David Leighton Reid

If I am playing golf on vacation, I would have to have a go at this green.  What a thrill it would be to drive a Par 4 and have an eagle putt or the possibility of making double eagle.  Talk about a lifelong memory!

That's awesome.  I wouldn't expect nearly as much for my Sim Max irons from 2020, but even a few hundred would soften any blow.  I also have an Garmin G80 approach that I bought at the start of the pandemic that I've barely used - hopefully that together with the clubs would cover most of the way to a new set. Also, I've got at LEAST two kidneys and apparently you only need, like, one? I don't know - we'll see what I can score for that 😉
 

Thanks for the interest!  Diamond Tour Golf does have the same primary ownership.  We spent 2+ years working on Sub 70 and were finally able to "launch" in December 2018.  It's definitely a smaller boutique concept and we embrace that.  We know it won't be for everyone, but the idea is to get high quality and similar performing equipment out to golfers at a far better price.  Generally speaking golf club prices are incredibly inflated due to advertising, sponsorship, retail markup and huge office/admin costs.   Club resale values also depreciate very quickly due to the number of product releases.  We hope our business model will avoid those issues.
Sluggo, you are correct that you spoke with Jason!  He is the owner of the company...I spoke with him earlier and he said he would reach out to you today to discuss further and make sure you get exactly what you want.  Apparently he was out skiing when you spoke over the weekend and he felt bad he couldn't talk at the time. Anyway, I'm not sure he fits my definition of a cool cat, but he knows his stuff and loves working with other golfers haha! 
 
 

Enjoyable article....thanks for sharing.  I need to add Lofoten to my bucket list....just not from the back tees!

For me personally, I have found that if I have a strong right hand grip (right handed swing), I have a tendency to have the shaft too deep in my grip, which promotes a more passive right hand and more out to in path.  When I weaken my right hand and get the shaft more in the fingers, my right hand is more active through the swing - which helps me in path and releasing through the ball.  I could be fooling myself on this, but that has been my experience.   
If there is anyone to speak about a strong grip... it is Zinger... 

I wouldn’t listen to the talking heads too much.  Instructor Mike Adams has some videos on the subject; search through his Instagram as he talks a lot about left and right hand grip.

... Played with a guy that wanted to know why I putt with the ball almost at my front foot. I told him I am left eye dominant and he did not know what I was talking about. Do yourself a favor and find out which eye is your dominant eye. If you are left eye dominant, move your ball position closer to your front foot so you will not be looking backwards. You should also experiment with the ball just outside your eye line which may or may not be better for you. If you are right eye dominant, you should have a neutral ball position so you are not looking forward. I had students improve instantly by moving their ball position after finding their dominant eye. You probably already know which eye is dominant by which eye you look thru when using your range finder. If you don't know your dominant eye, the test below will help you find your dominant eye:



https://www.allaboutvision.com/resources/dominant-eye-test.htm

Don't care at all. Am I playing golf? Yes. So I'm happy.

For me it was the thought of strengthening the grip by rotating my lead wrist, not rotating the entire lead forearm/elbow. I was getting to the point where my lead elbow was pointing too much toward the target at address. Reigning that back in toward my hip and then using my wrist only keeps everything much more square back and through.
This makes sense given I remember watching a Bryson YouTube video where he talks about feeling the left elbow pointing at the target and when he does that he can't hit it left at all.
The caveat for me with a forward ball position is what happened to me on 2/4 drives yesterday - straight pull to the left. I need to get more comfortable with the ball further back in my arc because that's when it's baby draws for days. 👍

I too took up golf in my late 30's.  Absolutely the hardest game I ever tried to get decent at.  

Congratulations!
 

Being a walker, I find very good golf balls that I play with.  Of course my favorites are high-end Titleist, Callaway, or Taylormade.  I have also found and played Vice Pro, which performed well.  

When you're all logo'ed up....

