RickM71

My newbie introduction is now live. I was tempted to stick with the Ai theme and have Chat GPT edit it for me, but I stuck with my own boring prose. Chat GPT was just a bit too cheesy, filled with puns that were over the top.

Foresight posted something on this: https://help.foresightsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402976551443-Range-Ball-Data-vs-Premium-Golf-Ball-Data Interestingly, there was very little difference on mid irons. Wedges had much less spin. Drivers had a bit less ball speed. But this probably only holds true for decent range balls. Some launch monitor apps have an option to select for range balls but I've personally not tried it yet. I will be doing that soon though.

Mlm2pro does give shot shape based on actual measured spin axis, when using the special golf balls. Garmin R10 gives a calculated (not measured) side spin, likely using swing path and horizontal ball launch. In my experience, it was sometimes accurate, but frequently off, especially on off center strikes (it can't calculate gear effect) and on bigger slices / hooks. I didn't realize how off it was until I compared it to a unit that measures actual side spin.

I have GC3 which is the same as the BLP. I almost always use Gspro, but on rare occasions I've used FSX 2020 to do some club numbers. GSPro doesn't show standard deviation like FSX, which I find helpful in comparing clubs regarding dispersion. I rarely care enough, as GSPro just seems to be much more enjoyable to use regarding the flow of shots and tracking, etc. I don't seem to get any misreads from white balls, compared to other color, although I've really only used yellow balls when not using white. When I just read your original thread I was going to comment that white tees sometimes mess up the device, so I only use non-white tees. For me, the white tee would sometimes make it hard for the device to lock on the ball. I know people have said white shoes (or white socks if not wearing shoes) can cause issues too. I've never heard of problems with white objects in the background but I haven't really looked for that info either. GSPro has a very active discord group and Foresight has a discord group as well where you can likely see if other people can help you troubleshoot. They helped me solve an issue of non-reads that was due to my mat shifting during swings. Coming from a garmin r10, the GC3 has been a huge upgrade. And I enjoyed the garmin a lot.

I use software called Golf Shot Analytics that is free. I use it with GSPro, but it looks like it may now support Awesome Golf. https://www.golfshotanalytics.com/ Here's a screenshot from tonight's session hitting my new PW and Gap wedge to get a feel for distances. I only have a club tracking sticker on the 7 iron which is why there is club data for the 7 iron only.

Callaway Ai-Smoke Triple Diamond Driver - Official MGS Forum Review by RickM71 I'm Rick and proof that new members get selected. I joined the forum in January and have around 50 posts. I’m quietly competitive by nature, so I hope I do the forum proud with my review. Huge thanks to the MGS team and Callaway for this opportunity. I’m 52 years old and live in the north suburbs of Chicago. I played competitive golf in high school, averaging 82 my senior year from the hardest course layouts the coaches could manufacture. In college, I started the tryout process for the team, but realized that my academics kept interfering with my focus on golf. It just wasn’t meant to be. Several years later, I developed a skin issue called “urticaria and angioedema”. It is a medical way of saying I get hives and swelling. Vibration and pressure bring it on for me. By the back nine, my hands would start to swell and hurt. As a result, for the past 30 years, I’ve played no more than one or two rounds a year, always with my dad. He’s a real golf fanatic, former club fitter, and equipment hoarder. At 84, he has shot his age a few times. Last summer, my 13 year old daughter showed an interest in golf. After a few lessons, she asked about getting a net to hit in the backyard. And down the rabbit hole I went. I found out about launch monitors and then golf simulators. I asked my wife if I could set one up in our basement. I NEVER make impulse decisions, especially on big purchases. I’m sure she assumed I’d never pull the trigger. She gave me permission, and within a week, the boxes from Carl’s Place arrived. She's been super supportive of my hobby and it gave us motivation to make our basement into a great entertainment space, which is almost complete. My dad lent me one of his multiple sets of irons: 2018 Cobra Forged Tec with lite graphite shafts. He suggested the vibration dampening may lessen my hand problems, along with wearing gloves on both hands. Not only did it help, but I found that as I hit balls more frequently, the swelling problem has mostly gone away from affecting my hands. I've been hitting golf balls almost every day since I set up my sim. I plan to play a lot of real golf this summer. My driver swing speed is around 105 and going up as I’m doing the Stack. My biggest miss is a nasty snap hook. The strongest part of my game is full swing short to mid irons. My worst part is partial wedges and lag putting. When I saw I was selected, my first reactions were surprise and excitement. When I saw I was selected to test the Triple Diamond, I had a long moment of terror. The fitting went much better than I expected and now I can’t wait to compare this to my current driver, a recently acquired Cobra LTDx. I also realized the Triple Diamond has to be more forgiving than my high school gamer. Given I have a Foresight GC3, I plan to collect a lot of data with this driver. I will be hitting plenty of shots in my sim, but also plan to hit on our local driving range which has Trackman ball tracking. As for on course data, I had to find a good way to track my data, so I needed to order myself a Shot Scope V5 which will hopefully arrive soon. Prepare for data overload!

