MaxEntropy

Introduction
First of all, a huge thanks to MyGolfSpy and Fit For Golf. I was very excited about the prospect of this test when it popped up – as an aging golfer, anything I can do to improve my strength and flexibility should prolong my golf “career.”
My name is Blake. I am currently 56 years old and live in Akron, Ohio. We are fortunate to have no shortage of quality golf courses within about an hour drive. The biggest downside? Winter. I haven’t set foot on a course since early November, and we likely have about another month until we can play. I started playing somewhat seriously after I graduated from college and got my handicap to the 15-18 range. Life happened and I took about a 10-year break where I only touched my clubs a couple times. As my kids got older, I started playing again and really got bit by the bug and have played as much as I can for the last 8-ish years. For the last few years, that has been about 50 times on the course (~30 for league nights + ~20 additional rounds). Last summer was a very good season for me – I broke 80 for the first (and second) time and got my handicap as low as 7.4. Currently, I am sitting around 11.
The strengths of my game are most definitely short game and putting, but my scores are mostly dictated by how well I am driving the ball (i.e. keeping it in play/avoiding penalties). I can salvage a score around the greens, but my best scoring days are when driver behaves. I am long for my age/handicap as Arccos has my current driving average at 253 yards. This is down about 10 yards from my peak after finishing the SuperSpeed review in 2020.

(This drive ended up 299 down the middle)
I have followed Mike Carroll on Twitter for a few years and almost pulled the trigger on his app a couple times, but just never really got around to it. The program offers a variety of plans depending on your goals. Since we will more than likely not be starting until around the time golf starts again, I will be focusing on the “In Season” plan. This is subject to change without notice, of course.
In general, my fitness level is decent for my age, but I am overweight. I am about 6'1" and currently weigh around 235 lbs and was as low as 210 lbs in 2019. 210 isn't bad for my frame. In 2018-19, my wife and I were going to the gym 2-3 times per week and, even though I did not really pay much attention to what I ate, I seriously tracked the amounts in my FitBit app. A trip to Vegas and the pandemic were my undoing. These days, we don’t make to the gym as often and I don't eat well. For family health reasons, my wife has been out of state for the better part of 3 of the last 6 months. I struggle to eat healthy when left to my own devices, mostly out of convenience. During the off-season last year, I started playing pickleball at least once per week. I enjoy it and it is a better cardio workout for me than anything I do at the gym. I also referee for a youth basketball league during the winter, which also helps keep me moving and is a decent cardio workout. My wife has a gym membership that allows me to tag along for free and I can do band and medicine ball work at home.
My goals/expectations for the program are (in my perceived order of importance):
1)      Increased strength
2)      Improved flexibility
3)      Weight loss
I know Fit For Golf is not a weight loss program, but I am hoping it will be a welcome side-effect of doing more regular workouts.
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UPDATED 5/2/24
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First Impressions (9/10)
Earlier versions of the Fit For Golf app were run by external developers and Mike Carroll essentially “rented” the app and was able to personalize what was available for his needs, as far as I understand it. Since it was lacking some of the features Mike wanted, the decision was made to develop his own app Mike could fully customize, exactly as he desired. Fit For Golf 2.0 is the first version of that app. Downloading the app was as simple as we have grown accustomed to in the modern world, but the registration was sort of clunky. We were given a coupon code that would make the cost $0 for the first year. Even without a code, the registration and payment are done outside the app store at the Fit For Golf website. I had to register and enter the code on my laptop rather than on my phone – the code needed to be all small letters and, for whatever reason, the website on my phone would not allow me to change the case and always entered as all caps, regardless of what my phone’s keyboard thought I was trying to do. Not a huge deal, but kind of an annoyance. Being able to register and pay through the app store would be easier, but I completely understand Mike’s reasoning for not electing to do it that way.
I find the app very intuitive to use and I really appreciate the Program Matcher – as a person who does not work out that often (and when I do, I have a cheat-sheet that was developed for me by a trainer, if you recall from my intro), I would not know where to begin without the matcher telling me what to do. At the very least, it would be a struggle to figure out what I wanted to do. It’s like having a personal trainer on my phone. If only the app were sentient and could be a motivator when I’m not feeling it. I’ll try not to flood the review with screencaps, as I’m sure we all will have at least a few, but some are definitely necessary.
If you recall, my intention was to do an in-season, home-based workout with bands and dumbbells. Since another one of us was going to do the same program, and I would have needed to go buy some dumbbells, I changed my mind and decided to see what I could do with just bands and my body weight with a focus on speed. Below is the workflow for the Program Matcher.





