sixcat

I live just across the Virginia state line from Mount Airy. Maybe 20 minutes from downtown. Grew up here, left at 17, married a local girl and moved back at 34. I'd live in Mount Airy if I had a choice in the matter. My wife is currently 9 years shy of Virginia State Retirement Plan kicking in so, it's not quite an option just yet. But will be in a few years. Some top quality golf in this area as well. My home club has reciprocal privileges with Pilot Knob Country Club in Pilot Mountain. Play there quite often during the winter months. It's always 15 degrees warmer down the mountain than it is up here. Mount Airy is only 20 minutes away but it's down nearly 3,000 feet in elevation, which is why commuting is out of the question. Fancy Gap Mountain is no joke!!!

One more for the archives. This was taken in the parking lot of Cross Creek Country Club in Mount Airy, North Carolina in 2018.

They weigh between 150 and 200 pounds fully grown. Can we all agree to keep this a secret? Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources still claim the Eastern Cougar (Mountain Lion) has been extinct since the 1920's. North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky all disagree. So do the farmers in southwest Virginia that have game-camera footage. These two relaxing in the trees were less than 50 miles south of the Virginia state line. Hard to imagine them being so prevalent that close to Virginia, within the same mountain range, and not be in Virginia. Virginia Tech has even proven the existence (with photos) of Mountain Lions as far north as Gravel Springs Gap 50 miles west of Washington DC. Again, same mountain range. My state can be completely ridiculous sometimes.

This picture was taken in late fall 2019 in a place called Sugar Mountain about 15 minutes northwest of Linville Golf Club. Yes, those are mountain lions!!!

Rex Hoggard reporting developments from the player/commissioner meeting this morning. 3-event team series in Fall (Europe, Asia, Middle East), with top 50 from FedEx led by captains chosen from PIP. Other players from Playoffs go into Fall Series for card. No more reach-around...sorry, wraparound schedule beginning in 2023.

The Roman Numerals LIV is the number 54. LIV Golf highest end, all inclusive ticket package is called Club 54. Performance 54 is a Saudi backed organization responsible for some of golfs biggest brands. https://performance54.com/ Coincidence?

I have the SportsCentury on Phil Mickelson on DVR from 2005. There is a segment where Scott Van Pelt is recalling a conversation with a handful of players during The Doral when Phil came on the jumbotron next to them while he was getting ready to play a shot. One of the players says "hit it in the water you fat f**k" and the other guys chimed in with their own colorful commentary. SVP used that story to describe how disliked Phil was on Tour in those days. FIGJAM didn't spring up out of thin air.

Why? The PGA Tour and the Dude Perfect World Tour already go to all these places. The key is dividing the schedule into regional swings like they already do. If the two top Tours combined, they would already have all the logistical equipment on both sides of the world. The west coast swing moves on to the Florida swing, to Major season, to the European swing following the Open Championship to the Asian swing, culminating with the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. The model has been out there for two decades and is easily found with a Google search. It hasn't happened because too many people want a bigger slice of the pie, i.e. obnoxious greed!

Obnoxious greed!!!

I would encourage everyone to read this............... https://www.lyingfour.com/conversations-blog/2022/2/3/zmvtkq7npo3njfimn8uwpx9977h3k8

Gary Williams had Soly on his pod last night (Five Clubs Podcast). Gary mentioned he had heard the same stories the NLU guys have heard about Bryson telling other players he was done with the PGA Tour. Both discussed hearing from "multiple sources" the first Saudi league tournament would be in June. Kramer Hickok said he was hearing a June start date as well on a podcast Monday. All three said they were led to believe, the schedule would be released during The Players week.

