SDunne

@Northern Monkey while it took a bit to figure out how much force to use, I feel I can replicate it well and gaining a true understanding of what I'm doing has been good with it. I was consistently putting it a foot or two past the hole when going for it. I think I only left two short all day and both were me being scared of the down slope. For true lag putts where I was just aiming for there or there about today was a bad round to judge on as smallish greens and as you'll see from my GIR I was missing a few which meant chipping onto the green and thankfully that part of my game is improving as well! I definitely love the 3d alignment aid. My old.putter was a 2ball Odyssey so I feel having a bold line is helping me. I use the alignment aids on my balls and bringing the two together works well for my eye and how my process works. Having it so prominent helps my focus I'm finding.

So, first proper round with the RUNNER putter today and one of my better ones. My handicap on my local course comes down to 14 as it’s a short course and not the toughest to get around. I shot +11 which gave me 39 points for the day and definitely happy with how I played. I left a few shots out there – some dodgy lies cost me a few but overall very happy with how I played in general but especially from short. Ended up with 3 birdies for the round and showed my game in general is improving as I work on my swing. As for the putter, the length of my putts and getting a feel for the greens was really easy with the RUNNER. Big thing for me was no 3 putts. I left myself a couple of second putts that were a bit longer than I would have liked but always felt confident with the putter. I’m certainly pleased with the work put in to get the feel of the putter and acclimatise to the change in weight and style from my previous putter. As I have mentioned before, the large sweet spot was great out on the course and got me a fair few mentions from the rest of the group on how well the ball was rolling and looking across the green. I sunk two long putts – one from about 12ft and another from off the green which is always fun to see and pull off. All in all, 28 putts in total for the round which I’m very happy with. It’s 3 less than when I played a few weeks back and was chuffed with the putting then so shows that it seems to have made a solid difference. I felt consistently the putts were going where I wanted but a few misreads didn’t help me out. I definitely came away thinking while I putted well, I can keep getting better and easily. A few of the group were asking about the putter and had a go with it – feedback was positive from all and comments included how easy it was to line up and the nice feel of the solidity while also being relatively light. Perhaps a few converts after today!

Interesting you say that - @Northern Monkey found in his RUNNER testing (also aluminium face) that with some sand on the greens you would get a few marks etc - if the same thing is there with LAB it calls out similar issues of being hyper aware of cleaning the balthend club on the greens to preserve the face

Morning all, It's ANZAC day here in Australia. A day we celebrate all that Australian and New Zealand forces have done in keeping us safe. The date comes from the 25 April 1915 when Allied forces landed at Gallipoli and is a public holiday here. It's a solemn day and had me up early for a dawn service where they celebrate at the sunrise and sunset to give thanks to all those who have served and serve. It's always nice to celebrate for me as my Grandfather fought in WWII and my brother is in the RAF currently. Even got the chance to buy a former Navy officer a coffee before the service which in my days before kids would have been buying them a beer in the pub later in the day! Hope everyone has a wonderful day and take the chance to reach out and thank someone in the forces if you can!

Congrats @Berg Ryman, @TylorJudd, @RickM71, @EasyPutter, @JAYER38 very interested in how this one looks in an average bag! Lots of hype when it first came out so keen to see what you think on it all. Enjoy!

It took a bit of getting used to for me - mainly as current putter has a steel shaft so the weight and balance has been quite different. There was part of me that worried about the stability of such a light shaft but have been very impressed - certainly haven't spotted any torsion/twisting and the way it's coming off for me, I don't think I'm going to need to test it out over my knee (or similar) any time soon! If I'm nitpicking, and it is a small thing.... the fact that the shaft and neck of the putter are two different blacks is a bit off for me. The shaft is a lovely matte black but the neck and putter are glossy which while isn't distracting while you line up etc, I do notice when I spend lonely hours admiring how pretty the putter is

A fair bit of rain here over the weekend which made getting out tricky (my Saturday round was rained out) so I have been doing a fair bit of work on small drills in the house. While I don't have a matt to putt off, my carpet is nice and flat and with a long hall, it gives the feel of a fast green... not the most advanced testing ground but worked well for me doing a ladder drill and a bit of leapfrog work (i.e. putt one ball, next ball has to go past this one, then next past the furthest etc) with 6 balls to get a good feel for the distance control from the putter. The one thing I've really noticed with the RUNNER putter is that it's very easy to replicate your shot - I personally feel this is a mixture of the large sweet spot in the putter, my current config of the weights out to the edges and the alignment aid making it easy on my eye. Now, this doesn't account for me getting read of the green right but if I can say that I put 4 putts all in the same spot in practice, the rest can come with adjusting what I'm doing. I've been very happy with how it's been responding and itching to use this properly in a round this week.

I picked up a Garmin Approach S60 watch about 9 months ago now and love how much clearer it is to keep hold of my stats. There is a Garmin golf app that it links to on my phone which then keeps my old scorecards and stats. It can give insight on strokes gained, recoveries and a few more. It's been useful to see things be called out - i.e. if my chipping is declining, I pay more attention to it next time I go to the range. Only downside is that it doesn't track lots about putting. You enter how many putts you've had but nothing about distances/misses - this is one area I'd love to get more stats on. Being able to look back and compare in one easy spot old cards and what I've been improving on is a big plus for me.

Certainly amazed at how many reviews there are for the group. They've been coming thick and fast which has been great to see. I was chatting with a mate recently and both talking about our love for all things Mizuno and would love to see some of their clubs and gear come into testing at some point.

Looks awesome!

Lovely looking course @Northern Monkey - where do you play? Glad you're getting out, work has been mental so looking forward to the weekend when I aim to get down both days to at least the putting green for more work. I've got rounds booked for next week as we have ANZAC day here which is a public holiday. I've also got some time lined up with my father in law at a local indoor facility where they have PuttView (i.e. where it traces out your line from above and shows how close to optimum speed/line you've got).

Big congratulations @jbern @MattWillGolf @CFreddie @Cfhandyman @GolfSpy MPR @Steve F - very intrigued by anything and everything LAB are doing so will be watching this one closely!

Congrats to @cnosil @Shlax @Samuel09152 @arodrig29 - look forward to hearing more about yourselves and the bags as the process gets going!

I have wide feet and love my Puma golf shoes - I've had a few different styles over the last few years but they hold up really well. I went the spikeless route a while back and find that I get all the traction I need but as someone who walks the course 90% of the time, needed that extra comfort. The Puma Ignites I currently wear are as comfy as a running shoe by the end of a round so can't fault them and can usually then wear them straight in the clubhouse as look good too. I've heard lots of good things about Ecco but the price always scared me off (they're super expensive here in Australia). Footjoy are a brand I used to have in spikes and always enjoyed and can't fault either.

Given the large head on the putter and how solid it is, I also played with deliberately hitting off the toe and heel. I didn't get much feel of the putter twisting but I'll play with camera set up to see if I can get some slo-mos from above to showcase a bit better. You can see from my short video, it's easy enough to get a pretty straight putt off the extremities which suggests there's a large amount of forgiveness in this. There didn't seem to be much loss of pace from hitting like this and while it's not something I'm aiming for, it gives me confidence small misses from the centre will make less difference potentially (especially those compared to a heel shafted putter)