vandyland

Been hitting balls multiple times this week and feel like my shortgame is in a really good place. Chipping and pitching has felt automatic so I am less consumed with technical thoughts and able to just focus on the shot. As for the full swing, that still has more than a few technical thoughts (as always) associated with it. Not raising up in the backswing is a big one but also keeping my hips quiet and back in the downswing. The scottie scheffler slide drill ingrains that fairly well but I don't really want that creeping into my swing. Still can get a little spinny from the top so working on tempering that, as always. Probably won't get to play much the next few weeks as we have a newborn (priorities, I know) but might get out towards the end of paternity leave.

Current swing, happy with it so not looking for feedback or to change anything. Ball flight is a light draw at the moment. FullSizeRender.MOV Hit about 70 balls at 80% working on not spinning out early. Chipped and pitched for 20 minutes after that.

One more shoutout to @EnderinAZ, his review is unlike any other I have seen before and I mean that as a compliment. I feel very good about my review but if you want to really see how this ball, especially visually, stacks up against other balls his videos do an excellent job on showing the roll and setup. Also, I don't want to bury the lede on how labor intensive the building of his chipper/putter looks. Great stuff!

Closed out my testing with my final round in the testing window this weekend. Not that anyone cares what anyone else shoots but I shot 71 with 5 birdies which is basically a 0 differential. My rounds with the Maxfli Tour X align: 4/6/2024 - 71 (0.8 differential) 3/28/2024 - 76 (5.7 differential) 3/24/2024 - 71 (2.6 differential) 3/20/2024 - 73 (3.0 differential) 3/15/2024 - 73 (3.0 differential) 3/9/2024 - 73 (0.4 differential) 5 rounds immediately preceding the switch to the Maxfli Tour X (ProV1x): 3/4/2024 - 83 (10.5 differential) 2/18/2024 - 78 (8.1 differential) 2/17/2024 - 84 (16 differential) 2/11/2024 - 79 (7.0 differential) 2/4/2024 - 83 (10.5 differential) Is it ALL down to the ball? Probably not. There was some bad weather in February but I can't ignore how well I have been playing with the new ball. Also, strokes gained putting is now positive most every round which it was not before. Alignment aid in full effect there along with CG balance. Very pleased with what might be my most important gear switch this year.

Had a fantastic saturday round. Played a golf course that is easily now, after playing it, in my Top 5 most fun golf courses of all time* and made 5 birdies to shoot 71 which is a 0.2 differential on the old GHIN (par 70). Maybe hit 2 bad shots all day. Driver was on cruise control, putts were going in, wedges were flighting. It was great. I just tried to think of the pressure of playing well as EXCITEMENT rather than nerves. Stayed with my swing thoughts and just loved every second of it. Golf is truly more fun when things are going well and trying to manage my own expectations as after I made 3 birdies in a row was a challenge but we did it. * In no particular order: True Blue, Pinehurst No. 4, Pursell Farms, Tobacco Road, Park Mammoth (KY)

There are some good quotes from Dr. Alister MacKenzie that resonate with me: FUN -- "Narrow fairways bordered by long grass make bad golfers. They do so by destroying the harmony and continuity of the game and in causing a stilted and a cramped style, destroying all freedom of play." When talking about wide fairways it always seems synonymous with the thought that we “are going to make the golf course too easy.” Yes, it will be easier in many ways. It will be easier to find your ball, easier for you to recover from a poor shot, and probably easier to maintain the golf course conditioning. But wide fairways can present an accurate player more options, he/she can hit the left, right or center of the fairway to find the best ANGLE. DESIGN -- "The chief consideration that should influence us in making any alterations to a golf course is to give the greatest pleasure to the greatest number. Any change to a course that does not do this is manifestly a failure.” Too often in the past it seemed like golf courses were always made tougher, longer, more stressful. For who? The 3% who play at a + handicap level or the masses? Thankfully, I feel like golf course design is pulling back from the direction of making golf courses overly penal and frustrating. OPTIONS Borrowing from Brian Ross, I have to agree that in golf there is one over-arching goal: to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. In contrast to this singular goal, the best experience typically involves a variety of options for how to play each one of those strokes. Options come from wider fairways and greens that are surrounded by short grass with at least one angle into the green allowing for a run up shot so golfers have the option to hit any club in the bag on any shot. From multiple angles on each hole so golfers have an option for which route they want to take to get the ball close to the pin. Finally, providing at least one clear path to the hole so that even a hacker has the chance/opportunity to finish the golf hole.

Not a major OEM but Maltby would be a non-descript, no advertising, shag your own balls range that had excellent grass, balls and clubs to use. Cobra would be very tech forward and 99% revolving around ball speed and distance. May not even give you irons or wedges. Just full send drivers all the time. Titleist would be members only and would definitely enforce a dresscode.

