Deacon Blues

There was a guy on Big Break years ago that hit every club crosshanded. I remember trying a few swings at the range, but it felt very awkward and I could not hit the ball at all. 

It’s not wrong to carry any combination of clubs that you desire.  The goal is to be able to shoot the lowest score you can; the clubs in you bag are just tools to accomplish that task.   You seem to know the shots you want and need to hit so that makes the configuration right for you.   

Measuring putter shafts has become one of my most fascinating research items to date.  Reading some of the commentary here I appreciate everyone's desire (psychosis 🙃) in improving tech. 
There are only 2 machines designed to measure the shaft in time and space during a swing/stroke - GEARs being the one I have, and fuji's enso the other.  I've worked with multiple manufacturers as well as client testing putters where we look at their favorite gamer club, and compare it to their most hated gamer club. In that research the findings showed that there was no correlation to shaft droop or shaft deflection, however there was a massive correlation in the shaft twist parameter.  GEARs defines shaft twist as: axial rotation down the golf shaft between the club's grip and club's head. This measurement is reported in degrees and is an angular magnitude.
As a note - most will simply refer to this as "shaft torque" as has the entire shaft industry, however, I'll take this moment to point out that torque is an external force that is applied to a body.  You can torque a shaft, but a shaft doesnt have torque.  Torque is a measurement in Newton meter or Pound feet.  Yet the shaft industry tries to say torque is a measurement in degrees.  GEARs uses shaft twist and provides that number in degrees.
My research showed that there is a direct correlation between how much a player loves their putter to how little the shaft twists.  You can take that statement to the bank.  The most stable the putter shaft is from start to top of backswing, to impact, the more a player will like that putter.  When the shaft twists either clockwise, or counterclockwise, the timing aspect of that putter is not a desirable trait.
Now the real question is - what are the best shafts?  well, that depends.  I have seen some players use a stock smooth non-stepped putter shaft and have little twist, and i've seen the same have massive amounts of twist. 
The old school - 1980's and prior - ping stepped shafts - when tipped - were some of the most stable I've measured.
More current shafts, the Stability, Sack Parente, LAGP, and Accra putter shafts have yet to show any poor results and all seem to be a warranted purchase as they are all very very stable.
Steel wise, the KBS CT Tour putter shaft stood out as an excellent choice.  Fluted steel shafts are also better than non fluted.
Shafts I would stay away from are smooth non stepped steel shafts, stroke lab (low % of good results but there were some), anything that feels 'soft' or 'whippy.'
Stepped steel is better than non stepped steel, but still would avoid.
Overall stiffness is not direct indicator of stability, but it does serve as a factor.
I've attached a link to show how the shaft twist is measured below in comparing two different shafts.  The desirable graph is a flat line showing minimal to no axial twist of the shaft as in the gold shaft.  Blue shaft is one that is twisting the shaft closed, then opening on the downswing.  Very unreliable and difficult to form a consistent feel with.  The vertical dotted line on the left is top of the backswing, and the right one is impact. These putts were both swung at 5.20mph chs with grip speed of 1.63mph (gold) and 5.11mph chs with grip speed of 1.60mph (blue).  The gold shaft twisted a total of 0.13* while the blue was over 2.00*
 
 
Always appreciate the conversations here at MGS, hope this can add some color to the discussion.    

So you talk about the CT Tour being a good steel shaft with good feel. However you also stat that one should avoid stepless steel shafts. Does the CT not fit into the category? 

Thanks to all! Wednesday was a beautiful day, and I did get 9 holes in and hit some good shots for an old guy. Looking forward to a great year on and off the course.

Hey happy birthday 🥳 guys, hopefully you’re shooting a good #s

Happy birthday @Sluggo42, @Ben_Howell34, @Deacon Blues and @Bailz19!!  Best wishes to hit them long and straight, but not into the woods!

Happy Birthday Everyone!!

Happy birthday @Sluggo42, @Ben_Howell34, @Deacon Blues and very new member @Bailz19. Have a fantastic day.

Happy Birthday @Ben_Howell34 and @Sluggo42 and @Bailz19 and @Deacon Blues 
Make your day the best it possibly can be!
 

