[The Back Up Bag Project]

An update! 

Not even on purpose I have been building some older clubs and building a back up bag. Turns out there is a LOT of Cobra clubs. I was always a Cobra fan and purchased a set of my favorite ever irons. I always had a tough time getting rid of a few clubs and after I finally finished the full rebuild on these it was time to put together the new backup bag.

I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

[Phil Mickelson and Callaway Golf Split]

Being completely honest I avoided Callaway clubs and well everything for years because of Phil. Silly I know, but I never jived with him or just how he is and because of that avoided all things Callaway. It wasn't until I bought a XR16 driver that I started to look at their clubs more seriously.

[2024 Season Goals - What Say You?]

Just finished listening to the NLU goals podcast and a big one was write them down. 

They had several others that were good also. 

I have a board and I'm going to put it on my office door as a reminder.

Also going to list them off here in the coming days.

[The Good Morning Thread]

Early start here today! However short day and hopefully a good walk in the woods with the family afterwards!

[Phil Mickelson and Callaway Golf Split]

That's two big splits with big time brands between Phil and Tiger.

The lean in on socials and younger golfers it makes sense. Callaway pulled back from Phil after ... Err... The comments. Seemed like it was only a matter of time.

[Laser engraved my clubs]

Really cool!

[The Good Morning Thread]

26 minutes ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

Good afternoon!

I’m so pleased to see @GolfSpy_APH share his news with the forum.   It will only help keep us in the mind of HQ with everything they do.   
 

He and the current group of MODs have made such an incredible amount of growth here over the past year. 
 

I wish you all could truly see the amount of time and effort they put in behind the scenes in an effort to make this site thrive! 

And it’s great fo see all the members and the increased activity.   Thank you all! 

It really is funny how things work out. After years of nagging you I finally managed to get on staff and since then the whole team has been rebuilt.

So many amazing things were built by all the previous staff and we are the fortunate ones to reap the benefits of that hard work.

For NLU it's the year of reaping... I most definitely think that works for us as well. We have planted a lot of seeds and done a lot of work and now it's time to harvest some of that. All with the eye on how we can make the next harvest better.

[The Good Morning Thread]

4 minutes ago, ILMgolfnut said:

Good morning Spies! And congratulations to @GolfSpy_APH! Wasn't sure why you were in Switzerland, but the curling thing makes sense.

Clear and cold today at the Casa, and even colder tonight; they expect record lows.

Started the golf lesson I referenced last night a little early; dug out a pitching wedge and tried to show GF how to grip it. That particular wedge has the old Golf Pride grips with the arrow to help with hand placement, so I thought that would help. She said gripping it the way I showed her felt uncomfortable. She'd probably prefer to grip it the way she gripped a softball bat when she was a kid. Hey, if she can make contact like that...

Swiss wages are the true reason... And the scenery is pretty nice!

[2024 New Drivers - What Is Your Favorite?]

32 minutes ago, Wheelieb said:

I've got to say, I am flabbergasted by the amount of comments on the post as I really was only thinking about the forgiveness of the drivers that are coming out that I've watched reviews on. For @GolfSpy_APH to make the survey and go above and beyond for this post is really awesome. This community is really great to be a part of and have those discussions and debates about anything golf wise or even the not golf related talks. I look forward to more debates and friendly banter and seeing others view points. 

In fairness I have a few secret tools at my disposal to give some added attention to threads  

However yes, this community is freaking awesome and to see it grow how it has and become such a vibrant active community is great. 

[GolfSpy_APH - A Toura Golf Wedge Build]

3 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

I really like the look of the Toura wedge!  Wish they had a few more bounce options but love the blank/clean look of them!

I think depending on what bounce you want it may just be a matter of getting the Loft and then bending. I'll be quit happy by increasing the bounce a bit and make the lofts a bit weaker as well.

[Argolf Putter and Wedge Reviews]

37 minutes ago, Owengeorge13 said:

Great looking putter, what are you dealing with for a shaft?  Are there shaft options?

Just a stock steel. I just have a belief that the new graphite and multi material shafts provide added feel and performance.

[The Good Morning Thread]

For the first morning in a long time I feel like I am finally somewhat caught up on various things to do. 

I still have a million projects on the go and various things we are working on as the forum staff can attest to, but after getting those photos up and a few other things done late last night I feel I can be a member here for a few hours! 

Great breakfast at the curling hall while we have a tournament going on and some good coffee so really hard to complain! 

In other news, while it won't effect the forum or what I am doing here I have taken on an additional role with MyGolfSpy working with our Forum staff to get more content on the main site. You will see a lot more of the forum staff writing and having articles published and promoted there. We will post these and what we ask of you is if and when possible show the guys some love and make a few comments, if you like the article share it around! These guys work hard on them and have been doing some great work behind the scenes. 

We of course will all still be on the forum doing our thing, but we hope to see a lot more growth in 2024 and this is part of it. 

On a personal note I am thrilled to work more with the HQ team and expand my role within MyGolfSpy as this is a company and brand I believe in. I always had the goal of expanding my role, but honestly thought it would kinda be capped with directing for forum. I am thrilled with where the forum is and where we are going to be. We have made a ton of progress and I will make sure that continues (along with the staff), however I am excited to be more involved with HQ, help get more content out to everyone in the golfing world and see where this can take me! 

Finally and maybe most important for me is the new role or expanded responsibility means I can spend more time at home. At the end of this season I am dropping my World Curling position making ice for events around the world and focusing on being home more with family and enjoying the time seeing my kids grow up and hopefully golfing!

Stay tuned as 2024 will be one to remember!

[Newton Driver Golf Shaft Review (2024)]

Trimmed and regripped!

