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Wow, the more things change, the more they stay the same Feels like deja vu all over again and I'm getting PTSD from picking testers a couple years ago just from reading all this. My only advice is saying please don't sweat it to our current mods. You guys are doing a fantastic job and there will always be posters who just don't get the MGS vibe and goals of the forum. Keep up the great work!

Putted out of my mind in my league this week to shoot a 36 (+1). There were some phenomenal bounces (or lack there of... ball plugged 6 inches from a water hazard. Really a great round overall considering only having been out a couple times this year. And the fact that despite my score, I still I didn't get my first drive past the ladies tee made me feel really good about this season...

One of the main points of this thread was to open up the process to the membership (even if a lot already knew it). As many know we get thousands of entrants every test and as @hckymeyer may still recall (or have nightmares about) a ton of emails for every test either saying pick me pick me or giving us a novel as to why they would be a great tester. While the follow up or interest is good to see, it is on the forum where we want to see the activity. So the hope is to provide a central thread where new members can easily find a ton of information and see what/how it works so if they are serious about being a tester they have an easy source to reference to better their chances. There will always be those that don't like the process or disagree with how we do things. Or maybe it is a simple misunderstanding of what we do here or hope to provide our members with these opportunities. With new mods things change a little, but ultimately we all have the same goal. Select the best candidates for a testing opportunity and try to get a good mix of testers so any results/reviews can relate to the broadest audience on the forum.

Played in a scramble at my course today with @MDGolfHacker We shot a decent 66, that was straight up, not mulligan aided or string or any of those things. I hit the ball horribly off the tee, definitely my worst day with the stealth, but honestly it was just the swing never felt right today. But it was nice weather and I wasn't in the office and we helped a good cause. Funds went to the USO!

Weather was nice so son and I snuck in a quick nine before work. I probably should have stayed home; legs were tired and back was stiff. For the first time, it was my putting that bailed me out. Usually they call me Jabba the Three Putt, but that was never the case today. Shot 55 today, a few strokes behind Owen.

We got another break in the weather so I played Beaverhead GC (Dillon) the first time this season. Wow, they have really got the place in great shape - which is saying something because it's been well maintained over the 6 years we've been here. The courses are greening up fast. When we came through on the way home from AZ 3 weeks ago, it was 100% brown. After snowing and raining for the last several days, the day high of 61F felt nice. I paired up with a fellow from Dillon for the front nine and played solo (2 ball) on the back. 41/45/39. After the round I had the Grilled Rueben sandwich special that came with mushroom soup... Oh My was it ever good!! Hole #5 Par 4 Hole # 6 Par 3

This is going to be a new bi-weekly golf column focusing on all the major news and stories around professional golf, golf equipment, and the general golf world. Please send your submissions to me as you think of them throughout the weeks and maybe your submission will be featured in the next column! Stock Up: Great Names on Tour After sluggish Double Bogey, Bogey start, the dart ripping (pun-intended) Thai fan favorite, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, drained his Ace. Shortly followed by Scott Gutschewski, one hopping in his Ace. In this case, do you split the bar tab or does it mean everyone gets doubles? Stock Down: The Shark swimming in the North Sea this July Despite not competing in the last 13 years, Greg Norman made some bold statements claiming that he deserves a special exemption by saying "I am past Champion. I love St. Andrews." The R&A swiftly dunked on him by saying “The entry terms and conditions for The Open stipulate that a champion must be aged 60 or under or have won the championship in the previous 10 years to be exempt from qualifying,. That remains the case for the 150th Open and we have no plans for any additional exemptions.” Looks like the Shark will have to keep swimming. Stock Up: GET TO THE CHOPPA Tiger stans were notified early Thursday that his private plane had departed Jupiter in route to Tulsa to play a practice round at Southern Hills to test his leg. While media was strictly prohibited on site, an Oklahoma news channel got very creative and flew their traffic helicopter over the practice green to watch Tiger and his beautiful Newport putter. Stock Down: Phil's Coffee for Wellness The golf news was dominated by Tiger, but there was a Phil sighting for the first time in a few months at Rancho Santa Fe, and by the looks of it he's been taking a break from his diet and his coffee for wellness program. Boy, oh boy, Phil is looking THICC nowadays, but he's still ripping HELLACIOUS SEEDS. Stock Up: Counting score like a 30 Handicapper After taking an unplayable and having to punch out, Rickie Fowler flushed a wedge from 134 yards to sink his bogey 5. Wait till the end of the video below for a classic Rickie moment. Stock Down: Reading The PGL (Professional Golf League) sent out a lengthy memo to all PGA Tour Members this week. In case you forgot, the PGL was actually the initial contender to the PGA Tour prior to the Saudi backed LIV Golf backed the Brinks truck up and took all the attention. If you want the TLDR on the memo below, the PGL claims that it can build a league worth $2 Billion and is offering the players a 50% share in the league.