Had some pretty good rain here yesterday. Hoping the course is dry enough as my 11 year old should be having one of her first golf camp sessions today. Looking forward to seeing how the kids progress even moreso than my own game right now.

Congrats to the winners and thanks to MGS and Titleist for making this happen. While I was middle of the pack, it added more excitement to the event.

Informed my Mizuno JPX 923 Forged irons have shipped and should arrive this week. Can't wait to use them. Also trying to figure out what I will do for wedges. The gap wedge in the Mizuno set is 49 degrees. I currently have a 56 degree SW, but thinking maybe it is time to do a wedge fitting and figure out if I should go 52, 56, 60 or 54 58. And also trying to decide what I'll be doing at the other end of the bag. I have a new driver and then my irons. I'm thinking maybe a 5 wood and a 4 hybrid. I'm not sure it is worth carrying a 3 wood but that may help reaching par 5s and also be a nice alternative off the tee on tighter holes.

I got a launch monitor last fall for indoor practice and sim golf, for me and my kids. I started with the Garmin R10 and later upgraded to a Foresight GC3. Pros of the r10: relatively cheap, no required subscription (unless you do awesome golf or something similar), accurate for swing speed, ball speed, carry distance, and spin (if using rct balls - which are pricey), and it just works with little fuss. If you have enough width, you can also use it for righty and lefty golfers without moving it. I found the estimated backspin numbers are close enough for most of my practice that I rarely used the rct balls unless I wanted to see a precise backspin number. It would be easy to transport and use outside (which I never did). Cons of the r10: not precise side spin numbers, as it calculates a guess based on other factors. I'd guess it uses swing path (isn't always precise with single radar) and initial launch direction. It can't account for gear effect of off center hits. It also was not able to consistently pick up short chips and can not read putting. You do need to have space behind and in front, unlike camera based units. I was using the R10 with GSpro. It worked well for that use, except short chipping and putting. If you use the autochip and autoputt setting, it's great. Someone wrote software to use a webcam for putting and when it worked, it was fun. My kids got super frustrated (as did I) with the frequent problems reading putts using the webcam. I decided to splurge and upgraded to a Foresight GC3. From everything I've seen, the Foresight camera based units are the most accurate option for indoor hitting. Some say it is more accurate than Trackman indoors, although I'm not sure how you can know for sure. When I first got the GC3, I realized how inaccurate the Garmin R10 can be on shot shapes, especially on off center hits and larger hooks and slices. The GC3 is fantastic with GSPro for playing sim golf. It just works, with accuracy on all shots from drives, to chipping, to putting. I also regularly use GSPro driving range for practice hitting balls. I won't know until it warms up a little more to see if my indoor shots match real life ball flight. The only downside of the GC3 for me, aside from it being pricey, is that one of my daughters is a lefty and it requires me to move it from side to side when she plays with any righties. I don't have a high enough ceiling for a ceiling mount unit and those are even more expensive. I sometimes think it'd be nice to have a GCQuad for the additional data points and larger hitting area, but I couldn't justify the much higher cost. I more recently got a PRGR to use with The Stack. It seems accurate and is simple to use. It reads swings without ball impact, making it a good choice to use with The Stack. When hitting balls, the ball speed and carry numbers all seem reasonable.

Cut number: +4 Top amateur: Cristo Lampretch

I did the same comparison with wedges, swinging between 77-79 mph. I was hitting everything left, but the dispersion was pretty good for each of the balls. The RXS had 2nd best ball speed off the wedge. Even though the rxs is supposed to be the higher spin ball, the spin was still less than all other urethane balls I tested. Feel wise off the wedge, I'd say the urethane balls all felt fairly similar. Interestingly, the Wilson Duo (not urethane and 2 piece low compression ball) felt much more mushy / soft off the wedge. It didn't seem as noticeable to me off the 7 iron. It also was the only ball to launch above my impact screen consistently, with dramatically less spin. I'm not sure when I'll have time to test driver.

