David Leighton Reid

It's even harder being the single, trying to remember 3 names!

Let's see your best golf meme.
 
Sent from my SM-N975U using MyGolfSpy mobile app
 
 

It will either be one of the best or worst shots I hit... no inbetween. 

I've seen several do that before. It's super smart. 
I'm with most all of you and cont remember names for the life of me. 
It's the same around town. We meet tons of ppl walking the dogs. Always remember the dogs name... But the ppl never.

When my wife and I get paired up with another player or twosome, she immediately writes their names down on the scorecard.  Use their name are few times during the round, and it sticks longer.
My wife says that she puts a "Hello! My name is..." stickie on the bathroom mirror so she knows who she is when she gets up in the morning.  If I go in there first, I'm really messed up for the rest of the day!!!   🤣

Changing Your Natural Swing 


Most golfers go through the same swing journey to one extent or another. The first time you pick up a golf club and swing it ... that is your natural swing. There are exceptions of course. For instance some have the idea the face needs to stay square to the target line and they manipulate everything to achieve that goal, so that isn't a swing but a club/face manipulation. But most use a swinging or a hitting motion the first time they hit a ball. Young kids usually playing clubs too long and too heavy so they have no choice but to swing the club because they don't have the strength to manipulate it in an unnatural way.

The journey usually goes something like this. Using your natural swing you decide you want to get better, making better contact and hitting better shots. You look at videos, read instruction or maybe even copy something you see on YouTube and recognize you have some faults in your natural swing and start the journey of self correction. You want to shallow your plane on the downswing, you extend on the backswing, you rotate your forearms, you supinate or pronate, you open or close your stance and the list goes on and on and on and .... If you keep at it, you begin to figure out what works and what doesn't but that can take years. 

The trouble in paradise is your natural swing has the freedom of a swing or hitting motion unencumbered by mechanics and forcing yourself into positions. While attempting a sometimes necessary swing change you are forcing yourself to do something different and that causes both mental and physical tension. Some never get past the tension and that can cause a lifelong pursuit of swing changes that never work because you didn't stick with it long enough, so on to the next one. Those that stick with a swing change and slowly begin to incorporate it into their natural swing will lose that tension and get to the point where they can just swing or hit without thinking. But keep in mind it took Tiger a full year of playing or practicing every single day and hitting more balls in one month than many hit in a lifetime as well as being under the watchful eye of his instructor. Yet many expect a change in weeks or months and that is a recipe for failure. 

As an example my natural swing had good tempo and was on plane but I flipped through impact. This initially worked very well for me and after only a few years my index was around a 10 but stalled and I wasn't improving. Picking the ball worked well enough but it became clear when I took a lesson that I needed to fix the flip and make contact with a forward shaft lean, taking a divot after impact and compressing the ball for more accurate shots and better distance control. This caused a myriad of problems through the years because in order to accomplish this one change, I manipulated everything else trying to accomplish it. I often did the wrong thing attempting to produce unnatural lag causing tension and movements with my body that worked against my natural swing. So I started and stopped attempting to quit flipping several times but always went back to it after a poor ball striking round. After years of attempting that change, in the end it was basically (and I am grossly over simplifying) just flipping after contact. So a good 10 years later I learned to do what I did the very first time I swung a club with a slight change. 

Almost every successful journey to improvement ends the same way. After going through some or many swing changes you eventually get back to your original natural swing but updated with some minor changes. Even looking at all of Tigers swing changes, his tempo and basic swing didn't change. Yours shouldn't either. So while pursuing those swing changes you are sure will make you a better player, always remember your natural swing tempo and basic shape should not change. Keep that in mind when doing something new and always attempt to stay as close to your natural swing as possible when making changes. And congrats to those that have reached the finish line of their journey understanding at some point your swing is what it is and you have learned to play golf and not golf swing. 

I haven't been out since my initial hit with it so not much to report. Life has been busy and weather not cooperating so still tbd! Glad to hear you are getting on well with yours. I think the biggest thing for me will be the sound vs the Tsi. The tsi sounds so freaking good and the PXG is much louder. However in the end it is pure performance that truly matters. 

I'm quite concerned that the heads seem to be on backwards.  😁  

The Tsi3 is just so clean: looks, sound, feel are all top notch. It didn’t win my driver derby, but it’s always a contender in any contest…

I have owned the PXG 0211, and still own the 0811x Proto.  Unfortunately I haven't (yet) owned the Cally Epic Max LS... But the TSi3 has been a winner for me all around since I added it to the bag last year.  Only to be replaced recently by the TSR3... So I have to give the nod to the TSi3 for all categories above.  But bottom line, I think you could game any one of those three and be in great shape off the tee.

