Wheelieb

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

If you can definitely look into your Ch. 31 benefits before you touch your GI bill. If there's any certs you want to try and get before you get out you can cash in your TA also. I was able to do my Project Management work through TA before I got out, it was 6 months of school. Was tough doing it while on a sea going command but saved me a ton of money. The 31 benefits also run longer than your GI bill, so gives you more time and support to transition which has been super helpful. It also maintains the GI bill completely intact so you can use that for follow on degrees or pass that along to dependents. If you have any questions I can help from the service member stand point 

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

You aren't last, that's a positive.

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

Sounds like the perfect time to get the golf game in shape with hopefully some well deserved free time incoming.

Nice review!  Enjoyed reading through this.

Be glad about not serving in VA. I'm a Gunners Mate, and for all the non Navy/non-military folks, that just means I do paperwork....But you are correct, traffic is a nightmare more so now with them doing the construction for the new bridge tunnel so we can have 4 lanes backed up instead of just 2. I've got a little over a year and I will be done.

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

The Cardinal course at Newport New Golf club

A little bit about me. I like long walks on the beach, during the day cause I don’t rust sea turtles. My likes are…Oops wrong forum. My name is Branden and I guess you could say I started playing golf as an actual thing to do, and not just a drive a cart and kick some balls around while having a few cold ones, in 2020. I had to do something since team sports were banned on base. I’ve been in the Navy now for we will say 19 years. Married and no kids, although we have three dogs that act like kids.
 
Word to the wise, fine print is everything when you are reading about a product. I used to be one of those that fell into the category of “word of mouth so I’ll go buy it” people. I used to not do my research on certain products if someone I knew glowed about it. This lead me down a few paths of wasted money on golf equipment that I should have done my research on. I can’t put a full price tag on the amount of golf balls from the Vice tour line I have donated to numerous wooded areas, lakes, creeks, and ponds. I probably could if I went back and checked my bank account with buying them, but that’s not relevant at this time.
 
What got me to play the Vice Tour ball was the fact that Vice balls were becoming a huge hit with some of the guys I was starting to play golf with in Florida in 2020. I had never heard of them, but they swore up and down that they were far better than any other ball out there. Since I was new to playing I decided it was a good deal to start buying them since they were cheaper and they used them all the time. I believe I spent about 113 dollars on Vice’s website to order 5 dozen due to the fact they were not available in any store at the time. I felt like that was a steal for that many balls and waited until they came in. Their KIL (Keep In Line) line seemed like a great added piece as well, except I learned that I rarely ever used it to line my putts up with. By the end of a 3 month timeframe with them I only had maybe 6 left and chalked it up to just not being good at the time. Those 6 seemed to have lasted at least another 3 months and I had bought some Bridgestone e12 matte yellow golf balls. Not the best ball to use for me and that’s a whole different paragraph. By this time I started seeing the Vice Tour in Walmart so I didn’t need to order them offline. This continued up until recently after I had moved up to Virginia.
 
Noticing I was getting better and better and not losing as many balls I kept buying them. They were cheap and seemed to work well. However, there was a flaw in my thought process. While continuing to play these balls and getting better, I was noticing that when I would hit into greens I wasn’t getting a lot of spin like some of the other guys I was playing with in my league were getting with theirs. This is when I went on a deep dive of doing a little bit of research and found that the Vice Tour were surlyn cover balls. Well this lead me down a few holes of rabbit chasing and found that the surlyn cover do go a little further, and spin a little less. Now this is not a big deal for most as spin with wedges normally is pretty decent, and approach shots don’t normally roll out well past the pin who use these. I was finding that I wasn’t getting the benefits of shorter putts, so I worked on my approach shots and my wedge game to get better spin. Insanity ensued. I kept buying them expecting different results and saw my average putting distance on approach shots move maybe an inch to the better. Still believing that this was all a ploy I just continued working on my approach shots.
 
Well luck would have it that I played in a charity scramble and I one of the guys in my group had some Wilson Triad balls. Knowing that they weren’t on the same price level as Titleist Prov1’s I asked if I could pay him for a sleeve of balls. Him being a great friend said no worries and handed me a sleeve. Now Normally I’m good for at least 1 or 2 balls lost on the front 9 and about 1 on the back 9. We played the front 9 and I didn’t lose a single one. On top of that we used 4 of my shots that landed on the green because they stopped way faster than what I had previously been used to. When we got to the back 9, my confidence was beaming. Had the longest drive out of our group and I was the one with the most shots taken on the green. Hole 10 I teed it up and let it fly. Beautiful draw and lost it over the trees. Now normally this isn’t a problem if it was a dog leg left. But that was not the case here. This was a dog leg right and I just lost a ball into the woods to never be found by us. My next shot, because my hops and dreams were crushed, went all of 20 yards. In all I lost 2 balls on the back 9 and only 2 of my shots into the green were taken. To me that wasn’t bad. This lead me to buying a dozen myself.

