Tony Covey MGS

Who knew that unpainted moisture resistant drywall could create magic.

Foremost, which does Vice, OnCore, the Maxlfi Tour Stuff and Wilson Staff model and TP5/5x core & mantles is in Taiwan. Snell MTB and MTB-X are made by Nassau in Korea.

In my opinion, Vice does some cool stuff in terms of branding and not being afraid to try some stuff that's a little weird by conventional standards, but... Some of the marketing walks and maybe crosses the line. "Engineered in Germany" is a good place to start. Define "engineering". As I've joked on NPG, if I call my local pizza place and tell them what I want on a pie, did I engineer a pizza or simply order it to spec? That brings me to Fused Urethane and the new dimple design. Consider this highly educated speculation based on the realities of the market. Like other DTC brands, Vice is having trouble maintaining inventory. As we all know by now, golf is super-hot so demand is outpacing supply for everyone. With small-to-mid sized golf companies, those issues are compounded by the realities of the ball market, namely, the big boys get the priority and whether we're talking about Snell and Nassau or Vice and Foremost, the big boy is TaylorMade. That's especially true as Foremost does the core and mantle production for TP5/TP5x. So what I think is happening is that Vice is struggling to get inventory from its primary supplier and to offset that, it's having a *new* ball with 344-dimples and a Fused Urethane cover made somewhere else. Every indication is that the ball itself is being produced by Feng Tay. They manufacturer RZN balls, the Mizuno RB Tour stuff, and countless stuff you've never heard of. Feng Tay is pretty good, but definitely a step-down from Foremost. Why take a quality hit unless you absolutely have to? Better margins perhaps. The *new* dimple pattern is almost assuredly the same one found on the RZN balls, and - if you feel like trucking trucking to your local Walmart - the Spalding tour balls too. I wouldn't be shocked if the new Vice is similar to the Spalding Tour. Regarding Fused Urethane - it's highly unlikely that Feng Tay has made a consequential material breakthrough during COVID. Possible, but unlikely - and you can bet your house that nobody in Germany developed a new urethane process. The very high probability is that "Fused Urethane" is Vice-speak for injection molded TPE. Plus or minus a patent here or there it's the same process currently used by Bridgestone, Callaway and a bunch of others. It's only noteworthy because Foremost is a cast urethane provider so it's a fundamentally different way of putting covers on balls. Cast vs. injection molding from an advantage standpoint is one of those things where it depends on who you ask - and you'll definitely get quite a bit of 'we do it better than the other guys using a similar process', but the guys I know who source from multiple factories tend to favor cast. Probably nothing most golfers would notice or care about one way or the other, but it is what it is. Make of it what you will, but this doesn't look like reinventing a wheel so much as it does finding somebody who already has a wheel to sell you.

