chisag

... At least I have narrowed my current stable. I had no intention of getting new irons til I saw the pristine set of Titleist T200's with plastic on all the heads but the 9 iron that looked like it had been hit once into a net. And I just sold my 2022 Cobra Forged Tec to one of my playing pards for a silly low price because he is a friend. So I am down to: Titleist T200 Cobra King Tour Srixon Z Blade Taylor Made P760 Cleveland 588TT Lynx LX Tour MC

... I am curious as to what you are hitting to cause that kind of damage? I start every round with a new ball but I don't see damage like that unless I hit a cart path or a sprinkler head.

... My apologies as I could not tell from your test post but you hit how many shots at each location and you only did perpendicular to the line and along the alignment line? No random orientations? Just awesome you put this machine together and are posting results.

... It is just so personal. I gave Kirklands to 2 of my playing partners. One is an 81 yr old dude that is crazy straight and he gained about 10 yds because the spin is keeping his ball in the air longer. He now drives the ball around 180-200 and after building him an Aerojet with a NVS 45 A Flex driver the ball really was the final piece of the puzzle for him. The fact that he is only paying $15 a dozen and rarely loses a ball is just a nice bonus. ... The other player is one of my pards wife and she has a tendency to open her body too quickly and cut across the ball producing a 20-15yd slice. When she is timing her body rotation well the Kirkland produced longer carries for her too, but when swinging poorly he slice was exaggerated. Moving to a Chrome Soft gave her the best of both worlds when swinging well or poorly. Her best drives may be a few yards shorter than with the Kirkland but her average and poor drives are much better. Asa shorter hitter she doesn't lose many balls so the added expense of the Chrome Soft balls is worth it for her as she will play one ball for 3 or 4 rounds.

... I have touched on this many times and every golfer is different but we are talking about the difference between a golf shot and a golf swing. On the course you are looking at a specific target and hopefully envisioning a trajectory that gets your ball to the target. 3/4 wedge to a target with a middle pin from 110 or a towering 7 iron from 160 to a pin tucked over a bunker and an 8 iron from 120 into a strong win and a back pin you want to skip in low and roll a little to the pin. These are all golf shots. ... Standing in one spot in front of a screen with no wind and no idea what kind of trajectory I am producing is not hitting golf shots but me just making golf swings. It is much easier to be aware of your swing because you don't have a visual target. Again, some are much better at this than others but I find it almost useless and the only way I can honesty judge equipment is on the course. Again Ymmv ...

... I think the fact that OWR points are not being awarded to liv, even though previously players were told they would be, means it is not a valid choice for NCAA future stars that want to compete in Majors and/or compare records with all the greats that have played the game. Is any NCAA future star really thinking "I just wanna join a good team and make a bunch of money but don't care about Majors or winning where Jack, Arnie, Tiger and Rory played and won."

... 2 gms is basically the weight of a dime so it means zero for performance, just a matter of feel. So l also find lead tape ideal for minor little swing weight or static weight tweaks.

... Most really good players really want both. I used max spin in the soft midwest conditions but here in the desert I play more bump and runs than any other shot. But there are certainly times I need as much spin as I can get as well as other times when I need some spin but a little roll out. Obviously all 3 shots dictate a different technique, but a ball the spins too much or too little makes playing all 3 shots more difficult. ... Not so much the ball but the idea is the same. When playing the Cobra challenge this summer, the Snake Bite wedges spun too much for my game. Kinda came to a head for me when I was in the rough, chipping downhill to a pin 8 feet from the fringe and sloping away from me so the play was a LW with plenty of spin landing in the fringe and let it release just a little, rolling out to the hole. I landed the ball where I wanted but was shocked when it stopped in the fringe like it landed in glue, jumping forward only about 1". I have never hit a ball from the rough into the fringe and had it stop dead like that. ... I don't think most will find much difference with say a Maxfli Tour X, a high spinning ball and the Maxfli Tour S, a lower spinning ball on a routine bump and run, but the difference would be very noticeable if they are short sided and trying to one hop and stop a pitch shot. So finding the ball that matches your short game is always a great idea.

