GeekingGolf

It's the sacrifice you have to make for science. There's a whole group of golfers that are relying on your data to possibly make a decision on what clubs to play. In the end, all your suffering will pay off.

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Sorry I’m late posting, been on call this weekend and it’s been one of those weekends.
Before I got the Cobra f9 I gamed the Epic Flash, so I’m comparing, arguably, the two hottest drivers out. Here’s the stats from the Epic
As you can see it was plenty long, but, my ball thought it was in the military, left right left right.

The Cobra is also plenty long but just a fraction shorter on dead centered hits. I will take a few less yards all day long with added consistency. So far the Cobra has produced fairly straight ball flights, which I love. The misses though have been very wide misses. Don’t know if that is the driver or myself, time will tell. Only got one round in this week due to weather, rained every stupid day. But for that one round I hit 8-14 fairways. . My course has a lot of doglegs, almost every par 4, so the ones I missed were due to hitting it to far for that particular line (ain’t that something to complain about).
I have to say I like the look of my Epic better at address. to me it’s just a cleaner look.
I went with the HZRDUS smoke 6.5 low spin, and I gotta say it’s the best feeling shaft I’ve ever hit. The speed back part of the driver, where they claim so much forgiveness due to low center of gravity, is odd looking, but you can’t see it unless you look at it from behind.

This driver makes a different sound than I’m used to. It’s almost like a “pop” sound, compared to the Flash that has a more “thud” sound. As for now I don’t see the Epic going back in the bag once this is over, but anything can happen.
I do wish on the bottom they would’ve went all yellow instead of the red just think it would’ve looked better.
Overall I give the F9 a 8.5, so far. Before this is over I’m hoping it’s a 10. My rating is purely based on results, no looks or sound factored in.
Maybe next week the weather cooperates a little better so I can gather more data. I do have a two day tournament this coming up weekend. They make the course as hard as possible, so the whole bag will definitely get a workout.


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Ok so I had a quick practice tonight and thought I would try the weight forward. I hit 4 drives for three fairways and the fourth was five yards to the left. All four were long too 😁 Maybe I have been robbing myself of distance and accuracy 😵. Further testing will tell all 🤔 Oh darn, does that mean I have to play even more golf? 😁😎

This is what you call dedication. Looks like a bomb with a par on the end.  The rest of you guys better watch out.  @Nunfa0 is taking zero prisoners.

I have been so happy with the standard setup that I haven't even bothered to try the low spin setting. 

Just got to see a set of the Ben Hogan Ft. Worth Black irons in hand and up close....

That is a proper set of sticks right there.

Here are a couple driver and 7i swings DTL and FO. I'm doing a drill in a few of them working on hand path. My biggest issue is getting too vertical up top. I've been working my ass off trying to flatten it out some, but it has been a grind. 
 

Took some video after my crap round and sent it to my coach. I had forgotten a few things he sent me a couple months back. Once I incorporated them here, things started looking better.




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You know how we all get that itch for a new club probably too often? Well I had that itch for a new driver I was thinking I had to be leaving distance out with these new drivers and so i popped in to my local golf store. I wanted to hit last years models you know Rogue, Rogue Sub Zero, and Ping G400...you know the best driver the most wanted drivers. I tried all of them with different shafts even went different flexes in them. I was hitting them all from 230 to 250 you know with the roll out. The fitter was saying that is really good and honestly my swing speed for whatever reason is down from last year about 99 average peak at 101 now down from 105 average 107 peak. I told him I have been hitting 265-270 with True Golf Fit recommended Srixon z765. He says well alot of people think they are hitting further than they actually are you know elevation changes and wind direction has a lot to do with it on the course but in here on the launch monitor it doesn't lie. I said well look let me go get my driver out the car and let's just see what's up. He said go get it...so I did. Well my driver beat them all boom 260 boom 265 boom swing speed up 103 boom 268 10 yards offline 14 yards offline...you get the idea. Dude was honestly mad my True Fit Golf driver beat all of them. I even looked at the numbers my launch was 15 to 16 and spin was 2000 to 2700 neither of which is really optimal right but this driver just works. The work put into the website works and next year I will get the next recommendation which is the Ping G410 Plus x stiff Ping Tour...no I didnt hit it because it's well outside my golf budget!! Just wanted to share that with my fellow spies.
 
