RoverRick

I’m a huge fan of my Cobra King Forged Tec Black (2018) irons. For a couple of years I had severe knee problems. Okay, I still have osteoarthritis in both knees and my right ankle so it’s not like I got over it, but through diet and drugs I can at least play 18 holes with relative ease. I bought Ping G425 hybrids. 3-4-5-6-7. The matte black looked good and I found some black Cobra King CB 8 & 9 and an MB Pw heads on eBay for $30. So I bought them along with Mizuno ES21 wedges. Mainly because they were black. I mounted them on black nickel shafts. So I have a really easy set of clubs to hit. I was so impressed with the wear or lack of wear Cobra CB/MB’s that when I saw a set of 5-G Cobra King Forged Tec Black heads I bought them and put them on Mitsubishi MMT shafts. Along with a Cobra Forged Utility Black 4 iron. The blacked out heads and shafts look very cool, however, I didn’t get along with the shafts so I reshafted them with some KBS C Taper Lites that I got as a tester here several years ago. I recently added a Taylormade GAPR Mid 3iron. I’m hitting irons better than hybrids right now, but I like the option of loading the bag up with easy to hit hybrids if I want. The Forged Utility Black is basically pained or coated in black, and it’s no longer in pristine condition, but the other Cobra irons are not coated bit actually are forged out of what is essentially black metal so there is no coating to wear off. I’ve played them 400 rounds and while they have some dings, they have held up better than any other iron I have ever played. Last year, I bought a Taylormade Hi Toe 58°. This is my first 58° wedge this century. I had a Ping Eye 2 S wedge in the 90’s that was 58°. Since then I have always played a 60°. I have been using the Hi Toe almost exclusively 60 yards and in this year, where I always changed between 3 wedges before. I’ve been very happy with this change. Before I had 3 wedges and used the clock system. Now I use 1 wedges and think “ankle, shin, knee, thigh, waist, ribs, or shoulder” for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 yards. Standard shot, I get 1 hop and stop. I can easily play it a little forward and get a higher and land like a Jacky sack, or back and get a little run out of it.

Date 08/09/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 85 Course Handicap 10 Gross Strokes over/under par 13 Net Score to Par 3 Net Score 75 Net Birdies or better 2 Longest Drive 205 Oops. I reshafted my Driver, 3 wood and 3 iron with the Graphite Designs shafts. Only problem was that while the epoxy felt dry before I got to the course, it was not set by tee time. The longest club I had was a 4 iron. So I put them in the truck and played irons only. Ironically, the heat from inside the truck made the epoxy set so at the turn I could have gotten them and played them. I did not check. I can’t blame my round on the lack of these clubs. I shot a 38 on the front 9. I did lose a ball in the water on 11 because I didn’t carry the lake on the tee shot on 11. Took a drop and made bogey. However, 8 over on 4 the last 5 holes did me in. The lack of longer clubs can really only account for a couple of strokes. I just made crappy swings on the back.

Date 08/08/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 77 Course Handicap 10 Gross Strokes over/under par 5 Net Score to Par -5 Net Score 67 Net Birdies or better 7 Longest Drive 245 I left my range finder on the cart on Sunday, so I decided to go get it this morning. It was windy and cool (compared to normal). When I got there I ran into one of my regular partners and told him I could play for 3 hours. 2 1/2 hours later I had carded a 77. I seem to play much better when I play fast.

I only caught part of it after my round and came home to watch it, got distracted by Bryson’s 58, I didn’t shoot 58, well, I did but still had 5-6 holes left. By the time I watched that they were in a rain delay, and then the wife came home and had other plans.

For those of you keeping track at home. A broomstick LAB MEZZ1 Max in the hands of Lucas Glover won on the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship today. That’s a pretty good review.

Date 08/06/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 81 Course Handicap 10 Gross Strokes over/under par 9 Net Score to Par -1 Net Score 71 Net Birdies or better 6 Longest Drive 245 I started off slowly, but then used only the 58° wedge for pitching and chipping. I had 6 tap in pars and one chip in once I started doing that.

