GolfSpy_BEN

A quick study in contrast: This past Saturday I played 18 holes at Majestic Springs Golf Course. It is a lovely course located near Wilmington, Ohio. Approximately 45 minutes northeast of Cincinnati. The forecast leading up to the day called for a mild day in the low 50’s, what we got was the high 40’s and the occasional 25 mph gust. At one point, I was shivering harder than a drunk three days dry and went so far as to try on the available outerwear in the pro shop, at the turn. My kingdom for a XXL pullover, but I digress. We teed off at 2:21 pm and completed our round in a brisk 5 hours and 28 minutes. As you can imagine, we waited on every tee box and fairway for the foursome in front of us, who were in turn waiting for the foursome in front of them who in turn…ad infinitum. Despite the weather and the waiting, I carded an 80. I had a chance at breaking 80 with a 12’ par putt on 18 that turned to the right at the last second, leaving me a tap-in to finish. I say all of this, to emphasize that pace of play be damned, I still enjoyed every last minute of that 5 hours and 28 minutes and would gladly sacrifice my time in a similar manner every day until I am on the other side of the dirt. Amen. I suppose it bears mentioning that my long-suffering wife, with the patience of a saint, does not share my views on the liberal use of free time to pursue such passions, but she keeps me around because, in the right moment, I can be quite charming. Which leads me to other side of this contrast. This afternoon I met my erstwhile golf league partner at the Southwest Golf Ranch. It is veritable golfer’s one stop. There are 2 grass tee areas, separated by the pro shop and covered hitting bays, a large green complex, and a chipping green, as well as a covered fitting studio and lesson area. Throw in the minigolf out front and it is fun for the whole family. A couple of years back they added Top Tracer Range to the covered bays, which for the uninitiated, means that each bay has its own launch monitor. In the beginning, there was an additional charge to use the service, but since then the range has worked it into the price of a bucket and 15 bucks for 100 balls isn’t hateful. All of this to say, one of the options afforded to their patrons is a version of virtual golf. How it works is after one has procured their regular (65 balls), large (85 balls), or jumbo (100 balls) buckets, one selects an open bay and is confronted with a choice. You can play as a guest or use the top tracer phone app to log in. The advantage of the phone app is the archive one can build of shot data. Once logged in, you are given the following options: warm up, my practice, virtual golf, driving challenge, long drive, approach challenge, closest to pin, points game, go fish, and top tracer 30. Each is a unique and wonderful way to get your practice in, without mindlessly bashing balls into oblivion. We hit 10-15 balls a piece using the warm up screen. This is nice because it gives real time feedback on carry and total distance, among other metrics. Kind of a check up to confirm your 7i is still carrying what you thought it was. We then played 18 holes of golf using a virtual layout of Bethpage Black from the white tees. In the interest of full disclosure, by necessity, putting is completely removed in this version of virtual golf. For example, on the opening hole (a 429-yard par 4) we each hit a drive out onto the range. The top tracer launch monitor takes the distance of that drive and applies to the monitor in your bay. The monitor then shows your remaining distance to the hole, and you hit an appropriate approach shot. Once you get within 30 yards of the pin, it becomes a closest to the pin shot to determine the outcome of the hole. That closest to the pin has three targets to choose from 60 yds, 100 yds, and 130 yds. Around each of these pins are circles of varying diameters for birdie, par, bogey. Your proximity to the pin on approach determines how large each of those circles are, e.g if you are on the green in two and 5 feet away from the pin your birdie circle will be considerably larger than if you are 25 feet away. If it takes you 3 shots to get within 30 yards of the pin, then the best you can shoot for is a par and so on. It took us about an hour and a half to play those eighteen holes. We had balls left over so we finished up with a couple of closest to pin contests for modest wagers and went our separate ways in just under 2 hours. The long-suffering wife suffers a little less on the occasions that we play a round at the range and agrees, that while golf will always be a part of the equation that makes up our family, range rounds are tantamount to a compromise. All of this to say, I absolutely love the direction our grand game is heading. There have never been more ways to play golf. More specifically, there have never been more relatively inexpensive ways to play golf. I have no good answers when it comes to solving pace of play, far better and brighter than me have been perplexed by it since time out of mind, but having more options can’t be a bad thing.

My dreams lately consist of days on the course, where the temps are well above 50 degrees and there isn’t an ever present 20mph wind to negotiate. Early season golf in Ohio is not for the timid or faint of heart

Welcome! Always glad to have more Ohio spies.