I picked a 30-minute workout for this review – my first time through, I picked 45 minutes, but considering I selected Intermediate, the first workout was too much for me (especially since I had done SuperSpeed prior to the workout). Apparently, I am not quite at the intermediate level, but certainly not a beginner. Once I get through this 12-week program, I should be good to advance to a longer workout in addition to increasing resistance.
I docked the rating by 1 point for a bug – when I decided I needed a slightly shorter workout after the first one, I wanted to delete the existing workouts. When you delete something off the calendar it more or less asks “just this one, or all?” I selected all, but it didn’t delete all, so I had to delete every instance of that workout.
Since Mike is periodically checking in on our reviews, I’ll also add that I’d really, really like a dark mode, but no deduction for the lack of it.
I’m not sure what the timing is for the rest of the review (I assume as we approach the end of our 12 weeks?), but I’ll do my best to keep everyone updated with progress as things continue.

I feel like some of the answers should have allowed for multiple choices. I primarily wear Adidas spiked, but also have Puma spikeless when I don't have to worry about whether my shoes are waterproof. I have become a bit of an Adidas homer. Between golf, pickleball, and "daily use", I have 5 pairs of Adidas I currently wear - they just fit my feet very well.
I am also very skeptical of a golf shoe promising extra distance. All major brands seem to have good traction and are reasonably stable - I would think ability to generate ground force would be driven by those things and I don't see a ton of room for improvement. Prove me wrong!

I feel like some of the answers should have allowed for multiple choices. I primarily wear Adidas spiked, but also have Puma spikeless when I don't have to worry about whether my shoes are waterproof. I have become a bit of an Adidas homer. Between golf, pickleball, and "daily use", I have 5 pairs of Adidas I currently wear - they just fit my feet very well.
I am also very skeptical of a golf shoe promising extra distance. All major brands seem to have good traction and are reasonably stable - I would think ability to generate ground force would be driven by those things and I don't see a ton of room for improvement. Prove me wrong!

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

I feel like some of the answers should have allowed for multiple choices. I primarily wear Adidas spiked, but also have Puma spikeless when I don't have to worry about whether my shoes are waterproof. I have become a bit of an Adidas homer. Between golf, pickleball, and "daily use", I have 5 pairs of Adidas I currently wear - they just fit my feet very well.
I am also very skeptical of a golf shoe promising extra distance. All major brands seem to have good traction and are reasonably stable - I would think ability to generate ground force would be driven by those things and I don't see a ton of room for improvement. Prove me wrong!

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

A disappointing league round yesterday.  Shot a 52.  One of my worst of the past year pretty much.
Between allergies, having slept like poo, and just not feeling comfortable over the ball the entire round.  I just had to fight through it.  Oh throw in a 30mph gusting breeze at 100ft and I had balls that start on target and just got blown all over.
Nothing like an entire day of tap in third putts.  urg.
Driver was just.... a liability for me this round.  Im ready for spring to be over already. 
Also that first hole man alive was I so not warmed up at all. 

Yes, greens were pretty smooth and my distance control was spot on.   It was extremely weird; i got what I can best describe as a twitchy feeling in my left arm and hand when I got over the ball.  I know….kind of sounds like the Yips.

Not sure what to make of yesterday’s league round.   hit a few mediocre shots but did everything pretty well except short putts.  Missed 4 putts under 3 feet.   
 

We just started our men's league, shot a 4 over par 40, 5 pars and 4 bogeys. I felt like i hit the ball better than i scored, maybe it was the 20 mph wind but I felt like I left a few shots out there.

 
 

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

HOLY CRAP!
The stars aligned last night! By that, I mean all facets of the game were mostly working simultaneously. I shot a nearly stress-free 35 (E) last night: 7 pars, 1 birdie, 1 bogey. That is a milestone for me. I've shot a few rounds in the +1, +2 range, but never ended up even. I think I'm going to create a separate thread and give more of a blow-by-blow, but I had 7 GIR's (the two misses were by a combined few feet), a chip-in birdie on the hardest hole on the 9. Overall, driver was very well behaved as I had a clean second shot every time. I was on the green in regulation on all three par 3's, but unfortunately, one was from looong range (60-ish feet) and resulted in a 3-putt bogey.
Whatever happened yesterday, I want to bottle it. Unfortunately, I know that's not how golf works.

Arccos hates putting, I think. I felt like I was putting well - even the 3-putt didn't bug me because of the distance and the contour of the green (the last 10-ish feet start falling away and I could have easily putted off the green if I wasn't careful). I suppose I also got punished a bit for missing ~8' birdie putt, but it was a downhill slider that I had to be very defensive with. In general, I was lag putting very well given the proximity on approach I had.
I also won long drive and closest to pin.
As far as scores go, my partner and I mopped up last night. With me shooting net 31, he went out and shot a net 28.

