Indy_Oz

LOL. Absolutely conclusive proof that MTx>PV1 Whether statistically significant or outlier, clearly the Tour X worked very well for you for those nine holes! Great back nine and overall score. I'm looking forward to giving the Tour and X a good run out.

Currently between Taylormade '21 TP5X and Callaway Chrome Tour. I have sufficient TP5X to get through the rest of the year, but the tinkerer side of me has picked up some Maxfli Tour X to go with the Maxfli Tour (just a sleeve of 3) I have ready for some testing. After reading all the glowing reports of the Maxfli balls, I couldn't help myself. I'll play one or the other this Sunday morning and do a comparison on the sim in the next week or so to see how the numbers stack up against my current gamers.

I think I need to grab a sleeve of the Maxfli Tour X to test out. I have a sleeve of Maxfli Tour I'm going to try out, but based on specs it looks like the Tour X will have a firmer feel than the Tour and will be closer to the TP5X I mostly game. I've been enjoying playing the Chrome Tour lately, particularly off the tee and long irons. But if the Maxfli is as good as everyone says, it'll be a nice cost saving without giving up feel and performance. I really didn't like the Kirkland v3 either. Gave mine away to a friend after getting through a sleeve.

Only just discovered this thread! Love it. Definitely part of this club. I've had an albatross 2 on a par 5 when I was 18/19 (driver-3W with persimmon clubs!), but no hole in one to date. This is the closest I've had this year. July 11th this year in a league round. 140ish yard par 3.

Personally, I don't count sim HiOs, I'm afraid. Through winter I practice on sims and over the past couple of winters I've had two sim HiOs. One in a solo practice round, one when playing with friends. I haven't had a 'proper' (real course) hole in one yet. I've been VERY close a few times, but as yet no luck. But everyone is different and it's how you feel about it that really counts. Well done though- great shot!

Didn't realize railroad ties were a Pete Dye thing! Guess I haven't played that many Dye courses and nobody mentioned it before.lol Something like this though?

You can select the hole you start from. My league is a shotgun start, so I change start holes each week. Arccos defaulted to hole 1 after I tried to start from 9 once, but every time since it's worked fine for me. I start my round on my Apple Watch, if that makes any difference. I add shots at the end of the hole (so I don't slow the group down) using the iphone if it has missed any. Usually the missed shots (for me) are limited to repeated use of the same club in a short distance (duffed chips/ bunker fails) or putts. I had a sensor unscrew and fall out of my gap wedge mid-round last week and I had to add each of those shot as I played. Annoying but not difficult. I also noticed that when adding a shot during the hole (or at the end of the hole), little shot indicator '+' symbols pop up where the app has detected the sound of a shot (I'm assuming that's why as it seems to align), so I can tap on one of those and then select the club.

Today I played Holliday Farms, in Zionsville, Indiana (USA). It's a newer local private club with a Pete Dye-designed course winding through an exclusive community. Pete and Alice Dye actually drew up the designs for the course, in this location, in the 90s (Alice was related to the Holliday family and they both knew the land well), but it only opened in 2021. As a Dye course, the greens are tough and are well protected by either bunkers (lots of them!) or water... or both. Somehow I only hit one bunker all day and that was a fairway bunker on the FIRST hole! The following pics give you an idea of the design of some holes there... I thought this was a pretty cool and interesting way of incorporating a fairway bunker.lol This was my first time playing the full 18 and first time seeing the back 9. The course is in fantastic condition and you have to plot your way around the course- there are very few 'grab the driver and let it rip' holes. Fairways were firm and rolled well considering we've had a decent amount of rain and the greens were quick enough (particularly flat and downhill) and rolled straight and pure. I shot a solid 82 (+10) from the gold/blue tee combo (slope rating 141/71.7, 6450yds). In terms of stats for the round, I was really happy with performance off the tee overall. 11/14 fairways is solid. After a couple of misfires early on, the driver, 3W and 3H put in a great shift! Driver was particularly satisfying on the back nine. Just solid straight and baby-fade tee shots to the middle of the fairway. A couple of times I picked the wrong club or line due to lack of familiarity and that cost me a shot or two, but I hit the shot I had chosen most of the time, which is a welcome change! Being rather self-critical despite a solid round there... GIR stats could be better and putting was tough. I mostly play on a slow muni, so switching to fast and heavily contoured greens is a tough ask. I was actually happy with my green reading and putting lines. Just the weight/speed that was a challenge! I put my putting under too much pressure by not getting close to the pin often enough with approaches and chips. Too many 20ft+ first putts and I had to hole a good few putts in the 4-6ft range for par. It was a really fun round and I'm glad we walked it. 8.5 miles and 16000 steps in the bank. Even some heavy rain towards the end of the front nine (with tornado sirens briefly sounding in the distance- at our neighboring town- and the threat of thunder storms) didn't manage to spoil the round. My birdie was during the heaviest part of the downpour. Maybe I need to think about putts less, as with that one I quickly eyed the green, walked up and holed an 18-20 footer!lol Can't wait to go back and see if I can crack 80 round there!

