vandyland

This was an interesting video, confirms a lot of what I am working on in my sequencing.

Date 02/04/2024 Course Name Hillwood Country Club Gross Score 86 Course Handicap 4 Gross Strokes over/under par 14 Net Score to Par 10 Net Score 82 Net Birdies or better 1 Longest Drive 280 SIM Round? Just not a good round and I am not good. This was just a good example of how "golf happens" sometimes. Always next round.

A further update on the TS1-IM, I am now at the point with the TS1-IM where I have seen enough good shots on the range (and I put the 7 iron in the bag this weekend) to where it is starting to make me dislike my current gamers. Like if I am at 150 out I am bummed I have to hit my 8 iron rather than the test 7 iron or if I am 175 out I am trying to stretch the TS1-IM rather than just hit my 6 iron Hogan. So, it seems very likely I am buying a set of irons that I don't need. Maybe I force myself to hit the TS1-IM on Trackman before I go further (making sure spin isn't too low or something, I doubt it they seem to stop JUST FINE if not better than my Hogans). But I am on a collision course with a full set of TS1-IMs and probably some of the golfworks red white and blue custom ferrules. I have never had custom ferrules before so jumping into the BB&F seemed like too big of a commitment. Just dip my toe in with these..

I think I learn something from each test I do (either officially or unofficially). I personally enjoy sharing my thoughts and experiences with different equipment on here and is one of the main things that brought me to this site. Working on being able to test something in a new or different way is always compelling to me in addition to trying to remove biases as much as possible. That is why I continue to rely heavily on things like trackman but also try to come to testing in a fairly holistic way so it does become 100% data driven. One of the hardest things to quantify in a golf club or ball test, for example, is feel. I have struggled with coming up with any real metrics other than just my words describing my experience. I have had trouble coming up with good, comparable metrics to get to something so subjective as feel. I read the reviews on this site, watch review/test videos on youtube and try to learn from others people's way of testing as things that I can incorporate going forward. One area I have not dipped my toe into yet is editing down a testing "video". That is probably a hole in my process at this point. Right now I am doing an unofficial test on the Rapsodo MLM2Pro that I just purchased and also will do one on the Maltby TS1-IM and TS3 demos that I have. This is more about giving those people considering these products another reference point rather than trying to prove my prowess as a tester. Finally, I am really motivated by testing unconventional products or setups (shout to the "otto-phlex" thread). I think there are a lot of long held beliefs in golf that are not necessarily true for everyone and testing is the only way to get there. Just because you swing 105+ mph doesn't mean you have to get an X flex shaft. Just because you are a double digit handicap doesn't mean you won't get along with a more players style club. Just because you are a low handicap doesn't mean you need a high compression ball, etc.

@KOG and @IndyBonzo, I know how bad of an influence this forum can be. I have been through a number of Maltby heads and I was starting to wonder what all the fuss was about. But these have kind of re-ignited that. Obviously, these have to perform so that is a given. In a head to head with the TS3 it kind of goes like this: - My miss is higher on the face or out on the toe, the TS3s handle the toe well and high on the face just ok. So far the TS1-IM seems to handle the higher on the face shots better and the toe misses similarly. - The aesthetics are much better with the TS1-IM. When I saw it I just started thinking "please let me be able to flush these" because they looked so good. - For, and maybe this was just today, the TS1-IM is better through the turf. It shouldn't really be that noticeable since the TS1-IM is only slightly narrower but these TS1-IMs cut through pretty well. Not sure how that changes when it is extremely baked out. - Ball flight just was stronger with the TS1-IM, seemed to hit about the same peak height but got there in more a flatter trajectory if that makes sense. I can work them but they want to go straight.

I don't want to overreact, I don't want to do it. But, I hit the TS1-IM (7i / FST 125 Stiff) on the range today alongside my gamer (Ben Hogan PTxPro 7i / KBS Tour 120 Stiff) and it was supposed to be a side by side, let's hit 5 with each and then switch back and forth. Well...I had to remind myself to pick up the Hogan! I was having so much fun hitting the TS1-IM. These were my observations after hitting 40-50 balls with it: - Gets in and out of the turf nicely, doesn't seem to dig even though I am fairly steep (6-7* down with a 7 iron) - Isn't *quite* as soft as my Hogan on a center strike but still feels very good - Ball seems to jump a bit off the face, not necessarily bad. It is 1.5 degrees stronger but it also just feels different off the face - Mishits seem to be better on the TS1 - Somehow, feedback also seems more specific on the TS1 - Finally, it just looks so good So, yeah, no trackman numbers or on-course performance but for hitting stock, beautiful shots....this thing delivered. I could easily order a full set right now. I don’t even need to test it against the TS3.