Well, I just finished a long week Orlando. Originally, we had several rounds of golf planned, and I expected to post pictures of 3 LAB DF2.1 being played, but because it would have been in the afternoon and the heat, the golf was canceled. And then it wasn’t canceled. We did get to play the Grand Cypress Resort on Thursday, but sadly we played with rental Ping G series clubs and putter. 2 Three man teams playing with rental clubs on a course they had never seen with no range finders. We opted to play 3-man scramble and ended up tied at -1. The biggest issue was that 1/2 of us are used to LAB putters. 2 of us were on my team, and we had 4 three-putt bogies. While I don’t have the pictures of 3 LAB putters together, I came away even more convinced they are superior.

Date 07/26/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 71 Course Handicap 9 Gross Strokes over/under par -1 Net Score to Par -10 Net Score 62 Net Birdies or better 11 Longest Drive 259 This weekend is a major tournament for me. I’ve been driving the ball like crap, and irons have been useable but not crisp. Wedges and putter have been great. This is a solo tournament that uses full handicap. I’ve been as low as a 6 about a month ago but the driver has been kicking my butt. I worked on the driver yesterday and had high hopes. But more importantly, I had a new strategy. That is that I am already -18 for this tournament this weekend. I only need to maintain my scores. I had visions of hitting powerful straight drives and hitting to the center of the green. Sadly, while I hit straight drives, they were not as powerful or good as yesterday and the irons were not exactly crisp, but my philosophy was to aim at the big side of the green. While technically I hit every fairway, which is an improvement, they were not the ball flight I was wanting. Approach shots were missed on the correct side, and I had a number of “easy” chips and pitches. I say “easy” because they are my forte and fortunate lies. What I don’t get about the strokes gained numbers is that the putting is 4.79 strokes gained and the short game is -.051. Why is the short game so low. I pitched in from 68 yards, and pitched and chipped to within 5 feet 9 times. All in all, this was the best round I have had since 2015, amd my first sub-par round since then. I was striking the ball better towards the end of the round. I hope to play this well tomorrow, but I did not have money on todays round and really no pressure.

I played today with the all the widgets and gadgets set to auto and the Swing ID function on. Wow! No wonder I suck at golf. I’m shocked to learn that my swing is dramatically out to in. In fairness, I was trying to hit a cut with the driver. My club face was drastically closed or I would have been slicing off the planet. In spite of a wonky full swing, my wedges and especially putter have kept me from shooting 100. Well, not every shot was bad, but I don’t remember any that were particularly good. I now know what I need to work on this week, month, etc. I just wish there was a practice mode.

@GolfSpy TCB I downloaded this on Wednesday. Honestly, I had so many issues with my swing that I couldn’t focus on the app. Shot 91. Same story for the front 9 Friday when I shot 49. Then shot 39 on the back and had more time to mess with this. I used most of the features today and…. This: It’s always more fun when you’re playing well to try something new. I set it up to do the automatic tracking with my watch for tomorrow. I didn’t really like it that much today because there was a lot of inputting, but this afternoon I came home and messed around with it and saw there were automatic features I wasn’t using. GPS was accurate. I used a recharging phone holder so the only battery issue was when it said it was too hot to recharge the batteries. Probably the 104° temperature more than the apps fault. I wasn’t sure I would keep it after the 7 day trial, but I will likely do so with the discount amd the automatic features. More in depth review after the round tomorrow.

Exhibit A. Pizza Peppers. Toast the peppers in the oven then fill with your favorite pizza toppings. Exhibit B. Taco Peppers. You guessed it. I liked the pizza peppers so much, I made a Mexican version of it. I’m not doing the Keto Diet anymore, but when I made these Pizza Peppers the first time, I wondered why I ever ate pizza with crust because this was better.

