GolfSpy MPR

Rick Shiels just got around to reviewing the project [a]. His findings accord with my experience, that it's a really good ball at a second-tier price:

Halftime! I'm just past the halfway point of my test. With eight putters, the round-robin competition has seven rounds; four of those have been completed. I'm doing the ten-putt competition four times; two of those are completed. I've also tweaked how the standings are calculated. In essence, I'm trying to see just how much each putter is above or below the average of the field. For the putting soccer game, an average putter would obviously have a .500 record. The ten-putt drill, the average score is moving, depending on my performance. The current standings are as follows: Putting Soccer: Odyssey 7 Cleveland Elevado (Tie) Adams A7, MLA Pro Xdream, STX Profit 6, Yes! Rachel Nike Converge Odyssey Toe Up Ten Putt Drill: Odyssey Toe Up (Tie) STX Profit 6, Nike Converge Cleveland Elevado MLA Pro Xdream (Tie) Odyssey 7, Yes! Rachel Adams A7 Overall: Cleveland Elevado Odyssey 7 STX Profit 6 Odyssey Toe Up Nike Coverge MLA Pro Xdream Yes! Rachel Adams A7 Thoughts so far: The big picture makes sense: the mallets are generally at the top, the blades toward the bottom. My stroke intentionally has very little arc, so this result isn't a surprise. The Odyssey Toe Up has produced the oddest results: the very lowest below-average performance in the game, but the very highest performance in the drill. I don't have any good theory as to why this would be. The Toe Up was my primary gaming putter through this past season here. The MLA continues to be underwhelming, and again, I don't have a good explanation for that. It has been an entirely average performer in the game, slightly below average in the drill. One possible theory: for the ten-putt drill, I am using the breaking side of the green (five putts that break left, five that break right, alternating). I haven't typically been one who picks a specific aiming point for breaking putts (say, three inches to the right of the cup). Instead, I tend to visualize the overall line and try to create that. Perhaps this approach to putting mitigates the primary advantage of the MLA: its alignment feature. A final thought: an exercise like this also brings in some of the psychology of putting. I know the tests done on this site have argued strongly that people play well with certain putters, regardless of whether they like the looks, feel, etc. The reality is that, in my collection, I do have putters I like more than others. I really, really like the Cleveland, for instance. Obviously, there's no way to do blind tests with putters, so within the test, I'm also able to see whether my affinity for one putter over another has any effect on the results. Another psychological element that comes up in the putting game is this: the game dares you to take risks. Will you try to thread your putt between the balls at the other end of the green, risking losing two turns for a chance at a one-putt? I try to let my decisions on this happen naturally during a game, to see if any particular putter encourages a more aggressive approach. Five more total rounds to go!

As has been mentioned a couple of times, kids are different, and it seems to be worth exposing them to lots of things to see where their interests and strengths lie. My oldest boy is four now, and started swinging the clubs early: the plastic clubs at one, real (cut down junior) clubs at two. By three, he was already beating balls in our garage, into my practice net: At three, I was taking him to the course. On most holes, he'd tee off from the 100-yard markers. This year, I again started him at the 100s, with the deal that as soon as he could shoot a 45, we'd move back to the 150s. He did that early in the summer, and by the end of the summer, had shot a 47 from the 150s. As you can tell, I'm pretty proud of my little guy. I have another son who just turned 3 last month. He messes around with putting and such, but hasn't taken to it nearly the way Kirke has. And that's totally OK too. These are games. There is such a tiny chance that playing a game will be the basis for any monetary payout, whether scholarships or a profession, I'd rather just spend the time having a blast with my kids.

Almost halfway through the test, and so I'll post an update at that point. Until then, here's another video, this time of Kirke pulling off a fun little trick chip:

Had used a variety of SuperStroke grips, but after getting an Odyssey Toe Up with the stock Flatso 1.0, I think I found my go to grip for the foreseeable future. I prefer it with the counterweight in.

