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@Headhammer nailed it on Twitter, I'm a club ho. My winter practice this year has revealed a few things about my bag setup. I started last season with a 5-GW set of Maltby PTMs, and thanks to #CobraConnect I spent about half of my 75-ish rounds last year playing Cobra SpeedZones. I loved the forgiveness of the Cobras, but hated the gapping in the shorter clubs, where I could go 15+ yards between irons. I had been kicking around the idea of playing a mixed set of Cobras and Maltbys, but the idea of mixing iron brands, shaft weights and looks within a single bag just bothered me too much. Additionally, my winter practice off of mats has been hard on my wrists and elbows. It's not uncommon for me to have a few days of achy joints after my weekly range sessions, and over the holidays when I was able to go to the heated range more often I actually experienced some significant pain in my wrists. As my longer term plan is to get a Skytrak and net for winter practice at home, I know I will be hitting a lot of shots off mats in the future. For this reason, I've been looking at moving to graphite. Last weekend I demo'ed the newly released Callaway Apex Forged with the Mitsubishi MMT graphite iron shaft and really loved the feel. I very nearly pre-ordered a triple combo set (DCB in the 4-5 irons, Apex 6-7, Apex Forged 8-PW), but after totaling everything up, the price was too much for me to stomach. I've long been a fan of @GolfSub70 and had been eyeing a combo set of 699/699 Pros for a while (especially after reading the MGS Forum reviews), but @GolfSpy MPRprovided a gentle reminder on Twitter of the existence of their used section, where I found an "excellent" condition set of 4-6 699s, 7-AW 699 Pros significantly marked down because they were regular flex shafts and 1" short. Being that I'm open to doing my own club work, I jumped on them and plan on doing some experimenting over the next month to settle on a shaft combo I like. While I don't anticipate saving too much over ordering something new through a major OEM (aftermarket shafts are expensive), I'm excited to put together a set of irons that I will enjoy for hopefully at least the next two or three years. I'm starting this thread to document the progress and hope to have everything built up within the next month or so. While we've had eight-plus inches of snow in the last 12 hours here in Michigan, I played my first round of golf last year on March 1 so the season is drawing near.

Some of the best views around

I'm getting pretty good at tearing clubs apart these days. Saved the basically brand new GP Tour Velvet 360s and pulled all the shafts in about 25 minutes. Step one, complete! The shafts already have found a new home for $60, so I'm at least recouping a little of the cost of the irons.