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Man is it hard to catch up on here when you're on vacation with an infant...
Got two rounds in but only 27 holes tracked. The first course had 3 nines but didn't tell us what we were playing so I just took a guess. That worked for the first nine but I was not tracking the right back nine so I just shut it off.
The second course was super short and bunkered up. I did not do well for this week's challenge. I'm starting to think it's gonna be very important to play courses you are familiar with to do well here.
That being said my putting handicap was a +3.0 for the first 9 and a -3.5 for the 18 I played yesterday. Thanks again @Wedgie for helping the wife pick out the new putter! 
I'm seeing lots of questions and I apologize for not being able to get to them. I will be back on my game come next week I promise. 

You know how we all get that itch for a new club probably too often? Well I had that itch for a new driver I was thinking I had to be leaving distance out with these new drivers and so i popped in to my local golf store. I wanted to hit last years models you know Rogue, Rogue Sub Zero, and Ping G400...you know the best driver the most wanted drivers. I tried all of them with different shafts even went different flexes in them. I was hitting them all from 230 to 250 you know with the roll out. The fitter was saying that is really good and honestly my swing speed for whatever reason is down from last year about 99 average peak at 101 now down from 105 average 107 peak. I told him I have been hitting 265-270 with True Golf Fit recommended Srixon z765. He says well alot of people think they are hitting further than they actually are you know elevation changes and wind direction has a lot to do with it on the course but in here on the launch monitor it doesn't lie. I said well look let me go get my driver out the car and let's just see what's up. He said go get it...so I did. Well my driver beat them all boom 260 boom 265 boom swing speed up 103 boom 268 10 yards offline 14 yards offline...you get the idea. Dude was honestly mad my True Fit Golf driver beat all of them. I even looked at the numbers my launch was 15 to 16 and spin was 2000 to 2700 neither of which is really optimal right but this driver just works. The work put into the website works and next year I will get the next recommendation which is the Ping G410 Plus x stiff Ping Tour...no I didnt hit it because it's well outside my golf budget!! Just wanted to share that with my fellow spies.
 
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How much was the driver fitting you had?

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That's a really good idea. 

Wow great intros sorry I am late to this yearly party...I definitely have early thoughts on my favorites here being as I play one length irons (looking at you bardle) won from last years competition and that my guy Nunfa0 and I had such a blast last year I feel he is an early favorite of mine. Last year's competition was the highlight of my year!!! Good luck to everyone of the competitors!!! I am going for the Koepka repeat...come on spies let's get after it and push these peeps to the championship!!! As far as this weeks competition I really have to go with BuckyCC on this one dude is gonna bring it with that swing and Cobra Speedback tech!!!
 
 
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Wow great intros sorry I am late to this yearly party...I definitely have early thoughts on my favorites here being as I play one length irons (looking at you bardle) won from last years competition and that my guy Nunfa0 and I had such a blast last year I feel he is an early favorite of mine. Last year's competition was the highlight of my year!!! Good luck to everyone of the competitors!!! I am going for the Koepka repeat...come on spies let's get after it and push these peeps to the championship!!! As far as this weeks competition I really have to go with BuckyCC on this one dude is gonna bring it with that swing and Cobra Speedback tech!!!
 
 
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Wow great intros sorry I am late to this yearly party...I definitely have early thoughts on my favorites here being as I play one length irons (looking at you bardle) won from last years competition and that my guy Nunfa0 and I had such a blast last year I feel he is an early favorite of mine. Last year's competition was the highlight of my year!!! Good luck to everyone of the competitors!!! I am going for the Koepka repeat...come on spies let's get after it and push these peeps to the championship!!! As far as this weeks competition I really have to go with BuckyCC on this one dude is gonna bring it with that swing and Cobra Speedback tech!!!
 
 
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10i?????