Well it's hardly Beethoven's 9th but May marks the 10th anniversary of my time as a member of the MGS forum community. Many of the folks who were here when I started are gone but some remain, looking at you Foz and a few others. I spent a little time as the number one all time poster but also could see that I would be passed up by others and have been. Still nearly 15K posts are a lot. I can't recall all of the tests that I've been a part of but those have been fun though perhaps not for the moderators who have had to deal with my technical ineptness. Lots of people here who are my virtual friends, lots of nice conversations both private and public, I've made some real friends here as well as we have a nice group of MGSer's in the Tampa Bay area. I think my favorite thread that I started was the one about what club you would grab out of your bag to stop a home intruder - it was well before there was any sort of thread hall of fames but it had lots of traction and was tons of fun. Thanks Adam, T (who was very active in the forum when I first started) and BarbaJo for providing a nice place to hang out with other golfers. On a personal note this May is going to be a huge month for me. My Administrative Assistant left a couple of weeks ago, breaking my heart, she will always be a friend but I understand that she wanted to live out in the country and work from home - that doesn't fit in a Church/School setting that is in an urban area. So we are actually getting a professional church worker to fill that role, whose name is, wait of it..... May. But May doesn't come until June which we are having tons of fun with throughout the Day School and Congregational communities. Also work has begun on the house remodel. Taking a Florida home built in 1970 and making it handicap accessible with an eye towards the future is a trip. So my life is in turmoil to such an extent that I couldn't find a single pair of golf shoes (I own 5) last Sunday until I said I will need to buy another one when I get to the course and my Sketchers magically appeared. Fairways and greens forever!

Another 9 today. Driver was performing well, which means I'm drawing the ball, and my putter was back to form from Tuesday's backslide. One par and the rest were in my normal bogey and double range. No blow up holes and happily no lost balls on my nemesis hole on the back nine because there is water right, lol. That could stem from the fact that my miss this season is left. Because I had sent my Ping Crossover in for repair, I put my G25 4 iron back in the bag. If today is any indication, it may stay in the bag for a bit. I was hitting a bit better than the Crossover 4. But given the nature of this lovely game that could be short lived. I've taken to using my lob wedge, Callaway MD3 58°, around the green chips and pitches and I have been most happy with the results.

I didn't get to play today... nursing a sore back and had to get my car serviced. However, my wife played in her Wednesday Ladies League; shot 85 and won the pot for fewest putts... 32.

Beat my personal best by 3 strokes on my go to local 9-hole. Still a 58, but racing my own race. Had a great drive off the tee on the par 4 6th. Shanked my second in front of a tree. Hit a beautiful pitch over a tree to get within 15 feet, and two putted for bogey. Felt like a save for par for me, and that pitch made me feel like a million bucks. Only lost three balls!

Pretty much describes my year so far. Range finally opened today after being closed all week from last weekend's rain. Really, it probably should remain closed. There are still puddles of standing water all over the place and balls are plugged everywhere. This weekend's planned rounds might be in jeopardy as we are supposed to get more rain tomorrow at some point. Everything is a swamp. That being said, I hit a bucket of wedges, mid irons, Super Hybrid and driver today and found some keys to hone in on as the season starts to progress. In my quest to hit less of a draw I had started to push my hands away from me on the backswing (trying to move my path more left), which in effect got them too far out in front of me. My body was aware of this and compensated by dropping everything way inside on the downswing again, which in turn lead to a bunch of thin or blocked shots as I've been focused on not firing duck hooks on every swing. Started by relaxing the hands/wrists a bit more and then ended the session with the feeling like I was coming more inside on the backswing. Straightened everything out and I started hitting some really nice shots.