Just a round with some good players (all better than me) at a course an hour away that I have been wanting to play. Something that generally makes me nervous which I just assume is excitement. There is always the desire to play well but it is amplified under such conditions. Not a competition or anything, I just want to play well.

Test for the YouTube channel short video uploads. Want to see what a short displays like: Vs a regular video upload:

Had a range session yesterday in what seriously felt like 40 mph winds. I believe I read somewhere that range sessions in high winds are not particularly helpful. To that end, I was struggling a little bit with my release so I just chalked it up to a bad day and went and chipped/pitched. I have a big round coming up this weekend that I am excited about so hopefully I did not forget how to play golf (again). Will hopefully get back to the range today or tomorrow to see what is going on these days. As always, when the ball flight/contact starts to get squirrelly, I start second guessing my setup/takeaway/first move down...all that. As always, I expect it is just me either yanking down on the club in transition or not casting "deep" enough. Something that ends up with my hips getting out in front of me is typically a death move.

Got in a little more chipping and pitching work with these. They do what I expect and I am loving the control. Holed out a number of times and even holed out on my second chip of the day!

I echo what @RickyBobby_PR said. It doesn't have to be a "premium" shaft but rather a shaft that fits your swing and release. For me, more and more drivers had the Hzrdus line which I DO NOT get along with. I thought there was something wrong with me. Then I hit a grafalloy prolaunch blue (very inexpensive shaft) and it was great. I also liked the evenflow line. Basically anything that was "high launching" or for a slower tempo. I found most of those had higher torque values as well. I also moved into a lighter shaft which was disastrous at first but I have adjusted. I am now in a UST "red" profile which is fairly smooth and flexible. I love it but I could easily go back to the $50 grafalloy blue shaft.

So, I go back and forth on these. I have used GolfLogix, Taylormade+ (when it was free) and GolfShot. All are manual shot tracking apps that also provide strokes gained/stats. Here are some bullet points: Pros - Helps you get real about your actual distances - Can assist you in seeing where you miss and where you are dropping shots (not always what you think) - Gives you some historical reference for performance/individual rounds that you can revisit (especially for memorable rounds or courses) Cons - Usually an initial annoyance in the first few rounds, tagging putts tends to be the most annoying aspect. - Can also be annoying if you are playing in a cart and on cart path only so you have to take clubs + phone + sand for divot, etc - Forces you to be "on your phone" for a short period before or after every shot. - After about a year of using it, I knew my distances well and I really only like having it for strokes gained and seeing how far my farthest drives went So Taylormade+ updated and now doesn't provide shot tracking anymore. For the first time in 3 years, I don't shot track during rounds. And, I must say, it is a bit liberating. The shot tracking itself is not that intensive after you get really used to it but just not being on my phone at all is great. Having a pencil and keeping a few stats on my scorecard has been really fun lately. So I am sticking with that for now.

Played 9 holes this weekend again. No issues with ball durability (I am thinking it is all down to cartpath/trees that do the damage, not clubs in my experience). Also, had a 168 to the flag into a 15 mph headwind. That is usually a 7 iron with no wind so I took a 6 iron (carries 175-180) to account for the wind and....flew it about 175 on to the back of the green. This was good, in a way, because I always worry about spinny golf balls into the wind. Not really an issue there. Also, got a few questions about the alignment on the golf ball as I jarred like 3 putts in a row from outside 10 feet. I think I CONVERTED someone! Haha. He tried out the ball and lining it up and let him use my ball for all his putts from hole 6 - 9. He 2 putted twice and made a 12 footer. Prior to that he had two 3 putts and hadn't really made anything all day. I told him he just needed to see something different, his stroke looked fine to me. Oh, and I shot even par and hit one of the longest drives I have hit this year. So, yeah, this ball is checking the boxes. Also, not to be tacky, these balls are $39.99 for a dozen vs 54.99 for a dozen of ProV1x. I usually buy 36 balls per year, give or take. That is $45 right there which covers at least 27 holes at our best muni. I will take that for no (noticeable) drop in numbers, a better alignment feature and I can EASILY pick out my ball on the fairway/green/etc. Everyone knows it is my ball (for now until more and more people start playing this ball!).

I have to ask about this. To me, Caledonia is EXTREMELY challenging off the tee. Very narrow landing areas and tons of chances to get blocked out by trees. True Blue, again to me, was WIDE OPEN off the tee in comparison. I think I hit the ball about the same at both courses and I shot 73 at True Blue and 83 at Caledonia. There is more water on True Blue but I don't think that really bothers a better player much. I thought Caledonia was exceptionally hard and True Blue was more fun and easier.