Updates So far, each putter has gone through two rounds of the "putting soccer" game and one round of "10 putts." The head-to-head battles have produced some interesting results (I'll comment a bit more below on the what I'm learning about the game itself, and its pros and cons for this kind of testing). There is currently a four-way tie for first place. The current standings: With 2.5 points: Adams, Odyssey 7, STX, and Rachel With 2 points: MLA With 1.5 points: Toe Up, Elevado With 1 point: Nike Some further discussion on the game format. The pictures is the original post show the setup for this game: five balls set in a horizontal line a foot in front of each hole, with six inches between each ball. The basic rules, as I've already mentioned, is that each putter takes turns putting, trying to get all five balls holed before the other. Putts don't have to be made in a single shot: you can putt to a location, and then put in from there. Some clarifications: putts that either roll off the 3' strip that this game is played on (either by falling off or by going to the "other" side of the green) are replaced in their original location, and the play goes to the other putter. Putts that hit the other putter's ball are also replaced, but the opponent is awarded two shots in a row. Thus, the events that are most influential in a game are 1) putts that go directly in in a single shot and 2) putts that hit the opponent's ball. Absent those things occurring, the game can be dull. The center-placed ball is obviously the last one that is normally putted, as it is the chief obstacle/defender. For that reason, many games come down to the second player (who always gets the last putt) having to make a straight full-length putt to gain a tie. There are two imbalances in the directions of the putting green. On end is slightly higher than the other, so one player has uphill putts while the other is trying to control fairly quick downhill putts. The other is that on side also requires a platform (can be seen in the first pictures) and sometimes has to contend with that bit of plumbing jutting out from the wall there. For fairness, each round means that the game is played twice, switching ends between them. Thus, a putter can earn 2 points per round, giving 1 for a win and .5 for a tie each game. The biggest con of this game are already suggested here: the margin between winning and losing is very small, and for that reason, most matches so far have ended in ties. It's going to be tough, I suspect, for any putter to gain a large lead here. The biggest plus is that a game format like this actually provides pressure for putting. Having to roll in that last putt to secure a tie feels real. That's good practice. Ten putts My other contest, as noted above, is a series of putts of increasing distance, with alternating breaks (4, 5, 6, 7, 8 footers). Here, the score is simply how many out of ten are holes. The standings after one round: 10: Toe Up 8: Elevado, Nike 7: Odyssey 7, STX, Rachel 6: MLA 4: Adams Biggest surprises so far: That the MLA hasn't done better. It is my newest acquisition, which means that it's the first putter I grab when I'm practicing. We'll see if it mounts a comeback. The strong performance of the Rachel. Tech-wise, other than the face grooves, there ain't much to this putter. It's a very small blade with a traditional small grip. I might have gamed this once in my life. I think it's pretty, but it isn't a putter that I'd generally give serious consideration to using, just because I wouldn't expect it to be as generous as some of the others. Final bonus content: toy car tracks make for fun putting tricks!

With golf purchases, my wife and I are largely agreed that I've probably used up all my presents through Christmas of 2024.

I've bought a number of things from Callaway Pre-owned this week, taking advantage of their BOGO and 50% off offers: Big Bertha Alpha 816 Double Black Diamond (very good) Loft - 9° Fujikura Speeder Evolution II TS 665 X2 Hot Pro Fairway - 17° (like new) Aldila Tour Green 75 Graphite XR Pro 3 Hybrid (very good) Project X 75 Black HYB Graphite Mack Daddy 3 Milled Satin Chrome (like new) Loft : 54°-10° (Bounce) S Grind Grind : S Grind Mack Daddy PM Chrome (very good) Loft : 58°-10° (Bounce) All told, five clubs for about $285, or about $200 less than the driver was by itself when it was released.

If you check out the other picture I just posted of Kirke, you'll see his putter is a Yes! Built it for him when Diamond Tour was clearing out a lot of Yes! heads. Just about time to pull the grip and lengthen the shaft a bit.

Thanks for the kind welcome! Regarding the length of the post: it's part of the job description that I end up with more words than the time/space allotted to me A bit more on Kirke: he's already pretty stiff competition on the greens. The only real advantage I have on him overall is length, and I have a hunch that by the time he's ten, he might be hitting it by me. Our local course allows juniors to play free until they're 12; I don't think they normally expect anyone to get ten years of free golf from that. That said, it's a pretty laid back course, and the course manager loves having Kirke there. I'm already getting used to being known mostly as "Kirke's dad." One more picture: he got up this morning, put on a full soccer uniform, including shin guards, and went downstairs to putt:

Introduction I've done far more lurking than posting on mygolfspy, but I've definitely benefited from the content here. I've especially enjoyed reading the forum member reviews. This post here is really for my own amusement, but my hunch is that there are other equipment junkies here who might enjoy it as well. A bit about me: I'm in my late 30s and have been golfing regularly for the last five years or so. When I was growing up, I played a couple times a summer with my dad and always enjoyed the game. But I got bit hard by golf after moving here to Michigan's Upper Peninsula (where I pastor a Baptist church). I took up the game to spend some time with one of the guys in my church, but quickly became quite drawn by golf myself. Several elements combine for me to make this game so addicting. The first, obviously, is the challenge. But it isn't just the challenge: it's that, in principle, it seems like it should be something a person could figure out. I can't hit a slider or dunk a ball, but those are physical limitations. When a ball is sitting on a tee, and I still can't hit it straight—well, that just means I have a puzzle that needs to be solved. Combine that with good company and conversation, along with ample opportunities to tinker, not only with clubs, but with a host of little gadgets (swing monitors, training aids, etc.), I was pretty much hooked. As it stands, I've gotten myself down to being an entirely adequate mediocre golfer. Game Golf (one of my gadgets!) tells me I'm roughly a 15-handicap. I'm very short off the tee, strike my irons pretty well (for my handicap), I've had a miserable (but improving) short game, and I've learned to putt pretty solidly. One new reason for me to love the game: my four-year-old boy has really taken to it as well. He started swinging plastic clubs at age one, and his enthusiasm for the game keeps growing. He and I normally play a round a week (he has the attention span to even go 18). He started the season playing from the 100-yard markers. I told him that if he could shoot a 45 from there, we'd back up to the 150s. He's done that, and before the snow fell (a hazard of being a golfer in the UP), he'd shot a 47 from the 150s. Here's a couple of videos of his swing: The Green Because of the short golfing season here, indoor practice is a must. I've been a regular carpet-putter for some time, but had the desire to build a green with real holes. I ended up buying two of these 3x11 putting carpets (https://www.amazon.com/Putt-Bout-Putting-11-Feet-Green/dp/B00HXAJ4VQ) and a few packages of those interlocking foam mats. When my dad was here this past weekend, the building began. Side note: when my dad gets involved, some degree of over-engineering is bound to result. That said, this green is now about a million times better than if I had built it myself. The whole thing is built out of 2x4s, with cross beams every 15" or so. Spaced every couple of feet under the frame are lag bolts. These function as adjustable feet, which allowed us to get the thing properly set on the uneven basement floor. One side of the green has been built with a slight break; the other is as flat as we could get it. Here are some pictures: The Putters Over these years, I've collected a variety of putters. I've sold some, but my current collection contains eight. For the most part, this collection skews toward the slightly-off-the-beaten-path, clearance rack side of things. I'm not the target audience for retail prices. From left to right: Nike Method Converge B1-01 CounterFlex Counterbalance, 38" Odyssey Toe Up #1, 35" Yes! Rachel, 35" Adams A7 Select 60, 35", with a Golf Pride Tour SNSR 104 Odyssey #7 Tank Versa, 38" Cleveland 2135 Satin Elevado, 35", with a Flatso 1.0 (with counterweight) MLA Pro XDream, 34" (thanks for the discount, MGS!) STX ProFit 6, cut down to about 34" from an original belly putter, with a heavy clevis pin as a counterweight and a SuperStroke 3.0 grip (my first attempt at customizing a putter) Given my stroke and comfort (and their tech!), my expectation is that the Cleveland and MLA putters should be the favorites to come out on top of this contest. The Shootout Let me head this off: yep, it would be good to get fitted for a putter. But this is fun. My intention, over the next couple of weeks, is to pit these putters against each other in a couple of contests to see which emerges as the best for my game. On the sloped side of the green, there are dots roughly every foot. On this side, the contest is simple: ten putts. Start with the four-footer that breaks left, then the four-footer that breaks right. The five, then six, seven, and eight. Here, I'm simply recording how many out of ten are made with each putter. My plan is to have each putter do this four times. On the flat side of the green, I've set marks for a game I picked up from this little book: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Indoor-Golf-Games-ebook/dp/B0042JU7IU The game is putting soccer. Five balls are arranged at either end of the green, guarding the hole. The putters alternate shots, each trying to sink all five balls before the other. The game puts a premium on placing balls in specific spots, setting up the next shot. Here, I've put together a round-robin format in which each putter has to go head-to-head with all of the other putters. If there's any interest in this thread, I'll post on occasion with the results that I'm getting. If you're still reading this: thanks