it on here when I get back home. I also might steal your spreadsheet, if it’s ok with you, for my practice putting on the Exputt when it arrives!

Wtg on the eagle @birdiesandbags !!! Today was a first on many levels for me playing golf... I played a local benefit scramble tournament today and was part of a 4 man team from the PD, just one team of many from work. There were 55 teams total iirc across 8 departments participating. We'll over 200 players. 2 of the guys I work with are newer to golf, and the one is a coworker on my sqaud, they are 25 hcps Avg We started out with birdie birdie, then 1 team mate hit for an eagle. i had 2 natural birdies and a natural eagle!!! 465 yd par 5. Caught the downhill side of what should have been a nasty ob hook, and it kicked right and rolled 30 more yards into the middle of the fairway. 165 to pin, hit a low straight shot with the 4hy, and it rolled 4 feet from the pin. They let me putt for the eagle. We placed 9th overall, but with hcp adjustments took 3rd at the final tally!!! Got my 1st golf trophy too! Since it was a charity event, naturally we bought a few mulligans, and a ton of raffle tickets for bonus things like throw the ball, drop a stroke, etc. We only ended up using 2 mulligans and 3 throw a ball. We had to declare it to the tee Marshall before we teed off on the par 3s ans par 5s. We forgot about the drop a stroke tickets though! One of the guys used a throw a ball ticket after coming up short on a par 3 (186yards) he was 20 feet from the pin, and I came up short too off the drive. He underhand tossed it and it rolled into the cup. While not a technical ACE, on the card it was!!! The DB performed very well, sinking 10 of the 18 holes we played! Overall it was a great day, I'm slightly over heated as it reached 91⁰ out, even though I stayed plenty hydrated. Really didn't have a ton of opportunities for pics. But managed to get a couple in.

Awesome call with a lot of great information shared. Thanks Jamie @GolfSpy_APH for getting this arranged. Another large turnout of members too, at one time I saw that there were 29 people on the call.

Bummed I missed the call, but had a good reason (will post in the play thread later) Hopefully I will be able to catch a replay later!

These were still in play until the last couple months and after hearing rounds, the sm9s may need friends while they are on sale still.

Snuck up to the range this evening for some more work with the QI-10. Over the last few sessions I’ve been working to correct face to path issues that were producing high spinny slices. Progress has been made on that front and I’m starting to see more draws than slices. I had a couple that carried around 250 yards, which for my game is the sweet spot. My feelings on this shaft/head combo are thus: Love the shaft, starting to dig the head. Sorry, @IndyBonzo, you may not be getting this head back Oh, and the mini driver is serviceable off the deck. Which makes for a pretty good insurance policy, if the driver goes south mid-round. The top of the bag is starting to take shape for this season, just need to get some rounds in.

They make 2 bags: the anyday bag and the weekender bag. We were picked to test the anyday bag which left us with simply which color did we want.

I keep a few I find for scramble tourneys or the backyard net and the rest go in the MGA bucket. I trade out those for a few good ones from time to time.

I have 20 ish 18ct egg cartons separated by brands in the garage. Wish someone local would offer a credit like that!

All I ever find is range balls on the course Tonight is the NFL draft though!!! (Go Raiders) And looking forward to a weekend tee time. Going a week without hitting the course is starting to make my hands itchy and I have been walking around practice swinging with water bottles all day

I play enough rounds that they prob need to be replaced at least twice a year but that gets expensive quick.

I resemble that remark...

Congrats on the Eagle!

I have spent my fair share of time in the fescue and trees as well!

Tonight I went to Golftec for a lesson. I haven't been looking forward to these lately, but tonight was really productive... minus an equipment failure. To start the lesson, I told my instructor that I've been suffering with driver lately, pushing and slicing everything right. So, first we warmed up with 9i... which went great! Getting pretty reliable distance and trajectory from T200s right now. We then worked up to the 3i, which had some solid strikes but after a handful I went to rest my weight on the club and start to hear cracking sounds... a little more weight and the head snapped clean off. Welp... down to 12 clubs in the bag (I've reached out to Sub 70 support to see what I can do). With my "fairway finder" out of commission we pulled out the driver and I expected the lesson to go from bad to worse. Then I proceeded to knock my next four drives dead straight with solid distance for me (~270ish) my instructor was laughing at this point and wondering what the problem was. On shot five I "went for it," and finally the slice reared it's ugly head. However, he did a good job identifying how this swing differed from the first four. On this swing I was finishing the swing with my weight on the back of my heels/trail leg and I did this kind of swipe to finish. Identifying that miss paired with the feeling of releasing/throwing the club really seemed to help. We finished the lesson with some sim golf where I was finding fairways and playing about as good as I ever have on that sim setup. Despite losing a club tonight I'm feeling pretty positive! Have another lesson scheduled (outside of Golftec) with a PGA pro for Saturday to continue making progress on driver.