I had the choice of Blue, Pink or Grey... Very nearly went Pink... still might. 

[GolfSpy_APH - A Toura Golf Wedge Build]

Meant to do this earlier, but here are some comp photos. Note that they are the Toura wedge 52, Cobra Trusty Rusty Tour 52, Mizuno S23 54 and PING Glide 2.0 54

 

[Argolf Putter and Wedge Reviews]

On 1/5/2024 at 11:24 PM, GolfSpy_APH said:

Jamie . Argolf Arthur 2.0 Putter Review

Hello all! We are back with another fantastic review of a truly gorgeous putter! Rather than boring you with the details about me you can check out my profile (I finally updated it to be a recent about me!). For those that don't want to do that and prefer the short version here goes. 

I am a lefty golfer and currently living in Switzerland. In addition I have the wonderful opportunity to be the director (aka robot boss) of the forum. I have an incredible wife who supports my golf obsession and two wonderful little ones as well as three dogs. I would post a photo... but it is literally impossible to get a photo where 3 dogs, 2 kids under 2 and the 2 adults are all looking... facing... or just attempting at making a half decent picture. However at least here we have the two legged family all together. 

Now for the golfing part! As I mentioned I am a lefty and this is a RH putter. So what gives? Well I am right handed by nature and wanted to give putting RH a try. This opportunity came to us and I thought it made for a perfect trial. If and when it doesn't work we pass this along and being we have more RH golfers it will be easier to do so!

Putting has always been a strength of mine, but I found some speed control issues last year and when trialing some RH putters I had good feels. I also have never ... not in a very very long time used a blade putter. The LAB LINK is calling me and again this is meant for a trial to see how or where I should be headed with this in the future. 

The Brand

Argolf is an interesting brand to me. I first saw their putters in a shop and was floored by the detail. It looked so good and had the price tag to go along with it. The feel was great and I thought it would make for a good opportunity for our community. Due to some delays in communication we chose this route vs the traditional testing route. It I will hope work better for all parties. 

I chose the Argolf Arthur 2.0 in its standard color. It is gorgeous. I have posted some other photos however have a bunch more to drop for all of you now. And no for now I am not resizing these to show the detail in full. 

The Feel and First Impressions Putting

It is winter here so the true feel is a bit difficult. However I have a great practice setup and had some time on the practice greens to get a feel. First my RH putting is solid, I don't feel awkward or uncomfortable and the stroke feels clean. My line has been fantastic, however going away from a LAB to a toe hang putter I do feel that difference (more on that in a LAB thread). When I do have a bad stroke it is bad... and way out of sorts. Thankfully they are not frequent. Distance control has been solid in practice and I at one point made 4 straight puttout putts from 7 feet. Not an easy task. 

The tendency for sure is to be a little on the strong side vs slow. 

Feel is very subjective, but starting from the hands and working down the the club face the grip and balance are really nice. It does feel a bit head heavy in the hands (again compared to a LAB) however that is not a bad thing. 

The grip is on the smaller side, by my goodness it may be one of my favorite grips to use. Tacky and soft without feeling marshmellowy and too soft. 

I am still a big proponent in specialty putter shafts and the standard steel shaft doesn't do much for me, but we can move on as that is a "is what it is" situation. 

The putter face has a great sound (golf ball dependent) and offers excellent response feedback on strike as well what I would say is "pop". You know if you hit it well, poorly or in between immediately. I wouldn't at all call the putter face soft, but responsive and solid. Not harsh or louder like a PING, but a connected feel with equal input to output response. This is what has kinda caught me off guard. The LAB has a true pop and feels as though 60% of the effort is needed to make the ball go the same distance. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a TBD, however I did not that the effort to make the ball go the same distance with the Arthur 2.0 was greater, again not a bad thing, just noteable. 

Okay that's all for now. I plan to do more testing outdoors soon here and run some drills. Early impressions are this is a very nice putter, solid feel, but I don't believe it will be knocking the LAB out of the bag. 

Oh headcover! That thing is not easy to get on or off. A good magnetic cover, but my goodness it is a struggle! Great to protect, but on the course would drive me slightly mad I imagine.  

Little mini update done
Here are a few of the extra photos that didn't make the main post
 

[What The GIF?]

[The Good Morning Thread]

Oh my

[Golf Deals - Forum Finds!]

Vice Golf Free Hat! With purchase of 2 dozen! 

[MGS Blog - We Tried it: Footwear Series]

https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/asics-gel-kayano-ace-2-championship-dna/

[MGS Blog: Ball Lab Series]

Its been a little bit since we had one of these to share! 

Thoughts? Read full article here: https://mygolfspy.com/labs/ball-lab-costo-kirkland-performance-plus-v3-ball-review/

[Forum Community Calls]

10 hours ago, cnosil said:

I probably need to shut up more frequently   Just fun talking about golf stuff. 

Never! Else I have to talk too much and maybe ... eventually I could run out of things to say!

[923HMP poor quality]

Hard to tell for sure, but based off the photos you have shared I don't think they are fake. Usually there is a far greater difference in depth of the Mizuno and different fonts even if it is just a slight bit on the fake models. Yours look (again from those two photos) pretty spot on. 

Grips are also a big indicator of fake clubs. 

[923HMP poor quality]

1 minute ago, berkeleybob said:

Are these hot metals?

Based off the title I think Hot Metal Pro

[Show Us Your L.A.B. Golf DF 3 Mock Up!]

3 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

White or black shaft?  

Should be photos somewhere here. I would just have to remember what thread....

[Show Us Your L.A.B. Golf DF 3 Mock Up!]

Just now, Josh Parker said:

White or black shaft?  

Black