Internationally: Crystal Palace FC Domestically: FC Cincinnati Having lived in the Cincinnati area since 1991, I have grown quite adept to supporting sporting lost causes.

In no particular order I like: BustaJack Golf Bryan Bros Golf Rick Shiels Golf MGS Peter Finch Golf Grant Horvat Golf Micah Morris Golficity There are others that i'll check out randomly when I am searching for info on equipment and the like

Let me clarify this question, not who should play an MB iron or who can play a MB iron, but who looks at a well-crafted muscle back iron and says, “Nah.” Golfer thy name is Hubris… The conventional wisdom suggests the answer would be anyone who has tried to hit one and failed but leave that defeatist talk for the pessimists and the practical. In this golfing kingdom, we trade in the fantastical and visions of glorious, crisply hit irons that soar through air with a subtle draw and land as softly as a mother’s touch. Now for a bit of back story, as to what prompted this question to begin with: I was perusing Callaway Pre-owned and noticed they were running a sale on Apex irons. I am always on the lookout for bargains on equipment, as most of us are. Through shear serendipity, I stumbled across the Apex MB 18 single irons for sale and noticed a 7 iron with a Project X 6.0 shaft could be had for what it might cost to feed the family at McDonalds. Throughout my golfing life, I have played cavity backs, game improvement, and players distance irons, but never a muscle back. To this point, price rather than fear or experience has been the determinant, so armed with delusions of grandeur, I clicked Add to Cart. Yesterday afternoon I arrived home to the sight that every golfer has come to know and love, an oblong rectangular cardboard box waiting for me on the front porch. That moment (really, anytime golf clubs arrive in the mail) for me, is as close as I’ll ever get to recapturing the joy I felt as a child on Christmas morning. I’ve added photos below of the unboxing. Once I had club in hand, two thoughts occurred to me: 1) This must be how King Arthur felt holding Excalibur for the first time and 2) I’m going to need to swap this standard grip for a jumbo for comparison purposes Armed with my current 7i and the new MB 7i, my Rapsodo MLM, and after further examination and consideration of the lofts of these clubs, my current 8i which is lofted one degree less than the MB 7i at 33 degrees, I set off for the driving range. Confidence, at this point, was running high and dreams of glory and the love & admiration of my peers danced through my head. On my way there and all the way up to the first swing with this mighty stick, I developed and repeated the mantra: Do not fall in love with a golf club, do not fall in love with a golf club, do not fall in love with a golf club… And then I took my first swing. IMG_0539.MOV Too late… For those of you that have come this far, let’s dig a little deeper into the range session. I hit 12 ball with my current 7i, a Mizuno JPX 923 Hot Metal Pro with a KBS tour 120 stiff shaft. Here are the dispersion and averages And now the 12 balls I hit with the Callaway Apex MB 18 7i with a Project X 6.0 stiff shaft Overall, with the Callaway I gained 4 yards of carry and a significantly tighter dispersion. Beyond the intrinsic value, the muscle back iron just felt better. Try as I might, there is no better way to explain it. My first foray into player’s irons have left me a little giddy and debating if I should replace the 7 iron in my bag for my next round. To avoid the pitfalls of confirmation bias, I need to hit this club in actual playing conditions. Obviously hitting off the mat is a controlled environment, but the initial results are encouraging. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to decide which kidney I’m going to sell to finance a set of mb irons…

Love these balls. Can’t beat the price

Pretty course. The eagle in mid flight is a nice touch.

I am at 10 different states and 66 different courses. So many courses, so little time…

I have chosen to focus on iron sets, as trying to recount all the wedges, fairways, hybrids, and drivers over the past 30 years is a daunting task. Irons Hand-me-down Wilson irons from the 1980’s 3-PW Taylor Made Burner Supersteel 3-PW Callaway X18 3-PW Titleist AP2 4-PW Ping G15 4-GW Cobra RadSpeed 5-GW Mizuno JPX 923 Hot Metal Pro 5-GW

Ah well, it’s the hope that kills you. A heartfelt and sincere congratulations to these 6 wonderful contributors to this community! I will be following along with this thread and I anticipate great things to come. On a side note, I’ll be rooting for @CFreddie, as we joined the forum around the same time. Good luck gentlemen!

