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I have a good attitude toward hydration. Ah summer golf. Where I live in Sacramento that either means that you pay more to play in the cooler morning or pay less and brave the afternoon heat. In either case, I learned very quickly that having an extra bottle of water may be more valuable than having an extra sleeve of balls. Covid didn’t help either. I don’t know what it was like around your course, but our courses dropped all on course water, even turning off the faucets for Covid. With this, packing in water became paramount. As with many of you, my water transport is accomplished with double insulated bottles. While companies like Hydroflask may have been the early producers, lots of companies make them these days. Some work great, some not at all. All I know is that an insulated bottle that doesn’t insulate is super annoying. As such, I tend to keep an eye out for new bottle designs. The New Yeti Rambler Bottles Yeti is one of those companies that has made insulated bottles for a while now. Through the years they have made a few different versions. You may remember that I ran a Yeti 64oz jug through its paces a few years back. With that growler, the double lid design made cleaning a breeze. Something that can’t be said for other narrow-necked containers. It is once again the top design that sparked my curiosity with these Yeti Rambler bottles. I’ve got lots of other Yeti drinkware, so I was confident that these bottles would keep drinks cold. This new top though, was a curiosity. Chug Cap Love Now I know that I am not the only one to drink from a wide mouth bottle and end up wearing some of the liquid. When I’m on the hot course, I don’t mind this. When I’m drinking from the bottle at work, this refreshing overflow is not as welcome. The new Yeti Chug Cap does an amazing job of removing the slosh that comes with wide mouths, and also still allows you to have easy access for cleaning. As you can see from the photos, the Yeti Chug Cap is a two-stage lid. The top lid has the usual handle design, that is great for carabiner clipping by the way. Under that lid, we see the Chug Cap. This clear plastic cap has a smaller aperture, dramatically reducing the flow rate. You can still chug but doing so no longer becomes a whole body experience. This cap also unscrews from the bottle, allowing you to access the wide opening for easy bottle cleaning. It drinks like a narrow bottle and cleans like a wide one. Out on the course, the bottle performed as expected. It still had plenty of ice when I refilled it with water at the turn. I think it was 103 °F that day. Insulation is not an issue. As an added bonus, even full of super cold liquid, I did not notice any condensation on the outside of the bottle. This too speaks to the amazing insulation in the bottle. BONUS COVERAGE: The Yeti Bottle Sling One of the other things that motivated me to check out the Rambler bottles was the Yeti Bottle Sling. A drawback of packing a big bottle of water to the course is that you need to pack said bottle. Smaller bottles fit well in golf bag hydration pockets, but larger bottles can be problems. Usually, they get stuffed in the big side pocket, smashing all other contents. Hello PBJ pâté. When I saw the bottle sling, I wondered if this was a way that the bottle could be attached to the bag or push cart to make carrying the bottle easier. The short answer for me was yes. I used the sleeve and its strap to secure the bottle to my push cart, and also to my usual golf bag. The best fit though was with my Ogio bag, as this bag features the same web design as the Yeti soft sided coolers. That is another place where the sling shines. You can see in the photos how the bottle sling attaches to the front of my Hopper 12. This allows you to carry the bottle with the cooler, and not sacrifice the internal space doing so. Translation: The bottle does not kick beer out of the cooler. Anyway, on the Ogio bag, the clips fit perfectly. While I wish the bag was a little stiffer at the connection, it worked quite well as a bottle holding bag accessory. If you don’t have the attachments, you could also thread straps of bungee cords through the loops on the sling as the clips can be easily removed. Worth the Price It will likely not surprise you that these bottles are more expensive than others out there. The 26 oz bottle is $40 and the 36 oz is $50. There is also a 46 oz version, but I am not sure if that one will be golf friendly as it is kind of a monster. When you compare these prices to Hydroflask, they are not that much higher though. A 32 oz Hydroflask bottle is $45 and their 40 oz bottle is $50. Chug Caps not included with those either. Of course, there are other companies out there also making similar products, but I would warn you that similar does not mean the same. I bought a cheap double walled bottle from Walmart and the insulation failed as soon as I dropped it in the parking lot. I know that Yeti gets PXG-like hate sometimes for their pricing, and I too wish their stuff was less expensive. That said, I have run a bunch of Yeti gear through the paces through the years and I am still using that gear. Such cannot be said for similar products I’ve used from other companies. You get what you pay for I suppose. I’d like to wrap this up by saying that the Yeti Rambler is my new go to bottle for golf. I’d like to, but that would be a lie. You see, my wife happened to see what I was working on and commented on how much she liked the teal color of the bottle and how well it would be for her to take tea to her classroom. “Oh, is that a carrier for the bottle too?” Needless to say, I am out one 36 oz bottle and one large sling. Her review is a positive one as well. She was concerned that her smaller hands wouldn’t fit the bottle and that the top would be too tight for her to turn. Unfortunately for me, neither one of these things was an issue, and my Rambler rambled on the to Mrs.