The keys for me are (1) is the start line and shape correct and (2) are the readings consistent. More on (1) In my limited experience, I am hitting a lot of fairly straight shots on MLM2Pro. I will be curious how that stacks up against Trackman. Granted, I am hitting short irons and I am not deliberately hitting shots offline. Maybe driver is a good test to pull out as I would expect the widest variance there. More on (2) If MLM2Pro is reading shots slightly longer or shorter than Trackman, I can adjust to that as long as those differences remain constant.

It's tricky and no real easy answer here. I have a related problem where a close friend of mine invited me to his member guest last year but he isn't a very good player (~17 HDCP) so I don't really want him at my member guest. I am not sure how to do mine except I am hoping there may be a limit at my club as to how far HDCPs can be spread apart (I am a 3 right now and he is hovering around an 18). That might save me for a while. These things are delicate but I would just explain it to him the way you have explained it here. If he is a reasonable person he will be disappointed but understand.

What is the caley controversy?

I would be happy to send you the TS1-IM at some point. Either I am going to buy a pak and would have to re-order another 7 iron anyway or I will determine they aren't a match for me.

Oh yes, it is like 40-50 degrees currently in Nashville. Trackman is indoor and probably closer to 70 degrees. So that definitely is part of it. I will, on this thread, take the Rapsodo MLM2Pro indoor to go against the Trackman. I am not expecting it to match a $25k unit but just curious where it is different.

From a looks perspective, the TS1-IM are in the conversation of the best looking iron I have ever seen that I also feel like I can actually play. There are some classic looking blades that look better but I would be terrified to try to hit on a cold morning. These, to me, are like a less busy looking T-100. They are too slim (to me) to be compared to P790s. Now that I have seen these up close, these have to be the Maltbys that I play. If I don't get along with them, I can't really go back to the TS3 because, well, I'm too vain I guess? Ultimately, they have to outperform my gamers by a significant margin because I like my current irons. The TE+ V4 were fine but didn't outperform. The TS3 were better and are better on mishits than my gamers but there was always that nagging "I don't quite love how these look." Now I have the TS1-IM and they just look fantastic. Didn't get many swings with them last night since my outdoor setup is, well, outdoors and it was 38 degrees.

TS1-IM arrived and it looks very good. Maybe even mildly intimidating but in a good way. Here are the pictures with my Ben Hogan, the TS1-IM in the middle and the TS3 on the other side. The blade length is shorter on the hogan but the sole is narrower on the TS1-IM. Also, the hosels on both maltby are considerably shorter in an effort to centralize the CG.

Will be interested to see what SSG does with their "control" they have essentially paid for. Do they care more about the product and try to reduce commercial load? Do they force the players to be more engaging, interesting, do walk and talks, get microphones, etc? Do they reduce the total number of events? Does FedEx (and the FedEx cup) go away entirely? That is basically my wish list. I have a hard time believing SSG is injecting all this money and then just letting the PGA Tour carry on Business as Usual. I would think they will want some structural change for a tour that has, for a long time, been resistant to such change. Also, interested to see how the players react to having private equity having a big voice and telling them what to do now. I am personally very interested.

Well, my TS1-IM just got delivered so looking forward to displaying it in all its glory and hitting it against my current gamer and my TS3 7 iron with the same shaft. I will hit them on my Rapsodo MLM2Pro initially since I have that at home but then will also see how it does at the range off grass and on a trackman as well. Very excited and hoping my Maltby expedition ends here.

I have seen some people use fitness flooring. Generally the mat + a person on top is heavy enough to keep it from slipping. Seems less expensive than the anti fatigue mats. Horse mats are probably even cheaper. Just need to find a 5x5 option: Also, as an edit, thick horse stall mats weigh in excess of 80 lbs so I would try to buy that local if possible. Typing that out, it seems they may not be very portable so this is your more portable option (the anti fatigue mats that were mentioned earlier), they are not that expensive!

