sgold7

Finally Broke 80 with a 74 on Saturday! It's been a long road since breaking 90 on July 4th 2018 with an 87! My prior career low was also in 2018 when I was playing a lot, 81. It had been 4+ years since I broke 85 so Saturday was out of the blue! 5/6 fairways with the driver, 31 putts, striped long irons on the other holes, career high GIR%, fairway % (thanks, The Grint!), 3 birdies, 3 sandy saves! Just one of those days! And then followed it up with an 82 on Sunday (3rd best round ever, never went lower than 89 at that course) at a really tight, wooded, watery course in which I hit irons off the tee 11/14 holes... and hit 11 fairways with those irons (2/3 drives for penalty in the woods). Being a big hitter never really felt like a plus because my driver is proportionally as inaccurate is it is long (120+ swing speed) as I didn't control those longer irons either. But for the first time in my career I'm stepping up to the tee with my 2i, 4i, 5i and am fully confident that I'm going to stripe one! Super cool feeling. Now I just need to dial in the wedges a bit more!

Appreciate the details there, RickyB. Going to go down a bit of a rabbit hole on these shafts. The CC near me is no more so I'd rather not get formally fitted, but I do know that it's probably the right thing for me. Thanks again!

Appreciate the insight, Ricky. If you aint first... you're last!

Last weekend my driver shaft cracked. I'm now starting to look into a new shaft. I play the Mizuno ST 180 Driver & 3w. Drive - MT CK Blue 70 Flex-x 3 Wood - MT CK Gray 70 Flex-x I stink with my long clubs because my speed is 120+. I suck at golf, this is not a brag, I just cant control my long clubs. After 5 years of smashing drivers OB right - the shaft broke. I threw the driver head on the 3w shaft and hopefully I can start to hit that straight (doubtful) --- but marked off, using the Grint, a 325 yard drive with the driver head on the 3w (I hit 4/5 OB - I'm not normally THIS bad, but I hadn't played in 4+ months and the driver is always hit or miss). My question would be - if I wanted to buy a used shaft to replace my old one, what would you recommend? (Ie - I'd rather not go to CC again and get fitted into a $500+ One more piece of info: When I originally got fit - I wasn't hitting driver at all. Only 3w off the Tee. So my numbers from Club Champion show my 3w carry average of 248 & my driver carry of 256 with speeds in the 105 range. Thanks to the swing sticks, the speed is now significantly up (I did a post on that as well). I put a lot of work in with my driver to go from a -1.1 Attack angle to a plus angle in addition to the increased speed. The shaft that fit me at the time was the Ture Temper Project X Even Flow lack 65 - 6.5. Considering my speed is significantly up, I'm doubtful that this would be appropriate for me now. If anyone can point me in the direction of a shaft that might benefit my game, preferably used (I laugh at spending 500 on a shaft while I suck this bad - it would only infuriate me more out there, lol!), it would be beyond greatly appreciated. Thanks! PS - If your driver is not stiff enough --- would your miss theoretically be right? Ie - a stiffer driver shaft could/would help straighten me out?

My wedges are at the point where it's time to start thinking about new ones so I wanted to pick everyone's brain to get some advice on whether or not what I'm thinking makes some sense. I also have some more technical questions which I'll save for the bottom. With that said, here's my current set up: 60* - Mizuno S18, 10* bounce; At this point I really only use this club around the green. I don't chip with it often outside of special situations, I don't use it from the bunker and I don't hit full swings. My home course has a lot of elevated greens and they are fast. So if you miss them, you are usually trying to plop the ball up in the air as vertically as possible with landing spots 3-10 feet away. 55* - S18, 9* bounce (this and the 60* D5 swing weight); Bunkers, finesse game (30-100 yards), full swings. It's my most versatile club. 120-125 carry. 50* - My gap wedge is the shortest of my actual irons. It's my main chipping club, I use it a little bit in the finesse game, and I use it for full swings. 140-145 carry. 45* - My PW is is my chipping club from longer distance, I use it less than my GW in the finesse game. 160-165 carry. I was thinking of eliminating my 2I in favor of adding another wedge. My general thought process would be to go for a 60*, 56*, and a 52* while bending my 50* one-to-two degrees stronger to about 48, and bending my 45* one degree stronger so I'm a 4-degree gap 60-degree through 40-degree. As far as the bounce goes, I feel like my 60* should be lower bounce? What is everyone's thought as to the bounces for each of the new wedges? From a general point of view, I'm more of a digger than a sweeper so that should favor larger bounces? But with the 60*, If I don't hit that full too often, I feel like a lower bounce would be able to allow me to hit higher trajectory shots in close to the green? I mentioned the swing weight because I feel like I might benefit from a bit heavier club? If the majority of my wedge-shots are less than full swing, wouldn't the heaviness of the head give me a bit more 'feel' as to my tempo and backswing? Lastly, the questions I was referring to in the open deal with the different grinds. I'd be lying if I said I know too much about grinds. Ultimately, my goal with this post is to get a bit more knowledgeable regarding being a wedge-buyer. Any advice or follow up questions would be greatly appreciated!