Date 07/22/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 76 Course Handicap 9 Gross Strokes over/under par 4 Net Score to Par -5 Net Score 67 Net Birdies or better 9 Longest Drive 235 Special Event This is my first posted round with GolfShot. I downloaded it Wednesday, and the jury is still out on it. The past few weeks I have been playing horribly. Wednesday, I shot 91. Yesterday, I shot 49 on the front and decided to change my swing to the single plane swing on hole 10. I made a birdie and shot 39 on the back. Today, I stuck with the single plane swing. I didn’t drive the ball that well. I had 4 penalty shots, but the 58° wedge and putter spectacular. Especially the wedge. 14 pitches to inside 15’. The four putts I missed were lip outs. The double bogey was shear stupidity. I was blocked by a tree, and there was no reason for me to cut a 3 wood around it into the wind over water. I could have easily hit an 8 over the tree and laid up. Based on my short game today, I probably would have gotten a par. I did stop by the range today afterwards and discovered a flaw in my driver ball position so hopefully that will solve the problem there.

Cut is +4 High Round 82 High round will likely be shot by one of the players I picked to win.

I stopped at the TopTracer Range on my way home today at 2 pm. It was 97° heat index 105°. Under cover with fans going. I got the 104 ball bucket. My intent was to work on my new swing changes. And then get the ranges with the new swing. Trying to keep the club more in front of me. Initiate the swing by pushing the club back with the palm of the lead hand and making a 90° chest turn. Stopping when lead arm was parallel with the ground. Then dropping and pulling the butt of the club to my lead pocket. I had a lot of success early. Then started to hit 5 shots with each club, starting with gap wedge. I was getting sloppy by the 7 iron and basically had to delete them and start over. I was feeling winded by the 5 iron and decided I was done with that for the day. I needed to either sit amd cool down or go home, shower, and cool down there. I opted for calling it a day and will likely go back tomorrow and work on the top of the bag. I did hit some drivers but my heart wasn’t in it any more. I left 30+ balls for the next people.

TopTracer range just off the interstate (x101 I-30, shout-out to Hartline’s Golf) $6 for small bucket, $8 for large 104 balls. They have even larger buckets, but the $8 bucket is plenty. It has the different games, drinks and food, which is not as cheap as the balls. Actually, it’s more expensive in the evenings, but I stop by on Mondays coming back from Dallas. They also have a 9 hole par 3 course. They make their money with tournaments in the evenings. It’s always packed, but I don’t go to them. I plan on stopping by this afternoon.

As promised, I took a few more pics of the putter cover. The stitching on the entire cover is flawless. As I said, there is no fading so far of the red thread making up the stripes. That’s white leather with red thread making up the stripes. The underside is blue leather with the L.A.B. Golf symbol in white thread. There is some bag wear on the cover, but that’s hardly L.A.B.’s fault. As a matter of fact this shows that it is doing its job.

95° and 75% humidity equaled 105° heat index this morning. In spite of that, 13 of us did meet for a round of golf. Unfortunately, there was a “Ryder Cup-style” tournament with another club ahead of us, and it took 3 hours to play 9 holes. I had to wear rain gloves to hold on to the clubs. We decided replay the front 9, but a thunderstorm was brewing so we decided to quit. It then rained for 3-4 hours, but I’m not sure. I was home, showered, fed, and napping. I did order some new Best Grip Black Micro Perforated Mid Size grips. They do not slip with sweaty hands. Other than not holding on to the club today, I excised my demons and was playing well, considering there was a significant wait on the tee box and for the greens to clear.

Date 07/15/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 78 Course Handicap 6 Gross Strokes over/under par 6 Net Score to Par 0 Net Score 72 Net Birdies or better 7 Longest Drive 240 There were 12 other players in our group today. 11 of them were playing the forward tees. I decided to give up 2 strokes and play the shorter tees. It would make a huge difference as poorly as I was hitting driver. Imagine my joy when I found out that all these tees had been moved up to the front of the tee boxes I played yesterday. I played only slightly better than yesterday. In my defense, they have let the rough grow, and with all the rain this year, it is a penalty to miss the fairway. We spent a lot of time looking for balls. Many times all you can do is hack it back into the fairway. The course superintendent decided it was too easy for all the tournaments we host, so fairways are narrower, greens are perfect, but now have an additional 4’ of fringe, and rough is about 6-8”. I made some swing changes that helped my iron play, but is not working at all with the driver. The Ping option didn’t help, but after the round, I spent some time ironing these problems out. Thankfully, the 58° Hi-Toe and LAB Putter have kept me from shooting a 200.

