MissionMan

I'm surprised this doesn't get more attention. I think it’s one of the better training aids out there. It’s a simple concept, but most ideas are. I tend to revert to this whenever my strike is becoming inconsistent. It helps soften my hands and force me to lengthen my swing so I am not collapsing.

Been using HackMotion for a little while and I like it. I think my only disappointment is that you have to go pro for a lot of the extra data, which is a substantial upgrade cost ($700) over core. I can’t justify pro just for Radial/Ulnar Data so I’m stuck at core. It feels me to me like they have base, base plus putting and pro, not really a true intermediate option.

I have 6 new ready-to-play balls and about a dozen premium balls that are more than 3 rounds old that I use for practice shots, high-risk shots over corners, etc. Our course is in a holiday location so it's easy to play an extra ball. If I hit a wayward drive or iron shot, I'll sometimes tee up a second and see if I can hit a better shot, then go back and play the original. Sometimes I am doing something that borders on stupidity, I'll take out a throw away. It may be something like driving over a dogs leg on a par 4 where I know if it misses, it's a lost ball.

Went out for a session today. The upside with miserable rainy days midweek is no one else is dumb enough to be out there. As a result, I had the opportunity to play 4 balls for 7 holes, before I had enough of the rain and decided to call it a day. The process was to drive with all balls, pick the best spot, and take the next shot with all four. I made a point of drying the balls between shots so the spin was closer to normal. It didn't help much with distances, as the fairways were soggy. I played a TP5, TP5X (I bought some), Srixon Z star, and Pro V1. On some of the par 3s, I also played a Pro V1X. My par 3's were not great today, wind probably wasn't helping but I'd put it most on me. Obviously it's hard to judge exact distances on the course, and I'm not good enough to get all ball strikes to be identical, but the TP5X was consistently longer than the rest of the balls by about 5-10 yards on the drive. I wasn't expecting it to be that big a difference but it was noticeable. I had holes where I struck 3 out of the four in perfect position where they should have been similar distances. The TP5 was marginally longer than the Z Star and Pro V1, but we're talking 5 yards. When it came to irons into par 3's, this reduced to a couple of yards. The spin on the Pro V1 with irons was slightly higher than the TP5 which I didn't expect. I TP5 felt a little spinnier for me most of the times I have had it out. I guess the launch monitor will confirm this in the next couple of days. I will say the short-game spin on the TP5 seemed to be higher than the Pro V1, as it seemed to check a little better on the greens, and I was consistently leaving it short of the hole. This is not hard to believe given brands can now get low spin off the drive and higher spin on short shots, but given the conditions, there are enough external factors to say this could also just have been course conditions. Will start my final launch monitor tests in the coming days so I should be able to deliver more accurate metrics.

Does he see a risk with copytition and other brands copying L.A.B based on their increased success? When is the DF3 broom coming out?

I don’t have too many issues with my SkyTrak. Also syncs fine when I get home. I don’t really need it synced at the range itself so that isn’t an issue as I am looking at the data live at the time.

I was use MCC+4 but found durability on the Golfpride is a challenge if you golf often. I’ve subsequently switched to Grip Master which are leather wrap grips, but absolutely amazing.

Okay, some torture tests with the wedge. 10 shots with a 48 degree in the nets. Mats at our club are a little hard so couldn't go to heavy on them or I'll break my wrists. The Titleist and Srixon seemed to do better than the others. The TP5 and Callaway not as well. In my view, it seems like a close race between the Titleist and the Sirxon, Callaway 3rd and Taylormade TP5 in 4th place. This supports Ronnie's view about the Taylormade's wedge performance. TP5 Callaway Srixon Z Star Titleist Pro V1

In my experience, the harder balls have the durability issues. I had more issues with spin wear on the pro v1x than the pro v1, and the previous Tp5/tp5x were really hard and also had similar issues for me. I could be completely wrong though.

I wonder if the TP5X has more durability issues than the TP5?

Well done, Sir. There are so few people left in the world who are like you. I liken it to the kind soul who still picks up a good-looking hitchhiker despite the risk of being murdered.

I was wandering through the golf store when I suddenly realized that there were so many things there that needed to be adopted. As a result, I unselfishly adopted a new pair of ECCO G5s. It had been days since my pair of Skechers died, and I thought the best thing I could do to hold their memory dear in my heart was to adopt a new pair. I also collected new golf shirts and pants as they also seemed lonely at the store in the discounted area. I was worried the bad people at the store would destroy them if I didn't adopt them, so I was really feel like I was doing the world a favour.

Well, my concerns about the quality of the Skechers boa equivalent turned out to be correct with the attachment on one of my shoes breaking today. The skechers twist fit is poor quality. I will say the warranty claim was addressed quickly after I sent a picture of the broken Twist Fit and they credited my account within an hour of lodging the claim.

Got some spin tests done today at a local pitch and putt. Not the greatest greens to work with but quiet enough that I could do this stuff without people around. First off, a 20 yard high spin skip and stop. Spin is pretty good. Here is a 30 yard high spin shot, open the face right up, full swing with a 60 to really try spin it up. Finally a 48 degree from about 110 yards. For these kinds of shots, if the pin is too far back, I found it easy to take a 3/4 swing with one club down and have it stop on the spot.

Got out for the first torture test today. These balls were selected because I had them on hand (comp winning, free balls at demo days etc). I could have included more but I don't think my arms could handle that many hits. Taylormade TP5 Callaway Chrome Soft Srixon Z Star Titleist Pro V1 (latest model) Results were interesting. 20 shots with a 9 iron on each ball in the nets which would be fairly hard on them because it's close to a wedge. I hit my 9 iron around 135/140 yards on any given day. I plan to hit another 20 tomorrow with a 5 iron, and 20 the next day with a 7 iron. The first photo looks bad, but this seems to be residue from our practice nets at golf course on the balls. This might not reflect normal play, but out on the course, the ball will be landing on hard ground, hitting trees etc so I felt given all the balls are experiencing this, it's fair for all of them. Cleaned up, they look a little better. All the balls did well. My expectations were surprisingly wrong. I expected the order of damage to be (sequenced good to bad) Titleist ProV1, Callaway, Taylormade and Srixon. Keep in mind, this could well just be hitting sharp edge on the net so we could well see these results change in the next couple of sessions. The actual results after 20 balls were a tie between Callaway, Srixon, Taylormade, then Titleist. The Titleist had the most damage with a number of larger wear patches. The other balls had minor spots, but nothing major. It will be interesting to see if that changes as the test goes on, because I suspect the thinner covers will show more wear over time. The Taylormade TP5 Callaway Chrome Soft The Srixon Z Star The Titleist faired the worse with some noticeable damage to the ball. At first I thought these might be residue that didn't come off, but it wasn't.