Siamese Moose

If you want to stand out on the shelf, don't use black, white, blue, or silver. Retail shelves are jammed with those colors. I would think it will be hard to get on store shelves if the packaging doesn't fit nicely into a regular ball display. If it's not a high end Tour ball I think boxes of 18 or 24 would sell better. For a high end ball I think you have to stick with a conventional dozen. If it's a high end ball from a new source I think trial packs of 3 or 4 is a good move.

Some time back somebody did an anonymous poll of Tour players, and Phil was among the least liked, if not the most disliked among his peers. Just ask Vijay why he nicknamed him "FIGJAM". Of course, Vijay is possibly my least liked player (granted he's not on the regular Tour anymore). Arrogant, aloof, and massively misogynistic.

The standard lofts on the i530s are very strong. Even in the "retro spec", which is a little weaker, the PW is 42.5°. We're looking at adding one or two degrees of loft in the longer irons. They have a fair amount of bounce, so that part shouldn't be a problem.

After two fitting sessions I ordered a set of Ping i530 irons today. Some big changes from my old specs: 1° flat where I was 2° up, added 15 grams of shaft weight, and went a full flex stiffer. My current set (M3) are six years old, and I've been working on my swing a lot in that time. My fitter recommended the retro spec loft, and he says he may bend the longer irons a little weaker still. Once they're in we'll see what the yardages actually come to, and decide about changing or bending my wedges. It was nice on the wallet that he recommended I stick with my current woods (G410 driver, Cobra F9 5 and 7), though we did tweak the loft and weight settings. I bought the hybrids last fall, so they were not in play today.

I have a second fitting session on Tuesday to finalize between the P790 and Ping i530. If we decide on the P790 I will probably go for this. Sexy!

I was using the Mizuno Optimizer last Tuesday. Apparently my tempo, 6.5, is "hard". The fitter said Freddy Couples was 1.5. It looks so smooth, yet he still has back issues. I'm doomed!

I use SuperStroke cross comfort. The shock reduction is 90% or so of Winn, but they last much longer and are significantly cheaper.

Two days ago I had the first session of fitting for my next irons. Like you, I'm preferring mid to heavy graphite shafts, and a couple of them worked well (Recoil 95, MMT 90). I also tried the Optimizer, and the recommendations it gave me were very similar to yours, just a slight bit softer. The highest recommendation for a graphite shaft was Axxiom, down around #15 (maybe if I buy the right lottery ticket). My fitter says he doesn't like the Optimizer for fitting graphite iron shafts. He usually won't even use it when a client wants graphite. He had me try it only because he wanted me to see that I should be using something way different than the 65g shafts in my current M3s.

I had a fitting session for irons today. I'll be going back next week to finish it, I was just too fatigued at the end to feel comfortable making the final decision. (I have lower back issues.) My current irons are TM M3 with Atmos Red graphite shafts (65g). They're 7 years old. I've always had problems with the shorter clubs (esp. PW), because in the short lengths they're too light, so I've decided their time is up. I went in trying to be as open to anything as I could, but I was thinking about heavier shafts. and maybe players distance type heads. Damned if that isn't what he zeroed in on pretty quick! I was concerned that my tendency to have my mishits on the toe would be too penal, but, 1. he said what I think of as a bad toe hit was not really all that bad, and 2. the clubs were far more forgiving to that miss than I expected. I ended up hitting the TM P790 (MMT 95 and 105 shafts), Srixon ZX5, Cobra Forged Tec, Titleist T200, Mizuno 923 forged, and Ping i530. Frankly I could be happy with any of them except the Titleist (something about the look at address I didn't like, maybe because it's the smallest head of this bunch), but we're now zoned in on the P790s and i530s. Next week we'll work with just those two, while I'm fresh, to make the final call. Derek doesn't use the Mizuno Optimizer often when fitting for graphite, but he had me use it to show me something. I don't have that report in front of me, but it's top 10 recommendations were all 120g or heavier steel. Apparently my tempo is hard (6.5). I think Derek was trying to make me more comfortable in my head with how much heavier these new shafts are going to be. The highest rank graphite was something like #25, and that was an Axxiom shaft that's $100 per club upcharge (nope!). Surprisingly the MMT 95 shafts (P790) and the Recoil 90 shafts (i530) are not in the Optimizer database (or maybe they don't have the latest update). Today we finished with a few driver swings, because I wanted to decide if I was going to apply for the Autoflex testing. (Spoiler: I'm not!) My driver swing produces low spin, like really low. I was launching at 17° with 1400 rpm (94 mph swingspeed, 10.5° loft). Unfortunately, no shaft change is going to change that all that much. We did try a longer shaft that got me a little more ball speed and 1800 rpm. I've got a week to think about whether I want to make a change, and whether I can afford doing all of this at once. I may play with the hosel settings before making any decision. Next week we'll finalize the irons, then decide on wedges. I'm leaning toward a set matching gap wedge, as long as I can get the heavier shaft. He thinks we should also ask for that club to be a heavier swingweight. The sand wedge loft will be to get the gap right, and I'm sticking with a 58° LW. Maybe a new one, maybe not.

I just booked a full bag fitting for next Tuesday. I'm mainly only looking for irons, but I figure on new wedges as well to get the gapping right. A "Full Bag", two session fitting costs less than separate iron and wedge fittings (and a greater amount applies to any purchase). I am happy with my woods, though I'll give him a chance to see if there's something to gain (I could use more spin on my driver - new shaft maybe?). He fit me for my hybrid last summer, so that's not changing. The putter is untouchable.

Some years ago I named my home brewery Siamese Moose, after my cat Moose, who was Siamese. Since then it's the username I use almost everywhere (despite getting a cease and desist from Moosehead for using it for beer stuff).

Rob Westendorf, aka My Greens Stimp At 2 on the old GEA, and the old Golf EF prior to that. Played in the Greg, and I think we were both at one or more of the Ravines outings.

Damn Doug, I didn't realize you were that much older than me. You sure as hell don't look it!

Many years ago on a trip hosted by a long past forum, while driving to Hammock Beach (near Jacksonville), our lone Southerner (Tennessee) made us make an unscheduled stop when he saw a roadside stand for boiled peanuts. That was a new experience for this Northern boy, and they were awesome!

Unfortunately, the courses with bells around here have removed or disabled them. They were constantly being vandalized. I've seen a few periscopes, but those only work over hills, not around corners.