GolfSpy_APH

Appreciate all the work you've done in the past @fixyurdivot! Tour threads and following wouldn't be what they are today without the years of posts you've done before!

Anytime that's happened to me it has been the result of two factors. 1. Gripping too tight and need to relax give grip a bit. 2. Weather, hot and sweaty conditions.

https://mygolfspy.com/we-tried-it/adidas-mc80-golf-shoe-review/ After the call last night I know how much Connor loves these shoes and have very high praise for them!

This is going to be part 1 of my overall review with the LAB MEZZ.1 MAX. I have a lot to say about this putter and LAB, but havent gotten all the direct data I need. So in this part it will be more subjective feedback, on course perception and some greater thoughts. First the fitting and virtual fit. This is a part of where LAB shines. The fact you can get a trusted online virtual fit in the matter of hours of sending in a video is exceptional. Toss in the accuracy of it and you have something that I believe all golfers should go through even if you are not going to buy the putter. So please if you havent yet, check out the fitting video and submit yours. I am sure it will be eye opening for you. Next up is the customization options they have. WOW! With new colors, shafts, alignment aids, grips and everything else you really can find a putter that is to your liking. Why did I go with the Mezz Max? Well I love the fang styles. Always have and for me they really help with alignment and setting up properly. When asking Sam about what to do Mezz vs Mezz Max it was a clear no brainer from him recommending the Max. If you havent listened to our Community Call recording with him, he goes into a few datails about how the Max came about. Very cool story. Why Cappuccino? I am coffee addict and truthfully was torn between it and Orange. However given the rest of my bag aesthetics the Cappuccino just matched better. I will say this right now that if you thought it looked good in photos out of the box or online it looks way better in person. T Alignment - There were so many options and simply put I gravitated towards this one and since then have not regretted it one bit. Shaft - The Accra shaft is exceptional. SO stiff and rigid I love it. I did see they have a new TPT shaft which I am extremely interested in and in truth putter shafts may be what I am most interested in for the golfing industry and what strides are being made there and will be made moving forward as tech advances. Grip - The Black and White grip with 1.5 press did take some getting used to. Not in a bad way, it feels exceptional and is just the right amount of softness and tact. Initial hits and first impressions Out of the box I couldn't help but notice difference in balance and swing compared to my previous putters. It just flowed and was smooth, there is a balance to the LAB pu istters that may be understated and it could also be unless you have tried it you would likely never think different. However once it is in your hands and you go back and forth between a LAB putter and a standard putter there is a stark difference. There are only great things to say about the looks of the Mezz Max. The fine details, the color and craftsmanship is plain and simple so good. When it comes to rolling the putter and actual feel and sound again this hit the marks for me right away. I had been using a Odyssey White Hot Micro Hinge face for years and while I putted well with it and putting did become a strength the softer feel did catch me from time to time. Switching to the SIK Cobra face was a nice welcome change, but took a lot of getting used to . I also have a Ping Fetch which I love the feel of, but don't love the sound. For me the Mezz finds a great balance between all of these. It isnt too firm, the feel is responsive and sound is a great mid point that should appease to the masses. There is also a stark difference in sound when hitting out the toe or heel. The Putting Stroke I am a solid if not very good putter. It is a strength of mine and I lean heavily on it by getting to the green and feeling confident that as soon as I get on the green I am worst going to 2 putt. My stroke is level, equal, smooth and relies on tempo. LAB Influences Change I will admit I struggled a bit at first. Not so much with alignment (save that for later), but more with the speed and longer lag putts. While there is great consistency off the face, pure middle strikes do come off with a certain zip. Again not a bad thing imo, just something I have noticed. I also found that with my other putters had led me to do a very large forward press and be a little handsy. Combining the forward press grip and stability of the LAB this lead to a lot of initial inconsistency. I was used to doing this big forward press and this was no longer needed. I went back to basics a little bit, more shoulders, less press if none at all and that is when I started hitting lightening in a bottle. Everything was going exactly where I had lined up and it truly became if I can read the green properly (and boy could I not a lot of the time) Iit would be starting right where I setup. With the changes I did and still do have some days or rounds where I dont quite get speeds right and it is something I am working on. The other part is lag putts I did struggle more with at least for the first however many rounds. On The Course Impressions This putter got a lot of looks and a lot of questions. I loved talking about it, loved handing it over to others to try or feel and the response was almost always this thing is really cool and feels great. Nobody said it was too big or anything like that. The first few rounds as I alluded to I struggled with speed, in part I wasnt always finding middle of the face but we also had some greens which were being worked on so no point in hiding it. I had a lot of 3 putts to start off. While the feel, line and setup were all far better than what I had imagined the pace and speed left a lot to be desired. I ended up putting a lot more time in on my PuttOut and on the course practice facility. This is when things started to turn and I began to the see the results of putts rolling into the hole and confidence growing. I normally try to drop a putt into the hole and not be too aggressive, but this all changed as the confidence started to climb. I began to up the pace a bit on putts making sure they got to the hole or would go by if I was to miss being extremely confident that I would be able to make the comeback putt if I was to miss. This is when I started seeing a lot more 1 putts, more birdies and things started to feel much more automatic. I still have blips where I get handsy and make silly mistakes, but the more efforts I take to slow down and setup the more putts which have been falling. There are still some lapses as well on long putts, which I continue to work on. Final Initial Thought Part 1 The more I use the LAB the more it feels as though it will be my "forever" putter. I know there will still be bad rounds, bad putts, but I cant really place this on the putter. I am human and make mistakes. The other part I am torn about is lining up the ball or not. I have gone through back and forth and have yet to see a big difference in putting stats. It has averaged out to the same amount of putts per round and I cant say if I am more confident one way or another with that. The paint has rubbed a bit on one corner. I guess the headcover slid a bit and it rubbed up against a club. Nothing deal breaking, but it is worth noting that you should take care with the finish. Same with the face I have a few spots where I am guessing there was sand or something from the greens which were being maintained that made the smallest of marks on the putter face. If you are on the fence about LAB the best thing I can say is get out and try one if you can. I will also leave with a parting thought about center shafted putters and the nature of them, however I will be brief. This never once crossed my mind or found it to be off or weird. It never was a distractions or anything I really noticed at all. Stay tuned for a lot more to come and at some point a large photo drop!

