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thechrisgibbs

 
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About thechrisgibbs

  • Birthday 06/10/1991

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    @ChrisGibbsII
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Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Salt Lake City, UT

Player Profile

  • Age
    30-39
  • Swing Speed
    111+ mph
  • Handicap
    4.6
  • Frequency of Play/Practice
    Multiple times per week
  • Player Type
    Competitive
  • Biggest Strength
    Driver/Off the Tee
  • Biggest Weakness
    Approach
  • Fitted for Clubs
    Yes

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  1. Alright, it's been a few weeks since the final reviews and around a dozen summer rounds. I have a couple of thoughts here as I near the end of my 2 dozen balls: Despite being the brightest white I've ever seen on a golf ball, they still don't help with finding the ball when the rough, weeds, or woods are dense as can be. I know at least one of the testers had questions on the durability of the balls. I've found that they hold up super well except when they hit the cart path, but I don't play scuffed balls based on the MGS ball labs. I honestly can't find a single thing wrong with playing these balls. I have about 100 used 5a AVX balls and will keep using those after I use the last Maxfli; when these runout and I'm forced to buy golf balls, though, it will be VERY difficult for me not to pull the trigger on the Maxflis.
  2. I also updated the thread with my Final Review, but I just wanted to say that I am so appreciative of Jamie and the team running this test. It's insane how many tests we have this year and how efficiently they are still run. As a past Mod, the current team running the forum is pure class. As for my review, it's hard to express just how fun it was to put the Maxfli Tour S up against the Titleist AVX. Maxfli has done a superb job with the Tour balls.
  3. I've consolidated the bulk of the data to date in the below tables. Some highlights were what I realized might be missing in my current AVX ball of choice. With that said, I do have testing to do with my 4-iron and Driver left. A couple of highlights in the table: The spin on the course with my AVX was not great in my pitch and chip testing. Just a lot of rollout. If I'm totally honest, I struggle most with tucked pins when I miss the green short-sided. The Left Dash has a high chance of getting in the bag. Price point is a little tough to swallow, but they have used 5A options for $2.50/ball. The Chrome Soft felt like hitting "Baked scallops smothered in butter" (Instagram deep cut), but the ball just didn't bite on real grass. Chrome Soft X LS had some very appealing greenside reactions with check, but unlike its little sister the Chome Soft, it felt like hitting a rock. I'd never play it as it made the game unpleasant it was so hard. I also have a feeling the driver numbers would prevent me from playing this ball as a high spinner. Tour Response is definitely a bag contender. Had a better penetrating ball flight on the 60 yard pitch outdoors, and the spin on grass was all-around solid. Second best feeling ball. I'm going to reserve my numbers for the Maxfli as I'm testing this for the Forum's Official Testing, and I don't want to ruin the review by posting everything here.
  4. Cutline is 1 over and Speith hits -5 at the end of his second round.
  5. I actually pulled the trigger on a Mizuno MP 20 with a Graphite Design shaft. Feel is pretty awesome. With this shaft, I'll also be able to sell it when another 2 iron that comes out piques my interest.
  6. Based on my early shots for 100 yards, the data is showing exactly what you mentioned above. The Chrome Soft spun around the same as the other low-spin balls, whereas the Chrome Soft X LS spun the highest at 9,200 for that shot.
  7. Let the data flow! Starting with my 100-yard shot which is a 3/4 50* Vokey SM9 swing! Took 10 shots from each and spliced out any major miss hits. The ball data can't be punished when I pull-hook, fat, or thin my 100-yard shot!
  8. I don't want this thread to fall by the wayside as I have already started the testing for these golf balls. Have already started running these through the ringer: Also, the data is coming in really well. I am going to add a ProV1 as a control for these to ensure I'm getting the best data vs. an industry standard.