I know the feeling Josh, My spin milled are 2007 vintage, so they are definitely up for renewal this year, although, they don't appear to be worn out yet...

Turns out I went tonight for a quick 9-hole round and ended up playing a full 18! There wasn’t anybody on the course and my random playing partner and I played in just under 3 hours. Nod bad for an unplanned round after work! I birdied the first hole which HAS to be thanks to the Ronin. Here is a teaser (another post with more info is coming) of the bag out in the wild enjoying its time. *My playing partner must have wondered what in the world was I doing snapping random pictures of my bag every few holes*

Congratulations on the eagle, awesome!

I don’t either, just have spent too much time in the trees looking for my own ball…unfortunately I’m better at finding other people’s!

Great focus piece for playing on course listening to the details about wedges and the design and finish on them. Great questions and again hearing from a subject matter expert who has forgotten more about his craft than most of us will ever know.

I haven’t been posting as much lately, because it seems repetitive to come in every day and say basically the same thing, oh, I shot a 77 today and made some great shots, blah blah blah… so, I did shoot a 77 today, and blah blah, but the point of interest is in how strong my grip has become of late. Just a continuance of the “Hanson Hybrid“ grip development. lots of new faces and names I'm seeing, so welcome newbies… I’m just an old dog popping in to say hello…

Ended up carding a 45 in my spark league round last night , but made my first eagle WOOH!!! Had a high risk shot behind a tree . But hey make the best of it . Driver,hybrid,putt

Looks like a great day @Rob Person and an awesome round!

... Cousins must feel like Rodgers when they drafted Love. Just signed a 4 year $180 million contract and they could have taken Odunze to help him out, but they take a QB?

They aren't cheap. I don't play enough for that frequency of replacement but, I should have replaced mine long ago.

Day 102 (25 Apr 24) - Worked with the Divot Board again today. Set the board up where I had a card just behind the ball to reinforce ball first contact Following are a series of swings (actually 3 in a row) where contact steadily inproved. For DTL visuals, set up the grandson's toy field goal about 10yds out - the goal was to start the ball (hard foam) just right of the posts and have it draw back to the center. Overall, a good drill day.

Over this past winter I used trackman a ton at work and I had the same issue once I got outside. I think it’s a great tool, but I try to have a good mix of simulator use for numbers and actual practice outside. The last thing I want to become is one those people that can play great on the simulator and awful outside.

We don’t have a store like that here. I see a lot of people sell them from their houses on golf courses. I don’t live on a course unfortunately.

I walked into my local store with a Tupperware full of old balls…they sell some older ones. The guy behind the counter almost panicked thinking he was going to have to go through them all and sort them to give me a credit. Told him just give me a couple dollars off and we’d be good…he was quite relieved!

Good afternoon Spies! The last 26 hours have been ... interesting. Worked nine hours in Detroit yesterday, headed for the airport. While waiting for my flight, was notified by the airline that it was delayed, and that I should seek an alternate flight. Number of alternate flights available to ILM last night: Zero. Called my corporate travel agent. It took three calls, but they got me on a flight at 7:30 a.m. today after I take the delayed flight to Charlotte and spend the night there. At this point a gate agent shows up and I talk to her. She looks at what the travel agent did and advised me that I still had the seat on my 10:58 pm flight home, along with the 7:30 flight today, and that there was a decent chance of making the 10:58. But she gave me a hotel and meal voucher in Charlotte just in case, since the delay was due to mechanical issues. Finally leave Detroit, get off the plane in Charlotte 12 minutes before my flight to ILM is scheduled to board, I powerwalk through the airport to the departure gate and arrive just as boarding begins. Then once I'm on the plane our departure is further delayed while maintenance crews complete some work and some paperwork. Finally left at 11:39 pm, flight home is uneventful, retrieve my car and get home at exactly 1 a.m. Then this morning I'm a zombie. Went to a doctor appointment at 8:45 (eyes barely open), came home and went back to bed until 5 p.m. Got a couple of nice emails from Mike Carroll of Fit For Golf. During our huddle with him last week for the FFG test, I advised him that I didn't think I could do one of the warmup exercises properly because of my post-surgical back. He asked me to send him a video of my attempts to do it; GF shot the video on Saturday and I sent it to him. He got back to me and suggested a variation of the exercise. Today he asked how the variation was working. I said it was slightly better than the original version, but not much. But it's nice that he's taking the time to help me with this when I'm not even a paying customer.

I’ll be cutting mine open immediately to see if it’s REALLY filled with goo, or perhaps hidden Korean technology.

While I was only a spectator working the tournament yesterday, I did capture a few pics when setting up the hole markers and banners. Sunrise and full moon opposite my position at the same time. Found the albino fox squirrel! And this other one was feisty today!