- 41/37 = 78 (+6) - 4/15 FIR - 8/18 GIR (2 birdies, 1 eagle) - 28 Putts (11 2-putts, 6 1-putts, 1 eagle pitch-in) Two eagles in my last two rounds. Crazy. This one was more conventional - a 40 yard pitch-in on the par 5 No. 9. Good range warmup, rough first seven holes highlighted by a triple bogey on No. 3 after hooking my hybrid OB left, decent rest of the round! Couple things to clean up - I bogied No. 10 again after being 65 yards out in the middle of the fairway after a perfect drive. But I putted really well down the stretch and sank a 25-foot uphill breaker on 18 to save par!

Progress on my game continues; while my low end of my scoring hasn’t improved, I feel like my high end has come down. Full swing is more under control and toe strikes have been drastically reduced. The changes to the full swing seem to have improved the short game swings as well. Going to focus a bit more on my mid distance putting and putting focus. I am going to work on focus because it is becoming apparent that when hitting the mid range putts I am making too many bad swings. I have lots of confidence in my distance control, but occasionally I make really bad strokes that leave the putts significantly short. This leads to a bit of frustration as I try to make the next putt. Going to work on enhancing the pre-putt routine to make sure I am mentally prepared to make the stroke. I have also noticed a little bit of a face control issue on the mid length putts. Been spending time recently on face control drills and am finding that this issue seems to tie back to the focus issue.

Jackson has golf camp this week for an hour each morning, which luckily for me means a bucket of balls each morning. I was very excited to hit my Epic Max LS with my Ventus now that the tip was changed out. (For those interested it plays 1/2 inch longer than the Cobra Tour Length due to the difference in tips, so this is right at 45 inches now). BUT I did restrain myself and worked my way up to driver which was a good idea because I was pretty stiff this AM. I think the Ventus is going to be a great combination as I was stoking the ball today. This is at least 7-8 ball marks: I’m not going to complain about that! I do have a Motore X F3 that should be here today To try as well, but it looks like the Ventus isn’t going down without a fight.

Absolutely. I have learned over the years, through experimentation, through online learning (TXG) and through my fitting at True Spec, that I perform best with shafts that are softer in the butt section (handle). For some players, including me, a softer butt section translates to better feel. It really lets me know when the shaft is loading and helps me time my transition. It is why my first two shaft choices were Modus 105x and Modus 120x. Those models have a relatively softer handle and give me a great feel throughout the swing - and they are most similar to the Oban CT 115 shafts I was fit into at True Spec (the Modus shafts were the runners up in this fitting). With the DG X100s, they are stiffer in the handle and thus I lose a ton of that feel that I love. I am really struggling to feel the head during the swing and thus my transition is wildly inconsistent which leads to my delivery numbers (face, path, and angle of attack) to be inconsistent as well. Now the X100s are one of the most popular irons shafts on tour, so it's obviously not a bad shaft. What it does show is that some players are more effected by different profiles of shafts and I happen to be one of them.