Spent an hour before league literally just putting. First time out for league last week and I was blowing lag putts by the hole some 5-10ft. Much better results tonight...I kept leaving them short... MDGolfHacker

Ok I'm done buying crap after today! Maltby Max Milled 60°. As you can see it's quite a departure from the high-bounce wedges I've been using. What I'm being told is that the extra wide v-sole adds quite a bit of effective bounce so 6° isn't necessarily the whole story. I'm also used to having a pretty good amount of heel grind to open up the face. Just tooling around in the back yard on what I'd consider green side rough length, I'm still able to fan the face wide open and run the ball from the inside heel diagonally up the face and off the toe taking full advantage of every groove on the face. With my PM grind, this is my "stop on a dime no matter how hard the greens are" shot. I'm hopeful that this one will work just the same. And yes those are functional weights.. similar to what Edel is doing. If I decide to switch to graphite, or want a different feel I can switch the weights out. Compared to my PM and Maltby TSW And I also picked up this. I prefer GPS over a scope just because I'll never be good enough to where the 5 yds in accuracy lost will ever make that much of a difference in my game. I do like that I can pin point the pin's location for a little more dialed in accuracy. That's all anybody needs.

This is really well said. I seriously select when I submit my name in for a testing opportunity. I choose what I feel comfortable with testing. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time testing something that isn’t suitable to my abilities. I tend to lean towards putters and technology for example. I’m interested in trying shafts but I don’t feel I have skills needed to properly evaluate them at this point. In my time in the forum and reading other’s posts I get the impression most feel this way. There is also a give back to the community feeling among those testing. There is a sour grapes quality to the comments of flyingwedges.

Spent over 2 hours with my coach working on my release with the driver last night. My irons are so on point because I used to flip hard at the ball but have now gotten my body in such a better spot that my compression and face control with the irons is 100x better. Problem is I went from hitting a flippy draw with the driver that I could play to a huge push cut. Had to slow it right down to hitting 150-175 full swing drawing drivers. After a while finally got it back in a good place to where I am delivering a lot squarer face with the driver.

... I came down with a sinus infection Tuesday night and almost walked off the course yesterday. These are much harder to defeat using homeopathic remedies but destroying my gut health with antibiotics is just not an option for me. So of course as soon as the infection dug in, my Forged Tec irons arrived. Sneak preview before I get to play them and post a review. Note: I may not be able to combo as the FTx 4 iron has quite a bit more visual offset than the FT 5 iron but will play them before rushing to any judgements.

Wanted to go hit a bucket on lunch today but timing didn't work out. Instead I busted out the Superspeed sticks and got a quick session in to help me loosen up. I'm always happy to report that by the end I was back to the ballpark of my peaks, even if its not pretty getting there. Going to try for the range tomorrow and an actual round sooner than later!