First thank you to @Popeye64 for hooking me up with a maltby 7i and a brand new wedge. please help me tag people who want to follow this that I am missing @Chip Strokes @dlow206 @Hotdocta @Popeye64 This has been a long time coming, but because of covid it took a long time to get a few single modus 125 wedge shaft and a few single modus 120TX 7i shaft so the playing field is as even as possible. I will be using fully built clubs and not club connex to give everything the fairest chance. this will be broken down into 2 categories. Wedge and Iron. And of course this is subjective to me only, but if it performs I will give me honest opinion. Wedge will be first followed by irons incase we need to expand past the 7i for a better view for the wedge the Maltby (56*) will be going up against my gamer the Mizuno T20 the new TW MG2 and what some would consider the holy grail the Mirua tour wedge. All will be built with a modus 125 wedge shaft lie angle bent to 62* and loft at 56*. Length will be 35.5”. Grip will be the NDMC black on black and swing weight will be made to D5. wedge scoring 1. Launch monitor performance including the wet wedge test. I will rent a trackman and hit enough balls to get a good data set. This is the most important factor for me since I play in Texas. (35%) 2. Bunker performance. I will film shots and post a video. Volvik was kind enough to donate 3 boxes of the new S4 balls in multiple colors so we can track and see the results clearly. Workability proximity to the hole durability etc will be how this is scored. (25%) 3. on course performance. I will head to a par 3 course that has a 105 yard hole. 3/4 56 with my gammer I can carry 115 with 13k in spin. Same deal as the bunker, but will also factor in s*** shipping ability. (25%) 4. Ease of assembly. This is important because many people who purchase maltby build themselves. I have taken everything apart to the component level. When I bend them I want to see how long everything stays in place. I will take before and after measurements. I figure it will have about 500 balls on it so should be a good test. (10%) 5. This will be the first scoring but the least weighted. It is shelf appeal. While this is not the purpose major OEM’s use this to get us to buy. Also wedges are speciality clubs IMO and I don’t care as much about the look of I did I would not have the T20 as my gammer since it’s ugly. (5%) Iron scoring This will be the same for the most part except the weighting will be a tad different. Specs will also be D3.5 playing at 37.25” lie angle of 61* loft will all be adjusted to 33* to standardize. Shaft will be the modus 120TX. Grip will be the either the Lamkin st-2 hybrid midsize or ts1 midsize since I will be out of the NDMC. Contestants will be the Maltby Ts1-forged vs my gamer the Mizuno mp20 MMC the honma tr20v srixon zx7 and maybe one more tbd. Stock carry at 34* loft is 186 yards. (My Mp20 mmc are -2 weak) 1. Launch monitor. (25%) I don’t really care much about this with irons I just want to know carry & spin and shot grouping. 2. bunker performance (anyone who knows my game knows I am a magnet for the fairway bunker). (Part of on course) 3. On course performance. This will be the highest weighted category. The same par 3 course has a hole with a 190 yard pin in the middle which I would use a 7i they also have a hole with a 175 yard front pin which I would play a cut into also with a 7i. Will also hit a course and test approach shots and situations. (40%) 4. Ease of assembly. (15%) 5. Curb appeal. (20%) this is higher because of the overall cost of investment. It will also be the first category scored once I get all the heads in. This is also more important to me because the look has a lot to do with how you feel it might interact with the turf among other factors. stay tuned first video comes this week!

Discussions on golf balls are In the balls forum under equipment. You can also look on the main MGS page and read the Ball Lab reports regarding quality and compression information. General advice is callaway balls are of lower quality. Softer balls generally have slower ball speed. Find the ball that gives you the best performance from tee to green; starting with green side performance....don’t pick based on compression. Finally, unless you lose lots of balls play a tour level golf ball.

Here are some photos at address. 60* 54* 50* Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

A friend just lost both of her parents within days of each other. I am at a complete loss for words right now. Just devastating.

Finished KBS CT Tour double bend shaft, 34" at the mo, GolfPride Pro Only Chord Blue Star grip. Feels really nice to swing. Test run on the landing carpet later... Total weight 526g:

Okay it's a go for tomorrow. Surgery at some point to take the gall bladder out. All the numbers are down where they want them. Thanks and I will update!

He picks the golfer by speed, but also build. All 5 of us that have it are over 6’3”, and I’m the slowest swinger of the group! I promise you, it doesn’t FEEL like it’s that stuff because of the head weight. Yeah, take a 5-6X shaft and put a normal Sim 2 head on it and the shaft won’t deflect at all. The head weight matters BIG time. He went that stiff because it works for a subsection of golfers. It’s hard to grasp because no one does it. Long drive guys fight it at the start too, but once it’s in their hands they wake-up. Rob has YEARS of experience. He knows what he’s doing, and he won’t let just anyone try it. I had to meet him and get on a monitor for him to see my swing (HOW I swing not just how fast) to see if it would work, and even see if he needed to make adjustments. Plus, this Busa 2 isn’t just a Ventus, or Paderson, etc. He chose THAT model for a reason...

Pushcart Mafia on the course today.....weather was foggy with 55*-75* . Shot a 38/43:81 with no birdies, just solid shot making all day long. The Cobra Speedzone Extreme was on target (10/14) and my Wilson D7 Irons were straight(GIR 28%). My Evnroll ER6R was shining with only 29 putts. Overall very enjoyable round........and I was Walking! Sent from my iPad using MyGolfSpy

Are you going to snag the Mitsubishi shafts, or looking to grab a bargain there as well? Because Sub 70's sister company Diamond Tour has some interesting shaft options for irons far under the price of the MMTs.

