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Chester3488

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Everything posted by Chester3488

  1. I think this pretty much sums it up. On that note, my main golf buddy just got a brand new Mizuno ST-X 220 driver. He even got it fitted. (Had a choice of maybe 8 or 10 shafts) for 200 bucks. Granted that's last years Mizuno driver, but it's brand new! So, there are deals to be had. I have a nephew that spends boat-loads of money playing Ultimate-Frisbee. I don't get it. "Don't you just need a frisbee and a pair of sneaker?" He laughs at me. Any hobby you get in to can be done on the cheap, or you can drop tons of coin on it if you desire.
  2. I hear you. I love shiny things. I'll play my irons for 10 years, but my driver is rarely more than 2 years old. Every other year for wedges too.
  3. By the way, it isn't always just an A flex. The XXIO, the Cobra Air-X, The Mizuno ST-X Platinum and The PING HL are all designed with Seniors in mind. They are made to be lighter, launch higher, slightly higher spin, and designed to be fitted to an extra lightweight shaft. They are truly "designed" for seniors.
  4. That's really interesting. It must be a regional thing. Here where I live there are 2 Dicks sporting goods, A Golf Galaxy and a PGA Superstore all chock full of lightweight senior shafts on 12.5 degree drivers.
  5. There are many models that are designed specifically for Senior Golfers. The Cobra Air-X or Cobra Max, both designed for seniors, nearly always with an A flex shaft. Mizuno ST-X Platinum is designed for seniors. The Cleveland Launcher XL Lite Driver and Callaway Big Bertha B21 Driver are both designed for Seniors. About half the XXIO drivers are designed for seniors. Even the PING G430 comes in an HL model, which is designed for seniors. I actually think the opposite is hard to find. Try to find a really lightweight driver that's not designed for seniors. I happen to like the feel of a lightweight driver, but in general if you find a lightweight driver it's designed for high launch. I'd enjoy playing a lightweight low-launch driver but those are pretty rare.
  6. Yeah, plus everyone compares their ball to the ProV1. And why wouldn't you? You are correct, sir.
  7. I think the PXG ball is actually targeting The Titleist Tour Soft. Not the ProV1? If you compare technology and price point those two seem far more similar to me.
  8. I hear you. I get what you're saying. I also totally agree about Cobra. BUT... here's the big but. The big 3 lead the world in driver sales. Each of them alone outsell everyone else combined. Each of them is priced competitively against each other. If one of them was to blink and drop their price, they'd likely have a banner year against the other two for one year. But ONLY for one year. Then the next year the other two would drop their price as well and now they would have eroded market pricing. Everyone would have to drop their price and then the balance would reform. The big 3 would still be the big 3, but each of them would be less profitable. All the also-rans would still be the also-rans but they too would be less profitable, because they too would have to drop their price. So, its a one-year profit for a forever loss in profitability. So everyone in the industry would be less profitable. Even your own company, at least after the one good year you'd have. There are tons of examples in tons of industries where this exact thing has happened. One of the major players drops their price and BANG, market pricing is ruined. Suddenly everyone is less profitable. It's happened with cars, toys, department stores, insurance, houses, its even happened to pickles. It takes years, sometimes decades, sometimes forever to recover that same profit margin. Having said that, if you are thinking of selling the company or if you are a CEO on his/her way out, it can be a great strategy. Get that one year boost in sales. Make your numbers look good. Go out with a bang or sell the company. That has been known to work.
  9. Ping G430 is $547.00... 2 bucks under your suggestion. Cobra AeroJet is $549.00 exactly your number. So is Mizuno. All three of those companies combined sell fewer drivers than any one of the big 3. Callaway, Taylormade or Titleist. All three of the big three had record years last year. Callaway is publicly held their numbers are super easy to get.
  10. There's a full size 9 hole course about 15 minutes from my house. Every year, I hear they are going to sell that course and turn it into housing lots. But so far so good. It's a great walking course. I have a Clicgear 3.5+ and I really enjoy the chance to take a long lunch now and then and get a nice walk in. I'll play it as many as 20 or more times per season. I think courses of that ilk are getting fewer and farther between. I get it though, it's all about the revenue.
  11. Agreed. I will say I think the bigger problem is that the engineers have pretty well caught up to the rules of golf. There is less and less an engineer can do to a driver to make it truly perform better than the previous year's driver. I'll be interested to see where they go in the next couple of years. Perhaps more customization in terms of looks? ... Maybe, I don't know?
  12. Okay, I used to have a bias toward Cobra. I still have a Cobra F7 hybrid in the bag. (I'll argue the best hybrid ever made.) Having said that. I've had great experiences lately with PXG. Great fitting sessions. One of the few fitting sessions I've ever had that explored not only the gaps at the bottom of my bag but the gaps at the top. They also fit each club individually. Not just find a 7-iron you like and build a set around that. Interestingly enough the high end of my bag got tweaked upright. The low end got tweaked flat. The middle wasn't tweaked. The low end got tweaked weaker in order to make the gapping work out. The high end of my bag has higher swing weight than the low end of my bag. Everything was done to hit the numbers I wanted to/needed to hit with each club. Easily the best, most thorough fitting I've ever had. Plus they sent them to me with the grips shipped loose so that I could blow on my own Pure Grips Midsize DTX's. Best part, I got fit on a Sunday, I played my custom built clubs that Friday. I was so happy with those that I ended up getting a 3 wood and a 5 wood from them. So, I'd say I'm a bit of a PXG fan now. .... Having said that, I didn't really like the feel of any of their putters. ... They look great, but just didn't quite work/feel the way I wanted them to. But otherwise, I have nothing bad to say about PXG.