With the why I wanted to test these out on the course reasons out of the way, on to the review of my round with the Wilson Triad balls.
 
I started out on the putting green and liked the way the Wilson felt off the face of my putter. I am becoming hard of hearing (seriously, I have hearing aids now and I’m only 38) so a lot of hits off the putter sound muted now when I used to hear a click. Saying you learn to live with it is cliché. I’ve just gotten used to the fact that certain sounds will not sound the same to me. But I can feel them off the clubface and they felt firm but soft at the same time. I’m one to not use any lines to line up my putt cause I always aim it to far in one direction and miss my putts even further than what I should. Since these don’t have a line I didn’t have to worry about it. I did notice that these didn’t jump off the face like the vice tour did. It took some getting used to as I had to make a slightly stronger stroke to get the ball to the hole than I did with the vice. With that out of the way, off to the first tee.
 
Seeing how it’s still “winter” in Virginia, getting out to play is tough. Cold temps are not my cup of tea to play in, but I do know a few people who don’t mind playing when Jack Frost is blowing his lungs out. I wanted to get out and test out the Wilson Triad as they were pretty much the “new” ball to me. I hadn’t played a real round of golf with them, so I felt I needed to do so while playing and keeping my own score. Call it the first tee jitters, call it what you want. Stepping up to that first tee box I felt like I was not where I should be. Knowing the first hole is a dog leg right I decided to play it safe with an iron off the tee to get it to the bend. Naturally, I hit a slight draw and wound up on the furthest part of the fairway on the bend from the green. Great start, to the round. Seeing how I had 180 in I hit my 7 iron in and wound up just short. Perfect, I get to see how chipping would go. That was the thought as I bladed it across the green. Thankfully it wasn’t hard enough to go into the rough and wound up on the fringe. 2 Putt bogey and we were off. The second hole was a par 5 so I knew I could get after it, I smashed it down with a slight fade and wound up in the rough on the right side. Not content with unknowing how well it went, I hit one of the Vice Tour Balls to Compare to the Wilson. I was a little surprised that the Vice went maybe a yard or two further, but it was in the fairway. With it also being a little overly wet, I figured that may have been the reason. And since no one was behind me I grabbed the Vice and put it where I hit the Wilson. Since it was a par 5 I figured I’d go for the green with both and naturally came up short with both. This time the Wilson was a tad closer. Now it came down to chipping. I hit the Vice and it rolled to about 10 feet past the hole. If this test was ever going to give a good judge of what I could expect with this Wilson,  this would be the time. I chipped up on to the green and it didn’t roll past the hole. It bounced twice and rolled to about 5 feet. Decided to do a putting contest and found that using no line to line my ball up I was able to make a birdie with the Wilson. Using the KIL Line on the Vice, I hit it on the line and rolled end over end. I just had it aimed to far right. I decided to finish the front 9 without attempting to do a side by side comparison in order to keep pace of play up in case someone was coming up behind me.
 
Hole 5 came up and there is a little pond short left of the green. Feeling confident in my new found ball, I grabbed my 7 iron and teed it up. The saying “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” would have been an acceptable thing to say if I were to have skipped the hole. Instead, I bring the pond up because I chunked my shot that I never even gave the green a chance on this par 3. I took my drop and pitched it up to about 20-25 feet. Lost confidence and tripled that hole. Lost a ball, felt the golf demons approaching fast and felt like the wheels were about to just completely get lost even on the golf cart. I finished the front 9 with only entering my score. That is a whole other topic that can be broached at a different time.
 
