vandyland

Always good to see someone have the same experience as me. For a player that hits like 70%+ of their fairways and always hits the center of their driver, they may want to look elsewhere for more SPEED. But for us mortals, this driver still keeps up but is astounding at how it can still pump the ball out there and then I look down at the ball mark on the face and it is high toe. I have had ones where I swear I almost missed the face and they still went about 90% of normal distance and didn't have some crazy gear effect on them.

Stono Ferry is a great option. Personally I would lead with that as well. They are usually packed though so I don't think they would be amenable to a fivesome (as most courses are not in my experience). Charleston Muni underwent a renovation a few years ago and it is now "better" in conditions but I will say it has some pretty wild greens. Like, crazy undulations for a municipal course. If you are into that.

I was very impressed with the Driver. So much so that I have not even thought about another driver in 6 months...which is saying a lot for me. They are good all-around with their super power being retaining speed and keeping spin down on off-center strikes.

The challenging part of this is the putter. I LOVE LOVE my LAB putter. But if I was going to solo out with one brand....it might have to be Cobra. #1 I like the underdogs and #2 they are making some really good stuff through the bag. Driver: Darkspeed LS 10.5* - UST LIN-Q Red Hybrid: King Tec Hybrid 19* (always been fascinated by that thing) Irons: King Tour 5-GW with KBS Tour 120S -- this is what swayed me the most...I mean look at these Wedges: Cobra Snakebite 52* and 58* Putter: Agera Armlock (because why not?) with the SIK face

More sporadic updates these days, in a bit of lull currently as I don't have any big goals at present. But, I did want to share a small tweak to my chipping/pitching that has been very helpful: Setup: Weight left (70% of weight on front foot), hands even with the clubhead so there is no forward press Feel: No weight transfer, quiet lower body. Basically weight starts left and stays left. Big Change: Extend the head and chest in the downswing. A bit hard to explain in words but previously I was staying very "down" in my chipping and I felt like I was getting steep and out to in coming into the ball. This subtle "extension of the head and chest" shallows me out a little bit, helps me elevate the ball and my low point consistency is much improved. Now my "miss" is a slightly thin shot (not a skull but just a groove low). Fat shots are almost (ALMOST!) impossible here because those are generally down to weight shift being bad or loss of posture downward. This has helped my sand game and generally chipping and short pitches. Also, I can hit this shot easily off a tight lie or fluffy grass. Just feeling VERY confident chipping the ball at the moment. Played twice while in Florida, shot an 80 and a 73. The 80 at Regatta Bay was down to iron play not being that sharp and just putting myself in a few bad spots. That is a tough golf course. The 73 was much more in line with how I feel like I have been playing. Driver has been good since I moved my ball position back slightly. Irons were fine. Wedges were great and chipping/sand/pitching feels very comfortable with the feel described above. Putting is streaky as always but I have moved the ball back in my stance there as well and had less pull misses, it is more just down to speed at this point.

How do you find you use the MLM2Pro most? Is it combines? Impact vision? Just being able to see the simulated flight on the range even when hitting into a net?

Played a second round yesterday, this time in a 15-20 mph wind most of the day. Good results downwind and in crosswind but, as is expected with a high spin ball, gets eaten up a little into the wind. I had 129 into a flag with a 20 mph headwind and hit my 135 club and came up 10 yds short. I think ProV1x would also have gotten eaten up by that wind. Also loved the alignment aid on putts. Also got it to line up for an approach shot (see above) naturally. Getting more comfortable on tee shots as well.

Date 03/14/2024 Course Name Baytowne - Sandestin Gross Score 73 Course Handicap 3 Gross Strokes over/under par 2 Net Score to Par -1 Net Score 70 Net Birdies or better Longest Drive SIM Round? Better round today, but very windy.

I have found the same thing. The alignment is good but doesn't seem to impact how the ball rolls, anecdotally, for me. Played a full round with them here in Florida and was hitting my distances as I expect vs what I see out of a ProV1x. Flight with the irons seems higher (which is fine) and we had a bit of wind here and I didn't see the ball getting batted down out of the sky. Unfortunately, I did donate one ball to the water (there is water on every hole at the golf course here) but thankfully I still have plenty of balls. Another thing I noticed is that I didn't have any "road rash" on the ball from wedges. I noticed the new Titleist White box balls were a little "fragile" when it came to that. So far, these are resilient. Also, I was lining up all my tee shots and putts (which doesn't take much time) and seemed to suggest I had a "slight" aiming problem off the tee. I initially didn't trust the lined up ball (parallax effect probably) but found if I adjusted a little left, voila, the ball went a little left of target. So next round (tomorrow) we are full commitment to trusting the alignment aid off the tee.