  13. I joined because I wanted to be a tester. About a hundred years ago there was another forum which did testing and I got to test and review several products for them. I enjoyed it. So, I figured I'd enjoy this.
  14. I think if drivers sales slump this would be one of the two causes. The other being the fact that last year's drivers were just so darn good. I don't think it has anything to do with the new drivers being "too expensive". You have to remember when Callaway introduced the FT-5 back in 2007, it retailed for $500 to $565 depending on which one you wanted. Back then there was no adjustable head, but Callaway did offer a Draw, a Neutral and a very rare Tour Fade version. If you translate the price of the FT-5 to 2023 dollars that's equal to over $720 dollars today, and up to $830 in todays dollars if you bought the premium version of the FT-5. Of course in 2007 Callaway also had the Big Bertha 460, which retailed for about $400. Which would still be over $575 in today's dollars. Just as another data point. Taylormade introduced the Burner with the Bubble Shaft back in 1994. It retailed for $350.00. Which if you convert that today's money is also well over $700.00. So, basically drivers have ALWAYS been expensive. But inflation across the US was very low from about 2010-2019. So, we didn't see the prices change much. But for the last year and a half inflation has been absolutely insane here in the US. It's the highest its been in about a hundred years. So, naturally prices are going up. Last year, Callaway reported record numbers for driver sales. (They are publicly held so you can read their report.) Taylormade also had a banner year for Drivers. Last year's offerings from both Callaway and Taylormade are both really good. So, a lot of folks (myself included) won't be getting a new driver this year. Last thing. PXG had record sales during the traditional "off-season" for drivers. They did what used to be commonplace for Taylormade and Callaway to do which was to offer deep discounts from Halloween until Valentine's Day. They sold a ton of drivers, many of which have barely made it out on the course yet, due to the weather in a lot of the country this time of year. So, IMO if driver sales slump, it will be easy for everyone to blame pricing. But if you look deeper, you'll likely find the true reasons are 1 - Lots of golfers already have great almost new drivers in their bag. 2 - You can get really good deals on last year's (or the year before) drivers right now (sometimes even fitted). It's getting more and more difficult for manufactures to make any real significant gains in performance. The rules of golf have been pretty close to maxed out.
  15. I can't use radar in my indoor range. I just don't have the room. I gotta go with the camera system which still limits me to SkyTrak, GC3 or the Bushnell version.
  16. 6' 2" tall and play a 34" putter. I grip down to the lower end of the grip and allow the rest of the grip to act as a counterbalance.
  17. No white pants. No white shorts. No white belt. All of the above should never be worn by guys over 30. ... maybe 35. UNLESS they are in the Navy, they're a painter, or they sell ice cream for a living.
  18. This is such a fun thread to follow. Some great ideas here.
  19. New drivers are always fun. I like shiny things. Having said that, the best way to improve is usually getting with the right swing coach. I know this has been hashed out a million times, but IMO the shaft will help/hurt the feel of the driver far more than help/hurt the performance of the driver. Here's an interesting experiment for you. Use Arccos or Shot Scope or what ever stat tracking app/software you like. Then after a season, get fit for the latest and greatest new driver. I'll be you dimes to donuts that your driving stats change very little. ... Unless, you are taking lessons. Unless your driver is more than a decade old. There may be small gains to be had by upgrading. Certainly if you are badly fit, getting properly fit will help. But if you were well fit into something fairly recently, the only true gains will come from improving your swing, not upgrading the driver... especially if you just upgrade the shaft. Here's a case in point. My playing partner and I were both fit into a PING G30 back in 2014. He and I both use Shot Scope to track our games. This season he got fit into the PING G425. (I've switched drivers 3 times since 2014... I like shiny things.) Anyhow, comparing his stats from this year (brand new driver) to last year's (7 year old driver), there's a bit of a difference. But not significant in either accuracy, distance or strokes gained. Maybe 3 yards of distance. But its hard to see that on the course. Strokes gained are less than +0.1 strokes. When we play he is still trying to clear the same bunkers off the tee. He's still trying to hit the same start lines on the same holes. He still has some great drives and some ... not so great. Anyhow, if you want a new driver, GET A NEW DRIVER. I can't talk. I've had 4 drivers in the last 8 years. I love getting a new driver. (Once more, I like shiny things.) If you think it will significantly change your game. ... It may, if your old driver was a bad fit for you. Otherwise, spending time trying out swing coaches until you find the right one will pay significantly better dividends then trying out drivers until you find the right one. Good luck and let us know how it all comes out.
  20. Ah, my first "real" putter was a Zebra that looked pretty much just like that. I got it back in 1992. Mine had that cool Zebra sole plate. Remember those?
  21. I've become a bit of a PXG fanboy. I've started to sprinkle more and more of their clubs into my bag. I have a 3-wood from them that you may have to pry from my cold dead hands one day. I also love their customer service. There are bunches of places near me to test their product and/or get fitted.
  22. I know many folks who carry a low bounce 60 and a high bounce 56. I even know one dude who carries a low bound 58 and a high bounce 58. His next most lofted club is a 52.
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