..and you spent your own $$ on the stuff..!! 😉☺️

... Taking this to the next level the amount of players I am paired up with that have no idea what shaft or flex they are playing that are most certainly not Golfspy's. Usually have a frayed sticker starting to peel off and is clearly more than a few years old. Most extreme example is a guy that just pounded it off the tee with an aggressive swing but was very erratic. He was playing a driver with a stock Senior flex shaft his Dad had given him and had no idea shafts were "different". I let him hit my driver and he was amazed at the difference in feel. 

If you've got as many (or more🤨) pictures of golf clubs on your phone as you do your family.. 🤦🏼‍♂️

It works the other way too.  Someone asks you what shaft you have in a particular club and you go into the details about the shaft and they look dumbfounded and say “I mean what flex??” 
When you say you are playing a Snell and they respond “what’s that???”

....when you buy a club from the marketplace and realize it's the same club you sold 6 months earlier to someone else, and you're paying more than you got for it 😱

... Every PGA Store is only as good as it's manager. That said, most managers I have dealt with are pretty cool and will bend over backwards, especially for a repeat customer. I had a custom Sim Max scheduled to be delivered to my home last spring, and 2 weeks after the delivery date I was in the store and asked about the progress and was told it had been delivered 3 weeks ago!?! I was living in a gated apartment and they had never heard of a theft at the complex. PGA manager and TM worked it out and they rushed me a new one. When it arrived it had the wrong shaft! The manager did something they never do and took a shaft from a Sim in stock and replaced mine with the Tensei Blue Raw I ordered and said he would deal with TM. Asked me what grip I use and then took a Lamkin ST+ out of stock and installed it "for all my troubles". I have been very loyal to that store ever since. 

Congratulations!
 

When I took up this crazy game in 1985, at the age of 38, I made a lot of mistakes.  I thought because I had played sports it would be a piece of cake and read books, went out and bought good equipment from a golf shop and listened to my friends about how to play the game.  YES, the game plan for failure.  Did I go for a lesson first then a fitting to get the correct clubs, NO.  I am still paying for my mistakes.  At my current age, 75, I can putt fairly well and hit the driver better that 98% of those my age.  But you cannot score with those two clubs.  I did not develop a good foundation with a good iron game and  that is where I constantly have to go to a coach/instructor to work on.  When playing, if one part of my iron game goes array, it seems to affect my whole iron game for the whole round.  I know my faults, and it all began from my beginning and my hardheadedness in not starting the game correctly.  I hope those who are new to the game will learn from what I have learned and will do it correctly.  Oh, when I hit my irons properly they are a thing of beauty, but if they were only consistently.  At my age I am still learning and working on problems they could have been avoided way back in 1985, with a good coach who could have helped with importance of a solid iron game.  Just sayin.         

Hell on Wheels

What a cool story....Rory is a class act.

What a cool story....Rory is a class act.

... Graphite has surpassed steel as far as having the ability to create any kind of shaft concerning fine tuning performance. There is a reason most LPGA players have graphite in their irons and it isn't more distance. It is accuracy. And while feel is certainly subjective, I would say graphite shafts don't have a lack of feel, they have a lack of vibration. For someone that has only played steel, graphite can feel a little dead or overly dampened at first but most adjust pretty quickly. Just listen to those that have played several different graphite iron shafts and they can have strong opinions on the feel of Recoil, MMT, KBS TGi/TPi and Steelfibers. 

... There used to be a pretty big difference in price but that is no longer the case and some steel shafts are more expensive than graphite. I am a huge advocate for using graphite in your irons especially older players because it is easier on your body. And the more you play the more it makes a difference. That said, steel has been around forever and still performs it's job as you recommend, you get fit into the right steel shaft. 

My left hip is scheduled to go under the knife on November 11, exactly two years after I had my right hip replaced.  The outpatient surgery was a breeze.  Got there at 10am and walked out of the place with a walker at 7pm.  The first 5 days are a bit of a hassle sleeping but I had zero pain, took no meds and was moving around nicely after 3 weeks.  Rehab is easy and you can golf at around the 3-4 month recovery point.  I've been playing golf six times a week all summer, walking with my MGI zip navigator to preserve my hip and it's gone great.