Intro Welcome My Golf Spy addicts. In lieu of the Spring Season, I’ve been fortunate enough to win, test, and use the Taylormade Stealth Driver. This was not sponsored by MGS but WAS semi-sponsored by Taylormade and the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association)…. But let me tell you about later… More about me and my game The Personal Questions I’m out of Charleston, SC and mainly play Dunes West Golf Club and Yeamans Hall. I’ve been golfing for about 22years Driver club speed about 100-105mph, Ball speed abt 145-150mph. Current gamer: Taylormade M6 9* I’m a casual golfer but definitely enjoy competition. 11.2 hdcp averaging mid to high 80’s per round. My Review Summary (TLDR) As part of the un-official MGS Instagram tagging crew I entered and won the TM Stealth+ “influencer Box” from the AJGA page with the following items: RH TM Stealth+ 9* driver w/ tool & HC Leather Sunday bag Personals bag Ball mark Divot tool My goal was to determine if I wanted to game the new driver (compared to my TM M6) or cash in. To stay in the bag, I needed better consistency/ Accuracy and/or better distance My results after 2 range sessions and 2 rounds: 86.5/100 As a member of the MGS forum and the un-official MGS Instagram tagging crew, I’ve been able to win and test an awesome amount of equipment: • MGS Tester '20 - G710 Iron Review • MGS Tester '19 -Precision Pro NX9 HD Pro laser rangefinder • Birdieball 10ft x 2.5ft putting green • TourAim alignment tool • UST Mamiya Lin-Q Purple driver shaft • Year supply of Taylormade Amateur(a) golf balls I grew up loving Taylormade products, mainly their drivers. I started with the Supersteel, R580, R9, R1, and then most recently the M6 a few years ago. Though that may seem biased, I have always had a comfort with the look and feel of their products. By no means does it mean they are better, but my ability to hit TM drivers has always been better than that of other manufacturers. The TM M6 I was previously gaming was selected from a full open-minded driver fitting at David Ayers golf in Mt. Pleasant, SC (Charleston). I tried the Ping G400, Callaway Epic Flash, Titleist TS2… but the M6 was most consistent FOR ME. Having entered and won the AJGA/ Taylormade promotional giveaway on Instagram, I was sent an awesome box of Stealth items! Of course, it was a Right-handed Stealth+ Driver at 9* which would be awesome except… I play Left-handed. Not too big of a deal, the driver has never been hit and David Ayers was open to swapping out a lefty model for me. BUT was the Stealth+ the right driver for me (of the Stealth models). Well, I wasn’t planning to pay for a fitting for only ONE driver so the guys over at David Ayers Lowcountry Custom Golf squeezed me into a booth to check out how I hit the demo Stealth+ and the regular Stealth. After hitting the Stealth+, the spin was WAY too low; like 1500-1900 rpm. We tried out the regular Stealth and that was the ticket. What was even better feeling was the stock Ventus shaft. To provide the best feeback to real-world testing, I am reviewing this as a put-in-play testing and trying to get some numbers from my Rapsodo MLM. Though the MLM will be beneficial, the confidence on the course will be more important. Grading • Real world, on-course playability: 50 pts • Rapsodo MLM numbers: 10 pts • Workability: 10 pts • Feel & Sound: 20 pts • Looks: 10 pts First Impressions This is the new age of the Carbonwood. No more titanium faces. We’ve had the carbonfiber crowns but not its into the face! Blacked out and with red accents, this thing looks mean. I love it! The face is red with the carbon fiber pattern showing through. Its an aggressive color scheme. The matching headcover is great in my book as well. Looks: 8.5 out of 10 pts ● Typical driver head shape ● Clean look ● Love the matte black and red combo with the carbon fiber ● Deductions because the red face wouldn’t be my ideal pick but it is a mean look ● Very little distractions if any on the crown. The one color tone on top keeps me focused a little better. Feel & Sound: 16 out of 20 pts ● Due to the carbon fiber face, the sound is a bit more muted and less “pingy”. Less likely to turn heads. ● For baseball fans, it’s like hitting or hearing a wood bat v. a metal bat. ● Deductions because it can be hard to hear and feel off-center hits. Everything sounds the same. ● Does it feel consistent across the face, or are mis-hits noticeably pronounced? ● Solid center-faced contact sounds like you really crunched one. Rapsodo MLM Numbers: 6 out of 10 pts Without owning a high end launch monitor (GC Quad, trackman, or even a Skytrack), it can be hard to trust the measurements the MLM is getting. But we don’t play in a simulated world so why only go off the digital readouts; this is meant for on-course gaming. Some players are great at practice, others are gamers! ● Accuracy – the dispersion seemed excellent. I attribute a lot of that to the shaft. It’s the Stiff Ventus (non-velcore) stock shaft be feels great TO ME. ● Distance – Maybe a slight edge to the Stealth compared to my TM M6. Just having a hard time believing those readings because the on-course numbers were much higher (260-280). ● Trajectory – Similar trajectory to the TM M6; a penetrating mid flight shot. MLM wasnt not reading launch angle very well. ● Forgiveness – Ideally I need to add some footspray to the face for better observance. But mishits closer to the toe still had great trajectories and rollouts. ● Control – The loft sleeve definitely helps zero in a great ball path. The weight seems heavier than say a Ping G400 (which I consider very light) Stealth hitting into a net Stealth Hitting at the range Workability: 8 out of 10 pts ● Workability – I prefer a straight trajectory but have worked it a few times. I have not had any difficulty working a fade or draw. On-Course: 48 out of 50 pts This is where it all matters; you’ve practiced with them and have a good idea of the characteristics described above (accuracy, distance, forgiveness, trajectory, control, workability) and now is the time to put them to the test. Playing on the course is where it is truly going to matter. Do I really have confidence with the Stealth every time I take it out of the bag! I have incorporated a little bit of Arccos data into the pictures below. ● Pressure – High confidence. Getting the feel on the range and then hitting the course, I knew I could blast one down the pipe. The solid matte black crown alleviated any distractions. ● Center strikes just felt really good. You could almost feel the compression of the face and ball. ● The 2nd round I played with it took me a little while to get going but that was a ME problem, not a club issue. Final Performance Comments: ● The very first round with the Stealth I averaged 260yds with a long of 280yds in early morning, cool dew-filled conditions (little roll). I hit 57% of the fairways. ● 2nd round on May 1 and skipping the front 9 (I don’t wanna talk about it haha), I drove it from 268-311yds and hit 5/6 fairways that I used driver on. ● Based on Arccos, I improved 2.2 Strokes gained compared to my previous 10rds. ● After a few great shots, I just felt GOOD. Especially using Arccos to see how far the drive went. Playing 6400yds, I felt like I only had a wedge left into most par 4’s! ● Taking such a large leap out of metal woods and into carbon fiber, this will be very interesting to see where the future goes with this technology. Play it or Trade it? Have you see my listing on eBay for my TM M6 yet?? Is that the answer you need. That 2nd round with the Stealth sealed it into my bag. When I rip a drive, it just feels gggoooooooddd. That’s a fist bump kind of drive. Final Score: 86.5 • Seems like a low score… but the on-course performance sealed the deal for me. Most point deductions were from the MLM readings. Ideally, its best to take the club onto the course to get the best feeling how it will game for you. Rapsodo_MLM_Jon_Mayer_01050951.mov Rapsodo_MLM_Jon_Mayer_01050958.mov Rapsodo_MLM_Jon_Mayer_01050959.mov