Great comments! I saw the same things. @sirchunksalot I recommend watching the NTC video one section at a time, focusing on the moves Monte is emphasizing. Repeat. Watch each section over and over starting with the No-Turn Backswing. Don't move on until you get in the position Monte shows. You need to get the wrists set correctly. To get rid of the inside move, do the Backswing A-drill. Do it over and over; slo-mo... video yourself doing it. You could hit balls from this backswing position, but I don't recommend it until after you complete the Backswing B-drill correctly... going from 7 to 8 o'clock. That's the position you will be in later when you rotate to impact. Good luck!! There are lots of jewels in the NTC video; I didn't see many of them until I watched it many times. Don't rush it!! As you said, making this big of a change will take time, so don't get discouraged in the short term.

It's fun to watch a golfers initial reaction to their swings on video for the first time. "Wait, that's what it looks like?"

I'm spending a bit of time on my short game at the moment. Reviewing/testing the PuttOUT kit has made a big difference in my confidence in my stroke and I'm seeing big improvements in my putting scores - last round was 31 putts, normally around 36-38. Also working on my short chips. Have a good sized lawn so throw the balls around the lawn and chip to a bucket at random places. Play the ball as it sits and trying to chip into the bucket to help improve my accuracy and distance control. Gives me a chance to try different ball positions for higher/lower ball flight and I'm starting to get much better at landing the ball within a few inches of my targets. Seems to be helping so far, no duff chips in the last couple of rounds

Once I got tired of cheap bottles that melted ice in less than an hour, I bought a Yeti Rambler 30 oz tumbler and a 36 oz bottle. The first time I used them, I completely filled them both with ice and then topped them off with cold water. It was a 90F+/80%+ humidity day and I went through the tumbler before finishing the front nine. I refilled the tumbler from the bottle and noticed there was lots of ice still. At hole #15, when the tumbler was empty again there was hardly any water in the bottle - but there was a lot of ice left that I couldn't drink!!! I had to buy lemonade on #17 from the beverage cart because I had lots of ice and no water! I learned to use a max of 20-25 ice cubes in the bottle on really hot days (less when it's not so hot) and all the ice will melt somewhere on the back nine so I max out fluid carrying capability. Yes, Yeti stuff is expensive, probably overpriced even - but it works FAR better than any of the bargain crap I wasted money on before. I use the tumbler and bottle every time I play in Spring-Summer-Fall, and just the tumbler in Winter. Staying hydrated is important, those who've actually experienced dehydration know it's no joke (I did it boating a couple times, never again).

At least you guys aren’t on TV saying that their Drivers Suck. I hear that is a big deal.

Just for fun, I checked out the cast B drill and that looks like it's going to take a minute or thousand for me to get down. I'm not going to jump ahead, just like seeing what all the video entails to satisfy my curiosity. I appreciate the advice and plan on working on the Backswing A drill for quite a while. I even messed around with it today leaving work with the umbrella I carried in. I wanted to work on setting the wrists in the proper position and worked on the feeling of getting to a flat lead wrist. It's definitely going to take a while to iron out all the bad things in my swing, as there are many. Right now it seems like: Pros: I can make contact and advance the ball Cons: everything else, but at least I can putt. Might have just jinxed myself.

To echo @THEZIPR23 and @ejgaudette, I'm in the exact same place myself! Been hard to be content with that, but I'll walk off the course now feeling like I had no swing whatsoever that day and still be able to keep my bad rounds in check score-wise. Beginning to understand just how hard it is to shoot near par consistently. There's just so much luck involved, on top of the incredible amount of skill required.

I wasn’t sure how well my Tour Length Ventus from my Speedzone was going to match up with the Epic Max LS head, so I picked something up to try out.. Looks like it’s time for a proper shootout between these two!

Shortages on components are understandable, given the supply chain issues literally every industry is seeing right now. However, that doesn't excuse lack of communication about the status of shipments, especially when what's being sent to the testers is going to be publicly discussed in a forum that has the readership (and advertising power) that MGS does. The problem @jlukes is having is going to be doubly worse - how can someone give an accurate review of something that's clearly not the right fit for them? I'm all for giving credit to an OEM like Cobra who has always been ready and willing to sponsor tests and reviews, and take an active role at times in what's going on. However, knowing how huge the CCC is here at MGS, and the amount of publicity they get from it (let's be honest, companies see opportunities like this as huge word of mouth advertising which is worth way more than the equipment they are providing) I'm kind of dumbfounded at how things have gone so far.

