Alan Stewart

I'm in for the End of Season Stableford Tourney

Date 09/27/2024 Course Name Mammoth Dunes Gross Score 84 Course Rating 70.5 Course Slope 124 Gross Strokes over/under par 11 Birdies or better 6 Longest Drive 305 Finally got to play Mammoth Dunes at the Sand Valley Resort. MASSIVE fairways and greens. Our caddies were shooting the length of putts with range finders and our longest putt attempted was 28 yards. Fun course and very playable. On 14, driveable par 4, a player in our group hit just shy of the ridge top that would shoot the ball down to the green. Instead, his ball rolled across the fairway over 80 yards. My best driving round of the year, 260 average including a couple of holes with less than driver and a long of 305. 11/14 fairways hit. Putting was OK but I had 3 3putt greens on the back.

Date 09/13/2024 Course Name Reid Golf and Royal St Patrick’s (back 9 on both) Gross Score 85 Course Rating 70.6 Course Slope 125 Gross Strokes over/under par 11 Birdies or better 2 Longest Drive 272 I only had time for 2 nines this week so I combined them for this score. Back 9 at Reid Golf Course on Wednesday and back 9 at Royal St Patrick’s on Friday. Averaged the ratings and slopes to get blended numbers. Struggling the last couple of weeks with putting scores together. Driver is horrible right now as I am in the middle of a swing change and have no consistent shot shape.

Date 09/04/2024 Course Name Royal St Patricks Gross Score 81 Course Rating 70.6 Course Slope 123 Gross Strokes over/under par 9 Birdies or better 6 Longest Drive 260 Working on building an easier game today by not swinging above a smooth tempo for anything. Only took one larger swipe at the ball with driver and that was a water ball. Scored better than I played on a very dewy course on a breezy morning. Didn't hit a ton of fairways and greens but kept the ball better in play and putted well.

Date 08/31/2024 Course Name SentryWorld Gross Score 86 Course Rating 69.9 Course Slope 129 Gross Strokes over/under par 14 Birdies or better 3 Longest Drive 295 Little rainy to start the day but finished in great sunshine and light breeze on a great course. My dad, brother and I all have August birthdays so we celebrated with golf and another on the Top 100 courses within 1.5 hours drive of my house. Highlight of the course, besides the outstanding condition and the vacuum dried greens, is the signature 16th, Robert Trent Jones' self proclaimed "My Mona Lisa." Here is a photo of just a portion of this hole from behind the green. And if you look closely at the base of the pin, you'll see how close I came to acing this beauty of a hole.

It’s the big 6 0 today and I have my celebration shirt on. And we are playing SentryWorld tomorrow.

Fellow Wisconsinite here as well. I am in Appleton and play across the road at Royal St Patricks. I have played that par 3 numerous times and can attest to how easy it is to bogey.

I would be very interested in an RTJ Trail outing. I was looking to put a solo trip together for a long weekend this past winter. I played Oxmoor almost 30 years ago when my folks lived in Pell City outside of Birmingham and would love to explore more of this set of courses.

Date 08/13/2024 Course Name Wild Rock Golf Club Gross Score 84 Course Rating 71.1 Course Slope 134 Gross Strokes over/under par 12 Birdies or better 9 Longest Drive 280 Tough day for the greens. We were the first group off for the day but later in the morning they were having a junior tournament on the course. They tucked the pins in some outrageous spots, just over ridges, in small bowls in back corners, etc. More putts than normal but that is also due to pins being really inaccessible on approach or chips, leaving long first putts, and almost a 4 putt.

Date 08/09/2024 Course Name Naga Waukee War Memorial Golf Course Gross Score 81 Course Rating 70.4 Course Slope 123 Gross Strokes over/under par 9 Birdies or better 7 Longest Drive 263 Previewing the course before playing in my first WSGA Senior Tour event this coming Friday.

Final review posted!!! See page 1.

I am pleased with the stability of the shaft. I knew the Tour AD UB was supposed to be more flexible in the mid section and the butt end and was interested to see how that translated to the stability and overall feel. I have a smooth enough transition that we have tried regular flex at times and it always feels unstable or I just can't feel the head position. Overall, the Tour AD UB was pretty good on both counts. I improved my right miss and increased my fairways hit so I think the timing of this shaft was working for me once I got used to it. I will be curious to see how much of that is swing and how much is equipment. I have been working on driver more in practice than I have in years past. I haven't found anything that I dislike performance wise. Distance does not seem too different overall, maybe a little shorter, so no complaints there. Height seems good, with the head lofted 1 degree down. My predominant shot shape is fade and the fade seems tighter with the Tour AD UB. It may not be the optimal shaft for me but it is certainly an acceptable choice. I have a Trackman session with my swing coach today and will do a comparison back and forth between my old shaft and the Tour AD UB using the same head. I plan on 5 swings, then swapping. I want to have a total of at least 20, or maybe 25, reasonably good swings with each. Overall distance, height, carry distance, average shot shape and dispersion circle are going to be primary objective metrics. I also want to quantify, as much as possible, the subjective elements as well, feel, weight, balance, etc.

A global thanks to all who competed and all who organized this event. I would offer a group hug but I am a solid Gen Xer and we don't do that stuff. Plus, I am coming off my first brush with COVID and no one needs to be a part of that, because viruses do spread through computers!

@GolfSpy AFG I was going to show this in my wrapup next week but here is the preview: Now this does include the couple of non-driver tee shots, but so did the earlier graphic. Overall, my shot shape has not changed much. Still a fade, but hitting more fairways as the right miss has gone down. Left misses seem really about the same, with the difference a few more caught the left edge of the fairway instead of just hopping into the close rough. Driver loft is now set 1 degree lower to keep ball height similar between the 2 shafts. As you pointed out, it may be more the mechanic than the tool, as I have been practicing a decent amount and my swing feels better overall. I will be in the Trackman bay this coming week and will post/overlay the stats and dispersion circles. I am very curious myself to see this outcome. I wonder if moving the setting 1 degree down on my old shaft will help its dispersion as well. And since I am pretty sensitive to bend profiles, I want to see how the HZRDUS Blue feels/swings now. Stay tuned sports fans, results to come.

Report: 7/31 and 8/2 Rounds Obligatory visual from my range session on Tuesday. Hit it well on the range, centered in the face 2 rounds this week were not my best driving rounds but here are the deets: Wednesday, course was drier and I did not take advantage of it. 248.5 yards average on 12 drives, 285 longest, 7/12 fairways hit. Friday, 2+ inches of rain overnight. 243.6 yards average, 274 longest, 8/12 fairways hit. I was not making good, consistent swings, but driver did not hurt me this week. Overall, shaft feel is good and I have gotten comfortable with the bend profile. As you can see from the image above, I am comfortable putting some effort into this shaft. I am looking forward to the Trackman session with my original HZRDUS this coming week so I can start to wrap up the review and score the Graphite Design Tour AD UB S shaft.