funkyjudge

It doesn’t look like I will be playing in the VGA event in NJ on Saturday. This illness (likely an RSV infection) is going to keep me sidelined for at least a week. I have already missed three scheduled rounds of golf, including the Tour Championship for the winter golf tour, and I had to get subs to play for me tonight in my 9-hole league and for my scheduled travel league 18-hole match tomorrow.

Absolutely! I do it quite often.

I used Krank drivers for many years, all the way back to my final years competing in the super senior division in World Long Drive competitions. I have also been a fitter for Krank Golf, and fitted a wide variety of golfers, from seniors and ladies to high-swing speed golfers with the last 3 or 4 generations of both conforming and non-conforming Krank drivers. My wife plays one of the non-conforming Krank XX drivers, designed for the very slowest-speed swingers of the golf club, and she gets remarkable results from it. Prior to playing the Krank driver, her best drives were in the 165-170 yard range (carry + rollout), but she now often sees 180 yards or slightly longer drives. Admittedly, the clubhead shape of the Krank drivers (and fairways) is somewhat bizarre or unusual, but they do work very well for a very wide spectrum of golfers.

I hate to disagree with Jamie, but in reality that shaft WILL play a bit stiffer after you butt-trim it. However, the difference should be VERY minor. The one thing that will counteract that slightly additional stiffness is that you will be using a thinner, and thus slightly lighter, grip on the cut-down shaft, which will lower the club’s balance point slightly, thus increasing the swingweight (probably bringing the swingweight back to where it was with the midsize grip at the 1/2” longer length). All things considered, the net effect is likely to be negligible, and you are also likely to gain a bit of additional control and accuracy with the shorter shaft length.

I don’t recall ever cracking the face of any driver that I’ve owned, but I have cracked the face and/or crown on two fairway woods in the last 4-5 years. One was a Callaway Epic Flash 7-wood with a carbon crown that I repaired with high-impact epoxy and played for close to 2 years after the repair, but it recently cracked again. The other was an older Tour Edge Exotics 3-wood which actually separated at the seam that connects the face to the crown (this was about 5 years ago and the 3-wood was already at least 7-8 years old at the time.

I have a very good friend who recruited me to play both on our senior travel team and on the Caliendo Winter Golf Tour on which I have played for 6 seasons. Bruce (better known as “Cap”) is now 79 and he shoots his age or better several times every year since he was 71 years old (he has also won the Mercer County Open and Mercer County Senior Open a handful of times, equaling or breaking his age with at least one round each time he won). In the first two weeks of our senior travel league this year, Bruce has shot 4 strokes below his age and 6 strokes below his age, quite an accomplishment for sure!

I fully concur with that!

Me, too! I joined the VGA and I’m playing in my first VGA tournament next week. There is also a 2-day VGA event in 3 weeks that is being played at the Marriott Seaview resort where the LPGA plays the Shoprite Classic every year. I am also planning to play in that event.

A Bit of a Testing Delay: Well, the best-laid plans took a little detour -- and not because of the extremely rainy weather! After coming home from playing golf on Wednesday, I started feeling really lousy (I actually didn't feel too good at the end of my Wednesday round), and I have been extremely sick for the last 2-1/2 days (coughing up lots of brown and yellow gunk, 100+ to 101 degree fever and feeling like I got run over by a steamroller). The worst part was that I had to withdraw from my Tour Championship on Thursday after paying my entry fee and garnering the #7 seed (out of 109 golfers). Hopefully, I will be back to playing golf on Monday and Tuesday when I have two league matches, including a travel team match in my statewide senior golf league. Edit: Nope; no golf for me this week! It appears that I have RSV and will be taking antibiotics and steroids for a week and not playing any golf.

Second Round with the Squairz VELO Shoes: I played 18 holes this morning wearing the Squairz VELO shoes. Although carts were required, I walked the full 18 and let my playing partner have the cart. I have to say that these Squairz shoes are not totally comfortable for me when walking 18 holes on a hilly course, and around the 14th or 15th hole I started to get cramps in both of my arches. I really miss having my custom orthotics in the shoes!

I think that you are correct, with the exception of the Penta TP3. I really liked most, if not all, of those balls.

About 90% of my recent UPS deliveries have had a one or two day delay. FedEx is also having delay issues lately.

White’s Bowling Alley Wax has always been the best for putting a thin wax coating on graphite shafts, but it is getting near-impossible to find (every hardware store, plus Lowe’s and Home Depot used to carry it). S.C. Johnson and Minwax make some good paste waxes that work for this purpose; just be sure to get a wax that is free of petroleum-based or derived products in it.

It's not going to help much with your current shafts, but in the future you should treat your graphite shafts with a light coating of wax (I prefer bowling alley wax), and re-apply the wax to the shafts about once a year. I've done this for more than 20 years and it completely eliminates bag rub wear on graphite shafts.

Revisiting this thread made me think about the following: The course where I play in my Monday (and sometimes Wednesday) evening golf leagues is in a complex that includes a swim club that is behind the practice range and right between the 6th and 10th holes (and very close to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th holes). During the summer months, the swim club has very loud music blasting, and it can be heard pretty much all over the golf course, although not too loudly around the 11th green, 7th green , and 13th/14th holes. In addition, there are ball fields, tennis courts and soccer fields adjacent to the 15th through 17th holes and there is often music playing at these venues. Having played golf at this course for about 19-20 years, I have gotten used to the cacophony. One other thing that this brought to mind, and Siamese Moose probably remembers this — Back in 2004 I was on a golf trip in the Jacksonville, FL area, and we made a side trip down to the Ocean Hammock course in Palm Harbor (we were supposed to play the TPC Course at Ponte Vedra that day, but they were aerating the greens). While playing our round some very loud music started blanketing the course. I immediately recognized it as Sheryl Crow, and thought briefly that it was recorded music. Then, I heard her voice shouting instructions and the sound guy talking to the musicians. Come to find out, she was doing a sound check for a concert that she was doing that evening at the club. I will never forget the sight of my dear friend, Mel Avanzado (a prominent corporate and entertainment attorney from Los Angeles), dancing in the fairway to Ms. Crow and her band as they did their sound check. Of course, I had to join in the dancing!