  9. Final Review Aesthetics - (6/10) Beyond my early descriptions below, I have a few notes to add. The Maxfli balls, well, they look like a golf ball. Do I feel as confident or professional playing a Maxfli as I would playing a Pro V1? No, but that’s such a small part of the game. I think the two things I have to say about looking at the ball over the past month in a dozen rounds is that the ball has two things that keep it from being a 10 out of 10: The first is that the ball has just a slightly different hue than a Pro V1, TP5, etc. I’m being very nit-picky here, but the gloss and the shade of white are ever so slightly different than the balls I’ve played from Taylormade and Titleist over the years. Is it a showstopper? Not at all. Is it something that I notice when I place the ball on the tee? Yep. The second, and unfortunately the aspect I want to bury in this review as it makes me feel snobby, is that the ball isn’t tour validated and has a less premium brand associated with it. You’ll see when I get to the numbers that this isn’t that important, but when someone is helping you identify your ball on the course, it’s objectively less cool to say, “I’m playing the Maxfli.” You can always explain to them that it’s the Pro V1 killer, but when they look down and see the Maxfli logo, they may think less of you until you wipe the floor with them on the course. With that said, with the mountains in the back and on the tee here, the Maxfli is still a solid-looking ball that does look and feel premium. The Numbers - (19/20) This is where the rubber (urethane?) meets the road. I don’t want to spoil my final conclusions, but the charts speak for themselves. I put the Maxfli Tour S up against my Titleist AVX (as well as a number of other Low Spin ball options), and it has to be said, the ball performed well beyond my expectations. I can completely understand why the Tour is considered a Pro V1 killer. Virtually the same numbers and consistency using the GC3. My testing indoor was on a Fiberbuilt golf mat (more consistent numbers with outdoor testing) with my Vokey wedges, Mizuno MP-20 Irons, and Stealth Plus driver. The driver testing I did outdoors on course. I took 10 consistent shots with under 5% variance in launch angle, club head speed, and smash factor. I wanted to get the closest numbers I could with my swing. The driver testing was tricky to get 10 shots so I took an average of 4 drives each with my gamer swing. I wasn’t trying to get max drives, rather, hit the fairway. Even with a low spin shaft and my Stealth Plus cranked down to 6*, I’m still getting a good amount of spin with the driver. The launch is in the range I like it to be though. Again, I’ll save my full conclusion for the end, but if the price of each of the above balls were the same, I would likely still choose the Maxfli Tour S based on the numbers from the test. This obviously doesn’t take the full on-course testing into account though. On The Course - (16/20) I played around 15 rounds with the Maxfli Tour S. I was also able to play 5 rounds (three 9-hole and two 18-hole rounds) with two balls at a time and I have a few findings: Driving - For some reason, the AVX was out-distancing the Tour S. I switched which ball I hit first, tried to put the same swing on the ball, and rarely tried to crank one out there as I typically don’t get more distance when doing that. The AVX did fall shorter on a handful of drives, and I could throw a blanket over the balls a few times, but more times than not, the AVX was 10-20 yards further. If I had only played one round and found this, I would just say it was happenstance. With 5 rounds playing two balls, it was a trend. Was it because I felt more confident over the AVX and thus swung more freely? I couldn’t tell you. Just my observations. Approach Shots - In this category, I couldn’t tell you if there was any difference between the balls. I played a few of the best rounds I’ve ever played with the Maxfli Tour S, but it’s also just been a breakout year for me. The consistency was exactly what I wanted from a premium ball though. Around the Green - I give the Maxfli a +1 in this category over the AVX. Nothing against the AVX, the Maxfli kept a solid low flight and the spin was actually where I would expect a Pro V1 to be, not the AVX. It also felt buttery soft with the wedge in hand! Putting - My putting has been lights out this year, and the Maxfli performed well. I do mark the ball up, so it’s hard to say much about the aesthetics here. The feel was great off the B.2 putter face. I would say as a final note, my scores were largely unaffected by switching to the Maxfli, which has to be said, is half the price of the AVX. I didn’t lose anything in my scoring using the Tour S. This is a pretty solid marker. The only thing dinging the score from being higher is the AVX was just slightly longer on the Tee for me. The