Gorgeous day here in Fl. Light breeze, mid to high 70's and sun behind clouds some of the time. All 3 made it very pleasant. My wife and I played Cypress Creek, she wanted to play from the men's tees and just bombed her drives - a couple even came close to mine . It was a tale of nines for me; 47 on the front and 43 on the back. Drives were great, fairway shots not too bad. Putter and wedges are in "time out" for being non-cooperative. Here's a pic of one of the par 4's on the back and of course the ubiquitous alligator which we still haven't gotten use to seeing.

Doesn’t really change anything in my mind unless there is a large percentage of balls with offcenter cores. All manufactures have tolerances and all manufactures release products with defects. you will seldom find any product that approaches 100% defect free unless lives are involve - medical, aircraft, military, food, etc. I would have to go back and read ball lab for titleist but I believe Tony did find issues with Titleist balls. What price would you be willing to pay for 100% defect free?

More great information from Tony. I've found an played a few Vice Pro and Pro Plus balls and they seem pretty good. Like Snell, they offer a much more price competitive option to the Titleist, Bridgestone, Srixon, etc. tour balls. To be honest, I'd have a hard time paying 30+% more for the the BIG name balls. The more I read about these tests, discussions in the forum, and the NPG staff, the more I'm questioning how much several of these measured attributes really matter to the vast majority of users? For instance, at what amount of off center core concentricity will we notice adverse performance? Don't get me wrong, I love that MGS is serving as an independent referee on "claimed vs. actual" ball quality, but can some of these differences between mfg.'s. and balls be summed up as "picking the fly dung out of the pepper"?

I was not excited to need to clear the driveway this morning... I'm not sure I even knew it was going to be measurable snow yesterday haha Thankfully its almost February... so we're do for that few days of 60-70 degrees before another cold spell through March. NE winters can be so much fun!

I heard that yesterday the PGA announced that they moved the PGA Championship to Southern Hills for 2022. That works out great for me. I'll get to take customers since Tulsa is part of my territory. I guess I'll just have to suffer through it. I'll also be playing there this spring. It's humbling to watch the Pro's play a course that you have played. You think you played well from your mortal white tees and then you watch them beat you by a bunch from the back tees.

Apparently the first part for lost because I used a bracket... It was supposed to say “I love the Ventus blue in my driver and 5 wood.”

Very nice, the only thing I get to come home to is news that a cow gave birth across the street in the pasture (not mine). No golf store in my neck of the woods. Wish there was.

Took your advice and went with it on my lunch break. Finished with 0000 equivalent and some metal polish. I think they look fantastic now, almost no dings whatsoever. The toe of the 7 iron has like four small pits (maybe lightly dropped on a hard surface?) and the back of the 4 iron has three small chatter marks. They are nearly invisible now and the rest look brand new. After cleaning out the hosels with my .370 reamer and solvent, I also weighed them and they are very nicely on spec across the set. The exception is the AW, which I'm wondering is just a mistake on their site. Doesn't matter to me, I'd rather them be the same as I play the PW and AW at the same length typically, and then drop down 1/4" to my 54/58 which also play at equal lengths.

This is pretty good input. Mike Adams example of walking is right on. He says if you want to walk fast you move your arms faster, same in the swing. But as you mention in the second paragraph sequencing is a key part to all of it. This video may help

I play over 75 rounds a year. Probably 50 of them are solo. At least 10 of those are in some sort of charity event where its a four man scramble / captain's choice. So this leaves me with about 15 rounds that I could post. Then you get with some friends and challenges come out during the game that would prevent you from playing your normal game. Now I am down to about 10 rounds that I could post. I don't play in competitions, club championships or any type events like that. So my handicap is just for me to gauge myself and create my own goals. Did I improve over the season or not? So with this in mind why would I artificially sandbag my handicap one way or the other. I would be cheating myself and not working to achieve my own goals. My club charges me a fee every year for the Tennessee Golf Association membership which includes the GHIN. So I use it, and I do post my single rounds because they are for my purposes only. This gives me a better average toward my handicap and personal goals.Typically if I'm playing with someone new and they ask what my handicap is I just tell them I'm not sure but I can get around the course ok. I just play because I love the game. I also do not wager on the course. I caught up to a guy on the course and then he invited me to play with him on the last 7 holes. We were tied going into 18. He wanted to bet a drink on the last hole and I said it wasn't necessary but he insisted. I beat him by three strokes on the last hole. I birdied and he got a double. Then he wanted to buy me the drink after the round and I said thank you for the offer, but I declined. I realize there are people out there that post a higher score to raise their handicap. Then they play in events, get more strokes so they can win the prize money. There are cheaters everywhere! I'm not one of them.

