cnosil

Wow, putting did kill you!

I think this statement answers your question on why not to get a white bag. The bags material will also factor in how easy it is to clean; the white on my bag with similar material does show dirt.

You have to keep in mind that basis for the decision is long term averages. You may eagle or birdie one week and bogey or worse another week but overall your scoring average should be lower with the shorter approach.

Looks nice. I am eager to get mince back from Jim; he is putting some graphite shafts in my Vokey's

Theory is that all clubs go about the same height. So your 8 iron height should be about the same as your driver height unless you are trying to do something specific.

as @russtopherb stated, sounds like you are talking counterfeit clubs. Don’t buy counterfeit clubs for a multitude of reasons the least of which is their poor quality. Post a link to the clubs you are referencing.

??? I didn’t disagree and that is what I said. The handicap qualification statement is directly from the USGA site.

Valid definition, but not how the PGA tour labels ball striking. See my prior post on how they qualify the numbers.

The other qualification requirement is handicap: Any professional golfer or amateur with a Handicap Index that does not exceed 1.4 is eligible to enter. This is more about being competitive than a limitation. But the point of the opens is that anyone can try and qualify and by imposing a limitation based on membership to some external organization they would definitely open them up to legal action associated with discrimination.

Looking further at PGA stats, “ball striking” is associated with driver. If you look at strokes gained approach it shows Collin being the best last year and Will this year Which means the statement made by TGC is based on strokes gained approach the green stats. a quick look at numbers back to 2004, Tiger lead the most years so we could say he is the career leader but we have no historical numbers to evaluate players prior to the stat being kept.

But what does it mean? What makes one person good and one person bad? Why not include all aspects of golf since they all involve striking the ball. Is it distance or proximity or some averages number. Like I said media gobbledygook to give the talking heads something to talk about. If you want to say player X is the best quantify it with objective facts.

Not sure how I could quality or quantify the term best or most consistent ball striker. We could say Tiger or Snead simply because they win the most. Don’t you have to be the best or most consistent ball striker to win? Does driving and putting get included since you still have to “strike” the ball? To me the claim is just more media gobbledygook that is essentially meaningless since it seems to be who has been playing well recently. If we are simply looking at irons does it come down to proximity to the hole? That would make the best over the last few years: Ryan Armour (22), Emiliano Grillo (21), Josh Teater (20), and Corey Conners (19).

While I understand the impact of all the data point I don’t really need to know any of my club specific numbers. As I look at my current clubs, I don’t know much about them and assume they are mostly default spec. driver: I picked 9 degree because I was fit to a 9 decree during a CC fitting. The shaft was just something I wanted to try and I found one that was inexpensive so I went with it. It’s short and light but I hit it well so why change 3 wood: I tried it, felt like I hit it well so I put it in the bag. Wasn’t until later that I noticed it was an X flex. hybrids: liked Titleist hybrids so I guess at lofts and adjusted until I felt like I got the right distances. irons: hit them, liked them, got them because I wanted to try graphite shafts. Probably need to check gapping but just haven’t. Not the longest clubs I have ever hit and probably wouldn’t be fit to 85 gram shafts if I did a fitting. For example, Mizuno shaft optimizer puts me into 120 gram shafts. wedges: replacing my wedges, mostly because I got a suggestion to try lighter graphite shafts. Had some vokey wedges so getting them reshafted and set to vokey standard specs. Moving from 58 to 60 so I will have a bigger gap, but really only use the lob for partial shots so it shouldn’t be a tough adjustment. Putter: generally the club i know most about simply because I like putters and spent a lot of time learning about them. Put the lab putter in the bag simply because I wanted to try it and I picked 70* because that is what I am typically fit in to. All that to say I typically just play what I like and don’t worry about the specs of the clubs I play. I do try them and as long as launch numbers seem ok I am willing to put a club in the bag. This has always been how I picked clubs and I can play decent golf so I guess it works for me. in general I am a tinkerer. I went to CC just to understand and see how my current clubs works and see what might work better. I tried the Mizuno shaft optimizer simply because I had an opportunity to try one. I’ve done OEM demo days. I hit lots of clubs during most wanted testing. I typically get fit to standard lie and length and from my experience there isn’t enough variation in club performance for me to worry about it that much.