... The whole thing is such a controversial topic with nuanced opinions and easy to confuse pieces of others opinions. I thought Funky Judge made a great post and while the US doesn't have clean hands, we all draw a line somewhere. I am also not a big PGA Tour fan so I rarely watch other than the Magors and a few other tournaments and agree the whole thing is just one big clusterfluke.

... I live in a desert so sand IS the range. The 18th borders the range and is usually littered with range balls. Since we are usually one of the last groups to finish, we pick up 5 or 6 range balls on the 18th and warm up with them the next round. I wash them off at home before heading to the course. GM said the practice is appreciated as it saves the maintenance crew from tracking down balls and returning them to the range the next morning.

... I don't usually hit range balls as I play 4 or 5 times a week so the sandy range balls didn't touch the face of my Stealth2 HD and after about 1,500 tee shots, it still looks new.

... I don't think anyone is saying what they should or shouldn't do. What we are saying is actions have consequences and as entertainers their decisions can gain or lose fans. And bashing may be a bit of an over statement because again, LIV is just a form of entertainment although as you said "I know the Saudi have a bad reputation and as an ex military guy I totally get that part" so those of us that find a foreign govt with a "bad reputation" poaching players with obscene amounts of money a line in the sand we will not cross. Would opinions be different if it were the LIV Russian Putin Tour? But we live in a democracy (unlike the LIV owners) and if someone wants to take the blood money that is their choice and I won't bash them at all, I simply will not watch them or care about their careers. And I will add one thing that usually happens in these situations that I always find interesting. If you like and support LIV, I and many others have no problem at all with your choice. Yet some of those that support LIV seem upset others don't share their choice. ... And to be fair having zero regard for LIV does not mean everyone unilaterally supports the PGA and DP tours. They had and have their own problems and were already a conglomeration of rich and spoiled out of touch with the common man athletes.

... If someone like Jon Rahm at age 29 can't support his family with a career total of $51,546,651 he has some serious problems. I doubt anyone here had the problem at age 29 of not being able to take care of their family with only 51 million dollars he earned from the PGA Tour including endorsements. And yes we know who the hell they are: those that love golf, play golf on tour or cover golf in print or on TV are representative of the majority of us that will never watch LIV and no longer care about those that left the PGA Tour.

... To be fair the game has always been out of reach for a lotto people. It always was an elitist sport to a degree. It never was meant for the masses and certainly not BroGolfers that are more interested in drinking and having a good time. If that's your thing, Topgolf is a better use of your time and money. ... All that said there are plenty of way to be economical. As you said buying used clubs, balls for bargain prices like Kirkland Signatures at $15 a dozen to Maxfli Tours at $30 a dozen who you buy 4 for $120. Play twilite and walk with a pushcart or even better if you play a lot, an electric cart. That $18-30 for a riding cart adds up in a hurry. and of course you have the added health benefit of walking which I find much more enjoyable. ... Thankfully in semi retirement I am in a position to pay whatever it costs but I still play twilite at my awesome muni for $36 a round 4 or 5 times a week when other courses in Phoenix are charging $200-$350 all Snowbird/Visitor winter long. I have a Remote controlled MGI ZIP that paid for itself in the first year. ... So lots of ways to play "relatively" inexpensive if you make the effort. My muni keeps creeping up the price with increases of $3 or $4 once or twice a year. As the GM told me maintenance materials alone went up almost 33% this past year. So in the end golf isn't and never was chap, but where there is a will there is a way.

... I am not sure if aligning the CG really helps, but it certainly can't hurt. So I line up my tee shots and putts with the line in the direction of my shot but not as an alignment aid. I roll the ball so I don't see the alignment line. Meaning it might be a little off one way or the other but I don't pay any attention once I line it up. I figure if Maxfli is gonna go through the trouble of finding the balance, I might as well use it.