I hit a bunch of 7 irons (30 degree, Cobra Forged Tec 2018) in my basement sim setup with a Foresight GC3. I was sent the Bridgestone RXS which are meant for people with swing speed under 105 and wanting extra spin compared to the RX. During the same session, I hit multiple shots with other balls to compare feel and numbers. I'm not a robot, so I had to discard major mishits. With each of the balls compared, my swing speed on the 7 iron was between 85 and 87 mph. I've attached a screen capture of the spreadsheet with the detailed numbers for each ball, but I'll summarize my thoughts here. Hitting on the range in my sim, I didn't take advantage of the Mindset feature much. I did a few trials of picturing my shot shape, then going through my pre-swing thoughts I've been focusing on, then just focusing on the green dot. I am working on various aspects of my swing and trying to figure out how steady I should be keeping my head as I'm shifting weight at various parts of my swing. I do find that the more still I keep my head throughout the swing, the more consistent my contact is. So when I would make a concerted effort to keep my head still and focused on the green dot, I do think I had more consistent contact. I also realized that I never really had a clear point of focus when I'm swinging, which in hindsight seems a bit weird. I sort of was looking just past the ball and zoned out from where I was looking during the swing. Also, obviously, you can only place the Mindset image where you want when you are hitting off the tee or putting. For any other shots, the green dot is unlikely to be where you would want. Hitting indoors, I have the luxury of being able to place the image where I wanted. I did assume that the intent is to place it on top and point the arrow at your target line. I haven't tried putting with it yet. Focusing on the green dot may be one way to make sure I'm looking in the same place when swinging. I can see potential benefits, and no downside to doing so. I plan to do more practice with this focus on the green dot and will see how it works. It is a bit weird to do at first. I also think that a reminder, as well as making a the 3 step process a focal point for golfers, is a good thing in itself. I know that there is good data that a consistent pre-shot routine is common amongst all top golfers. Not only the pre-shot analysis, but then the time top golfers spend from when they approach the ball to swing is extremely consistent. This in itself is a skill I can improve with far less effort than the technical aspects of a solid swing. Next, as far as feel, the RXS is supposed to be a very soft feeling ball. It has a low compression (around 65 - but I haven't tested the compression on the ones I received yet). I'm realizing that soft "feel" is very subjective. To me, compression alone does not seem to be the only factor in how soft a ball feels. I'm sure I'm not the first one to notice some balls feel softer or harder in spite of their compression. I think there is a different feel between a low compression soft and something about the cover thickness that affects the feel and sound. As far as these RXS balls off the 7 iron, I'd say they did not feel "clicky" as some balls do, but they also didn't feel mushy. I find that hitting in my basement, I prefer the mushiest feeling balls I can find, as they bother my joints less. The Kirkland 3 piece V2 seem the mushiest to me. I'd say to me, these felt more similar to a Pro V1 than to the Kirkland V2, in spite of the compression being much lower. I'd say it also isn't much different from the 2 piece surlyn Wilson Duo which also has a very low compression. This was just with the 7 iron, so I'll have more data when I do the driver and wedges, which I plan to test soon. As for the ball data, robot testing probably has much more reliable data. I understand this wasn't the main purpose of testing these balls, but since I have a GC3 and I love data, I organized it here. The balls I hit today included the Bridgestone RXS, Titleist Pro V1 (main ball I use on course on the rare occasions I get to play real golf), Taylormade TP5 and TP5x, Wilson Duo, and Kirkland 3 piece V2. I never really noticed before, but there seems to be a correlation that the higher spinning balls initially launch lower. I assume they will then spin higher and dimple patterns likely have an impact, which the GC3 numbers won't account for. The spin for the Bridgestone was on the lower side off the 7 iron, but the ball speed was the best today, and the initial launch was a bit higher. Overall, this led to slightly longer distance but similar roll out. I'm not sure how the formatting will turn out, but here's the numbers most relevant, and additional data is included in the attached image. If anyone has a preference for me to repeat the testing with driver or wedges first, let me know. I'm most interested in seeing how the spin numbers compare off wedges. My driver swing is also likely to generate far less consistent numbers between shots.

I got a notice that I have a USPS package arriving today from Covington,GA. I see that is where Bridgestone is located, so fingers crossed I'll have new Bridgestone balls to test out this weekend.

Makes sense. I find that, for the most part, I hit different brands of the same loft and club length very close in distance, so going by loft was what I assumed would be simplest. Once I get used to the new irons and distances, I'll plan for a wedge fitting. I'm thinking pairing it with a fitting for fairway woods and hybrids would make sense then too.