Exactly this. This stuff drives me bonkers, so let me lay it out for everyone. Anyone who is testing golf balls on a camera based launch monitor and doesn't provide any sort of disclaimer about the fact that downrange numbers are, at best, estimates, either doesn't understand the capabilities of their tools, or isn't vested in providing an accurate picture to their audience. The more significant the difference in the dimple pattern, the less reliable the info is. For my money, the GC Quad is the best launch monitor on the planet. In our indoor test environment, nothing comes close (we can talk about radar's inability to accurately and repeatedly capture spin axis tilt in limited flight environments some other time), but it doesn't mean it's perfect. Like anything project around the house, it's important you understand your objective, and choose the right tools accordingly. When it comes to testing golf balls, Quad remains outstanding for capturing the data that's generated within the first milliseconds of flight. Ball speed, launch angle, azimuth (starting direction/horizontal launch angle), spin rate, and axis tilt are the ones I would be looking at for a ball test. When the ball is the key variable, you need to be really aggressive in how you define outliers, and of course, being really aggressive in what you remove means that with human testers, you need to hit a significant number of shots to give you enough data to work with. Peak Height, Carry, Descent Angle, Roll, total distance, and yup...Offline too, WHEN THE BALL IS THE VARIABLE and you're only capturing the initial launch, extrapolating carry, descent, total, roll, etc. differences of two different models with two entirely different dimple patterns, is no more than a semi educated guess (and the less alike the dimple, the less educated it becomes. Ball Speed, Launch Angle(s), Spin, and Axis Tilt that's what you get when the balls are different. That's perfect for Most Wanted and our lab testing because the ball isn't the variable. It's fine...even preferable to normalize downrange performance. One of our objectives is to eliminate every variable that we can. Anyway... Back to the point at hand...the Quad captures what I suppose is like an initial flight plan. It tells you what the ball happened at launch and provides a normalized view of what *should* happen the rest of the way. What it doesn't do is tweak its algorithms based on specific dimple characteristics, and it sure is hell can't detect when there's a critical defect in that pattern. There are two primary things to consider at this point, and both are related to the dimple pattern. First, let's consider the worst case scenario. Call it uneven dimpling. Whether that's from sloppy paint or where the factory inexplicably pieced together two different cover designs (it happens). In the real world, these problems would likely manifest in the offline number and would be visible over the full flight, but, and this is the important piece of it, there's be nothing in the launch data to provide any evidence of an issue. Since aero issues don't typically manifest at impact, the flight would look normal on a camera-based system. Now let's simply consider general differences or ENHANCEMENTS in aero performance over a generation or two of balls. There are fundamentally good dimple designs, fundamentally bad ones, and others that are optimized for one ball design but get used on a tons of different designs (the popular foremost dimple is a good example here - works better on 3-piece balls than 4-piece). Another great example was the original Kirkland 3-piece. In indoor tests its almost indistinguishable from a Pro V1. It spins a bit more, but otherwise... Test it with a robot, outdoors, and man...the deficiencies of the dimple pattern are glaring. A hint of wind destroys hit. I use this example because it brings the point of this conversation home. Lift (initial launch performance) is similar. Drag (what happens once the ball is in the air) is worlds apart. This is what gets obscured when the wrong tool is chosen for a ball test. Since the advent of the solid core ball, compression rules haven't much changed. A firmer ball is a faster ball. Any kid who hit both a baseball and a tennis ball with a bat fundamentally understands this...even if he hasn't thought about it in terms of golf ball performance. Likewise, the rules of spin haven't changed either. You want more spin, put a soft layer over a hard one. Want less spin, put a harder layer over a soft one. That's your simple explanation of why soft core balls (particularly 2-piece models) don't spin around the green. That leaves the cover and more specifically the aerodynamics. It's the least understood aspect of ball design, but it's likely where there's been the greatest evolution over the last decade or two, drag coefficients, the Magnus (and reverse Magnus effect), that sort of stuff are likely where the greatest opportunities remain. Ultimately, what we're talking about is stability of flight So yeah...comparing a decades old ball against a new ball, I suppose, makes for a fun read, but when you're methodology is fundamentally incapable of capturing the most significant changes over those decades, you're basically just blowing smoke to get clicks. I'd also add that golf balls have a shelf life and testing anything more than a few years is also dicey.

Full Story: https://mygolfspy.com/taylormade-sim-2-driver/

It's been a while. Not everything makes the cut for the website, so here's every Callaway EPIC photo shot I took.

Much to my dismay, the number of media kits sent out by manufacturers each year has declined precipitously in recent times. Too bad, I love a good media kit, so it was nice to get this little Bag of Swagger from TaylorMade to celebrate/promote last Friday's launch of the TP5/TP5x PIX 2.0, golf balls. What you see is what you get - a dozen balls, a PIX themed squishy ball, an insulated mug (that my wife will steal), and a Sleeve of Swagger koozy. Driver head not included.

Cobra sent out a media kit for the new Speedzone drivers (full story: here). As seems to be the case lately, I was traveling when it arrived, but I shot some photos today, primarily so you could see the difference in the shape/footprint of the standard model and the Xtreme. I also was messing with some lightroom presets and inadvertently transformed the version into the white, so you get a reasonable idea of what that one looks like too.

Something for the kids here. Jones is perhaps best-known for its timeless, traditional golf bags. From what I can see from the Trouper series, it's modernizing just a bit, adding a bit more functionality, while staying true to its standards. --- Jones Sports Co. has launched the Cadet Junior Trouper, a new golf bag for junior golfers ranging from ages 7 – 11. A junior-sized clone of the Jones Trouper Stand bag, the Cadet Junior Trouper bag has simplified double shoulder straps and a padded lumbar cushion for easy carry and extra comfort. To keep juniors hydrated during their round, Jones has added an oversized insulated pocket to store extra-large water bottles. “We heard from parents who said they frequently have to remind their kids to drink water during their round,” said Matt Lemman, partner and sales director, Jones Sports Co. "By placing a large insulated water bottle pocket on the front of their bag where it is in plain view, it reminds them to drink water throughout their round." Sticking to a simple, understated design of which Jones is known, the Cadet Junior Trouper is available in light gray. It features a 4-way divider top and weighs four pounds. A heavy-duty D-ring provides ease of clipping on accessories. Junior Cadet Trouper Bag MSRP: $145.00 Colorways: Light Gray Availability: Immediately Top: 4-way divider Dimensions: 32” x 11.5” x 7” Shoulder Strap: Traditional centerline single strap with secondary double strap Weight: 4 lbs. Intended ages: 7-11