Wow great intros sorry I am late to this yearly party...I definitely have early thoughts on my favorites here being as I play one length irons (looking at you bardle) won from last years competition and that my guy Nunfa0 and I had such a blast last year I feel he is an early favorite of mine. Last year's competition was the highlight of my year!!! Good luck to everyone of the competitors!!! I am going for the Koepka repeat...come on spies let's get after it and push these peeps to the championship!!! As far as this weeks competition I really have to go with BuckyCC on this one dude is gonna bring it with that swing and Cobra Speedback tech!!!
 
 
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Wow great intros sorry I am late to this yearly party...I definitely have early thoughts on my favorites here being as I play one length irons (looking at you bardle) won from last years competition and that my guy Nunfa0 and I had such a blast last year I feel he is an early favorite of mine. Last year's competition was the highlight of my year!!! Good luck to everyone of the competitors!!! I am going for the Koepka repeat...come on spies let's get after it and push these peeps to the championship!!! As far as this weeks competition I really have to go with BuckyCC on this one dude is gonna bring it with that swing and Cobra Speedback tech!!!
 
 
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Wow great intros sorry I am late to this yearly party...I definitely have early thoughts on my favorites here being as I play one length irons (looking at you bardle) won from last years competition and that my guy Nunfa0 and I had such a blast last year I feel he is an early favorite of mine. Last year's competition was the highlight of my year!!! Good luck to everyone of the competitors!!! I am going for the Koepka repeat...come on spies let's get after it and push these peeps to the championship!!! As far as this weeks competition I really have to go with BuckyCC on this one dude is gonna bring it with that swing and Cobra Speedback tech!!!
 
 
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Well I'm back after my 24 hours of being a social media influencer.  The pay is much lower than anticipated.  💰💸🤷‍♂️
Unfortunately work and family obligations pretty much dictate when and where I can play.  I have Thursday afternoons off over the summer to play at least 18 at my home course with the hope that I can play elsewhere some weekends.
This week I'm planning playing 63 holes and all will be at the same course.  I'd love to find a place with gigantic fairways but life often gets in the way of golf.

So here we are, after all of the waiting and intelligent discussions, at the start of the Cobra Connect Challenge 3!!

When I threw my name in the hat I was in Ireland over indulging in everything really so I promptly forgot. Imagine my surprise when I saw all of the notifications and realized what happened 🙂 Getting chosen for this made me feel like a King and I imagine the other four felt the same so here is a little song to show our feelings....
Some how I managed to be chosen to represent the rest of the world against the Americans, so obviously I'm feeling no pressure at all :). I really should thank Cobra and MGS for that but they know they made the right choice.

 
I suppose I should tell you a little about me. My name is John and I'm 47 years old. I am a proud New Zealander who is lucky to live in a little slice of paradise called Christchurch. Yes we have had a few dark times recently but I was born and raised here so to me it will always be home.
 
I have played golf for about 40 years and I have been a member of the Templeton Golf Club for 37 years. I was lucky enough to play there with my father, brother and nephew. Dads been gone for a long time now but I still feel his presence there. My nephew is too busy with his twenties to play at the moment but my brother and I frequent the fairways and bar as often as we can.

 
Golf has been the one constant in my sporting life and that is why I love it. I have flirted with Rugby (compulsory in NZ), Rugby League (like Rugby but less players and less huddling in groups), Football (soccer to the Americans) etc etc but golf has always been there, like a jujitsu hug from my partner Sinead, warm and wonderful at first but causes excruciating pain as well.

 
My handicap has been as low as 5.9 and is currently resting at 9.8. I've always been far too competitive but have relaxed over the past few years. Some of my most satisfying wins have been for just a beer (and man do I LOVE craft beer) but I have won a few trophies as well.
 
I like to think I have a smooth swing and a moderate tempo. My 150 yard club is 9 iron (I can't believe it either) and I hit the ball high. I usually hit a draw and my miss can be anywhere....
 
Right enough of the preview, here is my baseline....

 






 
As you can see if I can hit the green it's going to be one or two putts but if I have to chip...

 
lord have mercy!! I am working on it so watch this space.
 
Now to the sexiness!!

