GolfSpy_APH

My memory is good, but don't think it is that good. I just remember it seemed silly and he still ended up having a really solid round or even won the event?

This same thing happened to Rickie not too long ago as well. It seems like a rule which should be changed as it is overkill and hard to say there would be a way for them to take advantage of the rule if it was changed?

I'm hesitant to go this route as they did still promote Sim2. I certainly know it happens and there are incentive based programs for retailers, but it seemed more based off bad previous experience with carbon faced drivers and skepticism for this one. I'm waiting for the cobra heads to come in and then will do a better comparison.

Color doesn't bother me. Wedges, irons, fairways and drivers... So all clubs wear over time and get hit spots where you can see blemishes or wear patterns. That's nothing new to golf. Just like the Mizuno blue wedges... Color wears again nothing new in golf. Our local shop was pushing Callaway over TM as they have had less then great experiences with carbon Clubs (not sure which but they carry a lot of Japanese OEM's as well so maybe one of them). I sit in this camp - TM had pushed the boundaries in what can be done with club manufacturing. They have stood behind their product saying they won't produce another metal faced driver. I believe that is very telling in their trust for their product. However I will more then likely wait for the second version of the stealth next season before purchasing. Not because I don't trust it, but because I do believe OEM's learn in their first iteration of a new club tech. There will be stories of drivers or clubs having issues or imperfections but isn't that normal? Isn't that what a warranty is for? Can't we say very similar things for just about any OEM having the odd Club here or there with a flaw despite tighter manufacturing standards?

I really couldn't answer that with any certainty. I'm sure there are some that are great and some that may not be as good. Where I lived there was only two places to get it done. A Golf Town (big box) and our shop. The guys in Golftown did a good job and took their jobs seriously and worked with pride. That was that shop... can't really say the same for others? Best to go in and talk to them and I'm sure you'll get a good feel for how they are and if you trust them to do it or not.

I know the original ones were bendable as the shop I worked in did them for several customers. Haven't had to deal with the newer versions though.

From what I recall the club builder I worked with and what I can recall being said around the forum is a general rule of 2 degrees either way is pretty normal. It is when you get to the 4* mark that it is getting on the scary side. I'm sure somone with more experience will correct me if I am wrong. As for offset it shouldn't effect it that much.. I guess it would depend on how much of an eye you have for that. And yes they could be bent back. They are a forged club so can be bent back if needed.

Coming from a forum members testing standpoint. We normally do it best to get a range of swing speed groups in all our tests. Sometimes it isn't possible, but normally we take that into account to make then more relevant to all.

Send me a PM

Exactly what I did .. altho my low ball was zero... Guess i need to smarten up haha

So in short there was a LOT going on with CC5 and we did our best on our end, but unfortunately it sadly didn't pan out. Nothing to do with MGS or the testers, sadly we had several that didn't end up with their clubs. As mods we worked really hard behind the scenes, created a full competition and more. As for the suggestion of getting it started early, I think that leads to another topic. As mods we run the tests, we select the testers, however we do not decide on what items or products are tested or when. This is up to MGS main site and their contacts with OEMs. As mods and a community we can try and have certain products tested (there is a whole thread on what you want to see tested), but outside of that we follow our direction from MGS Main site and do our work! As far as I know the testing schedule is still being worked on and completed sometime in the next month or so. After that we (mods and community) await to see what item hits first for testing and let the season begin. So yes we would love to see another Cobra Connect we at this time do not know if it will happen again. We hope it will as it is a huge draw to the site and a lot of fun for the membership, but who knows? As for Bushnell GC3, yeah that is on the wish list, however I think it is a long shot to see this as a tested item... but you never know.

Not going to lie I thought I could maybe sneak one by getting Palmer from his Wednesday Drop... @revkev had other ideas dropping $56 on him! Very solid pickup for someone who I expect will be a solid contributor rest of season. However that wasn't the big spend of the week @kahl2069 got his guy dropping $100 (second time this has happened this season) for Sahith Theegala. Probably the most I've seen spend on a Thursday morning, but nice to see guys investing in players they want and going out and getting them!

The star ratings have to do with the reviews system itself which we changed to this last year. As for you personal review scores, as mentioned they won't be public for a variety of reasons. That being said, as mentioned before, we do grade reviews and can give some feedback via PM. Again it is hard for me to get into specifics without reading your prior reviews. I don't mind letting anyone know what they were scored, but can only provide limited insight at this time unless they were working on a review where I was the lead mod last season. I think it should also be noted that it isn't necessarily what we want to see as a Mod. Our template lays it all out and the previous mods who had created it and even though it has been tweaked or adapted over the years the core of it is the same. The review is part of it, the discussion in the threads is a big part, the follow up after is noted and so on. Review grades aren't a personal I liked that review or I didn't like this one as much we cover off our basics and score them. It doesn't have to have perfect english. It is nice when it does, but we aren't journalists or writers and some have strengths in other areas, such as photos or media or just engagement with other members. Finally we have adapted the review templates a bit (still needing to add in player profiles now) and we are striving to create ways for members to be more creative and add a bit of their own twist to reviews.