I don't have strong feelings either way as there are sufficient golf shirts out there that look smart untucked and are seemingly tailored for that. This week I'm playing at a friends' private (v expensive for Indiana) golf club where I'm told the dress code is strict. No cargo shorts and tucked shirts only. The last time I was a member of a GC was early 90s in England and their dress code was still long socks with tailored shorts if you insisted on uncovering your legs. Those old members would have a seizure if they saw modern US public courses. ha ha. If I am going to play courses with strict dress codes more often, I need to shed the middle age spread. LMAO

Unfortunately I picked up an injury before my order arrived and I haven’t really used them in anger yet. I strained my serratus anterior, which is more commonly a baseball injury and is the muscle that moves your shoulder/ shoulder blade around the ribs when you swing. My plan is to get to the stage when I can use the training over winter while also working more on overall strength and conditioning. Through the season I more maintain than build and just try to keep mobility and health good. I’ll be sure to update when I can actually follow the program.lol

When I was younger, my home course in the UK had power lines across two fairways. There was a local rule in place that if you hit the power lines within the course (not out of bounds) you could just hit again with no penalty. I hit those power lines at least three times. Twice in comps! I guess they were right in my driver flight window. Ha ha I’ve told friends to do the same when playing a casual round. For league/comps I would check local rules. You may have been able to save yourself a bogey! If it’s a regular course for you, might be worth checking with the course if they have such a local rule in place.

The Scottys do seem to be working out well for the buyers, that’s for sure! the copper inlays do look great! Good to hear the feel and sound is as good as the aesthetics. The weather was perfect for us. Mid to high 70s and only a light breeze (3-6mph).

Thank you! Yeah I’m very happy with the score for a first visit. My goal was sub-85 with a ‘stretch goal’ of break 80. I’ve definitely learnt a few things for next time but I was also lucky to avoid all greenside bunkers somehow! Only hit one bunker all round and that was a fairway bunker I had to chop out of as I was up against the front lip. But overall fortunate to avoid more! It’s a fun track! Yes, we will sort out a round soon. Definitely.

This afternoon/ evening I played at what seems to commonly be referred to (in local golfing FB groups at least) as Indiana's top public course: Bear Slide GC, Cicero, IN, USA. Aside from the tee boxes begging for golfers to take more care and fill divots, the course is in fantastic shape. The fairways are consistently carpet-like and drives bound on a roll nicely. The greens are pure and moderately fast (certainly fast compared to my slow-greened local muni I play league on!). Bunkers were ok... but no more than that. They needed some attention to lighten up the sand and could do with rocks being sieved out. But they're better than a lot of local course bunkers near me (which really isn't saying much)...and there were plenty of bunkers to try to avoid! The ever changing views, contours and hazards made for added interest as we made our way round. I played a blue-white tee combo (solo I would play blue, but i was with friends). For that combo, the course slope rating was around 130. I shot 82 (+11). Not too bad for a first visit, but very frustrating! Some prior course knowledge would have helped a ton. Front 9 was a frustrating 43. Starting double, double was very disappointing. After a decent warm up on the range, my usually-trusty 3W failed me. Or rather I failed it and put in a couple of just awful tee shots that set me up for failure. I slowly levelled things out and even managed to birdie one of the par 5s. Fortunately, the back 9 was a better affair: 39, +3, that could have been notably better without having to punch out from trees on 18, after what I thought would be a great tee shot and then hit the approach heavy and short. Frustrating way to finish the round. Arccos had the following as highlights: Off the tee- barring a few early round bad strikes, I was solid. Driver was straight every time, for a change. I only reached for it 4/5 times, but they all flew straight of v slight fade and only missed fairways as the fairways either narrowed a lot or I hit the first cut areas between two fairway sections (twice). Really happy with driver, 3W and hybrid overall. Chipping was my biggest challenge today. The grass was sufficiently different to that i'm used to at the muni. Tight rough and fairways (latter also fairly soft). More time spent chipping in warm up would have been good. Noted for future. Putting was really good and likely my best performance with the flat stick this year!. The new Scotty Phantom X7 (thanks @rkj427!), combined with the old version TP5X really worked well on these greens. For me anyway. Feel and roll was great and I was reading the greens mostly pretty well. I used the putter a few additional times in 'Texas wedge' mode from the short-cut approach and run off areas. I'm really liking the Golf Pride Reverse Taper Pistol (large) putter grip. It definitely seems to help me with alignment and face control. So far so good. One thing this has reminded me is that I need to play more variety of courses to get sharper and better. It's easy to fall into the convenience rut of just playing the local muni, particularly as I play league there weekly. Bear Slide it's definitely a course I want to go back to! I have unfinished business there and feel a mid to high 70s round is possible for me. (@IndyBonzo)

Nice! If you are not planning on using Arccos sensors in the end, you can buy blanking caps. Or just leave it as is if it doesn't bother you. I really like the STR8 tour grips. Haven't yet pulled the pin on a full set, as haven't decided whether to stick with irons and wedges having midsize GP Tour Velvet Plus4 with 3-4 extra wraps underneath to beef it up.