 
 
My current clubs are
 
Driver Ping G400 LST
3 Wood Cobra F7 (13.5* bullet)
2 Iron Srixon ZU85 18*
Irons Mizuno JPX900 Hotmetals
Wedges Titlest Vokey SM6 50, 55 and 60*
Putter Rife Two Bar Hybrid
 
All lefty and no it's not the wrong side of the ball. We are far more elegant than you common and uncouth right handers (except for Bubba of course, he's just brutal to the ball).

 
These clubs have been in my bag for a while and I have been happy with them but there's always room for new and shiny in my life.
 
Speaking of new and shiny (warning terrible attempts at artistic photos ahead...)











 
 
.. aren't they pretty!!
 
So here is where I was going to tell the story of my fitting, how I worked for hours honing my club choices, what shafts I wanted, what lofts in my wedges and emerged with the perfect set for me but due to circumstances beyond my and Cobras control I couldn't get a fitting in time. So I went with what I knew and trusted.
 
Well I set the driver at 10.5* and with a 44.5" Atmos TS Blue 6 stiff shaft
3 Wood Atmos Blue 7 Regular
3 Hybrid Atmos Blue 7 Regular conventional
Conventional 4-pw True Temper XP95 R300, 2* upright and 1* weaker on the pw
Conventional King Black 52, 56 and 60, 1* stronger on the 52, 2* upright, XP95 R300 shafts.
The lofts are changed for gaping and the shafts are the same as I currently play or as close as I could get
 
The big question is can they live up to the claims Cobra has made? Is the milled face of the driver and 3 wood truly faster? Do the rails on the 3 wood and hybrid really make the clubs easier to hit? Does the speedback design of the irons really make a difference? Could the wedges be sexier?
 
So these clubs are going to have to work hard to stay in the bag. The driver will need to be long and straight, the three wood will need to at least equal the current model, the hybrid... well lets just say hybrids and I don't get along hence the 2 iron but it has a fighting chance, the irons will have to fly and be accurate and the wedges will have to do the same.
 
But when it comes to the challenge... I am in pretty good form and intend to devastate my fellow competitors with my stellar play. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and my victory shall be glorious... or I shall suffer an ignominious defeat and slink home with my tail between my legs. Either way this is going to be a blast and we are all going to be champions!!
 
 
 
LETS GET IT ON!!!!!

 

*PREFACE*
I wrote my complete intro a few days before our June 9th deadline.  We were given the OK to put the new Cobra clubs in play starting on June 8th, and I used them for my course’s first “major” of the year.  36 hole net stroke play event played from 6400 yards.  As a 7 handicap I shot 73-78 to shoot net -5 and win my flight by 11 shots.  These clubs are good.

Official Intro:
Hello.  My name is Bucky and I’m an alchol----wait, wrong forum.  For some strange reason I’ve been chosen to compete in the most prestigious contest that MyGolfSpy has to offer.  What were they thinking?  In any case I owe a gigantic thank you to MGS and the Cobra team for putting this together for the 3rd year.  To recycle a comment I made in the pre-chatter; it’s the Catalina Wine Mixer of MGS events.

I know most of you aren’t all that interested in our personal back stories so I’ll be brief.  Born in Wisconsin, learned the game from my older brother, been playing for close to 30 years now, lived in Minnesota for 10 years after college, back in Wisconsin for good now.  If that’s not boring enough for you head over to the SuperSpeed forum page and check out my intro from last fall.  It’s a real page turner.

I have gone through fittings for pretty much every club in my bag.  I had a Callaway Epic driver, PXG 3 wood (used of course!), Ping i25 hybrids, Titleist 714 AP2 irons, and Vokey wedges.  My favorite clubs are probably my Ping hybrids.  They are small and anti hook.
Last year I started tracking more of my shots by hand so to use the Arccos system this spring was amazing.  The only issues I had with it were missing a few tap in putts but they were easily added before I even got to the next tee box.
Overall my swing is moderate tempo with a top swing speed in the 105-110 range.  Here’s a video of me from the range earlier this week.  My typical ball flight is medium height with misses to both sides of the fairway/green.  I'm still working on my Phil Kwon Do Calves.

While my USGA index is currently a 6.3 I’ve struggled this spring with extremely wet conditions and getting used to my new SuperSpeed enhanced swing.  The long Wisconsin winters also wreak havoc on my game.  My Arccos baseline rounds show that I'm an 8.8 handicap using my old clubs.  My best rounds of the year always come in July, August, and September.