I actually kinda forgot that yesterday was Thursday. Need to find the highlights pack and maybe check in to see how the team is doing. Glad to see Morikawa finding form. He has had a solid year, but just not the the same expectations I think many had and going into the Ryder Cup he will need to be playing well.

Oddly enough as of right now none of the Swiss courses I have played would make my top 10. Guess I need to do a bit more traveling and find some more which maybe crack that list for me!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bSR_bAZEwh1i8nXO3oNAfKkwlWT6Ex6L/view?usp=sharing Video for call link to all those that missed it!

The biggest difference is now they use forged faces for better feel and they do mark more often or easily than the older cast irons they used to make. Do you have photos to share?

Will be uploading in the morning!

I have been to NZ twice and took clubs both times. Australia once with clubs. Australia I played 3 rounds and simply emailed ahead of time asked for dates etc and booked tee times with them online. NZ I played with @Nunfa0 in the Christchurch region. We played 3 courses over the two trips (Pegasus, Templeton and Waimairi) All great tracks. The first trip to NZ I only had a few days, but managed to get a round in at Queenstown GC (same thing called and booked ahead) then two with John in Christchurch. Was a lot of fun, but too short. The second trip was on the back of the Australia leg and I will admit was really fun. I had a car rented in Auckland and a date to meet John in Christchurch then another date to get to work near Dunedin. Because it was their winter courses were still open, but most of them had honesty boxes or pay to play outside the course. I actually dont remember how many courses I played because I would make my plan the night before, drive to the course play, maybe drive to another and then when I got tired look up an Air BnB and stop for the night. Do the same thing the next day and at least once drove by a course that looked cool so would stop play 9 and keep going. There was only one course I had to email ahead of time to book, which was Arrowtown (loved this course). There are a few companies (golf new zealand) which offer packages in different areas. Jacks Point and such in Queenstown is popular and highly rated. If you want to go all out you can get a letter from your club, send it to Tara Iti and ask for a once in a lifetime opportunity to play there. You truly are only allowed to do this once in your life so plan accordingly. It is a lot (well over a grand per round because you have to stay at the course as well... plus caddie... plus food). Cape Kidnappers and such you could book online easily enough as well. This is kinda rambling, but my experience was it wasnt hard to get onto the courses and a simple email ahead of time managed to work everything out.

https://meet.google.com/zat-zbnx-kno Link is live!

https://mygolfspy.com/buyers-guide/garsen-quad-tour-putter-grip-review/ Has been written and was in the waiting room for a while, but finally published!

https://mygolfspy.com/buyers-guide/garsen-quad-tour-putter-grip-review/ Recap posted on the main site! Thank you testers for taking part!

Moving back into the reviews - @DukeStKing glad you have your clubs in hand and are getting some insights into them. Have they met expectations so far? Where do you hope to see the most gains vs your current set?

Stay tuned... probably reup sometime in January.

When comparing directly to the MGS Jones Bags what are the advantages and disadvantages to either or? Say 3 main highlights.

I like it. They do so many changes and tweaks why not? Then have the final match play winner or top 4 go head to head against the LIV top player or team... lets say at Cape Kidnappers in NZ!

Fair point. The only thing I will add are there are several writers who I relate more to than others and value their opinions as they have been in the industry for so long. It's that wealth of experience they draw from and can bring forward to current gear which may show they see something that might not always show up in the numbers, but could still be of benefit to the golfers reading the articles.

Tomorrow night is another special one with 2 of MGS HQ member joining us! Phillip Bishop will be joining us doing more Q&A about Most Wanted Testing and the recent results from Fairways. Then Connor whos feet you see in all the shoe reviews will coming on to join us in further product testing discussion and more! 4PM EST link will go live and we will record it so everyone who misses can rewatch later on!

Before I dive in and respond in full, just wanted to ask if you are suggesting that opinion pieces shouldnt be written by MGS?

I had a similar ish thing I was going through and it may be worth trying (even just for this club) it helped a lot with contact and consistency for me. It was thinking about Rahms backswing and how short and compact it is. Granted I havent seen your swing, but if it is similar I had a tendency to get pretty long in the back swing, so the though of shortening the backswing length I actually ended up in a better spot up top and started making much much better consistent contact with everything. I never noticed any distance loss and because strikes were better the distance and launch was also better. It kinda felt weird to start, but when I got to that spot at the top where I thought it was too early I would transition and everything slotted in well. Anyway just a thought which may help? Or it could be equally terrible advice haha!

https://mygolfspy.com/labs/ball-lab-titleist-pro-v1x-review/ One of the gold standard golf balls and one so many rely and play. How does it score in this years Ball Lab? Check out the article to find out!

@Splatt truly cannot thank you enough for all these writeups! They have been fantastic and really well done. Appreciate all your dedication to posting these and the efforts taken to putting them up each week. Going to be a fun weekend of golf and while I'm basically out on all my fantasy championships it's been a really fun season!

Was definitely fun! Will have to check out the PGA tour schedule and see when to start again.