... I wonder what Chi Chi, Palmer, Floyd and Trevino would have thought of a modern instructor taking apart their "flawed" swings on video. Same thing today for Furyk, Wolff and Bubba. There was a Golf Digest article many years ago that showed all of the top players at impact and with wildly different backswings, their impact positions were virtually identical. Like you said ... swing your swing and make adjustments if necessary based on ball flight and accuracy, not how it looks on video.

You gotta own it...swing your swing!

Darwin award candidate?

I was getting ready to head to the course this morning and out my window I saw 3 firetrucks and cones blocking off my street. The white van on the right is a Cascade Natural Gas vehicle. Gas leak!! Three houses down the street on the other side of the 5th wheel. They were digging in the yard of the 2nd house down as well. Word has it that the guy was moving a fence further out toward the street. Idiot!

This was one of my most frustrating experiences last year. I felt like I was playing better but the low scores weren't there. However the range of scores closed considerably. It was a hard mental shift. I did reach my lowest index ever, so while it may not feel like it the progress is there.

I mean I guess that's nice if you into that sort of thing.

First round in with the new irons yesterday . Started with a large bucket to get some initial feel and nuisances of the ZX5's and MMT80 shafts. Overall a good start but might be overpowering the new shafts (84g vs. 98g) a whisker. I had to really focus on tempo; particularly the transition. I shot a 41/43 at Beaverhead GC with basically a wholesale bag change as this included the new ER5v putter. The only familiar friend was the Glide 2.0 56/12. Initial findings are that distances are quite similar to the G410's - maybe picking up 2-3 yards and more so on the shorter irons. This is most likely the slight increase in ball speeds seen in the LM numbers since the lofts are the same. Still a bit too early to know for certain, but ball flight alley looks tighter. Definitely not as forgiving as the G410's on mishits but also not excessively punishing. My contact zone was pretty darn centered 6i-AW and a little loose on the 4i and 5i. I need to work on these a bit as the shaft change may simply be more noticeable/challenging on the longer lengths. SD on the 8i-AW was great, yielding very consistent carry distance. This got progressively worse back to the 4i and I think that will improve as I get the timing with these grooved... or at least I hope so.

It's every component right now...you may get shafts in but you'll be out of golf pride grips. Then you'll get grips in and be out of a certain shaft. Or you'll have grips and shafts but the club head is out of stock. Getting everything lined up is extremely difficult right now. As @jlukes will attest, don't waiver on your shaft of choice, but for grips, just have them throw whatever on and you can make do until your grip is in stock somewhere.

Went through that earlier this year - after insurance it was $700.

Bought new glasses last night, ever since moving to progressive lenses I cannot believe how expensive things can get. I do opt for the higher cost lenses with the smaller distortion zones, but then add in scratch protection, blue light filtering (a must for me since I look at 4 screens all day at work) and everything else... even with my insurance discounts it's basically the price of an iron set

YETI got me for two 36oz ramblers last week (one for me and one for my wife) and here's why...I kept waking up with headaches and it doesn't take a genius to realize its from lack of hydration. I love how this one has just a simple opening at the top. It keeps water cold but honestly, spending $40 on a water bottle is a pretty good motivator to stay hydrated. It's a mainstay while I'm at work.

I bring a 40oz insulated hydroflask filled with ice then topped off with water. In addition, I bring another 2 liters of water and a smaller hydroflask with lemonade and salt mix. Hydration is key out here in the deserts of Southern California lol.

The M7 made for an easy round in 30 degree heat yesterday, which is heatwave temperatures for the UK! It’s worth it’s weight in gold

Today's play was horrid. I played the OK VGA State Championship today and had high hopes of playing well, even if I didn't qualify for the Regional tournament. I shot a 94 with 1 birdie, 4 pars, 7 bogies, 4 doubles, 2 quads, and partridge in a pear tree. Only hit 2 fairways all day and just 6 GIR. Throw in 36 putts (three 3 jacks) and it's bound to be a bad day. Still had a great day. One of my playing partners shot a +1 or +2 and holed out for eagle from 82y on the 2nd hole we played. Was fun to watch a very solid round even if I wasn't the one swinging the clubs. I think I'm gonna take about a month off now and try to get rid of my golfer's elbow.