A simple change in ball position or tee height could be a revelation if you go to see a pro. It's a lot simpler than reaching for a solution by applying your own guesswork - in that the inert object (in this case the shaft) is the root cause of the problem. A quick tip for any budding self-fitters out there: eliminate the variables first. That means once you are certain one element is functioning OK, it can be discarded as the cause. So before you even start your backswing, make sure the fundamentals are in place - that means (and I know it sounds boring) grip, stance, ball position, alignment, tee height. Basics. And a good pro will identify this in minutes - and potentially save you wasting money on equipment. Once you have a solid set up, then you can analyse the effect equipment has combined with your swing. My 2 cents.

#Iwalk #itwasntme.... Its bad, one two many beverages for some I suppose lol. I don't know the cost but I am guessing those stakes are not the cheapest either.

thanks Rev... another 3-4 inches of fresh snow so it isn't looking promising for a debut anytime soon.

Heel strikes are going to be swing related especially with already having a shorter shaft. AOA is affected by club path. The more inside to out the more positive it will be. The more outside to in the more negative it will be. A shaft profile itself isn’t going to fix swing swing issues, just like the shaft itself isn’t going to drop spin by a thousand rpm. Weight of a shaft has the potential to help the body work better in sequencing in that the body will try to use the muscles more efficiently, but isn’t a guarantee. And yes the best way to find the setup is to get fit and it really boils down to both the head and shaft. There’s different approaches as we’ve seen from people who get fit that some places like CC use shaft first then head while many places including OEMs fit head first then use the shaft to fine tune. This has been my experience from TM, Ping tour van, Titleist and my visit to UST Mamiya.

Hmm. My grip always changes on my epic flash SZ when I adjust. Let me double check now. edit I was mistaken! When I have adjusted prior I must have done something wrong. Carry on

Respectfully, I couldn’t disagree more. The first version of Kirkland Sig balls years ago were indeed a screaming bargain, but they change every year, and they’ve never repeated the first year version. They’re one of the least consistent balls you can buy, you get what you pay for. I’d play found balls selectively before buying Kirklands. https://mygolfspy.com/costco-kirkland-performance-three-piece/

I remember the same thing from Golf My Way. I tell this to the kids we coach at First Tee and they ask me "Who's Jack?"

Played on a sim (Nip it Golf) in Longview, TX, today. Second time here. They have a TON of great courses, so today I played the Plantation Course at Kapalua since it’s one of my favorites to watch on TV. Plus, they say it has the widest fairways on Tour, so talk about building confidence! Ha! Shot 3 over from the blues. I’d love to see it in real life because the undulations in the fairways were CRAZY!!! So cool. Then I had just enough time to play the back 9 of Torrey Pines. Picked it since the tournament is there this week. MUCH narrower fairways. Shot even. The sledgehammer was money again! So good. So fun!!!!!!

I was a Jack fan as a kid and grew up reading golf my way - I'm a tee it up always unless I have a short iron into the wind kind of guy - but we are all different beyond a doubt - Jack was using radically different equipment, in radically different course conditions than we typically see. What was prevailing wisdom them might not necessarily always be true today. I say go with what works or better go with what's more fun!!!

Can't wait to give Freedom a swing. Let's see if she rings!

Beautiful. Played a course out there in the fall and it was just amazing

We got probably three inches more than expected today. Snowy winter days are bad for the budget when I spend too much time browsing...

