Ding-dong

I use L flex in GPLB , but to be honest this is stout shaft in all forms. It also depends on transition and that’s why autoflex and ottophlex work for some and not others. If you need a stiff shaft because your transition isn’t fluid you will either be paying a lot to get lighter and maintain stiffness or you cannot use the lighter cheap shafts. I may have missed the point but I have been trying to get as light possible.

Got out this morning, set up is 46” jumbo grip head set to 9.5 and draw . Really comfortable now with the driver. Distance is good and it is predictable. Had now a couple of rounds in the mid seventies and the dropped shots were not the driver. So now it’s concentrate on other parts to really make scoring headway.

Investigating Ai Smoke and it looks to be a slower driver … both TM and Cobra are generating faster swing speeds and ball speeds … so that would degrade all gains with GPLB set up. I won’t be going there !

Oh yes I forgot to mention we are off winter tees, some are forward but there is no roll out, it’s soft. The settings are quite a high flight for me, but I think correct. Also I was playing a reduced number of clubs … well to be fair the ones I only need really 14 clubs is a bit overkill

Sorry not been on for a while as I had not really done anything of interest. Weather here has been mild and I have managed to get a few rounds in. I had been struggling with a bit of swaying and the rotating head issue mentioned previously. So I was on a reset and go again. I think I have the swaying stuff sorted, my knees are recovering okay with a little bit of tendon soreness. I have started to try the big fat grip again but I installed on a 46” GPLB ladies. I have the head set to 9.5 std. Yesterday I played my first full round with it after a couple of range sessions (2 x 20 ball bucket warmups). I noticed I had a nice fade moving left to right by 3 yards max. I could increase this just by hitting earlier or I could remove it by changing the path so sending the club through at 11 o’clock of the ball. Suffice to say I had the ball on a string and hit every fairway except 2 which were in the 2nd cut ( no pick and place). I went round in 74, 1 birdie and 1 double bogey, 4 bogeys… didn’t convert enough chances to be fair. The last 4 holes were slow because the 3 ball in front were playing too slow and I started to get stiff plus the sun was setting. So 3 shots dropped in the last 3 holes … . Distance was good, and for the first time I had some ability to vary my shape and distance, well pick a target and hit it … I hope this continues, but it is comforting to know I can still do it . I did think about the new Callaway AI smoke … simply because it would suit the GPLB colours… but hold that thought, let’s see if this round can be repeated and bettered!

Sorted ! Found the super 2 part glue monkey wrench and gas hob. It did resist, but I told it resistance is futile . Shaft cleaned up and adapter glued back on .. will see how it is tomorrow.

Today I did some more testing and got to the conclusion that 4g extra in the head was okay. Launch angle was a little high as peak apex was around 90-95 ft. So I went out to fiddle further… and this is when I confirmed the hosel adapter was rotating on the short shaft. Initially I thought it was my poor grip fitting… but it was someone else’s poor tip gluing . So have I just been down a massive pointless rabbit hole ? To a degree yes, but I have a 1” longer version of the GPLB .. which I was testing as well. So the +4g stays, the strike is toe side of centre and I cannot get it to heel or middle (help!?!) . I dropped the loft to 8 degrees, apex dropped to sub 90ft and spin reduced (R10 guesses so no point being too specific) . My set up and ball position is locking down, as it’s dictating club face angle. I am now thinking should I remove some shaft butt end? I could brutalise the other tip off , I don’t have a shaft puller just a monkey wrench, gas hob and a steady hand. Or I could piss the wife off and order a new shaft with the right adapter glued on… given the cheapness of these shafts it’s a frivolity I can manage. i will check who supplied the poorly glued shaft and I will check my 3wood shaft ..

So new grip installed and tomorrow I will hit a few with it. Today was very cold so I will take care.

Manage to get out on my home simulator and go through some options. To cut a long story short.. The jumbo grip is off the driver, reducing the head weight to get the closure rate was too costly regards ball speed. The OP feels better than the Hzdus … back in the game gents !