... Pretty good round yesterday with 4 birdies but 3 bogies to shoot -1. The Arizona Golf Association Tournament is at my home course the next 4 days and I was joined by a 30yr old young man from Bullhead playing a practice round. 7100 for him and 6400 for me and he was usually outdriving me by 20-40 yards. While I wouldn't call it effortless, it was a pretty smooth swing with surprising power. I saw him have 2 bogies but guessing he had 5 or 6 birdies, and he was playing the course for the first time. It was a Wayne and Garth I'm Not Worthy round. ... Looked him up to see how he was doing and after a 7:10am start, 51* and cloudy with sprinkles he is tied for the lead at -6. Turns out he is a +4.7

... I have been a Maxfli Tour convert for almost 3 years now. Performance and price ratio is as good as it gets for me. But I had some credit with Callaway and bought a dozen Chrome Tour limited edition Year Of The Dragon balls and have been very impressed by the performance. The dual dimple design is certainly intriguing. So I will take advantage of their buy 3 get 4 Chrome Tours and see if they can unseat the Maxfli's.

... Te Bears lost 6 games last season by one score. I could make the argument if they had someone other than Fields at QB they could have won at least 3 more games. The supporting cast is already there. Sure, they could use a viable #2 WR and an upgrade at Left OT, but who couldn't? It is an ideal situation for a rookie to step right in and start. There will be growing pains for sure but by mid season we should see what the team looks like and how the QB will perform going forward. ... You can't win with a stud OT if you don't have a QB. I am right there with you that the Oline is invaluable and with almost any other position I would take a potential franchise lineman over any of them if available with a similar grade. But if you don't have a franchise QB in the NFL you won't win a SB and that is always the goal, so I would make the argument it is worth the risk drafting a college QB that you think will be that guy. The problem is too many teams that desperately need a QB, reach far above their grade. If there is a Joe Alt available at #8 and you have him graded as the best OT in the draft, you just can't take a QB you have ranked 37th on your board just because you need a QB. Obviously too many GMs do just that. I don't blame them, but if there are any concerns at all, it really is a crap shoot.

... If a robot were hitting the shots, I doubt we would see that kind of difference. Given the same swing and the same angle of descent, there should not be much, if any difference in spin. Just keep in mind, even off a tight lie the all is gone before the club touches the ground so you don't compress the ball off the ground, you simply have a steeper angle into the ball resulting in more spin. But golfers aren't robots and if you think you hit the ball better off the ground than using a tee, chances are you will. One difference and it is mental, players may feel like they don't need to get the club "under the ball" if its on a tee so they make a more level or even descending swing through impact but off the ground they feel they need to lift the ball more and tend to hit it a little low on the face. ... I do think like many things in golf, it is very player dependent and mostly that is a mental attitude about the shot. Personally I think everyone should tee the ball up even with wedges but as others have already said, tee it level with the ground. I think it would be a fun experiment for some to tee up every shot when they play. I think some may change their mind about using a tee once they were used to using a tee for every shot. Chips and pitches would be amazing as you would virtually eliminate fat shots. I often teed up pitches and chips for students that had a mental block of trying to lift the ball hitting fat and thin shots and suffering from a lack of confidence. The difference was usually night and day.

... For me it is simply the eye test. I don't care about win loss records, especially if the team has a porous defense like USC and NC. What I want to see is how accurate are their throws. How do they perform under pressure. Do they scramble to throw or scramble to run. How do they perform at crunch time. ... Nix is a tough one but I would certainly take a shot at him mid round if he is available. As we know, predicting how a college QB will play in the NFL is just an educated crap shoot. Teams that really need a QB will reach because they have to. You see red flags and hope they will overcome those deficiencies with the right coaching. And I know I sound like a broken record but I think Williams and Maye are as close to a sure thing as there is. As an Oregon fan I imagine you can see the similarity between Maye and Herbert. I would have taken Herbert over Burrow and Tagovailoa and while Justin is obviously better than Tua, the jury is still out on Burrow. ... Fwiw, I never saw Daniels play at LSU but saw plenty of him at ASU and he obviously improved tremendously so I really have no educated opinion on him. But I will be the first to admit I was wrong if Williams/Maye don't turn into franchise QB's. At least Williams will be going to an almost ideal situation in Chicago with a 7-10 team that is ascending.