Date 07/15/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 80 Course Handicap 8 Gross Strokes over/under par 8 Net Score to Par 0 Net Score 72 Net Birdies or better 5 Longest Drive 220 I had a horrible day driving the ball today. I hit just 2 fairways and both of those were very short leaving me 200+ yards out. Remarkably, I managed a birdie and par net birdie so I guess hitting the fairway makes some difference. The Ping option is loaded in the bag for tomorrow. I’ll give that a try.

Obviously, I need to play more golf. Or perhaps just better golf. It’s 4am, and I’ve been watching golf swing videos for the past 2 hours. Okay, I woke up and realized I made an error on who was working today so I had to correct that by 2:30. Then since I have 15 trucks leaving between 2:30 and 4 am, I’ve been sort of checking on them. Monday was my anniversary and after 5 years of getting woken up several times a week at 2-4 am with problem phone calls, I just naturally wake up and see what’s happening. 10 truck go out at 10 pm, and 15 at 2am makes for crazy hours, but I have built my schedule around being able to play golf at least 4 times a week.

Quality and looks are awesome, and second to none. I know it’s only a couple of months old but no fading of the thread yet. Counting range pre-round and bar post-round that’s 200 hour in the sun. Add to that I often take my clubs with me when I leave in the mornings, and it sits in the truck all day. It was getting a bit dirty so I wiped it with a damp towel. l’ll take and post some more pics tomorrow.

Date 07/13/2023 Course Name Sulphur Springs Country Club Gross Score 89 Course Handicap 8 Gross Strokes over/under par 17 Net Score to Par 9 Net Score 81 Net Birdies or better 3 Longest Drive 240 Absolutely horrendous day on the course. I haven’t played since Friday, my back was stiff, and the range was closed because of all the rain. The good news was I didn’t have a single bogey, they were all doubles and triples. I started the front 9 with 3 doubles and a triple before finishing it with 5 straight pars. Then on the back I interspersed a smattering of doubles between 5 more pars. I only had 25 putts, but only had 3 GIR.

That’s not exactly what I said. It’s not necessarily “over the ball”. It is wherever you see all the dots lined up in a straight line. I’m actually a couple of inches inside the line. But my “ridged setup” ensures I’m lined up properly. However you set up it simply needs to be constant and correct for you.

I found that if I am consistently hitting left (or right) of the target it is a setup issue not so much an alignment issue. I was not positioned to look down the line of the putt. i solved this by creating a straight line on the green, either using dimes, balls or even a tape measure and making small dots with a sharpie in a line 1’ apart to the center of the hole. Then putting my ball a foot behind the last marker, and then adjusting my head to see that all the makers line up in a straight line. I ensure the putter face is square with the back of my lead hand, and then use the length of the putter arms locked against the rib cage to setup. The setup is very ridged so that I know I’m looking right down the line. Once I’m setup I relax. I just want to have a ridged setup routine. My entire routine is : Read the putt from both ends and the low side. From directly behind the ball, visualize where the ball would go if I hit it straight. (Aim Point is also an option if it is not going over a hill) Determine my new start line. Find an intermediate point 3-4’ in front of the ball. Ridged setup to that lime through the intermediate point. Relax and think only about the speed. You can add some practice strokes between 4 & 5. I don’t usually take practice strokes, but when I did it was the “Goldilocks Method”. One intentionally too hard, one intentionally too soft, then a few more until it feels “just right”.

I get in a line directly behind the ball, and visualize where the ball will go if I hit it directly at the hole. Then I simply visualize moving the line until it goes in the hole. I see where it will have to enter the hole (example 8 o’clock with 6 o’clock being a straight line) and focus on hitting the ball into the cup at that point. This year, I learned Aim Point, went to a Triple Track Ball and Triple Track Putter, even got a Triple Track Ball Marker. I’m now trying to forget all that and go back to just “seeing” or “feeling” the line. Aim Point works great, in some cases. I just do better without it.