Well I got out today… Heel weight made little or no impact. I went back to the 50g 5.5 hzdus im10 shaft set the head to 11 degrees draw and all was rosey. Swingweights were D1 vs D0. So the experiment tomorrow will be std grip vs hzdus , then I will put lead tape on the toe side to see if I can get the closure rate going. my path is in to out by 0,5- 5 degrees depending how I visualise my head path.. like wise I can get out to in but not to that margin. I am happy with my swing path, I am unhappy with the release .. so I need to find a way to make it happen.

So I finally got round to adjusting my club I have moved it from a C9 to D1. I added 4 grams of lead tape heal side on the 44” shaft with the jumbo grip … just too ill to swing it

I have a few clubs I like, so I want to know if it’s related and then the putter needs to be investigated

Been injured for a bit with the knees, they seem to not like bending, meaning no dishwasher duty or low cupboards..! Don’t tell anyone but they are okay now. But with the down time I investigated my “rights”, to say block is incorrect. It’s just the face staying open. I did try the other shaft I have which is 0.5” longer with a std grip. This was closing properly.. but felt different. So now I am about to go down some rabbit hole on the quest to get my swing weight sorted. The issue club was 20-30g lighter grip end. I don’t want to weight up the head too much and I want to use this big grip. So I am going to invest in a swing weight scale, lead tape , tour lock weights etc … then I may start the silliness with my putter.

No YouTuber picked it up, I suspect they were scared the big OEMs would walk away from them.

Still playing mine, just having some swing issues. But to counter that I popped a jumbo max grip on and liked the feel in my hands, but it upset some stuff because it’s light. Plus it was rotating… so now I am wondering how I can make it all work, but I do have a second GPLB ( I know , I am spoiled!) with a std grip on.

Not really is it , when your seeing the pros smash it out there, someone finds it then they get a wedge on it and then have a couple of putts at worse. The amateur doesn’t have an audience who have trampled the rough down or found their ball … I would also argue that if you took your 150 yard club and played it off every par 4 or 5 the score for the high handicap would be better … that’s making it easier and showing you it is not a hard game it’s the choices you make. .. might be boring though. ( sweeping generalisation I accept but it would cover the majority) This ball stuff is just a storm in a tea cup, and those who are unsettled by it have probably not got any other dimension or imagination to their game .

To be honest, modern golf is a different animal. Larger driver heads promote swinging hard, which has in turn impacted golf ball development. They are intrinsically related. Your average golfer who has never played classic or played prior to the big Bertha era won’t know about this. I remember having a lesson 40 years ago using a Mizuno impact 7 iron and being told “wind it back , control it, shelling it 180+ yards is not required”. Driving was the same, be efficient find the middle swing inside yourself even Nicklaus was advocating using a 80-85% of your power and to control. The pros don’t miss the middle by much, the amateur misses enormously but we need to discourage them from trying to hit too hard and encourage them to be accurate. By having a ball that gives you nothing beyond a certain point is the solution…it won’t ruin the game that’s just fertile imagination running out of control. Hitting in shaped long irons are a thing of beauty … mashing wedges is boring

Shorter ball … less lost by amateurs thrashing at it, back in the bar quicker more turn over of playing groups. Add in a 2 minutes on the green rule per group and then fields can be bigger …