A free dozen???? No, just 3 balls for me. I ordered it through 2ndSwing (new in box) where I had some credit. I did get the first year premium membership included which I think all the new Rapsodos come with. I also get E6 and Awesome Golf trials which I haven't started yet since I don't really have my setup quite dialed. Ha! I saw your thread a few days ago and loved the idea and I am jealous. My wife tolerates the net I have out there currently provided that I can move it when needed. So some kind of portability is required. I did find this net that is 9 feet tall So I am going to measure my "redneck" setup and see how high that is. I am guessing 9 feet or so. If that is the case I might order this bad boy and beg for forgiveness later when she is like ANOTHER NET WTF. Unfortunately I cannot find many people that have ever used this net before so I am not sure of its durability.

Had a really good session last night with the MLM2Pro. Carry distance is a little short (I think) but this is a handy little tool for working on my swing via the video and the metrics. Very easy to align and setup and then you set a target and off you go. A highlight from my session was hitting my target 11/11 times: Ball flight matches what I usually see out on the range and the course. When I mishit one, the distance suffers and I could even feel a few where I spun out a little and knew they were going to fade and they did. Overall, happy with the feedback I get (early days so far) and now I have to upgrade my net so I can hit wedges into it. 2/2/2024 - Hit balls for an hour on the range and liked what I saw for the most part. I am struggling a little with my takeaway in so far as getting my wrists set early AND flattish. If my wrist set delays it sets off a chain reaction in my swing. Overall thoughts remain the same... - early wrist set keeping club in front of chest as we turn and lead wrist flat - from the top, hands first with the cast away from me and resisting the urge to open up hips or shoulders - on the downswing, lead arm should come off the chest and body turn should be delayed as long as possible. Also was able to get my TS1-IM demo out there and we may have a winner there. Felt like it outperformed my PTxPro today (no launch monitor data to compare to). I thought it was going to launch low but it, thankfully, does not. Just hits beautiful shots right in the window that I want. Seems a *little* flatter in the air than my gamers but that could also be the fact that it is 1.5* stronger. 2/4/2024 - Golf gives and golf takes away. Had a great range session on Saturday, hitting balls right in the preferred windows and all that. Fast foward to sunday's round where I shot 86 and couldn't really keep the ball on the planet. Very frustrating. Felt like I was having issues "locating" where to put the club in my backswing. I haven't gotten on my MLM this past weekend as I was tired/sick a little bit so hoping to fire that back up this week.

Well, I ordered the MLM2Pro based on the reviews on the official testing thread as I wanted a launch monitor/simulator that would keep me engaged during my nightly practice into my net. Accuracy is important but I can deal with odd spin numbers or launch angles but what I *really* care about is the shape and line of my shots and consistency of readings. If, say, my 7 iron is consistently reading 10 yds short on carry, I can adjust for that. I want it to still be able to distinguish between a flushed shot, an okay shot and a fat shot, etc. Also I want a good, smooth app experience and enough fun things to keep me engaged. My short list going into this included: Original SkyTrak - ultimately decided against this due to the price AND it is older technology. Additionally, a lot of people seemed frustrated with the app and connectivity issues. I did like that you don't need nearly as much space for a camera based unit. Mevo+- ultimately decided against this item due to price. Garmin R10 - ultimately decided against this item due to potential accuracy issues and I just liked the improvements that Rapsodo seems to be pushing out more frequently than Garmin. Links Trackman Accuracy Post Impact Vision Example/Post Unboxing Received the MLM2Pro and found it to be sleek and well packaged. No frivolous pieces or difficult construction, fairly easy to keep everything in the carrying case provided. Setup/Firmware/Getting to Use (Disclaimer -- I am using my standard iPhone) The initial charge-up of the unit felt like it took forever (about 3 hours and 30 minutes by my count) but that was mostly due to the fact that I had to wait through a FedEx weather delay of several days already. The suspense was killing me! Upon charging, it prompted me (in the app) to update the firmware which took another 5 minutes. The unit itself is very easy to attach to the tripod and then align via in-app tool. Once the firmware was installed, I followed the in-app prompts to connect the app to my unit and I was ready to hit balls in about 5 minutes. Initial Range Impressions The Rapsodo Range (with the Singapore skyline) is pretty fun to use. You can set a circular target, similar to Foresight, and then the app will track how often you hit that target (it is a generous target). The delay from ball contact to shot showing up on the screen is maybe 2 seconds. Probably more like 1 second, very quick. It displays carry, total and avg carry in the top left of the screen and you can select 4 metrics to show in a summarized view at the bottom or you can expand the metrics to show everything which includes: Ball Speed, Club Speed, Launch Angle, Smash Factor, Launch Direction, Spin Rate, Spin Axis, Apex, Descent Angle, Side Carry, Shot Type Also on the far right it tracks your target distance, total shots, target hit percentage and average proximity to the center of the target. First shot is me intentionally hitting a pull draw (my specialty!) This is more to show all the metrics and how it tracks your performance on hitting the target (on the right) And this is more for me just to show off that I went 11/11 on my 3rd go round. So far I have had one disconnect between the DIRECT connection with the MLM2Pro and the iphone. It remedied itself within a minute and I resumed my session. Initial Perceived Accuracy (Disclaimer -- using RPT balls into a net but I am outside at night with floodlights -- see picture) The good news is that the unit, so far, is consistent. Draws draw on the simulator and cuts cut. A bad strike comes up short and a good strike goes farther. I do think the unit is shorting me by about 5-7 yds on carry on a 7 iron. It is averaging me out at about 149 yds currently. I have at least 8 sessions on Trackman this year where I hit a large number of 7 irons and my carry numbers average out to 159.2 there (we are talking over 100 shots). It is about 40-50 degrees outside so maybe that accounts for a few yards but not 10 right? I can live with it though because, again, it is consistently short. I think I could adjust my elevation to eventually get it to carry around 160. This is one reason I wouldn't trust this that much for "gapping" purposes or dialing in your wedges. This is still very early so I will continue to update findings. See my setup below which is not "low light" but could certainly be brighter. GLAMOROUS I KNOW! Problem I need help solving (see picture above) This is a problem I knew I was going to have and it is readily apparent. It is hard to find an outdoor net that is tall enough to handle 9 feet of ball flight from a wedge. With my current setup, I am lifting my net up by about 14 inches to get it taller. I went an got some coolers to make it another foot taller and that made it so it can handle a 54* wedge BUT now I have a huge gap under it so if I ever hit a REALLY thin shot (that will eventually happen) it could ricochet back at me or worse the house. So I am trying to decide if I want to try to build some contraption (MUST BE MOVEABLE) that is 11-12 feet tall or just deal with the fact that I am only going to be able to hit 9 iron or less into the net. SUPER NET (see below) which is supported by fireplace + chair + coolers (not sustainable, haha)