I love my i210 but a little added hello and distance won't hurt me. We both were in the i210 testing years ago and I'm still amazed they are a current model. That being said i know they are not a direct replacement but just one that may suit my game a little more now. That and i likely could use a shaft update after superspeed.

As a i210 owner these have my eye. I love ping irons and these could be a good upgrade from the i210's

I know this has been talked about before, but likely is some other thread somewhere. So definitely worth repeating. The form will be the same, or similar. Again from the new player profile there will be categories that autopull from that. Depending on what we select. That being said it will be similar regardless. As for how it impacts the selection process. I'll try to give as definitive answer as I can, but it does depend. Example being Connect Cobra- if someone only plays 1 round a month they will be a real difficult sell because it requires a lot more play. In some cases the strengths and weakness' (I'll take the fuji/evnroll putter as example) we wanted to find 2 who had putters as a strength and 2 as a weakness to give members a good balance and variation in the reviews. I do recall the OEM also requesting we find a few local to fuji to do a fitting, but nobody fit that criteria. OEM's can request say variations on swing speeds or handicaps to get reviews a bit more targeted towards their needs, but mainly those options help us get a range of different testers for products and not 4 testers with the same strengths/weakness/handicaps etc which would make for 4 very similar reviews and not necessarily benefit the membership as a whole. Hope that makes sense!

That one is above my pay grade...

Of course it had to be you to do the joke post.... I'm happy to do this as we have had a lot of change over the last year from a testing platform to staff and more. It was about time we updated it a bit and with our new staff we look forward to seeing everyones applications as the testing season starts!

I have never given consideration to a members witb outside of noticing if they have posted one before. Other part is how reliable they are in their signature? I know I've forgotten to update mine for basically a year so hard to have that as a hard consideration point. We will ask sometimes for an applicants current club if we feel it will be relevant to the review. As for feedback, i will gladly provide it if asked. However we haven't had it be common practice to say hey you got a 4 or a 5 on the review. I will thank everyone for doing their reviews and if someones is lacking i will ask and see if they want to add or adapt theirs before i submit my grade. The grade is again more for our own reference. One thing we don't want to get into the habit of is babysitting every review to make sure they have this point or that point. The templates are thorough and give a lot of information and our expectations are well outlined before we submit the review score. Remember for us the mods position is suppose to be a 3-5 hour a week gig even if some without a doubt spend 20+ hours doing mod work haha

My push back with this is if reviewers really want theirs posted. I have no issues sharing with the individual, but making open and public to all I am wary of. Here is what is in every review template: There are the odd incomplete review scores from tests where a mod didn't assign as score, whether the test didn't really get off the ground or some other situations which happened. Those we do Not penalize those reviewers. The other factor is even if someone has an amazing review one year it does not guarantee a test the following season. We truly want to get new people involved and in some cases it means that some great names are left out in any given year. This being we want good reviews for all the tests, but don't want to favor what would be 5 star reviewers over 4 star, because everyone has a chance to make great reviews. So again, individually I don't mind discussing their scores, although I would have to look at who was the mod and read their review(s) as to why it was graded as such too (remember each lead mod for the test is the one that grades them, I certainly can't go through and grade all of them).