Wanted to provide an update on my progress. First, here's a link to my origional post in March of 2019: TL;DR - I got my average speed with the driver (working on a simulator) up from 116 to 122 after 8 weeks. Had a wrist injury linger. Took some time off, got back up to the low 120's. 2019 was my best golf year but I couldn't control driver. My 3w was up to 116 and I could hit it about 280 so I just stuck with that. In 2019 I lived a few blocks from a simulator that I could go to basically whenever. 2020 happened. Moved away from the simulator so I couldn't practice during the week, nor could I track my driver speed. I was only doing the first protocol throughout 2020 (35 total swings)and I played s*** golf. 3w was no good. Driver stayed in the bag. Long irons were no good. It was a mess. 2021, I move into a building without a gym. I decide to ramp up to protocols 4 & 5 using the sticks as some cardio. Playing poor golf. Bombing 3-wood but it's very inaccurate. Two Saturdays ago I was playing with my longest hitting friends and out drove them with my 3w on a few longer holes. Was playing s***** so they convinced me to hit driver on the 18th hole- the only hole I could never go after in two (par 5). Well, I smoke a drive and had a 205 yard look to the green (The card reads 538 from the whites). I didn't hit it but it gave me the ability to conclude "If I cant hit my 3w accurate, why not focus on driver tomorrow?" The next day I used driver and hit fairways on the first 6 driver holes. The 7th hole I did spray one right, OB, but my second shot was good. I hit it 11x and only 1 OB with 7 fairways. Never had a day like that and my takeaway was twofold: 1. Use your driver on holes that allow for it. 2. The swing sticks, like in 2019, have made me more accurate. Now, the question became, how far am I actually hitting it (as I cant measure my speed anymore)? I've since gone to google maps to measure some of the shots that I've hit. I've got no reason to bullshit you guys but I'm carrying the ball 330 yards (went onto Google Earth to do some measuring). There's a bunker on hole 2 that's 330 to the far side of the bunker --- on Sunday I was about 15 yards beyond it. Hole 4 reads 512 from the blues, 497 from the whites. I was driver - gap wedge in. Hole 9 reads 359 and plays a bit downhill but I flew a greenside bunker (front left bunker, Google Earth had that bunker starting 333 yards from the box). Hole 11 is 505, that one was driver - gap wedge again (in addition to my driver adding distance, all my clubs play 1-2 clubs stronger. I went into this season with a Gap that was 125 stock. I was pin high & left on 11 last weekend with a gap wedge from 152 out). I'm not playing very good golf as my wedge distances are all over the place and they aren't dialed into the newfound distance (and driver confidence) but the main reason I wanted to post today was A) The sticks work, if there was any doubt. B) I've been more accurate with my driver over the last 4 rounds than I ever have with my 3w. Looking forward to the weekend already! (If you don't believe the distances, pull up Google Earth, pull up "Woodcrest Country Club, Cherry Hill, NJ". The first teebox is the par 4 'north' of the clubhouse with 3 distinct tee boxes (the dog leg left with a creek before the green---not the short par 3 left of the clubhouse). Follow that hole to hole 2. Measure from the middle of the tee box to the first bunker on the right. The far edge of that bunker is 330. I was over it last week by a good 10 yards. I was close enough to the tree that I didn't have a straight look to the green).

@txgolfjunkie Good point, I only did mine for the 115 MPH swing speed as that's the closer data point to my own. As far as creating a table goes, copy/paste your excel data into "tabelizer" (google: tabelizer, paste your data into the large field, click 'tabalize' and then you can copy/paste your new HTML table into the post. Pretty simple. Seems like we had a similar strategy but we eached used our own gut feel with regard to weightings. How did you weight your final table? Regarding Driver v. 7i v. Wedge?

