NoRebound

I wish more courses around me allowed/tolerated walking. Granted two of the courses on my normal rota wind through a housing development and simply can't be walked (unless you're into a 15 mile hike) but I do miss the pace of walking and the time it gives my brain to digest my surroundings and the next shot.

I received a pack of recycled plastic tees with a rubber head from Amazon just over a year ago and they have become my go to. I've gotten as many as seven rounds out of a single tee and they usually die when the rubber top finally flies off somewhere. (Normally if you can find it, it will pop right back on). I don't think it's making my game any better even though I had my best season in years last year. But being able to reuse a product over and over and over again seems to be a bit more Earth friendly.

In a world full of Maxfli, Wilson, and Snell, PXG decided to go for the high-end price of $39.99. Ooops. $39.99 is a price point reserved for balls that have proven themselves like Snell or Maxfli. $39.99 is a really big ask for a company with no track record in the ball world and a small following overall. The only company I can think of that knocked it out of the park with their first ball on the market was Nike. It helped that Tiger was using it to bring the golf world to its knees but plenty of us played it and it was revolutionary. Yeah, I know it was a Bridgestone under the logo but was still a ball that changed everything. This is not that.

Yes, in my 20s and 30s I was a flat out bomber. 300 yards with a wound ball and a Northwestern driver was common. That kind of power sometimes had me playing from the wrong fairway and I had zero short game. My handicap ran around 6 Now I'm 64 and max out around 270 (once or twice a round) but my short game has improved with age. My putter is more reliable but my handicap is still right there between 5-6. I often wonder just how far I could have hit it back then with the technology we have today.

I've been using Golf Logix for several years and feel a little uncomfortable on the course without it. My course map, yardage book, electronic scorecard, and club selector tool are all rolled into one. Like many functional apps, the cost is steadily increasing, but I'm willing to pay for a solid product. If I had one complaint about Golf Logix its that the handicap calculator is useless. I have no idea how it is arriving at the number posted but it is a full three strokes higher than my GHIN handicap.

I jumped in just over a year ago just to see what in the golf world I was missing. I had been drawn in by some of the video content on YouTube and Facebook and decided to take a look around. I've enjoyed the civility on here. Sadly can't find much of that on other forums across the internet. There have been some equipment suggestions that I've taken to heart already and will probably add to when it comes time for a club fitting in 2023. In short, I like it here.

My Scotty Cameron Newport 2 is safe for 2023, although I keep weighing the idea of having it cleaned up before the season heats up. My bag is safe too. The Ogio blue/yellow tropical bag goes into season three. A friend of mine spied it in my garage last week and said "I love that you have a bag that doesn't say you think you've on the verge of going pro." Everything else is in the crosshairs. My driver is eight years old, my fairway, hybrids, irons and wedges are seven. I've aged, my game has changed and technology has improved. It's time for a refresh. Looking for a good fitter in the Pittsburgh area for this project since mine moved on a while ago.

I've been using Lost Golf Balls for the last couple of years and as long as you stay in the 5A Mint catagory you get a solid ball. I'm picky since I play the 2021 Pro V1 in yellow so not all sites work well for me. I gave up on most of the DTC market during the pandemic since finding higher compression yellow balls became too much of a challenge. I have played around with Maxfli Tour balls but I still find that the used Pro V1 is a better performer.

I play them until I lose them or damage them so badly that they don't play correctly (overcooking a 3 wood and blasting it off the edge of a guardrail 40 yards above the hole will do significant damage to a ProV1). This year I've gotten two rounds + out of a ball a couple of times, then made up for it by losing 5 in a late fall round. I'm buying most of them from LostGolfballs.com or Maxfli Tour from Golf Galaxy so I'm not going broke on balls this year.

The Scotty Cameron Newport is staying put in the bag. Everything else is up for grabs including the ball. There will be a fitting at Club Champion sometime after the first of the year and we'll go from there. My irons and wedges are seven seasons old, and the driver is 8. It's time.

I've been using LostGolfBalls.com for a couple of years and I did notice player markings on a couple of balls that I've received. I really didn't think anything about it. I knew I was buying a used ball and that some people mark balls up rather oddly. I did take one ball that was heavily marked and took a good draftsman-quality Helix pencil eraser to it and the markings vanished. Rubbing the ball in that way did not damage the surface of the ball or its playability, in fact I used it about a week later to shoot my low round of the year. My real problem with using LostGolfBalls.com has become price. I realize that my game ball is rare, yellow ProV1 2021 model. But even when applying the present 15% discount my ball is $45 with tax and shipping. I can go to Golf Galaxy and buy a brand-new dozen for $50. That is one of the reasons that I've switched to a Maxfli Tour for off season golf. It doesn't hurt the wallet as much to drive one into a pile of leaves that Mother Nature has blown in the way.

I've been using Nike Tech Extreme for the last decade and I get about half a season out of them. I play at least once a week and hit the range about once a week. For a time a couple of years ago it was almost impossible to find any Nike gloves so I switched to a Callaway Tour and found that they stretched badly after 4-5 rounds. Also tried the Kirkland gloves and found the same issue with stretching. I am using the last of the four that I bought last year and after 4 rounds it has stretched so badly that I can't keep it closed any longer.

Yes, I played two of them last month looking for something other than a ProV1 to lose in a pile of leaves. One of the Bison X was obviously suffering from a concentricity problem because it wobbled almost comically off-line on a relatively easy putt. I was forced to take it out of play after a hole. The second ball was slightly better but was easily 20 yards shorter off the tee than a ProV1. Mid irons were easily losing half a club. My buddy who bought the dozen (15 handicap) shot his worst round of the year with them. Lost a total of 5 in a round on shots that he normally handles with ease. He remarked he'd never use then again and I haven't seen them in his bag since. Don't waste your money. These are right down there with refurbished balls.

I've added the Tour to my bag for fall/winter rounds and it's a more than acceptable ball for the use. I do notice that I am losing about 10 yards on a drive and can't get it to spin around the greens like a ProV1. My handicap has gone up from 5.5 to 5.9 since I made the switch but I'm not losing a $4 ball in a pile of leaves twice a round either. The Tour is sensitive to the wind to be sure. Not sure that the side stamp really does anything other than serve as an alignment tool. I've always used the logo on the ball to line up a putt, so the side stamp is just something else on any given ball. I'll probably go back to the ProV1 in the spring when the weather heats up (or I sneak off to Florida for a round over the winter) but this is clearly the best ball in the DTC world by far.

Spiked. Playing in Western PA with all of the hills and side hill lies spikeless shoes are a great way to roll an ankle. Played a total of one round with spikeless shoes. Fell off of three shots and shot my worst round in years. They were returned the next day.