Philly Golf Guy

Anyone watching? An am is leading!

While the honeymoon appears to be over since I'm not hitting the drive of my life every hole, the forgiveness of this club is keeping me in play and still getting well down the fairway. Now I need to get to know the HZRDS yellow a little better to figure out the shaft issue

49/45 today at my course. Played in our member guest yesterday and then me and my guest stayed over and played this am. Ball striking was great and most strokes lost on and around the green, including three putting on a par 3 when I stuck it to 8 feet. I took out my 3h and put in the 4i, which I put in a lighter kbs tour 90 and it's quickly become my favorite club. The misses with it are much better and so is the versatility. Might have to do the same with the 5i. I just trust the swing more and am not getting the hooks that I do with the Apex. Also, time to practice short game and putting.

Good thing I know a guy...

The course where this is taking place, Caves Valley, I've heard is awesome. I'm going to watch a bunch of it this weekend for the fact alone.

The one time it happened for me, it felt great (even though it was for par).

Nice write ups this far. I really like the looks of the Sigma. Nice and sharp.

Get some!!!

Always a good rule of thumb to repair any that you see. Glad to hear others are doing the same. No joke, I've been at courses you never thought that would be an issue and some how even at those places it is.

Some great photos. Is it Wie's year for her second?

Honeymoon time is always fun. The shaft should arrive tomorrow...

I played yesterday at my course and was in a few places off the tee further than I've ever been. I did end up pushing a ball off the tee on the Eighth but it still ended up in the fairway. A major upgrade from my old driver at this point.

If the driver only gives me 10 extra yards and no other improvement, I'm not spending 500. If I can trade some stuff in, then possibly. If I saw a much more comprehensive uptick in performance, more FIR's, longer, better feel, looked cooler (like my new M2), then probably yes.

The Crossovers are making my utility iron fascination cells tingle. The looks are a lot better than the prior model.

I play the best when I'm comfortable with who I'm playing with. That usually means guys I know don't really care how I play. So skill level doesn't really affect me but I guess there's not an intimidation factor with guys worse than me. The only guys I prefer not to play with are those who take themselves too seriously and those who are condescending. Just not a whole lot of fun to play with.

I hit the M2 3h and 4h and was still very impressed with the feel at impact. And I was hitting on flip flops, yet hitting the M2 15 yards further than the Epic and Steelhead. I suspect the M2 is more forgiving than the Apex and while I still like the Apex a lot, I'm wondering how an m2 3h would compare and with the 150% trade in until the end of the month....it's extremely tempting

Same answer.

Short par 4's. Really good ones will have a ton of temptation and risk/reward, presenting a number of options off the tee, up to and around the green. Riviera 10 is a good example.

Well, with trade ins my new M2 cost a little over $100 so I would have to say that. But my Wilson FG Tour V4 driving iron also only cost $40 while I got each Callaway Apex hybrid off pre owned for relatively cheap.

Penick's Little Red Book is a good one, so is Dave Stockton's Unconscious Putting. I learned a lot from Bobby Jones' book on golf and Haney's.

Here's my list, solely based on where I want to play when I go there based on what I read and heard. Old Course Carnoustie Cruden Bay Muirfield Macchrahsnish Kingsbarns Prestwick Dornoch North Berwick Loch Lomond Gullane Eh, it's 11 instead...

I'll offer up another suggestion of the NXT Tour S, it fits the spin and price characteristics you're looking for.

The book, "Get Better Faster" gets into a lot of this but if you don't feel like getting the book, you can find podcasts by the authors of the book that outline a lot of their theories on practice. Spending the same amount of energy on each ball is making a big difference, especially as I try to get my swing to hold up under different types of pressure.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a seminar at my club by a golf pro from the UK named Matt Cooke. Cooke focuses on the most effective way to practice and the big spoiler is that it's not beating balls at a range. Doing a ton of research into sports psychology and cognitive science, it turns out that hitting balls at the range in quick succession one after the other with the same club really doesn't improve your long term ability of improving. Instead, it's akin to cramming for a test. Sure you can find out what 37 x 52 is and if you keep answering that question over and over, you will commit it to memory and know it, for a while. But a week later, odds are you'll forget and all that cramming is for naught. Repetitive beating of balls at a range is very similar and it's been shown is not a very effective way to improve. It made a big impression on me since I'm a tour pro on the range, but have a hard time taking all the shots to the course. I thought it was due to the level lie and no pressure at the range and while it is part of it, there's a lot more to it. What's much more effective is called random practice, or interleaving. Very basically, it's perceiving each shot as its own individual problem and spending as much energy on every ball just like you would every shot on the course. Ideally, waiting a couple minutes between shots, hitting a different club and different shot every ball, as a different type of problem. While it's not a novel concept to simulate holes on and shoot to different flags at the range, this goes a bit further and randomizes practice even more by regimenting practice in various tasks and have you switch amongst them. Go into a bunker and get out. Hit a drive. Go to the putting green and hit a lag putt. And if you do drills repetitively, break it into 5 shots. 5 3 foot putts, 5 fades to the 150 mark, etc. If you hit 3 of 5, you move on to another drill or shot. Take range balls and spill them all over the place, hitting them wherever they end up. Go to the course and advance a hole if you par or birdie, go back a hole if you bogey. Come up with drills/games with a purpose and in that way, you're developing a much better skill set to equip you on the course. The whole point is to build these blocks of real world experience for lack of a better term that you're able to rely on a lot better on the course than all the range time. It then continues on ways to evaluate how to improve, what you actually need to improve and setting goals. I'm probably butchering a lot of this and have done more research on this, as Cooke is not alone with advocating this approach. I do know that after a few sessions with it, I'm feeling more comfortable over a lot more of my shots, including putting. I'm still working on it and developing different practice drills, but importantly I'm finding practice fun again with a lot more potential work on my game. We shall see where it goes. If anyone is interested in this, do some googling and next time you're on the range, try to hit a different shot for each range ball after a minute, come up with different games and stay with it for a couple weeks to see how it feels. Chances are it'll do more good than the same old range routine.

Agree with this 10x ^^^^^^^^^