Bryson has been so open and transparent over the past few years, I'm sure "TikTok" wouldn't bullshit his social media followers! /s

Lottery process exactly like The Masters. Tickets for the first two rounds at Champions Gate are free of charge. Saturday final round tickets are $75 each. I have not gotten through the lottery process since the first year so, now I look forward to the twice-per-year Augusta rejection email. https://www.anwagolf.com/en_US/patron/index.html?tab=augusta_ticketing

I've been to both The Masters and the ANWA. I took my daughter to the inaugural ANWA in 2019. Having been on property several times prior to 2019, the ANWA is far less congested. Here is a list of my favorite places to watch. Around the stands between the 4th green and 5th tee is awesome. My daughter sat there and talked to Condoleezza Rice and Heidi Ueberroth for half an hour. Between the 5th green and 6th tee is great for getting close to the players. The area behind the 12th tee is a must-see. The area overlooking the approach on 13 is great. Near the fairway bunker on #1 is a sneaky-good spot to get up-close to players as is the area in the trees between the 1st and 9th fairways. Being less crowded, standing behind the 16th tee is great, which is almost impossible during The Masters. My daughter enjoyed sitting on the hillside overlooking the 6th and 16th greens. She also loved the area between the 17th green and 18th tee. The ANWA is far less crowded so you will get to see more of the property. The ladies are much more open with the fans, which may have been a result of me tagging along with my daughter. I think by the time the day was over, she had fist-bumped everyone in the field. She even got to stand on the 6th tee with Zoe Campos and Rose Zhang as they kind-of swept her up between them as they walked from #5 green to #6 tee. I was panicked. I just knew we were going to get kicked out. The Marshall (in a green jacket) smiled at me and said "relax dad, we'll get her right back to you once she's had an experience she won't soon forget."

Obviously you didn’t watch/listen to Shiels’ entire video. He literally talks about hitting balls with the Stealth over the period of more than a week, at a number of different facilities, weather conditions, indoors off a mat, outdoors, and from a hitting bay. Besides, in the original review video Shiels did that brought this whole thing to a head, Rick hits way more than 10 shots!!! My overarching point to all this, there is obviously enough Kool-Aid to go around. MGS doesn’t need to perform drive-by’s on others in the same arena.

Yeah, but do your new pots and pans give you an additional 17 yards guaranteed? For what it’s worth, I’m always a bit “chagrined” at the level of whataboutism the world has morphed itself into. Nicely done!

TaylorMade massively overhyping a product? I don't believe you!!! /s On a serious note, just my 30-mile view of this situation but MGS comes off quite petty, territorial and butthurt. Not a good look for MGS but that has been the rule rather than the exception of late. Which is why I find myself spending more of my time elsewhere.

I just like pointing out, Ping isn't the only golf OEM having delays. It's industry wide and the length of delay is dependent upon more than club of choice. Me and a good friend ordered i210's on the same day in April. I got mine (PX LZ 6.0) in June. He got his (DG 105 S300) in October.

A lot of quality information in this post. A quality fitting takes all the guess-work out of your decision. If you’re left guessing or asking questions after a fitting, find another fitter immediately! I’ve played the HZRDUS Smoke Black RDX since June. I was fit by the head professional at my home club. The only question following the fitting was whether the shaft was going in a Titleist TSi2 or Ping G425 LST. Which was my preference as opposed to a guess. I went with the TSi2. I really like the combination and have played some of my best golf with it. My only instruction to my head professional was, help me maintain distance, improve consistency, and illuminate the left side of the golf course. Which has been my miss for as long as I’ve played golf. I’d say we accomplished that objective nicely.

It was an interesting read. Excellent work @GolfSpy Barbajo. My first foray into solid core golf balls was with the Strata Tour something. Maybe the Professional? I believe the Ace came along a few years later. They were light years ahead of the old wound balls. Took some getting used to with the sound/feel of the solid core versus the wound balatas. Well worth the time to get used to though. Those things were far more consistent than the wound balls. About a year or so after beginning to use the Strata, I fell in love with the Hogan Apex ball. Used it exclusively for several years until Acushnet came out with some fad ball that took over the world.

Fun fact: Wright and Ditson is featured prominently in "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Both the book and the movie. It's the retail store where Francis Ouimet worked. It can be seen on the side of the delivery carriage when Ouimet delivers irons to The Country Club. It's a commonly known "secret" that George Wright had Ouimet on the sporting goods store payroll for the purposes of branding and brand awareness. Wright fully funded Ouimet's amateur golf career leading up to and during the 1913 US Open. In exchange, Ouimet would bring brand awareness to the golf equipment Spalding (and Wright and Ditson) were selling.