The Back 9 came and hole 10 is a fairly straight hole. Nothing to really get in the way except a fairway bunker down the right side. Not a problem for me as I’ve been drawing the ball so far. This hole I would like to say was no different, I did miss the fairway bunker but I hooked the ball into the woods on the left. Ball number two was lost. I re-teed and still missed the bunker but this time I wound up in the left rough. Most people would be bummed about this, but I am one to be excited. I get to see how my Wilson is going to perform out of the rough. I took my 9 iron out since I was 150 out and I know I can hit 155-160 with it. To my surprise I came up short. Not problem since I get to chip again and see if this round has been a fluke on the front 9 with the stopping ability I had seen with the Wilson. Chipped it to 10 feet for a 2 putt double. Hole 11 I hit my tee shot with my 7 wood and was flabbergasted that it didn’t go as far as it normally would. Not close really at all. I had flushed it too, so it didn’t make any sense. I took out my 8 iron and flushed it and was short again. Started to wonder if I was taking the whole slow is smooth and smooth is fast way to serious. Chipped up close to the pin without it rolling past for a makeable par. Onto hole 12, with trees on the right and a small creek to far for me to get. I hit my driver and the theme of not going right was still in play here. What was in play were the trees on the left that I pulled my 3 ball into that I’m pretty sure some birds got mad at me. I don’t speak in bird tongues so I couldn’t tell you what they were saying. Re-teed and because I was scared the demons were with me I hit a bomb of 190 yards with my driver. That’s fine, I have 180 something in to the green. I take out my 7 and I’m short. I thought I had landed in the creek up a head, but I had made it over. Awesome, I get to chip again. This time I got backspin. Lag putt to 3 feet in for a 7.

I was starting to feel like maybe this ball just wasn’t going to be for me with how many times I was coming up short on shots I know I can hit with my irons. Pondering my life choices hole 15 came up, and I remembered a video I had watched about golf balls acting when cold and when hot. I felt like I was a fool. I hit my tee shot to the rough on the right and had 150 in. instead of using my 9, I took my 8 and on the green. Finally, a green hit for a birdie look again and the ball didn’t roll crazy past the pin. 8 feet well struck putt, the demons were gone. Hole 16 came up and it is a par 5. Everything was great, until I hit my second shot into the bunker. That’s a problem as I am not the greatest bunker player. But feeling confident I took my swing and landed in the bunker still. At least I was closer. Hit again and I was out. 2 putt bogey, The golf gods giveth and they taketh. Hole 17 is a straight shot, with a creek short and downhill of the green. Hit my tee shot right to the rough and had 145 in. I took my 9 iron out and hit, I was maybe 8 feet short, but that’s what happens when you decide to slightly chunk your shot. That was on me this time. Took my 9 iron to chip with and my putter, already resigned myself to the fact I was getting a par at best. The ball came off the club face and instead of popping off like I was used to with the Vice ball, it sort of checked and rolled….into the cup for a chip in birdie. I was ecstatic. Breaming with all the confidence in the world going into the last hole, a par 3, I was on my way to a great finish. That was until I decided to hit it short right. I chipped up and it stopped on a dime some 40 feet from the pin. No problem, I’ll finish with at worst a bogey. As I finished my round putting a 6 on the card, I saw that I had shot an 86. I’m used to seeing a 90 plus. This gave me confidence again. I feel like these Wilson Triad balls may be on to something for me. Below are my scores out of 10 for each category for them.

Driving  8/10
Approach 5/10 (Mostly due to me being a dumb dumb and not taking extra club)
Chipping  9/10
Putting  8/10
I wanted to get the review up, I may not be able to get out on Friday, but wanted to add pics. 

I love when you can see an athlete in the zone.
Eyes on the prize, pure focus!!

Nick Taylor is your 2024 WM Phoenix Open Champ!
He won in a 2 hole playoff against Charley Hoffman:

 
Scotty Scheffler missed out on the 3-peat by 3 shots.

A great review! You make me want to give these a try. The fact that you say they played fairly firm off the putter face is something I really look for! 
Mind if I ask what course you played these at during this review?

I had 3 of 5 miss the cut and I picked Gronk to make the field goal.
Anyone looking for outcome advice, I'll let you know my thoughts and you can pick opposite for really good chances.

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well. 

2020 it was my second year playi g golf and we went on a trip to myrtle beach and we played TPC myrtle beach i believe it was around 120 plus 50 for the caddy. This was also the first time i had ever had a caddy which at the time i wasnt good enough to hit the ball in the direction he told me to so it was a waste of money but an awesome experience so well worth it. The few years later we went back and met Dustin Johnson there while we were eating at the club house. Not the biggest dustin fan but it was super cool none the less. Headed to traverese city in michigan this year where i will be paying way more than 100 dollars around at some courses cant wait to play acadia bluffs its a bucket list course for me.

It started well for me, then it all fell apart cause Lowry made the cut then decided to not play like he did the first day. 

I played Bardmoor which used to host the JC Penny classic back in I believe the 80’s. That was 2021 and was the first time I had broke 100. I also paid 115 after the fees and glove I had to get. Glove was only like 12 bucks. 

Morning all,
we got our training today to make sure people are competent to shoot a weapon this week. I have a feeling someone will not make it through due to not following directions. Hope everyone’s Monday goes well.