If you were to ask me what the most dominant brand on tour is, without hesitation I'd say GolfPride. Unlike club companies, grip companies don't pay for play, so use on tour (and everywhere else) is entirely preference driven - which makes it almost insane that in any given week, +/- 80% of the grips used are GolfPride. It's also insane that the company that makes the grips I play is owned by the company that made the power systems wee used back when I was an IT guys. Such a strange career convergence. Anyway...here's what the company has to say about it's 2019 season on tour. PINEHURST, N.C. … Golf Pride®, an industry leader in grip innovation and the #1 Grip on Tour, announced today that it was the leading swing and putter grip choice throughout the FedEx Cup Playoffs, including at the season-ending TOUR Championship. At the TOUR Championship, the winner captured the tournament and the FedEx Cup title using Golf Pride’s swing grips and putter grip. Since the FedEx Cup started 13 years ago, Golf Pride has been the trusted grip in players hands for 11 titles. The thrilling victory at East Lake Golf Club gives Golf Pride 39 wins out of the official 46-events played during the PGA TOUR’s 2018-19 season. Below is a rundown of some of Golf Pride’s most noteworthy achievements during the brand’s banner year on the PGA TOUR. · “Golf Pride Slam” - wins at all four Majors this season. · 13x more PGA TOUR victories than its nearest competitor. · 7 unique Golf Pride swing grips won this season including the brand’s latest innovations in ALIGN Technology & Plus4 Technology. · 43 of 50 players who earned their 2019-20 PGA TOUR cards through the Korn Ferry Playoffs or by virtue of being Top 25 money earners on the Korn Ferry Tour relied on Golf Pride grips. “2018-19 has been an incredible season for Golf Pride,” said Brandon Sowell, global sales and marketing director for Golf Pride. “We continued our run of success in the game’s biggest events with some of our most trusted grips, and we saw several of our newest and most innovative technologies gain traction on TOUR garnering marquee wins. This season has been a tremendous showcase of how the best players in the world grip confidence each week with Golf Pride.” Each week, Golf Pride is the leading grip played from tee-to-green on the PGA TOUR with an average of 80% of pros choosing Golf Pride swing grips in each event, without any paid endorsements. For more information on Golf Pride’s entire 2019 product offering, visit http://www.golfpride.com. Eaton’s Golf Pride Grips Division is the world’s largest manufacturer of golf grips, with manufacturing, sales and distribution facilities on six continents. The division’s Golf Pride brand is recognized globally as the number one choice in grips among TOUR and recreational players, competitive amateur golfers, club manufacturers and club repairmen. For more information, visit www.golfpride.com. Eaton is a power management company with 2018 sales of $21.6 billion. We provide energy-efficient solutions that help our customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more efficiently, safely and sustainably. Eaton is dedicated to improving the quality of life and the environment through the use of power management technologies and services. Eaton has approximately 100,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countries. For more information, visit Eaton.com.

Safe bet that, as a MGS Community Member, you're already aware that Gary Woodland just one the US Open. I'm guessing you know that his victory gives Wilson credit for its first major since Padraig Harrington. You might also know about the PING metalwoods, Vokey and TaylorMade wedges, Cameron putter, and Titleist golf balls. The point is that Woodland played a mix of equipment, but nothing in his bag was as visible to everyone watching at home as his PUMA PWRADAPT Patriot Pack Golf Shoes. Woodland's shoes are part of PUMA Golf's Volition America collection and are slated for an October release. For a very limited time...literally the next 10 hours and 15 minutes (as of 9:45 AM eastern time), you can pre-order Woodland's shoes. The upside of pre-ordering now is that through July 4th, PUMA is doubling its contribution to Folds of Honor on everything sold from the Volition America Collection (which obvious includes the shoes). Cool shoes...great cause. If you're so inclined, click here to pre-order your Patriot Pack PWRADAPTs.