If you saw some of the people with whom I play golf, you would probably drop “Sharp Dressed Man” from your playlist.

All absolutely true, and not my “cup of tea” — or tee. However, if the other golfer is clearly introverted or anti-social, you won’t get much out of them, even if he/she is not wearing ear buds.

I have played golf with several golfers who wear ear buds on the course during their round. I have no problem with this, as long as the golfer wearing the ear buds maintains the pace of play and hits when it is his turn (or plays “ready golf”). I say “his” because I have never played with a female golfer wearing ear buds, but with several guys who do this.

Just don't be influenced by any of my comments; judge completely based on your experiences with these shoes. Remember, I am coming from a place where I have extensive experience playing and walking in various models of Squairz golf shoes, and I also am accustomed to wearing orthotic insoles in my Squairz.

Indeed you did play a great round yesterday! I'm not complaining TOO MUCH about my putting in league play last night as the greens had recently been aerated, and they were in typical "spring bumpiness" state. 17 putts for 9 holes certainly is not great, but there was only one three-putt (and two one-putts) in my round of 42.

Thanks, Javs! I would have been nicer if I hadn't posted two double-bogeys following a 5-par run. Also, on three of those par holes I missed relatively easy birdie putts, the worst of which ended up with my ball hanging on the lip of the cup.

The Testing Begins: I played my first 9-hole round wearing the Squairz VELO shoes, preceded by a range session to get ready for "opening night" in our Monday golf league. Here are some thoughts and observations from that experience: These shoes are quite comfortable and significantly lighter in weight than the earlier-generation Squairz golf shoes that I have been wearing (Arrow and Speed PRO S2 models). However, the lighter weight of the VELO model does not mean that the wearer will sacrifice any support and stability. I have an aggressive swing and use ground forces to get a bit of extra speed and distance, and the Squairz VELO shoes kept my feet anchored very well throughout the range session and during play. The shoes are also pretty comfortable for walking and my feet didn't feel tired after finishing the round, but keep in mind that it was only 9 holes. I'm playing 18 holes on a hillier course tomorrow and another 18 in my Tour Championship on Thursday (weather permitting for both rounds -- rain is in the forecast both days); this will provide a more strenuous test. Athough comfort is pretty good, I'm not 100% sold on the Dual-density compression foam footbed and lightweight responsive NRG-Foam midsole. To me, this combination feels just a tad too "squishy" or compliant when walking in them. The support and stability is very good during my swings but while walking they have just a little more "give" than I prefer (keep in mind here, I generally wear Protalus orthotic insoles in all of my athletic shoes, including my other Squairz golf shoes; however, I wanted to do this test with the VELO shoes exactly as-delivered, so there will be no switch to the orthotic insoles during this test). As you have seen in the photos of these Squairz VELO shoes, they are very stylish and sleek-looking (at least, in my opinion), and I received several compliments on the shoes last night while practicing and playing in my golf league .... and not a single negative remark, although one guy did comment that he wasn't sold on "those square toes". I will provide an update following the two 18-hole rounds tomorrow and Thursday. FOOTNOTE: I did not have access to a launch monitor, and would not have taken one out on the golf course during league play anyway, but I was consistently hitting every club in my bag longer than usual last night (unfortunately even the putter). My AVERAGE driving distance was 267.5 yards, and that was with one drive that I caught a little low and toward the heel that only traveled just a bit more than 240 yards. I also hit one drive that came up only 23 yards short of the green on a 311-yard hole. With my irons, I was about 4 or 5 yards longer than usual, which actually caused slight problems on the two par-3 holes because I was just over the green on the first, where the pin was in the back third of the green, and past pin-high on the second one, leaving a slick downhill putt that I ran almost 8' past the hole resulting in a bogey. I was slightly shocked by the additional distance last night because I have been wearing the other Squairz shoes for more than 2-1/2 years and didn't expect to see any added distance when switching to the VELO model! I wear the newest Garmin GPS golf watch (model Approach S70) and this watch gives me very accurate shot distances (and stores them in memory for each club if I remember to enter the club that I just hit into memory after reaching my ball.

That is fantastic; congratulations! I have also dialed-in my own AI Smoke Triple Diamond driver with the Newton shaft in it. It was opening night in my Monday league and I led my team to a dominating 11-3 victory. I used the AI Smoke driver on 5 holes and hit 4 fairways. The one fairway that I barely missed was on a 311-yard hole where I almost drove the green, leaving a 23-yard chip shot. Now, if I could only get the putter to behave!

This couldn’t have come up at a more perfect time! I just birdied hole #11 at the course where I play on the senior travel team (Mountain View GC), and my nine hole league at another course (Northampton Valley Golf Club) begins tomorrow.

I thought I had closed and reopened the app, but apparently I didn’t, or I didn’t wait long enough. I did this again, then clicked on the link and the spreadsheet opened. I am now in for the challenge on two of my most frequently played courses. Thanks!