Good, the Bad, the Inbetween - (16/20) The Good - The ball is as durable as a Pro V1. For the first time in my golfing career, it has to be said that I don’t lose golf balls much anymore. I still have 20 of the 24 golf balls that Maxfli sent me. I used the same one on my sim to push it through a durability test. It has to be said the ball was about the same level of marked-up as the Pro V1, EVEN WHEN I PUT IT UP AGAINST THE MOREGOLF MOD 1 WEDGE! For the price, I did NOT expect this much durability. The Bad - I hate saying this, but the only thing keeping the ball from being the best ball in the market is just the lack of Tour validation it has received. I get that the pricing probably couldn’t be this competitive if they were paying a PGA Tour Player to play the Tour golf ball, but until it can mark down a win or even a popular player (I’m thinking a Joel Dahmen type), it feels disingenuous to put “Tour” in the name. It’s not exciting to shout back that your ball is a Maxfli to the guy looking at a ball in the shared rough from another hole. The Inbetween - Someone said it best, but a ball doesn’t fix your mistakes! No marks down for Maxfli here as it’s the man behind the sticks, but the ball looks like any other plugged in a hard-pack bunker. Pictured Below: A budget fried egg. Play it or Trade it? - (17/20) Since Maxfli sent me 24 brand-new balls, I’ll be playing Maxfli Tour S for the rest of the year, god willing. The two big questions that have to be answered in this section: If you are at a Pro Shop on vacation, don’t have any balls with you, and need to buy something? I’m buying the Maxfli Tour S over the AVX all day. I’m probably already renting clubs and spending too much, so I’m going with the ball I know performs a the price I want to pay. If you’re asking for a gift from your in-laws, what ball are you asking for? This question is like asking if you were to have a choice between each ball and they were both free, which one would you go with? I hate to say it, but I’m asking for the AVX since it’s not coming from my budget! Conclusion and Final Score (74/100) We made it here already. I just want to thank Maxfli and MGS’s Forum for letting me join the Maxfli ball testing. I love being a part of this community and this opportunity was so fun. 74 out of 100 being a C in school doesn’t really give credit where credit is do for the Maxfli Tour S. C’s get degrees, but we’re not in school, and the Tour S deserves much more than a C. When I think about the Maxfli, I think about the type of person I’m golfing with a lot. An example, I have a buddy who has everything Kirkland sells including the glove, the K-sig ball, the putter, the wedges, and eventually the irons if they ever actually hit the shelves. Knowing the K-sig is too spinny for me, he’d be impressed I was playing the Maxfli instead of overspending on the AVX. Then I have my friend who is a member and has grown up playing at country clubs his entire life where the AVX isn’t expensive to him, but the Maxfli seems like a budget option. Both friends are fun to golf with, but it’s a different type of vibe golfing with them. With my Costco-centric buddy, the Maxfli gets a perfect 100. With my Country Club friend, the Maxfli gets a 50. I really like the ball. If I’m not paying for it, I’m asking for the Titleist. But if I’m paying for it, I’m likely going with the Maxfli all day. If you've made it this far, enjoy my new course friend, Fred the Fox, who was VERY interested in the Maxfli ball. Initial Thoughts and Unboxing (First Impressions 8/10) I want to first say that I'm putting the Maxfli Tour S through the wringer both on course and on my simulator. My first impressions have been really good, but at first glance, not enough to call it a ProV1 (AVX in my case) killer just yet. I'll start with my thoughts on the ball as packaging is less important to me. The ball itself is excellent. I like the design quite a bit, and the new line Maxfli is using absolutely makes it feel less like a range ball as Micah calls out below. The urethane cover is super soft and passes the bite/fingernail test. The blue number is quite nice too. I thought I would dislike the Maxfli logo in person, but I think it looks pretty smart on the ball itself. I'll give it a true rating on looks in my final review, but it's off to a good start. On to the packaging. I'll throw this phrase out that I use when talking about bosses. I don't dislike it, so it's good. It's simple, they call out the low compression piece, and they don't use too much hyperbole in their marketing. The only feedback I have on the packaging is that it's not the most genuine comparison chart if they are saying the Tour S has the same spin characteristics in the Driver and Greenside as the Tour and Tour X. More on that in the full review! Introduction My name is Chris Gibbs, and just like Micah on the Maxfli Tour X test, I am also