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What's worse than the guy who takes you shot-by-shot through his mediocre round of golf? The guy who takes you shot-by-shot through his mediocre simulated range session! And yet here we are. Here's the big picture summary: Overall, a 9.6 handicap. Obviously, that's in keeping with my single digit goal—barely. It's also not really any improvement from my golf last summer. Since I haven't done much work on my full swing lately, that isn't a surprise. The wedge distances (40, 75, 90) were not great. For whatever reason, I was misjudging the 40 yard distance, leaving a couple really short. And then I thinned one of the 90 yard shots about 135. That'll mess up the handicap. The major weak point was the 105/120/135 range. There were a couple of factors here. One was stubbornness: I remain convinced that these three shots should be my SW, GW, and PW respectively. But I just wasn't getting there with those clubs. I eventually caved in on the last three shots at 135, grabbing my 9i. There's more to say here, related to what follows. From 150–190, I put up some really respectable numbers: mid-single digit handicaps on average. And I was finally getting the distances I wanted out of each club (which leads me to believe that, with tweaks, I can get those distances from the wedges). From 150, I was using my 8i; 165 was my 7i; 175 with my 6i; and 190 with my 5i. In each case, I was still (on average) just under five yards short of target, but still hitting the greens easily. On these swings, I made one tweak to my swing which seemed to make a difference: better posture, without the shoulders hunched at address. I need to figure out why that made a difference. The other point of focus remains my footwork. On a good swing, my feel is that I load up on my right heel, then transfer my weight from my right heel to my left heel. This facilitates keeping my hips deep and a shallow swing. If at any point, my weight starts moving toward my toes, my hips come forward, and my swing steepens. For many, this would create a fade, but my face always ends up left, and so I get the massive pull-hook which goes off the planet. I offer this as exhibit A: There's so much good here. I start with an OK shot. But then, three straight +4 shots (that's the best score SkyTrak gives), averaging 15 feet from the cup from 175. Then, the hook: 44(!) yards left, 132 feet from the pin, and a 36 handicap (the worst score that SkyTrak gives). That's the big miss. That's the shot I've got to eliminate, because that's the one that goes into the woods on my course here. Anyway, despite the mediocre results, I think it was a productive session. I hit some good shots, found some things that work, and I know what I need to continue to grind on.

I have an Optishot and used it for two winters before getting the SkyTrak (it's now for sale here in the classifieds). It certainly has real limitations: if you want a Trackman, you'll be sorely disappointed. It's best feature, though, is that for relatively little expense, you get a dozen or more courses to play. It's not great for digging into you numbers on the range; it's just not precise enough for that. But as a way to "play" golf in the off-season, it has its place. In fact, Kirke is a bit miffed that I'm selling the Optishot, just for that reason. He and I have played a lot of rounds on it with foam balls.

Just grabbed a new in package OG Game Golf off the 'Bay for $27. I wanted one so I had a second set of tags (as I switch out clubs and a couple of mine have broken). Having the second device just means we get to track Kirke's shots this summer

This is just the snow in the edge of my driveway: However, we've got a few days in the 40s this week. Looking for a melt, just slowly. That's a lot of water.

Bump for some price drops.

That's a solid unpopular opinion. I'll raise it: we put too much emphasis on winning in general. Tony Finau had a better season than Bubba Watson last year, even though Bubba won three events and Finau never had a victory.

We have temps in the 40s this week! Looking forward to getting the SkyTrak back out in the garage for some good full swing practice. I hit some balls with the SkyTrak in the garage on Saturday, but had to share my sim time with Kirke. I had hoped to do a skills assessment, but we ran out of battery on the tablet before I could get to it. I'll do one this week and post it here. I've still been working consistently on my short game shots. Last night, I stretched out my practice to 30 yards; that's a long shot with a 7' ceiling in the basement! After doing some random practice (SkyTrak picking distances from 10–30 yards), I did a skills assessment. SkyTrak doesn't allow a full randomization in the assessment; I wish it did. I want to tell it to ask for (say) 15 shots randomly chosen from 10–30 yards, and then give me my score. Instead, I told it to give me 3 shots each at 5 distances: 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 yards. But I scrambled those yardages. It's still not a perfect test; if I miss one long, I can make an adjustment on the next one of the same distance. Even so, I was really happy to see my results: The best score SkyTrak will give for a shot is a +4 handicap. I put all three of my shots at the 10 yard distance close enough to earn that score, which was a great start for me. Everything else was pretty solid as well. The practice seems to be paying off. Still at least a month (probably more) before I see a course up here, but I'm optimistic about the way things are trending.

Apparently, they're perfect for short guys:

In defense of this, as Stud said himself, it is a bonus for having earned the top seed going into these big weeks.

And maybe also canoe weather As much as I want spring to get here, we really need a gentle melt.

If you don't want to go eBay, your best bet is probably a refurbished unit direct from SkyTrak for $1,500: https://shop.skytrakgolf.com/p-161-skytrak-launch-monitor-certified-pre-owned.aspx

It looks like the new Swing Caddie SC300 let's you see ball flight on the app, but again, it's not tracking whether the shot is offline and/or curving. You'd just be seeing the ball flight on a straight line. We had temps in the upper 30s on Saturday, so I was able to get in the garage with the SkyTrak for some full swing work for the first time in a while. I still have to fight my son for simulator time But we're going to see temps in the 40s this week. Little by little, it's going to warm up. When spring finally comes, I'll get into the garage, do a thorough cleaning, and start building my more permanent setup in there. I'll definitely be updating this thread when I do.