Something a little different in my Ping Hoofer Lite:
Driver on the right All the single length ladies (hybrids and irons) in the back Wedges on the left Putter in the front It's basically a clockwise arrangement from short clubs to long clubs.

Something a little different in my Ping Hoofer Lite:
Driver on the right All the single length ladies (hybrids and irons) in the back Wedges on the left Putter in the front It's basically a clockwise arrangement from short clubs to long clubs.

Ping Hoofer Lite, 4 Way top.
Top: Driver, 3 Wood, Hybrid
Left: 4, 5, 6, 7 iron
Right: 8, 9 iron, PW, 49*
Bottom 54* Smart Sole, Putter

My most memorable was a 46 I shot on the front 9 of a little muni I grew up playing. This one will need some explaining.
I started rough, with an 8 and a 9 on the opening par 4 and 5. Then hit a ridiculously smothered worm burner on the par 3 3rd that landed about 30-40 yards in front of the front tees, rolled around another 160 yards straight into the hole for a 1. It was my first, but I hardly celebrated because the shot was such garbage. I then proceeded to birdie the next par 4, then went 5, 6, and 7 on the next three par 4s. At this point I realized I could shoot for the cycle, scoring 1-9 on the nine holes, with a short par 3 and par 5 ahead of me. I got aggressive on the par 3, hoping for an easy birdie and then birdie the very gettable last for the sequential 45. The shot was good and I left it about 15 feet below the hole for the birdie, but I lipped out, smashing all my dreams. I still birdied the par 5 last hole to go: 8, 9, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 3, 4 for a disappointing 46. Still rueing the missed 2. Afterwards, I vowed if I ever get another shot at hitting for the cycle, I will throw putts or whatever I have to do to get it.

... I was a member at WRX before joining MGS. I still post in the equipment forum because ... well ...  I love talking equipment. But the huge difference is those that want to argue about an opinion when it is after all, an opinion but worse they want to argue about facts. And arguing if done respectfully is perfectly fine but more than a few are very snarky and/or just rude and very confrontational. Those are things I just don't see here. Most everyone is respectful in their disagreement and they don't dig in and want to have the last word. Ok, maybe a few here  🤪  but they are easy enough to avoid interacting with.

... It is almost like WRX is a big party and when party goers get a few drinks in them it can get confrontational, argumentative and unpleasant because they aren't gonna see each other in the future. Where MGS is like a big family outing with maybe one Drunk Uncle but everyone else knowing we have to see each other the next day and genuinely care about each other.  

Bottom Line Golfwrx is and likely always will be extremely relevant and busy. 
They have a huge membership and signature features like all their tour stuff.
I haven't spent too much time there, but do have an account. Besides being so involved here for obvious reasons i found it chaotic and hard to follow along with threads. I love the sense of community we have here. 
There are other what I'll call stereo types that go with WRX which I'm not sure is all fair, because I'm sure there is a ton of great information there, however in my experience it can get lost in a long of other discussion. 
So relevant yes and will continue to be. 
 

The Grint is a great app for golf. Applies a social aspect to the game, along with the ability to track shots, track analysis, provide yardage in play, and even grants the ability to get a handicap. 
 
Me and my buddies use it for multiple reasons… to see live scoring updates from group to group, track multi round tournaments. We recently used it to track a Ryder style tournament we played on our last golf trip. 

GRINT - I have used the Grint for years and love it! It has an app for the Apple Watch. As soon as I walk off the green I am adding my score, putts, distance of first putt, club used on drive, where drive landed left right wide left wide right, and there is a screen with options to select whether you had a water/penalty, OB, Fairway bunker, or green side bunker. After the round it give you all of your stats, Fairways hit, Greens in Reg, and Putts. When friends use the app you get notifications and can track their rounds. 

The Grint.  Best app I have found yet.  Post scores directly to GHIN while keeping score for all kinds of different games for FREE.  They keep basic stats for GIR, Fairways, and putts.  You can upgrade your experience for more detailed stats.  

My friends like the Grint app as a free alternative to GHIN, handicap tracker.
 