from Salt Lake City, UT (we'll have to get a round in together). By day, I manage a team selling software, by mid-to-late afternoon, I'm all golf! I’ve been playing golf now for about 6 years much to my wife’s chagrin. I’m 31 years old and have a 20-month-old son named James -- my wife vetoed Eldrick Tiger Gibbs and also hates this joke. During the past 6 years, golf has become a bit of an obsession as you all here can relate, I’m sure. I’ve gone from an 18+ handicap to a 4.7 with countless hours of practice, coaching, and analyzing. The obsession leaked into my garage 3.5 years ago with a home sim setup that I'll call my firstborn. I have noticed a marked improvement in all aspects of my game with the garage sim as it allows me to stay in golf form through the long Utah winters. That, and the occasional Jan/Feb trip to Pheonix! I'm super excited to be testing the Maxfli Tour S golf ball. I've actually started A SMALL JOURNEY thread on the forum to find the perfect golf ball for my game this year. I have found myself in the world of mitigating the high swing speed with (too) high spin. My clubs are all fit to have low-spin, low-launch shafts, and my driver is even turned down to 6*. My current gamer is the Titleist AVX, but I have played the ProV1, TP5, and a few others before starting the journey to lower my spin numbers. The Tour S piqued my interest as the closest competitor to the Titleist AVX without the $50 price tag! The Tour S isn't just competing against the AVX though. This is the current low-spin lineup in my garage undergoing testing: I'll be doing indoor and outdoor testing on the Tour S looking at on-course performance along with getting real numbers from the GC3. I have a country club where I use their practice facility (no one asks for I.D. if you're wearing nice golf gear!) that I will really be able to use to test out the greenside spin and feel extensively. My "Around the Green" strokes gained is one of the best parts of my game, so I have high standards for this area when we talk about swapping golf balls. Very excited to see the performance. Let the games begin!
  10. I'm in the same exact boat as you. The only reason I can play the AVX and justify it is that the lostgolfballs.com pricing for 5A is about the same price as new Vice golf balls. The high swing speed and high spin numbers for my swing includes virtually every shaft and club maximized for lowering launch and spin. I have a 5* downward swing path, but that doesn't stop the spin in my swing! Thus, clubs AND ball have to be low spin options.
  11. Oh boy, don't tell the wife! This is going head-to-head with my Sim 3 Wood Rocket (14* head) for the spot in my bag.
  12. I actually have a net to test the balls on grass at my local course range and have my indoor sim for indoor testing. I'll also bring my GC3 to the course and give real results on course.
  13. Unless I'm playing in things like the Amateur Open or a competition, I almost always buy from lostgolfballs.com used under a 5A rating. They come in and you literally can't tell the difference. I've tested the 5A which have no markings or scuffs on my launch monitor vs. brand new balls in a blind test and have found they have virtually no differences. The pricing is around $2/ball which is excellent and on par with a Maxfli type ball.
  14. Callaway on their website has the same label for Chrome Soft in every category as the XLS except greenside spin where it is the lower of the two. I could add that in, but it actually looks like the ERC Soft is Callaway's true AVX competitor. I may add the ERC Soft, but the XLS is what Callaway has labeled their Low Spin ball. I do realize the Chrome Soft may meet a lot of the XLS characteristics. I'll add that to my table. Tour Speed is also low spin, but based on the Ball Lab, the consistency of roundness was a red flag. Titleist also doesn't use the Tour Speed in their fitting matrix. Regarding Titleist fitting people into the high spin balls, I should have put a caveat that my driver gaming swing speed is around 115 mph. I struggle with keeping spin down like a lot of the MGS staff do. Kirkland is one of the top used high spin golf balls in the market, but if you struggle with sidespin on your driver, it's going to punish you a lot being in the high spin category.
  15. So I know this is a bit more of a fringe topic. I used the Skytrak with The Golf Club 2019 Simulation Software for a few years. When I upgraded to the GC3, I was forced to use the ForeSight Sports software. It's fantastic for range sessions, and their courses are excellent, but they charge OVER $100/Course. I've found online that people have rigged a GCQuad to The Golf Club. I am wondering if anyone has seen someone do the same with a GC3? Let me know! I'd love to play local courses that have been built on The Golf Club's platform.
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