As far as the response you’ll get here:

I’ve heard of carpal tunnel... but tarsal tunnel? Man this is excruciating.

64* this morning, light breeze beautiful weather to play. Even Par after 6 holes then I started thinking, bad very bad. Ended up 4 over with doubles on 7 & 8 and Par on 9. It’s pretty much official that the G710 irons & TSI2 driver are staying in the bag for foreseeable future. Hard to keep the Mizzies on the shelf but G710’s are more just a little more forgiving. Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

... We are all different and whatever works and all but I would make the argument everyone should use a tee, even if that means barely teeing it off the ground so it looks like it is sitting on the turf. I remember Jack said it is the only time you get an absolutely perfect lie, so why not take advantage. I just think if you hit it a fraction fat, having it teed up just a tiny bit will produce e a better shot than a fraction fat and catching some turf. That said, how we approach things mentally that adds to our confidence can trump a perfect lie, so again if it works for you it works for you.

OK, this one was terribly unexpected, but the price was good. Trade/re-sale value is still pretty good, too, so I'm not out a lot if it fails. Time for a driver shootout! Saddest thing about this purchase? Largely driven by the fact that I love how the Optifit hosels don't change the shaft/grip orientation. Having a mis-aligned shaft/grip drives me nuts on my Cobra (I know, I could pull and re-orient, but...).

Having the ability to see where the UPS driver is can be both exciting and frustrating. O get home from work and they're less than a mile from the house. I keep watching and now they're four miles away going in the complete opposite direction after making stops at both convenience stores down the road.

Well this was a nice surprise to come home to, new store opening. Don’t need a fitting but think I’ll go swing some drivers and see what they say lol

... One of the things that really p!sses me off is carts parked a couple feet off the path next to the tee box or green. Forget the selfish idiots that drive right next to the the box and green but I'm talking about the ones that are in good shape and just park just off the path killing the grass and often making a dirt spot. Just how lazy or selfish can they be to save themselves at best 2 steps when keeping the cart on the path saves a living, breathing thing that repays us with beauty and clean air? "In recent years progress seems to have been made in improving our air quality. But the levels of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter in our atmosphere, primarily from the burning of carbon based fuels, are still a major concern. Plants absorb these gaseous pollutants into their leaves and break them down, thereby cleaning the air. An acre of flourishing growth will absorb hundreds of pounds of sulfur dioxide during a year. Grass also takes in carbon dioxide, hydrogen fluoride and peroxyacetyl nitrate ² the worst group of atmospheric pollutants. Grasses in the United States also trap an estimated 12 million tons of dust and dirt released annually into the atmosphere. This dust, dirt and even smoke are trapped in part by the grass leaves, where it is washed into the soil system by water condensed on the leaves and rainfall. Grassed areas significantly lower the levels of atmospheric dust and pollutants".

Been there, done that, have the tee shirt! Go Huskies! Wisconsin winters are tougher BTW. In case you were wondering. [emoji6] Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

It happens that we see a lot of golf, but everything else is fair game.

I got to see some of his changes already. I was there during construction last year and had dinner at the club house. The plan was to go back to the original design with some modificatios to accomodate the length seen on tour now. I took a walk around where I could. I remember they cleared the opposite side of a creek to then change the layout of the fairway to make both sides fairway. They were working on the greens right by the club house while we were eating. They added underground piping for each green. They could pump cool water through to keep the greens from burning out in the summer and warm water in cooler months to keep them from freezing. If I remember right, they drained one of the ponds up by the club house and were making underground cart storage. It must be nice to have stupid money! I think it was a 10 to 11 million for the re-design. I would hate to see what the member assessment was on that!

Extremely happy for you. Congratulations.

Ready to get my first season going! Can't wait guys. Gives me even more incentive to watch golf (not that I needed it anyways!)

For sure just got a bonus at work and have a little to spend and I feel I have never done a proper blind shaft experiment. Feel like that is a must do on the Club Ho checklist

Started a thread over in the DIY section with my plans:

A lot to look forward to this week. Jason Day with a new bag and new swing, Spieth and the never-ending is this the week he snaps out of it...