I tend to pick a putter and stick with it. I played a Scotty Cameron California Monterrey from 2009 until December of last year. Before that, it was a used Scotty Newport from 2004-2009 and a Odyssey rossie that I inherited as a teenager and played from 1995 until I bought that first Scotty. This past winter I tried out an Evnroll ER7v and I liked it, so that is currently in the bag. Having played blades the past 20 years, there has been a little bit of a learning curve thus far, but I am pleased with its overall performance. While I tend to be fairly monogamous about my putters, I did sign up for the LAB golf test, as their putters are so radically different from what I am used to, I would welcome the opportunity to compare and contrast how they might affect my game.

This sounds like good fun, but the oldest has a soccer tournament in Oxford all weekend. I will keep an eye on this thread for when you guys make the southern swing of the Ohio MGS Am Tour. Lot of nice courses down Cincinnati way, just saying… If the weather holds out have a great round!

Played 18 at Majestic Springs yesterday afternoon. Breaking 80 came down to a 12’ putt on 18 (right speed, wrong line)and I tapped in for 80. Overall, I am encouraged. I hit the driver fairly well, including a 320 yd drive off the first tee that wound up pin high, off the green to the right. Also, my putting was steady and the work I have been putting in to get used to the mallet I added to the bag this winter, feels like it is starting to pay off. My misses were line related rather than distance control and that is a good feeling.

What I find especially intriguing about this test is the ability to play one brand in its entirety. As someone who plays no fewer than 4-5 different OEMs at any given time, I’m interested to learn how that might benefit or detract from one’s game. Enjoy these next few days all, while the wonder of possibilities still consume our daydreams, before the harsh reality sets in that there can be only six of us that will continue this voyage. If not among the chosen, this is one thread that will be required reading as it progresses.

The Taylor Made BRNR mini driver. Can’t say for certain that it is anything more than nostalgia for Burner driver with the ti bubble shaft I played as a teenager. Something about it is definitely intriguing though

Ohio Kentucky Tennessee Indiana Maryland North Carolina South Carolina Florida Alabama Texas would like to play: California, Oregon, Washington, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine

I took my 2 oldest out a few weeks ago to Harmon Golf Club, a local muni that is never busy. We walked 9 holes and had a pretty good time. Though by the end of the round, it looked like I was pushing a bag lady’s cart, as we had 3 golf bags strapped to my push cart. One of the great joys of my life is that all 3 of my kids are interested in the game.

Thanks for the info. I demo’d the paradym triple d with the x stiff shaft, hitting into a screen with a Trackman supplying the data. I liked it, but I want to try it at a range or a course before committing that kind of coin. While I was there I grabbed a dozen chrome soft X LS and from your description I will like them just fine

I've given a lot of consideration lately to the following: Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond and the Cobra Aerojet LS. Ball: Taylor Made tp5x and Callaway Chrome Soft X LS

Those irons are absolutely gorgeous! They remind me of a set my uncle played with when I was a kid. I remember thinking something along the lines of “I’m going to get a set of those when I grow up.” How delightful that I may still be able to make that dream a reality.

How long have you been playing golf? I first played when I was 12. So off and mostly on for 32 years. What’s your handicap or normal score? I tend to shoot between 80 and 85, I haven’t kept a handicap lately, but I would guess I am playing about 8-10 What do you love about golf? That every round, every hole, every swing, every putt is a blank canvas and a fresh start. The smell of the grass. The sound of pure contact. The rattle of the cup when a putt, that has no business doing so, drops. The pristine silence of the first tee time of the day. Golf trips and all that entails. What brings you to MyGolfSpy? Do you already know any other Spies? I was made aware of MyGolfSpy by a former co-worker last year. It started as a vast resource for equipment questions I would occasionally ponder. It has been a slow descent into total immersion since then. Joining the forum seemed like the next logical step. Where are you from? What is your home course? I live just outside of Cincinnati, in South Lebanon, OH. For a lengthy period Hickory Woods was my adopted home, but lately most of my rounds are at Majestic Springs. What are the best and worst things about golf in your region? The best is the variety of layouts and excellent courses within a short drive of home. The worst is, was, and will always be the weather. Although the rise of virtual golf has helped to beat back the winter blues What do you do for a living? Construction Project Manager. I aspire to build cool stuff. How’d you pick your user name? As it is the name my mother gave me, I take no credit for its use.

As the weather here has finally turned toward the bearable. Stopping in to hit a bucket on the way home felt like the right play, and friends it did not disappoint. Pictured is the best of the drives I hit for the monthly long drive comp on the Rapsodo MLM. I harbor no delusions of winning it, but it sure is fun to compete