Quite interesting reading the views from the U.K. and US. There is a similarity, some think they will be affected and others feel it’s only at the top of the game. For me I think a sub 110mph swing speed will pretty much be unaffected. These balls are so sophisticated with their multiple compression layers and aero performance. In fact I would prefer to see the top golfers have longer careers, meaning they are stressing their bodies to achieve the distances, take that away and they play within themselves and we get to enjoy them longer. The other week I played with a young man who was driving 340 yard greens with 3 wood. Although impressive, he didn’t play to his 0 handicap as his ability to manipulate his flight or shape was non existent.. his game was purely about over powering the course. My course is a bit poorly laid out probably being a 100 yrs old and a famous designer, the fairway bunkers are deep, 5-7ft lips, at 200-230 yards and leaving 150-190 yards to narrow greens. So landing in a bunker leaves you chipping out ( clubs don’t maintain bunkers to the level tour courses!) . My view on these is drop the lips or move the bunkers up to 250-280 yards and remove playable lies at 100 yards in, force these guys not to bypass the challenges. What we are seeing is the margilising of good golfers with distance…30yrs ago if I had these current balls instead of the 100 compression balatas I would have been smashing it beyond these traps , would never have carried 3,4,5,6 irons , definitely no hybrids required etc .. would have been walking around with a -5 hcp average and ironically most tee shots would have been played with my Mizuno T-zoid 3S and the 8 deg GBB would only come out on the par 5s or par 4s that could be bullied So for me the ball change won’t affect me, it will stop hopefully these vanity hcps, it will re-introduce some talent as opposed to swing out your shoes… By the way I do play clubs of from the late 80s early 90s and persimmon woods on occasion and with a Srixon AD333 ball .. I lose a little yardage but it’s not significant enough to make me score worse than modern ones… and I put that down to the ball.

Yes totally agree, I went out for another session.. probably driving the neighbours mad but they will get over it. I checked my set up, that’s alway a good start. It improved my club face angle and speed. I then narrowed the stance, shoulder width ( I have no acls in both knees, so sliding knees is a disaster) . Started to get a closed face or left face path, but was not really striking middle and then I sprayed the face to see my strike position. I have now got a little more comfortable with face angle, and closed it down. Still have to groove it follow a routine and limit variations after that I can use the rest of my game.

Yes that’s what I thought as well when I put the numbers together, so I will investigate further. For me I am just looking for the fastest most efficient way to move my body, I can alter the path either way it’s just the face won’t close like the other clubs. I appreciate that perhaps shorter clubs allow me to smother them and get to low face angles at impact. I am a very straight hitter by nature throughout the bag and even the driver but I feel like I am controlling the driver … so there is a confidence thing there.

So last night on the home range ( garmin R10 and a net) , was just keeping my hand in as it were. All my clubs absolutely fine face and path angles nice and low good tight dispersion.. really pleased, this is fine. Then I pull the driver out, now I don’t want to swing any differently but club path was good small left as in 0.5 degrees up to 2.5 degrees right ( if I adapt.. right handed by the way) .. but the face angle was 3+ degrees open ( facing right). So I am just sending balls right. I started to investigate, and I am an ex grass hockey player so I have a strong left hand, I can play US hockey with either side and possibly stronger on the left ( but that was 40years ago) . So I was thinking is my hand preventing the right releasing .. after adjusting ball position, swing path and hand height ( I did a fair bit of experimenting) . I then tried to weaken off the left hand try to reduce its input and that got me going left, but that felt like it required timing, and to me that feels like a weak / sensitive solution. Fast forward to the end of the session and I just tried something counterintuitive, I opened up for a fade and hit a straight ball. Now I will try again today, but I wondered whether my left hip is actually preventing release … does that make sense?

Couple of grips, std mcc+4 and a jumbomax to try. installed the jumbo on my driver and it’s stayed on ( although it did rotate ) also got dragged out to recycling/ antique/ bric a brac places … picked up a Bronty Chipmaster 2 in very good condition… and then my heart broke as I know these clubs unceremoniously dumped were loved by some old chap who’s wife was skipping around happy as Larry because she got her garage or garden shed back to dump gardening and crockery rubbish in.

I play graphite, simply because of joint pain. Graphite options now are massive. I don’t know if you will get to 130g but it doesn’t sound like these fit either. Definitely try some, you may get a pleasant surprise. I wouldn’t return to steel, I occasionally play some steel shafted irons but they don’t offer anything over and above what I have.

Been a while, I have been going through some driving issues. I lofted up to 11 degrees in an attempt to get some control. Today I went back to 9 degrees , not my standard 8. So I think it’s improving I was getting a bit quick and my rotation sequence was off .. hopefully that’s improving !