Lack of focus and didn't go through my normal preshot process; ball position was probably a little off and I wasn't really prepared to hit the ball. It was three tee shots two that I kind of topped and only went about 125 yards and one that I tried to hit too hard and snap hooked. Ball position has been the big focus during the first 2 lessons so it is something we are working on. During the last lesson we talked about doing a playing lesson so he can see how I play on the course.

Why don't you think those instructors exist? Most of the instructors I have worked with including recent instructors have worked with what I have and haven't done major swing overhauls. I have also done playing lessons with coaches to improve overall strategy. Maybe I find them because I have discussions with them about what I want to accomplish.

You may want to post here to keep LIV discussions in a single place.

375 -150 = 225; 9 iron would be about 125 in the scenario he described.

The last part is the key. Even DECADE which says hit driver all the time because the closer you are to the hole the closer the next shot will likely be would agree that you can back off if you still have a wedge in hand. I would also guess that the stroke gained numbers would be fairly close if you wanted to look for that recommendation. .

I’ve been working on writing my final review for the ShotScope LX+ so I have been digging a bit into my shot data and reflecting on my past few rounds trying to correlate information. Wish I had the data from my Maryland trip since that could give some additional insight on play improvement after my second lesson. At this point I am still not sure what to cover in my next lesson or remaining lessons (I have 3 left). Mentally after seeing my swing in the Maryland trip video, I’d say I need to work on how it looks but I know that is not important; it is the results that matter and I am getting good results. Looking back at my round last weekend, I hit some really bad shots, but confidence was high and I hit good follow up shots. Biggest thing I need to work on is getting comfortable with the new ball position for all my clubs but that doesn’t require a lesson just practice time. Eager to get my new wedges into the bag and see if the lighter shafts help my finesse and distance wedge game. The directed force putter may have found a permanent spot in the bag; just needed to be a bit more aggressive and not do the die in the hole approach as we talked about during my last lesson. 9 birdies over the last 3 rounds indicates that the strategy is working. No golf for another week or so which is kind of disappointing since my game seems to be coming around. may need a trip to HQ to leverage the GCQuad to build a wedge matrix and get some swings in or just go out and play 9 after work.

data provides information that generally shouldn’t be challenged yet we still see and hear and out people that dispute this type of data. Course management Is probably the biggest area and showing how “bad” PGA tour players really are. I use the term bad because the TV talking heads make you think these players can drop 150 shots onto a towel at will or that they hit almost all their putts past the whole. Data shows this simply isn’t true. The movement stuff is trying to help instructors understand movement patterns so they can help players move mor effectively; probably not useful for a player learning how to swing a club. It is like any other profession, we should continually seek to educate ourselves so we can do the job better. Also not all people love data, there is a large percentage of players that avoid data becuase it would cause them to think too much and chase numbers. Now you are just talking crazy. I agree with you 100%; people get too wrapped up in how golf should look and not how to score.

I personally think this is the case across most OEMs. While there are some unique designs as you get into the muscle back, players, players distance, and maybe some game improvement they tend to blend together from a look perspective. I notice this quite often during most wanted testing when we are asked for subjective feedback When I think about looks my comment is they look the same.

Good article. I agree with you in Chamblee but I also say he is doing his job and creating conversation with controversial topics. It is part of the reason I follow Scott Fawcett on Twitter; he lacks professionalism and speaks his mind but his information is valuable and educational. Chamblee has the professionalism. It will be interesting how the lawsuit plays out with regard to broadcasting and allowing the talking heads to speak their minds. I really wonder if “live from” draws that much addictional viewership. there has been some attempt to localize players that or tie them to locations by showing their college affiliation but there really isn’t that much of a connection because there are no real rivalries. Maybe LIV has it right with the team thing so else can align with teams. The question is why do you watch specific sports…with the major sports the focus is on the team, their city, and rivalries which goes beyond the individual players where golf is about an individual who may or may not play week to week with little rivalry. I personally have no connection to any individual in golf and watch golf simply because I enjoy the game.

Not adjusting is a very difficult thing to do especially as you see numbers pop up on a screen or a series of ball flight traces. Something about just standing there makes you want to hit perfect shots even though you know that isn’t a realistic expectation.

I haven’t watch their content as much as I did in the past. I still check for new content but don’t find that much interesting. My new favorite channel is @McGolf, laid back general golf talk and club repair stuff….plus he is a forum member!

I probably won't hit them until most wanted testing at the end of the year unless I can find a fitting event somewhere or they have some at HQ when I go visit.