First impressions of the PXG 0211

Solid driver. Looks great and without question has fantastic aesthetics for a driver. Sound is certainly louder and more along the lines of an aluminum bat vs the composite thud or muted sounds that we so often hear from drivers these days. 
Feel in terms of strike location was also really good. I certainly knew where I had made contact with each strike and there was also a noticeable audible difference too. 
So that is the good, next is the not so sure yet. 
Head to head numbers vs the others it is lacking a little in ball speed. It never was able to crack 156 mph where the Tsi normally lives in that range or higher. It took a few swings to get into, but flights were good enough I'll say. It is set to 9 and I had no issues getting the ball in the air. However without question off center strikes are penalized heavily. 
Overall good, not great. It will of course get more time to see where it stands and how it stacks up, however there is a clear leader in the clubhouse and one that will take some great performances to be knocked off. I will never say never though!
PXG made a good product here and one that will suit and work for many and doesn't give up that much in performance. It was fun to hit and looks appealing. My round today got cancelled where it was going to go into play and not sure if I will get out again this season so it may be range time only to decide if it makes the bag or even a backup bag. 

All 3 drivers are in hand and now it is time to get into it and spend the next few months testing, playing and enjoying the process of what will end up making the bag for next season and what will end up on the Buy & Sell. 
Meet the competition



Titleist Tsi3 9* w/ Fubuki 60 xct Stiff 1/4" long weight set in the back neurtal position. Sleeve in .75* more loft and flat (B4 for a lefty).


PXG 0211 9* w/ Project X HZRDUS Smoke Blue RDX 6.0 60. Sleeve Neutral, loft standard (for the moment). 


Callaway Max LS 10.5* w/ Aldila Rogue Max 65 gram Stiff, Sleeve N/S weight slightly toe side. 


A little history for the clubs and some finer details. All the clubs are using mid size grips and were purchased either on amazing deals or second hand. The Callaway was a demo that was 40% off and was just too hard of a deal to pass up. It replaced the Mavrik SubZero that had replaced the Epic SubZero which cracked. The Mavrik has since been sold and although I loved the shape of the driver the forgiveness of the Epic was too hard to pass up plus the added adjustability was important for me. 
The Callaway Max LS has 3 or 4 rounds of play and has done well. It is a far improvement over the Mavrik and I have had one of my best rounds ytd with it at a difficult course. The biggest flaw I have seen is the short hits are quite short. 
The Titleist has 2 rounds of play and has been a great club so far. The sound/feel and flight is preferred and I would argue is equally if not more forgiving than the Callaway. In the 2 rounds it has performed really well and particularily on shorter hits has been 5-10% longer than the Callaway in those same situations or strikes. 
The PXG is untested, unhit and just arrived. 
My plan is to use Trackman, GC3 and or TopTracer to get my data. The first two will cost some money to use where TopTracer is free. I know it isn't as accurate, however it can allow me to get a sense of how it is performing. I do not know how much on course play these will get, maybe only a couple more rounds this season so a lot will depend on numbers. 
I want to have some fun with this so the Top Tracer 30 and Driving Challenge are going to be the main areas of focus and the scores that are achieved with them. 
As for initial thoughts and impressions on aesthetics, well I like them all truly. The shape of the Titleist is easily the best, however I do like the top looks of both the Callaway and PXG with not just being straight black. The additional adjustability of Callaway and Titleist is a big plus as I am a tinkerer and enjoy. 
Here are some other glamour shots. Don't forget to fill out the polls above and let me know what you think? The winner of the shootout at the end much like our Black Jacket Banner will get the MGS Headcover!
Titleist Tsi3




PXG 0211 



Callaway Epic Max LS




The Bag and Headcovers


 

Need to turn it to 40 and tell them the thermostat is in C not F 😉

Dad win when you can successfully week to week lower the temperature of the heat in the house during the winter, with nooooo one noticing.
Instead of cranking the zones down to 62 from the jump this year I went from 66 to 62 setpoint throughout the house over a few weeks. No one noticed, no one complained. I call it the thermal adjustment theory....
Great success....maybe my oil savings will produce equipment spend?

Home from vacation. Long travel with short flight, but 3 hours waiting for it, hour flight. Train route cancelled so another hour to the car, then 20 minutes home. 
Now the dogs are freaking out! Great to be home again!