Got out for 9 at a new to me course - really nice layout set into some wetlands and woods. Started out ok .. a kind of surprising "easy" par on the first then two good (for me) bogeys. Then #4 .. I dunno... Tee -> slice -> splash. Drop -> chunked. Attempted shot on green -> fluffed, splash. Drop -> barely made it onto the front of the green. Just to make the pain complete? 3 putt... This is the view from the back tees on a Par 3 - 200 from the Blacks, yes basically all carry! Fortunately the Gold and Red were waaay further up, with a clean shot .. no water .. and only about 120 into the wind for me. But yeah still came up short, on the front fringe... Here's another short Par 4 where yep this guy drove it straight down the middle and through the fairway into the rough at the end! (..thank you firm and fast fairway ) And, well, after this things fell apart... Managed a bogey on the next Par 3 .. almost had a miraculous up & down after a terrible awful horrible nasty bad not good attempt at a tee shot. #8 and #9 went double, triple....... Hey guys, did I mention this last time? Work. In. Progress.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dKUMwOthovmKiNiiIuHi0HPtkoidhLOV/view?usp=sharing For those that missed the call you can view it here! It does start early as there was some great conversation that started prior to the normal call time.

Six QBs in the first 12 picks. Does anyone else think that there will be at least a couple of outright busts within that group?

Penix at 8 to the Falcons!?!?!? Wow!!!

... Pretty impressive watching Hutchinson, Megatron and Sanders come on stage. Having the mascot flatten an obnoxious packers fan was icing on the cake.

What a picture!!!

If I’m being completely honest and transparent, I’ve been drooling over the Maverick bag for like 6 months, based solely off the grey synthetic leather. I’m a sucker grey and blues, so I was in between those two. So I chose the one that first grab my eye I had looked over and over at them and realized as features they all are pretty much the same, the differences being the color and the back part on the Oreo but that was all I could tell at that time. As far as main features, they should all be the same I believe.

I've been hitting indoors at the home sim with the Qi10 Max and the Tensei AV Blue Limited 60R and the C6 Blue 60S... and my launch monitor is not playing nice (or is being brutally honest and I am really , really bad at driving!). Data below. Launch angle, backspin and distances are truly bad. This is not doing wonders for my self-esteem, but that's the data I have to work on. Have RCT balls on order to see if the spin #'s get back in line with my mid 2000 average and helps with the distances. The head continues to hold up very well and I am looking forward to going out on the golf course to play on real grass! Courses are starting to open here in Ottawa, but it's still in the single digits in Celsius...that's a little too chilly for me still ! EDIT NOTE: the light purple/lilac is mis-labeled. It should read: Tensei with TP5 (NOT TP5x)

Great Vokey call today. I found it really interesting.. Good to hear that there will be no changes to their grinds (I love the grinds) and no full face wedges! At least we know they are making a mint from Wedge Works products that are niche, but they work for a particular subset of golfers.

Good evening MGS troops! Getting ready for the NFL draft. Didn’t play today but got some work done, then emptied my bag of all the golf balls I’ve found in the last two weeks. I have a ton of balls, may not ever have to buy anymore again. Lots of Pro V1s. I leave the crappy ones on the course. I just ordered some OnCore Vero X1s with the pink bow and the F cancer logo. Gonna try to play tomorrow but first things first…the NFL draft and then the son’s theater play. Good evening!

Thanks to all who were able to join! Was a lot of fun and a great experience for sure. Next week Shot Scope!

Another great call today! Listening to Aaron describe the process and dedication to improvement at Vokey was very revealing. Thank you @GolfSpy_APH for setting this one up. This call has convinced me to stay with Vokey when I replace my wedges later this year...

If it truly had hidden "North Korean Technology" you'd never need a putter has proven by the fine golf scores of the Dear Leader Kim Jung-il "Kim shot 38 under, including 11 holes-in-one, at the 7,700-yard championship course at Pyongyang in the VERY FIRST golf round of his life, according to North Korean state media. This was in 1994, when Kim was 52 years old. Even more impressive, Kim stood just 5-foot-3, yet he was able to overpower a course as long as any ever played in major championship history. Who knows how good Kim could have been if he had taken up the sport earlier? Who knows how many times he bested 38 under in the 17 years since his first round?"

Spiders are always the worst ones I see. I keep the cover on mine all the time and it still looks new. A buddy of mine has the same putter as me but keeps his headcover off after the first green and its beat to crap. It hurst my eyes and heart to look at it.

I love the LAB Rat. It's one of those brand logos/mascots that just fits perfectly.

Speaking of putter head covers and having some fun here, What would you prefer L.A.B. Pimento and cheese The L.A.B. Rat The lab monkey or Taz