Mine is most memorable not because of where I played, but how I played, at least for part of the round.
For context, I'm a hacker. If I break 100, it's a good day, and if I break 90, we're having a party. Having said that, I was playing some of the best golf of my life in the mid-1990s, when I was in my late 30s. Even then, bogey golf was an accomplishment.
In August 30, 1997, I played a round at Emerald Lake Golf Club in the Charlotte suburbs with my brother. The course was relatively new at the time, and this was only the first or second time we'd played it.
After starting with a fairly routine double bogey on the par-4 first, I went into a zone and played the best five holes of my life:
#2 (402-yard par-4): Par #3 (151-yard par-3): Par #4 (338-yard par-4): Eagle (my first ever: holed a wedge from 95 yards)! #5 (500-yard par-5): Birdie (reached the green in two and 2-putted) #6 (384-yard par-4): Par So, after six holes, one-third of the way through my round, this mediocre golfer is ONE-UNDER-FREAKING-PAR. 😃
Mind you, my best-ever round was a 12-over 83 (on an easier course) a couple of years earlier, but at this point I just know that I'm going to do better than that, and might even have a chance to break 80.
I did my best to keep the delusions of grandeur at bay, but bogeyed #7 and #8 and double bogeyed #9 (which, to be fair, is the hardest hole on the course). Still, finishing the front 9 with a 3-over 38 puts me in great shape for the best round of my life!
Then I woke up.
Bogeys on #10, #11, and #13 (all relatively easy holes) continued the slide; triples on #12 and #14 and a quad on #15 sealed my fate. I finally made a back-9 par on #18, but the damage was done.
38 + 52 = 90 on the par-71 course. My back-9 meltdown resulted in one shot worse than bogey golf. 😩
25+ years later, I still haven't broken 83. But I'll keep trying, and will remember that five-hole stretch for the rest of my life!
 

What is the most memorable round of golf ever played. One that comes to mind above all others. A story that you have told a thousand times and will tell a thousand more if time permits. 
 
I’ll start it off. Mine was a round at The Country Club, Brookline Mass. in 1991. The Country Club is the oldest golf-oriented country club in the United States. I arrived at the club hung over having been out much too late having been out far too late the evening before entering clients in downtown Boston. I remember stopping at a drug store on the way there to buy sunglasses to hide the redness. It was a round scheduled with a client, a well known Boston Bruins former player and the member who was the Chairman of a MA based brokerage firm. 
 
Too messed up to hit practice balls and hands shaking from one too many cocktails it hit two putts on the practice green and was as ready as I would ever be to get started. The front nine was unbelievable. As bad as I felt, the clubs seemed to be on autopilot. A birdie par birdie par had me -2 after four. A bogey at 5 and another birdie a 6 had my mind swirling. What did Curtis Strange shoot in his final round of the Open in 89? I digress. Pars at 7 and 8 had me at -2. I knocked it stiff on 9 and found the bottom of the cup for an opening nine 33. Wow! Then came the dreaded words by the member. “Let’s stop for a bowl of soup and let me show you the clubhouse. Then we’ll go out for last nine.” Of course we accepted the invitation.
We had no choice. The lunch was enjoyable however the mojo I had on the front side must have been left in the clubhouse library because it sure didn’t find its way to the back nine. I slashed my way to a +4 39. My hopes of qualifying for anything other than a weekend skins game were dashed. While a 72 on a course as prestigious as The Country Club is nothing to turn your nose up at, the disappointment of what could have been was gone. And to think, I could have been a contender. That’s my story. 
 

I agree with others, no major OEM is gonna touch him, but there will be some overseas company or start-up willing to give it a go. Huge missed opportunity by the World's Longest Driver!😁

 

100%
There was something about this on the NLU pod this week. I don't think they mentioned the OEM specifically, but something along the lines of, 'we don't have the manpower to keep up with Bryson's demands'.
If that's true, I imagine there'd be common sentiment across other OEM's

Exactly. I don't see why any OEM would want to. 
He doesn't play on the more prominent tour. 
He has a history of bad mouthing the product which he is being sponsored by.
He doesnt use half the brands he is sponsored by. I'll try and find that tweet. 
He is extremely specific in his needs for equipment and they don't exactly cross over to the general public so that R&D is essentially just for him. 
I believe he will remain a free agent for the remainder of his career.