Hello all! (Apologies for how long this is, but I want to cover as much as I can) As we approach the 2022 testing season it is a good idea for us as a mod staff and community to welcome all the incoming members and guide them in how to best improve everyones chances of becoming a MGS Community tester. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ First please do NOT apply in this thread. It won’t help and any and all signups are done through the individual testing signups throughout the season. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Also a few quick house keeping notes before getting into it. - have questions about the process or anything that may have been left out? Just ask! - As mods we try to be as transparent as we are allowed to be and won’t hide things from the community as we are members just like you! - We hope to have a lot of new opportunities this year and encourage everyone to take a look at these pretty basic steps in order to better your chances. - Don’t want to read through the thread? Check out the FAQ page ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Okay! So a lot of this may be repeat and many of you will already know this, but here we go! You must be a MGS Forum Member in order to be selected. - Sounds pretty straight forward, but I ran some of the numbers and on average 90% of our signups are what I would classify as one off signups with 1 or fewer posts. Then if we look at those with 50 or more posts that number is only 2% of the overall signups. Complete your profile! - This includes a profile picture - this is one of the first things we look for with tester selections. - Although the new Player Profile is not a requirement, it is high encouraged and will not only help us, but you and other members. For you, signups will be quicker as much of the info is pulled from your profile and for members it helps them see how their game relates to their own. Get involved! - I want to state that we actively work to get a well rounded group for all testing selections. This includes attempting to get at least one brand new tester per test as well as include international members as well. - That being said, being active on the forum, creating new content for the community is huge. We want to make sure the OEM and community gets the best possible review (I mean completed, not good as in praise) and having a body of work even if minimal is important. - Only ever involved in sign up testing threads? Not likely going to increase your chances. Just being honest, likely not going to happen. Really want to stand out? - Do a unofficial review! We may have more on this coming soon which will hopefully help our review catalogue, but having unofficial review gives us a insight as to what you are able to do! - Want to make it a more official unofficial review? Send us a PM and we can provide you with the template that is used for all the official reviews. Do you have to be a donor? - No, although being a donor can be used as a tie breaker it is not a necessity to become a tester. Not only that but we cannot see how much anyone has donated. - While we are on this, if you have donated and don’t have the tag send myself (tag) a PM with your transaction number for it to be added. That is the basics to becoming a tester. Pretty simple right? We don’t ask for much, but we do want to see these things in order to make our selections more trustworthy. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Now all the other nuances I believe it is important for us (mods) to be transparent about all of this as again we are members like you as I said. So for those that don’t know or want a bit of a sneak peak of what happens behind closed doors… or computer screens let me do a bit of a run down for everyone. Once a test is created everyone signs up and during this process we actively take a look at who has applied and create a short list. We are fortunate to have a wealth of info at our disposal to make this a robust list. Examples? We look at recent activity, been a tester before? We look at your review(s) grades (more on this later), yes donor status, number of posts, number of reactions, location, handedness, and more. As well the mods add in notes for thoughts on each member who has made a short list. We also look at what members have tested in the past. If you tested a set of irons the previous year, chances are we won’t look to do another iron selection for this year. There is no limit to how many members we can have on a short list, it can be 5 or it can be 40. All depends on how everyone feels about the members who have applied. We aim to have the short list completed within 2-3 days after the signup has closed. It is then roughly a week later that we want our 4 or however many testers are required to be selected and then announced before moving onto the next test. In order for us to select someone for testing it needs the go ahead from at least 3 mods. This way no one mod can control or have bias towards certain testers. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What happens after being selected? - A group PM is made with the selected testers asking if they agree to completed and participate in the review process. We expected good efforts on all reviews and for members to follow the guidelines/templates and instructions from the mods during the process. It is perfectly okay for someone to back out. It happens, life happens and maybe the commitment is too much which again is perfectly okay! In that case we go back to our short list and grab someone else.| - Remember reviews are work and not just winning a prize. - After everyone has agreed to completing the review and participating we move onto the order process for the product (if fittings are required this can take a little longer) the order is placed through the mods and we wait for the product to arrive. - During this time intros are worked on and when the product arrives unboxing/first impression posts are completed. - After everyone has their kit we (mods and testers) discuss a timeframe for when reviews are to be completed (this was a complicated one last year with product wait times…) - Final reviews are posted then as mods we have more work to do as reviews are graded. This is outlined in the templates for testers to see as well as what makes for a 1 out of 5 and 5 out of 5 and everything inbetween. - These grades are REALLY important. As if someone bails on a review, it is good luck getting in on another review. We take pride in these reviews and our selections and being ghosted or having someone take zero effort is really disappointing. - For reference we understand life happens and there can be situations that cause someone to have a review completed late or something come up which make it harder to do the review and are of course lenient. I will send several follow up messages for those that are late in posting or gone mia, but after a few of those I will record it in our overall record that said member has gone mia and should not be considered for further reviews. Review grades are used for future selections. Good review scores better a testers chances at another review in a following year where poor reviews lesson those chances. So as a first time tester it is certainly best to do the work and get in a good review IF you want to better your chances next year. We do our best as a mod team to promote and create engagement within each review thread (last year with the new system was tough we all know), but in the end it is a lot on the testers to put out updates during their review to bring eyes to the thread. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Finally a few general rules of thumb - Testers are generally only selected for one test per season. Exception being a Golf Ball test or lesser valued items. - Brand new testers are often selected for lower valued items, like golf balls. However this is not exclusive. Example I was selected for Ping i210 irons with my first ever review. Again it is a general guideline and a first time tester who has put out good content to the community can of course be selected for a higher valued item. - Testers are generally not selected for the same equipment type year over year. Meaning tested a driver last year? More likely you won’t get a driver test again this season. Again general rule as sometimes it is interesting to see someone test the progress of a product year over year. Apply for what you WANT to test. Of course you can apply for everything and anything, but truly it is best to apply for a product that excites you. It is pretty easy for us to notice the same name applying in testing for every single test even when they are currently testing a product! Most importantly, enjoy the experience, have fun with it and ask questions. Be creative and although there is a template do what you can within those guidelines and make a unique review that will be remembered. Finally follow up is encouraged, whether it be with the mods or in the testing thread it is noticed and very much encouraged as members are often still curious about what is going on. For those that made it ALL the way down here, well done. Seriously. Have more questions just ask away!

It's a good thing i didn't pay anything for it then!

All good! Send me a line if he is!

I did send one... I didn't actually realize you had Fleetwood and he is someone I've been targeting. So if he is available great! if not all good!

Trading can be tricky. Everyone values players differently and even though some names are obvious draws it is often others that produce more points as they play more often. With the start sit format and needing 5 each week guys who play more will often outscore someone like Lowry because he may only play 12 or so events of our season and someone like Ghim will play 22. In that case who would you rather have? Some guys the name, others who play more. So with that what is a "fair offer" can be viewed many many different ways.