Shotscope H4 - Ordered and scheduled for delivery later this week.

I hope Rickie gets back to form soon - pro golf is a much better product (from a fan engagement and entertainment standpoint) when he's out there!

I knew taking that picture would come back to bite me.

Oh great, Martha's game is hitting full stride just in time for the PNW Meet-up... guess I'd better rob my wife's change purse .

I see the west coast ladies play for the same big bucks as the east coast ladies!! And I'm sure she earned those 32 putts because I've yet to play with ladies that give any length putt no matter how short!

We did. We could have done 3-4 shots better. But I hear that from every group in every scramble that I score. So we got what we earned. It was a fun time. One of our partners was a friend who does PBP for the Washington Nationals and Navy Football. Hadn’t send him since last fall it was great to catch up on a lot of stuff. The other player was our lead instructor at tbe course. So we let him do all the heavy lifting

It was a fun day indeed! If only some of those burned cup edges dropped it would of been a different outcome! MdGolfHacker

Well that might get her a Happy Meal at McDonalds these days! But your on your own!

Perpetual mid 40s and 50s weather with rain, mist, and 15-20 mph winds is killing me. I need to dial in my wedge distances; I had decent baseline numbers last year but I'm a bit steeper on the ball now and with my shoulder trouble my swing is becoming more of a cut than draw (harder to release the club when external rotation of the lead shoulder is limited). I just worked through gap wedge, 54 (bent to 55) and 60 (bent to 59) and while working on strike was beneficial, I don't know how much I can really learn distance-wise hitting range balls in low 50s temps with 15 mph winds when I'll typically be hitting a high compression premium ball in 70-80 degree temps and usually less wind. Frustrating.

Played 9 holes yesterday, but didn’t keep score. I just wanted to see if I could take the changes I made on Tuesday to the course, plus the wind was 20+. I warmed up on the range, and was really hitting it well. First hole nearly drove the green, I haven’t been that close all year. I hit some really strong shots, but as the wind picked up there were some shots I just could not get comfortable over which resulted in some stinky shots. Overall I’m really positive, and with some more work I may be ready to enter another tournament in a month or so.

I quit going to work in September 2015, and I still need a mental health day every now and then.

Good range session today..work on my new Sub70 5wood which am currently testing, and then worked on some hybrids, 3wood, driver ,irons chipping and puttin. Everything was pretty consistent, need to bottled it so i can take to course next time.

*Thank you!!!* Hoping to repeat that .. stay calm, stay focused on what I'm doing, be patient.