Not something you typically see in a pro shop. Woodland Hills in Eagle, NE:

I’m more of a hellacious seed type of guy but that bomb looked pretty good!

For some reason, I've been watching a lot of Faldo from the mid-90's. There was something fantastic about his swing. It was wide but compact, fluid but aggressive. In an interview a few years ago, he was talking about the golfball and how his swing didn't necessarily work well with the new style ball. When he was busy winning majors and Ryder Cups, he said he would be so focused on compressing the ball. For fun, it would be neat to see if any of those swings would produce similar results with newer technology.

The first thought that came to mind was "wow that can't be right", but hey gotta own it right

I am in the same place currently. Not getting super low scores lately but have not been much higher than mid-80s which I will take when I still bounced into the 90s from time to time

You beat me to it - I had just copied the thread for him and then saw your post.

It’s more than the basic pitch shot. It’s where any shot that needs to take distance off is typically hit from. If the body isn’t moving correctly from backswing A aka lead arm parallel then it’s not going to work properly at backswing B aka full swing. Hitting shots from both positions are important but moving on to backswing B before consistently hitting good shots from backswing A is going to delay progress. Not that any of us are John Rahm or Tony Finau but they can have really good good games with a backswing A type swing

I'd imagine it's pretty important for the grips to come from Cobra seeing as they have the Arccos preinstalled and that's a big part of the challenge. I guess they could always send the standard Arccos sensors if that was truly the holdup. I'm honestly floored that in a day and age where fitting is pushed so much, they would send anything out that was completely wrong. I'm with ya @jlukes, the wrong shaft can absolutely ruin a club and I've experienced similar fitting results like you did with the Titleist hybrid. Amazing what swapping a shaft can do and my friends at TXG show it time and time again. Shafts can change your strike location way more than most people realize.

Played in the qualifiers for the club championship at the weekend. The Saturday for probably the hardest I've seen the course, gusting 25-30mph fairways and greens hard. Greens running fast with interesting pin positions. Lost 3 balls, couple of penalty drops for and 84 nett 78. Nearly NR'd 3 times and wasn't going to play the 2nd round, playing partners kept me going. Sunday the wind had dropped so played a lot easier but missed 4 from 3 feet and a mind blip at 15 for an 82 nett 76. Top 16 scratch and the remaining top 16 nett qualify for the knockouts. I was 2 strokes out on the handicap at 49th so will have to wait for next year.

Actually hitting more balls from backswing A is what Monte recommends in the efficient swing series. He says that he and the pros spend 80% of their practice time hitting balls from left arm parallel. Also talks about how hitting balls from that position helps with learning to take yardage off shots. I don’t remember where he mentioned it but he’s also said if you can’t hit good shots from left arm parallel you can’t do it from a full swing

Because of that PXG-like hate, I wanted to dislike this bottle, but I just can't do it. I bought one for my wife's birthday first, then picked up my own thanks to The Buck Club's new member gift package, and then decided to grab one more because they worked so well (this time with The Golfers Journal logo). The 26 is perfect for my golf bag's bottle pocket, and it kept water cold even when sitting in direct sunlight for hours on a recent 90+° day. I suggest trying out the magnetic version of the Chug Cap - you lose the cap handle, but I like it better overall (smaller cap, stashes magnetically on the side rim).