I’ve been fighting a nasty slice this spring but may have made a correction earlier this week.  Hopefully I’m finally over the winter rust and it’s not just a matter of me playing crappy golf.  Here are my driving numbers with basically zero roll on the wet courses.

Here are a few more boring stats before we get into the good stuff.  I would say this is a pretty accurate representation of my game with a few too many doubles that usually go away as the conditions firm up and my swing becomes more fluid.
Scoring breakdown and Putting stats/handicap.

Greens in regulation show I leave my shots short too often.  A lot of the greens at my home course slope back to front so it’s definitely beneficial to be below the hole.  Chipping is pretty poor thanks to extremely thick and wet rough this spring and low skill level on my part.  😅

 
And now on to the 2019 Cobra lineup.  Drumroll please!

Cobra is all about speed this year.  Heck, everything but the wedges have Speedback in their name!  While the reason behind the SPEED is a little different for each club, essentially they all claim to be forgiving, long, and FAAAAAAASSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTT!  I’m pretty sure I’ll be hitting 400 yard drives within 2 inches of my target line by the end of the summer.
I’ve posted quite a few club pictures in the pre-chatter forum already, but I really love the look of these clubs and want to post more.  Deal with it!
The driver looks fantastic.  I’m not a big fan of huge club head markings (turbulators), but Cobra toes the line perfectly blending functional aerodynamic improvements and standard club head shaping.  I really like the matte grey top of the club that came with the white drivers.

The fairway wood is basically a mini driver.  I’ve hit some BOMBS with this off the tee.

If I had to use one word to describe the hybrids it would be speed BIG.  Compared to my old i25’s these are quite large.  Bigger is always better, right?

The irons are also on the large side of what I’m used to.  I know I could use a little help here but these almost seem excessive.  I’m most interested to see how super game improvement irons compare to my old AP2s (right side of the 2nd picture.)
 

The wedges are gorgeous with the black on black look.  As described in the pre-chatter they are basically ninjas.  I can’t wait to take Bruce Lee, The Bride, and Haru (Chris Farley in Beverly Hills Ninja) out on the course.

I would show you a multitude of bag pictures but unfortunately I’m not currently gaming the bag with my new clubs.  Upon seeing the awesome red/white/blue stand combo I selected my wife claimed it as her own.  It’s replacing a black and yellow Acuity bag (Dick’s Sporting Goods store brand) that was over 10 years old.  Vote for me; my wife stole my bag!!!
I really struggled with the final part of my intro to the CobraConnectChallenge3.  At first I had this elaborate “30 for 30” style story about how I was groomed from a child to win this entire challenge; complete with requisite jokes at the expense of my fellow competitors.  There were some bad jokes like comparing Nunfa0’s New Zealand home to Middle Earth (lame), some mediocre jokes about Palvord sharing Detroit with Kid Rock (meh), and a decent one about Bryson giving a rough estimate of my chances of winning at 31.3593204852929039481%.

Truth is none of that stuff is me.  I play my best when I’m challenging the course instead of my foursome (or fivesome in this case).  For all I know Bardle, Nunfa0, Palvord, and Robertson153 are amazing people both on and off the course.  All I can control over the next 8+ weeks is how I present myself and how much time and effort I put into my game.
With all of that being said I have four (FORE!) main questions going into this challenge:
1.  The Cobra clubs are top notch across the board but can gaming a full bag of just one brand really beat my individually fit clubs from multiple companies?
2.  Will the extra large hybrids be able to cut through the thick rough on my course and be more than just fairway finders off the tee?
3.  Can the super game improvement aspect of the F9 Speedback irons really help improve my approach stats?  I’m not looking for extra distance here; I want accuracy and consistency.
4.  If I win the intro phase of the challenge will I really go full Rickie?  It’s a good possibility!

 
 

I’m glad you finally let him go! Now if only I wouldn’t have traded Rose I might have won this week!🤦🏻‍♂️


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I trade G Woodland and now he is gonna win the US Open wtf!!!

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