Silver Fawkes

Good morning Spies!!! We're in Myrtle Beach!!! Played 36 yesterday, but got rained out this morning. This afternoon is looking good to play Aberdeen! I cannot contain my excitement! Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Morning folks! One week away from leaving for Myrtle Beach for 5 straight days of golf with the boys!

Technically past morning time here, but it's 7 am somewhere. Hope everyone has a great day! I broke down and decided 7 years was long enough and it was time for new irons. I made a fitting appointment and went in expecting to be placed in some players distance irons. Well that didn't happen... We pulled out the Mizuno Pro 245. First swing pulled a little left with a 10 yard draw... 177 carry. My head almost exploded. How on earth???? Now granted I was leaning into these swings but my 7 iron carry is usually between 160-165. I got one out to carry 182 after a half dozen swings. The downside is that I was launching them a little too low and the spin was way too low. Long story short, we tried a few different heads and shafts, but what ended up producing the best launch and spin numbers were the 241 blades. On top of that, we dropped the lie angle to 2° flat and low and behold the pull hooks disappeared. My right misses were a bit more right, but my left misses were so much tighter than before. It goes to show just how important getting fit for your clubs is. If I'd just bought clubs straight off the rack there's no telling how many strokes I'd be costing myself for no other reason than having gear that doesn't suit my golf game. Happy Friday everyone!

Good morning! Didn't get to play yesterday because it's apparently really difficult to find an inner tube for an older John Deere Gator and I wasted close to 3 hours yesterday trying to to get that damn tire fixed. Here's hoping for more luck today! Hope everyone has a good one!

Good morning you fine Spies! The weather in Northwest Arkansas has been unreal this last week. Temps in the high 60s - 70s every single day with no rain. I've taken full advantage of it and played several 9 hole rounds after work. Was supposed to play a full round yesterday, but my buddy's family all had the flu so we skipped it. I have been pleasantly surprised at just how much of a difference all the garage practice has made. I spoke earlier this year about how my goal was to drop my handicap down to single digits again using a combination of indoor practice and instruction using Clay Ballards instruction series as well as using strategies laid out in two books: Every Shot Counts and The Four Fundamentals of Golf. It has paid off in spades. I am striking the ball as well as I ever have. My 9 hole rounds are now pretty consistently between 38-42. I'm so close to that even par round... soooooo close. I've always been a pretty good iron player, but my weakness has been off the tee and that's where I think the vast majority of my improvement has come. I'm only missing a fairway or two now and the ball is pretty much always in play. I don't think its any one particular thing... swing reps at home are important, but following a proper instruction regimen from either an in-person coach or video series and practicing good golf strategy on every single shot are equally as important. When you combine them all together you start to see the improvement unfold. Hope everyone has a great week!

I get the milled putters are cool looking and all that, but there's really only so much you can do with milled metals. Why aren't companies designing putters the way they design drivers? You can build a putter head frame out of carbon fiber and then you have an insane amount of flexibility on where to place weight to affect things like off center hits. You have the flexibility to place inserts made of whatever material you want to achieve whatever feel you want. Is there anyone here that's involved in club design that could explain why this isn't being done?

Well I finally did it. I finished building out my impact screen. I saw so many advertisements for all-in-one impact screen outfits that were ridiculously expensive, I knew there had to be a way to do it on a much more cost effective basis. The frame is made from 3/4" steel electrical conduit. It's just under $10 for a 10' stick. This project took 8 of them. I used structural flange plates from Lowes to mount the studs to the wall. In total there were 9 of them that cost $6 each. I used structural tee's and cross tee's to complete the frame. There were a total of 8 tees at $7 each and 4 cross tees at $10 each. I used some old black table cloths for the shroud and zip ties them to the frame so those didn't cost anything extra. Now for the screen... Its by far the most expensive item of the lot. I bought a 10'x7.5' screen from Carl's Place. It was $277 after tax (shipping was free). I wanted to give the screen extra support and cover underneath the open area so I added a 10'x9' mesh tarp from Harbor Freight. I think that guy was like $30. Impact Screen: $277 Tarp: $30 Frame conduit: $80 Mounting fittings: $150 Total Cost: $540 I'm just using my 3rd car garage for this project so it's hardly a permanent structure or anything I care about looking nice. It's just for me to hit balls at by myself so I didn't go all out to fancy it up. At any rate, it saved me quite a bit of money building it out for myself instead of buying something premade. For the launch monitor hardware, I purchased the least expensive unit with decent reviews I could find which was the Garmin R10. I found a used on on Mercari for $350. I also found a cheap projector for $100 on Facebook marketplace. I already had a hitting mat that I purchased years ago, but they run around $100-200 for a decent one. I already had an old computer sitting around that I could use for the software. I built it over 10 years ago so you don't even remotely have to have anything state of the art to run something like Awesome Golf which I've been using. All in all I built a golf launch monitor bay in my third car garage for just around $1000 including the launch monitor. If I continue on using it I may consider upgrading not only the Garmin unit I'm using, but also the impact structure and it's surroundings. Maybe it's use could expand to have some buddies over to play some sim golf or even just pull up chairs and watch a game on the projector. If you're on a budget and you have the space... it's totally possible to build out something like this without dropping 5-6 grand or more. I use it as a practice space when I can't get to the course which with young kids is not as often as I'd like. I hope it inspires someone.

This awesome guys thank you so much! Mayakoba it is!

I was able to get a review of the driver and some conclusions posted. As I said in my review, I cannot appreciate enough the opportunity to do this. Before I take on another forum review, I will be reviewing some things I already own that I think might be able to help people with their games. Thank you @GolfSpy_APH, @Beakbryce for this awesome opportunity!

Good morning! It's two man scramble tournament day and OF COURSE it's raining. Hopefully it lets up and we can get out. I'm so freaking done with this weather here the last month.

I've had my clubs for 6 years now and have never checked them. It never even occurred to me. Really appreciate this PSA. I'll be doing this soon.

They really are SO good. The driver is the wildcard, but because I'm not swinging 110mph I think dialing in a proper shaft and sleeve setting will bring this thing to life. At least I'm hoping.

I got custom fit for my Edel at the factory. Even met David and chatted for a while. Super smart guy. I haven't hit another putter since and I honestly don't think I ever will.

My wife and I are taking a 5 day trip to Cancun, and I've been charged with scheduling golf for us. We are staying at the Le Blanc Resort but we're willing to travel within an hour and a half from there to play golf. Has anyone played in the area before, and if so, what courses would you recommend? Thanks in advance!

I was going to post a final eval after our Snowman tournament on Saturday and I still will, but here's a sneak peak: I haven't been able to get on a launch monitor with the driver but... I absolutely love the 4h and 3w. They are super straight, decent with forgiveness, and look spectacular. The driver I have struggled with however. The weather has finally opened up and I've been able to sneak out of work early to play two 9 hole rounds on Monday and today. It launches well, but the spin is just too low. It falls right out of the sky. And that tracks with the few swings I've been able to get in on a monitor that one time. Here's the thing though... It's performed this way entirely stock. In an effort to speed this process up, I am going to go through a driver fitting with it at my GolfUSA. I suspect the shaft may be a bit too stiff for my less intense transition though my swing speed is typically around 98-104mph. I also need help dialing in the hosel settings. I really want this driver to work, but if I kept it stock the way it is... I don't think it would. But I think I owe it to the forum to put in the time and effort to do everything I can to make it work. It'll be interesting to see if a change in shaft, swing weight, and hosel settings really can make the kind of ball flight difference I'm looking for. Stay tuned....