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Old Toccoa Farm is interesting (GA/TN border mountains). Just one course but a very nice, remote experience. Also would recommend the Barnsley Resort (also in GA mountains) that is remote and a good experience.

I got mine last night and got it charged up and firmware updated right around 9 pm so, of course, I stayed up until 11 pm messing around with it. Overall, I am pleased with the initial results though there are a few things I think I need to iron out with my setup and lighting and such (I was getting some very strange spin numbers on occasion which I think may be due to low light). I will probably do an unofficial review thread so I don't junk up this one. Which connection do you all use? Quick Connect - Direct WiFi or Quick Connect - Local Network? I used both and I think direct WiFi is more accurate but it appears that you have to use local network to play courses?

Seemed like I was fighting my swing most of the year but I did hit a run of good form in the summer. It was also bolstered by the fact that we joined a club so I settled on one course for the latter part of the year (still got around to 25 courses, not bad). I think when I got down to a 2.0 that was a little "fake" because, frankly, I think our club's golf course rating is too high. It is not as hard as the rating would indicate and thus I don't think most members' handicaps "travel" very well. I think I should probably add about 1.0 to my handicap to get it in the reasonable ballpark. So if I am a 2.4 now, I am probably REALLY a 3.4. Overall I am happy with the results, hoping to keep it in this same neighborhood next year.

That is a good jump you seem to be getting there. What I find most interesting is that your ball speed is higher with the Callaway but the TaylorMade carries farther. It must be down to better launch conditions (the TaylorMade launches higher and hits a higher peak) giving you additional carry. The ability to perform on mishits is where I am seeing most of the advancements with the driver in the last few years.

So after a long wait for charging, firmware update and kids to go to bed I got the Rapsodo out. I find it to be very fun to fiddle around with but I think I need to dial in the setup a little bit because I was getting some odd spin readings (like 2000 rpm on a normal strike with a 7 iron). I think the lowish light of the floodlights outside at night is probably not super conducive to perfect readings. I will have to try it during the light of day to see if there are differences. Overall flight seemed correct, I knew when I flushed one or pulled one or hooked one or cut one. I am going to start a testing thread elsewhere but my first impression is that this livens up my practice session. I am not sure I would use this to do "gapping" as I think some of the distances are a little questionable but I makes hitting into a net a lot more fun.