I was able to get in a quick 9 after work. Picked up some new golf shirts, and it's likely psychological but I seem to play better when I'm dressed better lol. Fired off a 2 under and had some errors or could've maybe been a 4 under 9 which would've been my best ever! Anyways, I digress. I'm still testing the @Sundog Eyewear and the sunglasses continue to impress me, especially the Billy83 model that are polarized. I've had my PXG driver for a couple years now, and its been a beast! A few pics of my local course this evening...

So. Each time I post in here I wanna brag about something spectacular that happened out on the course. But .. today is not that day... 🤷‍♂️
My small achievement is playing 4 x 9 hole rounds within one week for the first time. Oh and didn't lose a ball, although I seemed to be trying hard on the Par 3s!
Drives off the tee were mostly ok; putting was mostly ok ... but sheesh everything else in-between was a struggle for me today so it was another high scoring round.
..need to set up another lesson....

A few years back played in a charity outing upstate that a good friend of my wife's was one of the sponsors of - at the prize ceremony, our group was each awarded a box of golf balls .. for being "The Most Honest" team .. which of course means we were absolutely DFL 😝
.. but it was fun outing on a nice day on a nice course and one of the guys in our group cleaned up in the raffles anyway!

Played 18 today and it was rough. Front 9 was fine. I was relaxed shots went well etc. On the back 9 I had an infamous blow up on a par 5. Dropped two into the water. That said putting was good. No three putts, and only a couple of doubles. 
 
Tmrw it’s off to work on my short game. 

I played 9 holes after gc duties today. Decided that I would see how hitting from the orange tees would work out for me.
While I didn't gain any distance on my drives, I didn't lose much either.  Maybe 5-6 yards average? Which is pretty consistent from my previous rounds with the mindset ball. I managed to hit 5/9 fairways, and both greens on the par 3s.
Greenside spin... hmmm?.  Not sure what was going on, but it still would hop and rollout about 8-10 feet. And i had forgotten about that part from previous testing on the second hole. 100 yard wedge shot, back pin. Got decent loft, landed what i thought was soft, but still rolled off the backside. I doubled that hole after getting back on the green.
I did lose 1 ball though.  9th hole, there is a wet marsh divide between the fairway and the green. My second shot, about 165, uphill green. I used a 3/4 swing with the 5 wood. It came up just a yard short of the green, and bounced backwards and rolled into the muck. I ended shooting a 47. 1, 3 putt the whole round. I decided I'll stick to rhe whites until I can get below 85 consistently. 

Got out this morning and at the turn decided to play the back nine too. I was gassed. 47/55. Hit some decent drives and I am getting to the point of now selling my ventus the more I play with the KBS TD. Short putts still driving me crazy for some reason. Every putt has break and I am sycing myself out. I had one do a full 360 lip out for par. It was wet and windy and only 42 degrees. Great work out and I had the course to myself. Was tranquil despite not shooting the best.

Shot 47 on the front 9 at Langston yesterday. Doubled both the par 5s and had bogey on every other hole. Doubles on par 5s are terrible, but the thing that had me most irritated was a pair of 3-putt bogies after hitting the green in regulation.
It's so upsetting. I'm right there putting for birdie and, because I never want to come up short on a birdie putt, I run it past the hole. Then I'm annoyed/angry with myself; don't take the time to line myself up properly or I'm scared to go past the hole again & leave it short; and miss the come backer by 2 inches for a disgusting 3 putt. 
The upside is that on 6/9 holes I had a par putt, most of them were +20' but I had a number of strong rolls that left me kick in bogies. Spending more time on chipping/putting has me taking better lines and making better chips when I just miss the green on an approach. One day those putts are going to start falling, that day was not yesterday. 

Had to laugh. I can't count the amount of times I see cheaters win scrambles. Last year 4 high school kids won one that I was in. We could see them all hitting off the womens tees, take 8 putts per hole and so on.  They didn't even pay for mulligans and came in with a 51. 
Another time it was a big Boys and Girls Club fund raiser and a team cheated. They had someone watching the scores turned in and came in a little later with 2 strokes less. The team behind them saw they were not playing well and called them out when their names were announced. They challenged them to a two hole scramble top rove they heated. The once they refused, a fight broke out. Real fight, fists were flying and police were called. Some charity event that was.
I'm there to support the charity. But it's pathetic watching people cheat like that. I used to get mad but now I just expect the worst going in to it.  

They are very common down on the Myrtle Beach courses. They will beg for food. When you leave your golf cart they will jump in and steal any food. They even open zippers on golf bags and take food out of your bag. I caught one taking my uncrustable PB&J out of my golf bag. Chased him off but he hid and waited for me to get on the green and came back for another attempt.