@azstu324 I was very surprised at how much I liked (and continue to like) the Mizuno ST-Z 230. The adjustability is impressive but it does best for me on standard everything (9.5*). I have the LIN-Q red in it and the positives for me are that this driver is very good ALL AROUND. Not the fastest, the most stable, not the most anything but does everything very well. I would say it's best characteristic is how well it retains speed and keeps spin down on heel strikes. Also does very well on toe strikes. It is decently low spin but not crazy low spin and overall has just been a revelation for me. Would never have tried it otherwise but now I am bullish on Mizuno woods. Edit: I have since hit it against the Aerojet, Paradym and Ping G425 and wasn't swayed. I also like that the Mizuno is setup to 45" but obviously you can shaft it however you want.

We are in florida this week so a little trip for the Tour X align was lining the ball up on all tee shots and putts. It is not a very distracting line at all and I think I prefer it to the triple track.

Date 03/12/2024 Course Name Regatta Bay Gross Score 80 Course Handicap 6 Gross Strokes over/under par 8 Net Score to Par 2 Net Score 74 Net Birdies or better Longest Drive SIM Round? Well, not the start we wanted but here we are. Another round on thursday so hopefully a better outing there.

Got some chipping testing in today! Feel is similar with the Tour X maybe a *tad* firmer. Both spin and react similarly. Don’t feel like I was giving anything up with the Maxfli vs ProV1x. Didn’t have my tripod (idiot) so couldn’t really capture green reaction. I did catch a hole out right out the gate with maxfli. IMG_9019.MOV Must be the alignment tech!

Geoff Shackleford also had some interesting thoughts -- https://linksmagazine.com/geoff-shackelford-we-dont-need-professional-golfers/

Second ball did much better on saltwater test… FullSizeRender.MOV

Hit balls at the range yesterday using the feel I "found" at Pinehurst and was hitting good consistent shots that started slightly right of target with a slight draw. That tells me I am coming from the inside but was catching the center of the face (not the TOE!) and hitting very consistent distances. Was just hitting 8 irons. Hit some 75%, 90% and 100% 8 irons all with pretty good results though I was having to concentrate more on sequencing with the slower shots rather than the full speed which is the opposite problem I usually have. Also hit about 20 shots with driver as I feel like that is THE most impactful club in my bag currently. Was losing balls right initially despite hitting push draws with my irons. I hypothesized that my ball position had drifted too far forward and moved my ball position back 2 balls (still well forward of center) and IMMEDIATELY strike, start line and ball flight improved. Was able to hit straight balls and draws from here much easier. Felt like home! Current feel is throwing away the lag and almost trying to "put my hands in my back right pocket". This can be overdone obviously but it helps me (a) not cast over the top and (b) not spin out from the top. This can lead to fat shots if I don't transfer my pressure on time but that is the golf swing. Also working on hitting chip shots with my Monte feels from my clinic last year which are: - Quiet lower body with weight shifted toward the target and kept there - Extend the head and chest in the downswing (I had stopped doing this)

That sounds like a personal problem for that guy. I would agree if you line up your ball AND you do aimpoint AND you have a greens book AND you walk off all your putts. You are probably going to be slow. I think the benefit of lining up your putt, for me, limits my 3 putts which, in turn, speeds up my overall time putting and on the green. It allows me to focus entirely on speed.

Working on the saltwater test and I must say, you need to put a TON of salt in a cup of water to make a golf ball float. First ball seemed to return to the same general area on each spin, not sure if that is the intention. It doesn't go IMMEDIATELY back to the same point but eventually (3-5 seconds) "settles" in the same general area. Apologies for my head being in the way...I put the ball in the salt water, the exposed high point I marked with a sharpie and then I spun the ball twice. Both times it settled in the same general area. My understanding is that means the CG isn't perfectly balanced. FullSizeRender.MOV

I hit all my shots on trackman with the Alignment set toward the "target". I find it is helpful at setup but I didn't see any improvement in dispersion. One thing I should (and will) check is if I move the alignment to aim right or left if that encourages a different swing path.

Also that .gif of the rolling golf ball is really good.

Editing my post because I thought I was PLAYING against snicerz. Now that I know he is on my team I am excited and hopefully won't let him down!

I stay south of 6,500. My ideal course length depends on how tight it is and how many OB opportunities there are. For example, fairly open private course with OB on less than 4 holes I would probably ideally play that at 6,200 yds. Florida course with OB on almost every hole and landing zones of less than 40 yds on many holes, that is more like 5,800 yds.

Trackman data is up in my initial post. The long and the short of it is that the Maxfli Tour X launches higher, hits a higher peak height and spins more on full swing shots across the board. For me, that is a mostly good thing. In my irons I try to target 7,000 rpm for a 7 iron, 9,000 rpm for a 9 iron, etc. and this gets me closer to that. The driver was spinning up a tad more on me with these BUT I am hoping that means better control out on the golf course. Nothing worse, for me, than a low spin knuckle ball that either falls out of the sky or shoots dramatically left.

I'm doing trackman testing today as well. I ensured I didn't peek at your results so I wouldn't be biased anymore than I already might be. Will be interesting to see how are relative experiences shake out against each other.

Got to roll mine a bit this morning in the office. So far, I find the alignment aid to be very easy to line up but not really "distracting." Also, you can see at the end of a straight putt if the arrows are still pointing in the same direction, which is helpful if you have a mat with no hole/catcher.