For those wondering who is waiting for what still: txgolfjunkie - Bag jlukes - Wedges/Bag Mtbryant01 - Woods/Bag LeftyMatt89 - Irons/Wedges/Bag Brian A - Woods/Irons/Bag gavanski91 - Woods/Irons/Wedges/Bag Orders were submitted to Cobra on May 19th

Full transparency? Nothing. The main contact that set this all up is out on maternity leave and the guys backing her up haven’t been responding to the mods inquiries. We haven’t gotten any updates on the remaining clubs we’ve yet to receive, nor the bags. I get these are unprecedented times, but I’m really surprised how little Cobra seems to care about the challenge this year. The stock issues are one thing. I get that. The lack of communication is something I don’t get. And my own 2 cents, if I am an OEM putting together some sort of testing Opportunity for a website or influencer, I’d want to make sure the people reviewing my stuff received equipment that fit them (from the no up charge options available to consumers). I’d rather postpone testing altogether rather then send people ill-fitting equipment

Just got back from the range. Good news is I was absolutely flushing my 5 7 and 9 irons. Bad news is that was my mizunos I brought to the range along with my cobra irons. The cobras are still a major struggle due to the shaft. Hit them side by side today and had no idea where the ball was going with the cobras Both my fitter and my old instructor watched me hit a bunch and my fitter said “if you were thinking about buying either club I’d hide the cobras from you so you couldn’t hit them again” Instructor said be careful a don’t develop bad habits trying to get the shaft to work for me Driver, 3w, 7w and utility iron were all good. The 7w and utility iron continue to impress me for how easy they are to launch

Definitely mind-blowing for sure. Some of the stats that Lou Stagner puts out there on twitter about managing your expectations have literally changed the way that I approach the game. This is one that I remember literally every time I have a 120-130 shot: "From 123-yards in the fairway, PGA Tour Players are more likely to hit it OUTSIDE 30-feet than they are to hit it inside 10-feet." So me hitting a gap wedge or flighted PW to 30-40' I should actually feel REALLY GOOD ABOUT.

I worked on straightening out the Radspeed driver and 3W over the weekend...this was all indoors so I'll need to test these out on the course before deeming it worthy... Driver My biggest concern about opening up the driver face to -1.5* is my launch will get too low and I'll start losing carry distance. I have the 16g weight up front and a 8g weight in the back. This is 10g more weight than the stock weights and I do feel the head better during the swing. The added weight provided a more consistent strike, however, I still saw the hard draw on almost every swing. I added 4g of lead tape to the toe and immediately started to see results. My only issue is that the tape wouldn't stick to the matte paint and would fly off at impact. The hard draws straightened out to a more playable draw but I noticed some wild swings with driver spin. Keep in mind I'm using the Left Dash Pro V1x in all of my tests. I do throw in a Bridgestone Tour BX occasionally if I think the driver head is too low spin and I need something with a little more spin to keep the ball in the air. I'll say I've never seen such wild swings in launch and spin than with this driver. It's a little frustrating and I feel like this is a complex Rubik's cube and I've only got one side complete. Open the face, launch gets too low but spin is perfect. Square the face, launch is perfect but spin is counter-productive and ball moves right. Move weight forward, spin is reduced but I'm seeing ball fly further right. Move weight back, straighter ball flight but with excess spin. I love tinkering with clubs but I'm about out of ideas. Big Tour 3W I added 4g of lead tape to the toe of the BT and it was an instant success. I averaged 23 yards right of target without the tape, and only 6 yards right of target with it in place. The Left Dash paired with the BT is giving me driver-esk launch numbers (161mph ball speed, 12* launch @ 2400rpms - 278y carry). The left dash is a little bit more active (left-right movement) off the tee than the Bridgestone but both balls performed well. Regardless, my confidence in the 3 wood greatly increased and with the carry distance I'm seeing, I see it as a great sub in case the driver isn't behaving.

It is definitely progress. Swing is coming around and I am happy with impact and ball flight. Just finished hybrid most wanted testing today and have hitting the ball really well during driving iron and hybrid testing. At a point where I just want to go out and play golf and work on my game; unfortunately work gets in the way.

Dirty, filthy bombs. Phil would be proud.

@jlukes for those of us who arent shaft experts, can you explain the differences between what you prefer vs what you got? And how it makes the issues you have happen?

Basically I play a baby fade--- Back in my younger years I had a rope hook problem. I basically taught myself a anti hook swing. Since coming back from severe back injuries and having to change my swing some to take stress off of my back. I have found I can work it both ways. Starting to get confident with a draw especially with the driver and fairway woods.