What's hilarious to me about his post is the "everyone gains from Autoflex" summation, which is patently untrue.  True Spec fitter told me that 3 out of 10 (or 30%, for those of you math-challenged readers) see benefit from the Autoflex.  That's not exactly amazing results.  The idea that "some people are spraying it all over the placer" is true of literally every driver on the market.  Sigh. 
That article was probably paid for by Big Korean Hidden Technology Money (please note: this sentence is strictly to make you laugh).

A little more than a week into working on the swing changes from my latest instructor (more on that in a bit).   Most of my work had been indoors due to weather but I was able to get to the course this past weekend and hit some balls and play my second round of golf for the year.   Doing a drill where I focus on hinging the wrists and then making a swing.  if you watch Lydia Ko’s pre shot sequence, that is basically what I am doing.   Looked at some video and the swing is still a little long/over the line but better and I am now hinging earlier in the swing.  Hit the ball pretty well,  miss was a straight push and not my normal pull hook.  Face contact felt pretty good and centered.   The most informative part of the review video I received was how the club moves with an over the line swing and how it wants to rotate closed.  The explanation was enlightening  and was easy to replicate and feel.  I would also say it explains why my first swings are pull hooks and then I straighten them out after some warmup swings.  Coming out of the weekend with some confidence in my swing and that I am moving in the right direction.   
 
I am now on my third instructor after starting this journey.  The first I liked and had used for many years but all of a sudden he stopped responding to all of my communications; basically I got ghosted.  Took me a little while to find a second instructor and I took a lesson and signed up for 5 total lessons.   Made some minor changes to my swing and did some evaluation of my game as a whole.  no major changes, essentially alignment and trying to shorten the backswing.  Was given a few drills and ball flight was solved during the lesson but it didn’t always carry over to the course.  Nothing wrong with the instruction, but after a few lessons, I didn’t feel like there was a plan going forward.   Still have a lesson left but not sure I am going to use it.   I won a free lesson via skillest during a Christmas giveaway and the feedback I received is what has been presented in the last few posts.  Really feel like we are taking on the cause of my ball flight issues and not band-aiding.   My only concern is that After the lesson I asked what a plan would be if I took additional lesson and I didn’t feel like I got a great answer. I know the goal is for me to sign up for more lessons, but I personally like to have a basic idea of where we will be going.   The interaction has been good and I will probably sign on for a few more lessons since it is affordable.  I just wish it was warmer and I could get to the range more to video my swing for the lessons;  MGS HQ is great, but their hitting areas aren’t conducive to face on videoing of a swing.  

Haven’t had the opportunity to play or practice much over the past few weeks so I haven’t gone back for a follow up lesson.   Looking back over my last few rounds I see that I am losing about 2 strokes on approach, short game and putting based on shotscope numbers against a scratch golfer.  
 
digging into those stats a little deeper and it appears fairway bunkers  are a weakness as the distance remaining to the hole is very high. Rough performance on long shots are also mediocre.    Reading the shotscope page, if you don’t hit the green on your second shot on a par 5  it should be marked as positional. This is strange but is definitely inflating my proximity to the hole numbers.  Next could of lessons will probably be focused on face control to narrow my dispersion cone.  
 
short game is definitely improving.   Going with lighter shafts in my wedges was 100% the right decision.   I have better control and contact with the wedges and performance is improving.  Leveraging a multiple club approach to finesse wedges is also helping with proximity to the hole.  
 
been experimenting too much with putting and putters.  I need to go back to the foundations that I learned from my putting coach.  While some performance improvements would be nice, just looking to get more comfortable over the ball and stop tweaking setup and stroke.  

I had the procedure done approximately 28 years ago after the birth of our 3rd child.  The doctor had to dig around a bit on one side, because the tube that needed snipping was underneath the testicle.  It felt like he was pulling my eyes out from the inside.  Lots of swelling and bruising.  The worst part was laying on display in the doctor's office in front of the doctor and a nurse.  Also, it was really cold in there!

My father didn't start playing golf until he retired and we enjoyed several rounds of golf together before he died.  During one round, on a par 3, my father's tee ball went into some trees right of the green and completely out of sight from the green.  His second shot ricocheted off several tree limbs and came to rest just off the green.  Since he couldn't see me, I picked up his ball and placed it right next to the hole and congratulated him on a great shot.  He was so excited, I didn't have the heart to confess what I had done.  For several years, up until his death, he loved telling the story of the impossible shot.