Doing some putting before church this morning, Kirke decided to channel his inner Phil and go left handed: Still pretty smooth.

You want to be the guy at the gate telling people they can't bring their cell phone in?

Since we're doing unpopular opinions, I'll state this one more strongly than I am fully convinced of: every Tour event should follow Augusta's policy of disallowing all phones on the premises. There's something sad (in my opinion) about a gallery of people behind a golfer, who are there in person, who nonetheless experience the whole event looking at the screen in their hand because they need to take video of the whole thing.

@perseveringgolfer: definitely looks like the same idea. From your pictures, that looks like about two shafts off offset? I'd guess the Evnroll is closer to 3.5 or 4. It's essentially a full ball offset: In another thread, someone pointed out that Guerin Rife released a Tour Stroke putter already under the Rife brand. All goes to show: most new and revolutionary ideas in golf are neither

I probably need to make a trade for him. Considering that my sons are Christopher and Kirke, he's kind of a family favorite

I know that we have a thread already for the current Evnroll lineup, but the ER1TS and Tour Stroke Trainer are such unusual putters that I thought they merited their own thread. If you're totally unfamiliar with the concept of these putters, this recent video (featuring the man, myth, and legend Guerin Rife himself) is a great place to start: I just received my own Tour Stroke Trainer today. In this post, I'm going to offer my first impressions; as I keep using it in the next weeks and months (hopefully longer), I'll keep this thread updated. I'm of the opinion that a review of any training aid takes time, as the goal isn't a great first impression but sustained improvement. I am impressed (but unsurprised) that the Tour Stroke Trainer feels like a quality putter. Fit and finish are what you would hope and expect. The putter comes standard with a textured rubber grip; I'll likely replace that with either a SuperStroke Flatso 1.0 (which I have lying around) or a P2 Aware (to match my Evnroll ER6). The putter looks as odd in person as the pictures would lead you to expect. I like the headcover. I get a kick out of the "It's Legal" script on the headcover itself: That said, the quotation marks around "It's Legal" annoy the grammar snob in me. Quotation marks aren't intended for emphasis. Pointless quotation marks have the effect of "air quotes"; they imply that you're saying the opposite of what the words literally mean. Imagine a competitor questioning whether your Tour Stroke is a legit conforming putter, and you pull out your headcover and tell him, "See, it says it's 'legal' right here." Very reassuring. Grammar quibbles aside, when you put the headcover on, the radical offset gives the appearance that you went all mad DeChambeau, slamming the putter into the ground until it bent. This amuses me: I have been immediately impressed by the feel of this Trainer. I can't compare it to the high-dollar milled ER1TS, but I can compare it to my ER6. My preference is for soft feeling, muted-sounding putters. Count me surprised that the cast Trainer is far more appealing to me on that front than is my ER6. As for the Trainer as an aid: it is promising so far. My standard putting miss is a pull. I expect that the massive offset of the Tour Stroke to be a strong encouragement to keep the face square to the target all the way through impact. My biggest question is transference: why should I expect that, after working with the Tour Stroke for any length of time, my stroke with my ER6 would change to match the stroke demanded by such an unusual design? My plan is to use the Tour Stroke regularly for the next several weeks. I'll add observations to this thread from time to time on it. I'm also going to keep track of how my putting changes with my ER6, both in terms of my record of making putts in drills I do reguarly on my green and in swing analysis with my SwingByte. If you have any questions about the Tour Stroke, I'll do my best to to answer them here.

Just received my new Evnroll Tour Stroke Trainer. Definitely an odd looking putter: I plan to write up a full review of this, especially after I use it for a while (the only way to have a meaningful opinion on a training aid). For now, I'd say that the early impressions are very impressive, both in quality and function. I won't be shocked if it ends up in my bag for at least a couple rounds this summer.

I'm not exaggerating at all to tell you that the snow is currently over four feet deep in my yard, and we're expecting another 6 inches this weekend. The snow might be gone by August, but we'll likely send out a dove or two before we go to see if the floodwaters have receded.

I just started using VirtualPro as well, and I have to second @edingc's recommendation. It's smooth, fast, full featured, and free. Very impressed thus far.

Done!

You've got it!

The good news is that you're in a good place: you have more reputation than you have posts. The bad news is that the badges are for post count, not reputation (otherwise, I'd have a bigger number on mine ). So keep posting! You're almost to that first badge.

You're exactly right about what's happening, though it is always challenging in a golf swing to sort out causes and effects. In other words, what you've said makes total sense, I just feel everything in a different way than you've described. In my golf "feels," what I've mostly done is changed my wrist angles (avoiding left wrist extension). That wrist angle creates a neutral to closed face at the top of the swing. An over the top move from there would be unplayable left, so I'm forced from there to shallow the shaft considerably. I'm then in a position in which standing up/moving toward the ball can't work. The only way to get the face to the ball when the club is shallowed is by rotating my body through. I've tried in the past to fight the early extension/lunging on its own, with little success. For me, this is the first time that I've come close to keeping my hips back (still a little work to do there). I could totally imagine another golfer whose swing looked like mine taking your description of the fix and it being exactly the way he needed to hear it to make the correction. I just found I had to start in a different place to get my body to make sense of what I was doing.