It sounds like you held your round together extremely well after the shaky start. That's a heckuva round, my friend!

Better than usual! Started off a little shaky, though - sloppy double, messy bogey, blow up triple .. but followed that with two pars, two ok bogeys and .. two really nice pars to finish 9 holes with a +8/44!! Trouble for me today was off the tee - driver is in the shop getting re-shafted and maybe I was just trying too hard with the 3W and had a lotta misses both right and left .. or topped... Did get one really solid one off on the second to last hole (a Par 5). That score includes one 2-chip (very disappointing; was not in that bad of a spot) and two 3-putts (being way too cautious on the downhill first putts) .. otherwise short game was decent and .. pulled off two up & downs - one from a shallow bunker off the front-right corner of the green! Made a few 50 - 100 yd shots on green count, too, so overall starting to feel good about the work I've been putting in and happy with starting to see some progress. Addendum: may be related, or may be entirely coincidental, but .. played a yellow ball today

Hope you feel better. I suppose holding a golf club from the couch while watching something decent on TV isn’t the worst way to spend a sick day…

I feel like this is now a thing and we need a "Sub70 Fanboy" tag to put under our Donor, Broke XX, etc. tags on the left.

Laughing with you - did the same thing to mine!! I just like larger putter grips, find them easier to grip lightly but snugly.

... That is really just tricking the swing weight scale. Most that put in a grip weight for counter balance cannot tell much or any difference with or without the weights since you aren't swinging them at their position under your top hand. That said, some like a counter balanced irons and have success using this method but usually not those that extend a shaft and just want to reduce the measured swing weight.

Originally it was supposed to be May 25th which will be the 45th anniversary of the release of the original film, which would have been very cool.

I honestly don't see it as feeling important, but as an opportunity to share knowledge with a group of people with the same interests. As someone that doesn't have the same equipment knowledge, it is fascinating to learn about different aspects of the game and try to learn from those with more experience in things like club building. Speaking of which, I would enjoy reading about your putter builds and find that it might prove to be a great way to start a relationship with the forum. We love reading about things like that.

I'm honestly a little taken back with the response... however I'll bite. For starters we don't want random sampling. We want member reviews which provide their experience with whatever the product is. We aim to spread most products around a variety of handicaps, ages, new and old members and more. It is by no means random that someone is selected. We as a mod team hand pick every single member that is selected for a test. That is no secret. Random sampling provides us with questionable results and a higher potential for no review to be completed at all. Giving the OEM no feedback. Even though it can still happen with our selection process it is much less likely. Members who are selected must first agree to the terms of accepting the product with the condition of providing a full review for the community. If they are not able to do so then we move to another person. Something a lot of members may not realize is we have several that sign up and when selected something in life happens and they have to back out. When we are told this ahead of time we remember that. In a good way. It is great when someone recognizes what these tests mean to the community. It is not a contest to be won, it is an obligation and commitment to the community to provide a in depth thorough review that will help others with potential future purchases or decisions. Someone who bails is also equally remembered, but in the opposite manner. Of course feel free to feel how you do and critique our system or the way we select our members, but we truly do have some great reviews posted on this site by our every day members that just enjoy being able to give back to the community by putting their all into a review. Random sampling is for contests, not member testing. We will leave the random sampling to instagram, twitter and other SM platforms who draw names from a hat to give away products. This is not a give away and not the way we do things here.

When we eventually get (move) to AZ, I'll be on the lookout for the guy gaming this set-up

I watched the video before I came over to read MGS and it was interesting. As an MGS most wanted tester I obviously hit lots of shots indoors and on a GCQuad so I have some good comparisons for all types of clubs. My personal findings are that the numbers I see on the GCQuad are similar to what I see on the course.

Currently recovering from a tore planter fascia on my right food. This happen about 3 weeks ago at the start of a tournament round on the 2nd hole while stepping out of a bunker i heard a pop. I limp my way thru the rest of the round (if it was my left , i would had to withdrawal. Orthopedic said to wear the boot for the next 4-6 weeks. And that its a slow healing injury Of course i go play 2 weeks later wrapped foot tightly and it was fine for the most part But i stop wearing the boot cause it was feeling better and i must it tweak it..now it hurst again.. So back to the boot..damn the madness