... Karry is King. More carry is almost always preferable while under certain conditions a lower trajectory and lower spin may produce a few more yards, but the conditions need to be ideal. If the ground is "kinda" soft a lower trajectory/spin drive can hit and roll out where a higher trajectory with more spin may just run out a little after a deeper ball mark in the fairway. But that is a pretty unique combo and even then you would need the ideal trajectory and spin to produce a longer drive. ... More often than not when conditions were very soft in the Midwest, a low spin low trajectory shot only rolled out marginally longer than a higher trajectory/spin that carried much farther and didn't roll out as much. If you carry the ball 30yds longer and the lower trajectory/spin drive rolls out even 15 yds farther you have lost 15yds. ... The difference is even more pronounced here in the desert with hard fast fairways. During the winter months, balls roll a ton regardless of trajectory. As long as you are not producing too much spin and a steep angle of descent, the ball will roll a good 40-60 yds ir more if you land on a downslope. Spin is almost irrelevant for roll out if you picture hitting a golf ball onto an airport runway. The farther you carry the ball down the runway the longer the drive because the hard ground doesn't grab the spinning ball like a softer fairway does. ... I think your point about a ""heavier" shot is the result of compressing the ball. I have certainly played with thin and tall mini tour players that have a very forward shaft lean and really compress the ball taking a deep divot. I take a shallow divot and side by side there is a noticeable difference in the ball flight as well as the sound and I would describe it as a heavy sound. I know he has changed and now flights the ball to some degree but early In Rory McIlroy's career he said in the wind he didn't change anything, he just concentrated on solid contact and even his normal trajectory wasn't influenced in side to side movement into the wind, he just took a little more club.

... I hear ya amigo and there are several factors are at play and the first is, I believe you have a very high swing speed correct? I am swinging around 95mph and sometimes a little faster but not triple digits. Then AoA is another big factor. I have a +3 AoA so I don't generate a lot of spin. A zero AoA or a negative AoA will also produce higher spin numbers. ... I see it all the time but most Am's don't produce enough spin. The Taylor Made SLDR was a monster for high spin players with faster swing speeds but performed poorly for the average Am, hence the "Loft Up" mantra for the 2nd year suggesting a 12* instead of a 10.5* head which helped but didn't address the problem of too little spin. (And good luck trying to tell the average male he needs a 12* ) It was about a year later that Cobra introduced the Fly Z that was the exact opposite of weight forward with weight in the rear of the club producing a higher launch and more spin and it became an instant classic. The High Launch-Low Spin that works so well for tour players and high swing speed Am's changed to High Launch-Mid Spin for the average Am. OEM's are scared to say "High Spin" for clubs and shafts as that scares the uneducated so they call most Mid Spin. ... At my swing speed on the upper end of the "Average" speed, I have found that around 15* of launch and 2500/2600rpm's of spin produce my best drives. These are the idea numbers according to True Spec Golf: “Very Fast” swing speed (more than 105 mph with the driver) Launch: 10-16 degrees Spin: 1750-2300 rpm “Fast” swing speed (97-104 mph) Launch: 12-16 degrees Spin: 2000-2500 rpm “Average” swing speed (84-96 mph) Launch: 13-16 degrees Spin: 2400-2700 rpm “Slow” swing speed (72-83 mph) Launch: 14-19 degrees Spin: 2600-2900 rpm

... I did not. Anytime I have hit LS heads my spin is well below 2000 and after reading about how low spin the LS head is for most that hit it, I didn't even hit it. When I demoed the Aerojet LS I was getting about 1500 spin.

... Be sure and demo one. I had the Qi10 Max and hated it. Lots of low lefts and a lack of confidence in the huge head didn't help. I used the 90 day playability to exchange to for the normal Qi10 and in all honestly expected to sell it and go back to my Stealth2 HD. I put a lighter weight in the heel and some lead tape on the toe of my S2 HD and it was a neutral head for me. To say I was surprised by the performance of the Qi10 is a huge understatement. Considering I went through an indoor fitting (but I always do this poorly) the TM rep put me in the Max and said the standard Qi10 wouldn't spin enough for me and I would lose distance. I wish I could have done an outdoor fitting at a range and now know the results would have been very different. And that's on me and not the fitter.

... The Ventus Red Velocore 5R. As one of my pards who isn't exactly equipment savvy said yesterday after a silly long drive "I know you like to play different shafts in your driver but if you use anything else in your Qi10 other than that red shaft, you are an idiot". LOL, Hard to argue with him.