REMGolf

Keith Mitchell -7

Tier 1: Tommy Fleetwood Tier 2: Phil Mickelson Tier 3: Charl Schwartzel Tier 4: Jason Dufner Tier 5: Padraig Harrington Winning Score: -7

Tier 1: Phil Mickelson Tier 2: Matt Kuchar Tier 3: Kevin Kisner Tier 4: Bryson DeChambeau Tier 5: Fred Couples Winning Score: -11 (277) Low AM : -1 (288)

I'm a new poster to the Forums, here, though I've been reading the tests and your posts for years. After I'd paid for someone else to install grips and, later, shafts, in my clubs, the technician said, "Look, you seem to be a pretty handy guy, these are just mechanical processes. You could be doing this yourself and not paying me." Made sense! I'm a "Build Your Own Clubs" (BYOC) fan! I've been building my own clubs since about 1999. I mostly use Bang Golf heads and have tried a LOT of different shafts. I keep coming back to my old Grafalloy Prolite Elite's in my drivers, and the Prolite Colors in my fairway woods (yes, they're metal, but...) I keep a couple of running searches on eBay. These older Stiff shafts just seem to fit my swing. I have two sets of clubs with Bang drivers and fairway woods and Bang Mellow Yellow irons (one with the paint-fill changed to red) that I rotate most weeks. I recently added Wilson Staff FG Tour V4 Utility Irons to both sets. Each set is housed in an appropriately colored Sun Mountain C130 bag. (University of Wyoming for the yellow set.) I've been playing the red set for the past month or so, since I switched to full-cord grips in the heat. I'll leave the yellow set with the multi-compounds for now. I'm a brand-loyal kinda guy. I try not to buy knock-offs, though I think I bought some fake Golf Pride's last year by mistake. Won't happen again. I have two nearly identical Scotty Newports with Golf Pride SNSR Contour grips. One is copper-plated (aftermarket,) and the other was refurbed in Scotty's shop. I ruined the platinum finish on that one a couple of days after I got it back. Turns out I like it better this way! I'm a ball snob. I started playing Wilson Staff balls when I was in college, and I don't play anything else except to try a sleeve to compare once in a while. I've read everything ever written here on golf balls, and I just keep thinking that this is one more variable I can eliminate. I usually buy last year's model, NOS, in bulk, on eBay. I don't pay more than a buck a ball, including shipping. On the day I think it's the ball that's costing me strokes, I'll buy THIS year's model. (And probably lose 'em just the same!) My wife says I'm a "shoe horse." Okay, ten pairs of golf shoes is probably overkill, But, they keep my feet happy! Again, brand-loyal: Gloves and shoes all FJ, all the time. I know I won't ever make a living from golf, and that's just fine with me. Once in a while I make a club for someone else, or give someone a driver or a putter if I think it will help them enjoy playing more. I once bribed a service technician with a new Cobra driver. I bought the head on eBay, paired it with an excellent shaft I didn't like, and he loved it! I think a big part of the reason more families don't take up golf is because clubs for kids are difficult to fit and buy or make. Components are not readily available, and sets are far too expensive to fit kids who grow so fast! (There ought to be an exchange program for kids' clubs!) I'm building a new set for my wife who has had three sets in the past 15 years and has yet to play a full round of golf. (It's along story.) I LOVE golf and golf equipment! But, I think the act of hitting a golf shot depends upon the interaction of the entire "system:" We buy or build golf clubs to fit the swing we THINK we have, to hit the ball we choose (for sometimes dubious reasons,) and adapt the swing we REALLY have to produce results as close as possible to the results we had in mind at the outset. When the results or expectations change, we try again. And, therein lies the fun! Thanks for indulging my fancy, fantasy, and fanaticism!

I'm 63, retired, weekend player moving to weekdays. I live in Lewisville, Texas and play most of my golf at Grapevine Golf Course. My biggest "bugaboo" is casting the club-head on my irons and wedges when I really NEED this shot! (That, and coping with an aging body that doesn't always do what I think it used to do!)