I love data and I'm glad the MGS crew gave us all of theirs! I'm also a fan of trying to use the data to draw my own conclusions; when my conclusions are corroborated by the MGS crew it's better than me going into my spreadsheets with preconceived notions. Biases: I used the Pro Plus in the first half of '18 and V1x's in the second half. I'm a huge Tiger fan so I'm partial to the Bridgestone as well, though I do enjoy looking down at the clean cursive "Titleist" on the ball. I play Mizuno clubs and used a Mizuno baseball glove since high school and it's been 10 years with that glove still playing softball, so I do like their products. Lastly, my game is steadily improving from never breaking 100 last year at this time to shooting sub-90s in the hardest course in the area now with a career low of 81. I smash the ball, over 115 MPH swing speed (improved from 116 to 121 thanks to the Super Speed sticks and documented my progress in that thread)--- but the problem is it doesn't go straight. I fight a major slice and use mostly 3W off the tee because I can still get it out there around 265+. My ball flight is getting to be much more consistent (draw) and my touch around the green is improving. I love the way the V1x's feel off the putter and around the green. "They Say" you should start around the green and work back when testing balls, so I'm hesitant to switch from the V1x--- but I'm not doing my due diligence if I'm not running the numbers myself and testing a few others. So here's what I did: I took all the balls I'd consider (tour balls from Bridgestone, Titleist, Snell, Srixon, & Vice) and found Z-Scores in each category I deemed important for each phase of the game. I then weighted each component that was tested and got a final Z-Score (real quick Z-Score primer: 0 is average. +1 is better than 66% of the comp. +2 is better than 95% of the comp. Minuses are inverse.). For the driver I weighted distance the most, dispersion the second most, etc. For the wedges I didn't weight distance at all, weighted shot area and offline pretty heavily--- though I did weigh the STDev of the distance (I don't care how far the wedges go, as long as they go the same distance every time). I'd be more than happy to go as in depth on my weightings if you guys want to get into the minutia but I'll try and keep it a bit less granular for post one... Driver: (the final column on the right is 'Distance 50%, Offline 25%, and spin 25%'. I left launch out of the calculation because if something is long and straight I don't really care if it's high or low launch). Numbers at the bottom, top is average, bottom is STDEV. Driver Carry Offline Launch Spin zCarry zOff zLAng zSpin Grade Snell MTB-X 289 8.6 12.3 2206 2.24 -0.66 0.27 0.57 1.09 Bridgestone Tour BX 286 3.4 12.4 2171 1.34 0.67 1.08 0.90 1.06 Srixon Qstar Tour 283 1.7 12.3 2129 0.44 1.11 0.27 1.29 0.82 Titelist Pro V1x 282 4 12.3 2254 0.14 0.52 0.27 0.13 0.23 Bridgestone Tour B RX 282 7.9 12.3 2163 0.14 -0.48 0.27 0.98 0.19 Titelist Pro V1 281 5.1 12.4 2240 -0.16 0.24 1.08 0.26 0.04 Srixon Zstar 281 3 12.2 2307 -0.16 0.78 -0.54 -0.37 0.02 Vice Pro 279 0.5 12.3 2270 -0.76 1.41 0.27 -0.02 -0.03 Snell MTB Black 280 5.4 12.3 2205 -0.46 0.16 0.27 0.58 -0.04 Bridgestone Tour B XS 282 6.4 12.1 2367 0.14 -0.09 -1.35 -0.93 -0.18 Mizuno RB Tour 285 11.2 12.1 2460 1.04 -1.32 -1.35 -1.80 -0.25 Bridgestone Tour B RXS 278 0.6 12.4 2331 -1.06 1.39 1.08 -0.59 -0.33 Srixon Zstar XV 281 12.5 12.4 2248 -0.16 -1.65 1.08 0.18 -0.44 Vice Pro Plus 276 9.1 12.2 2171 -1.66 -0.78 -0.54 0.90 -0.80 Mizuno RB Tour X 278 11.1 12 2492 -1.06 -1.30 -2.16 -2.09 -1.37 281.5 6.03 12.2 2267.6 3.33 3.91 0.12 107.1 Takeaways & Questions: If you don't care about anything but distance, the Snell MTB-X is the no brainier, but that strong negative grade in zOff gives me hesitation (Offline pretty significantly more than the other top-tier driving balls). The BStone Tour BX and the QStar Tour would be the balls I'd play if I only did this analysis on driver. The Titleist and the other Bridgestone right behind were good to see. There seem to be 5-6 balls that are a clear notch or two above the rest---but as everyone and their mother says regarding fittings, focus on the wedges and irons. 7 Iron 7 Iron Carry Carry STD Offline Offline STD Shot Area Langle Spin Carry Carry STD Offline Offline STD Shot Area Langle Spin Srixon Zstar XV 195.7 0.81 2.49 3.02 31 16.7 5985 -0.33 1.86 2.08 -0.21 1.04 -0.71 0.52 0.83 Titelist Pro V1x 197.3 1.41 5.48 2.07 37 16.7 6022 0.24 1.15 -0.16 0.68 0.93 -0.71 0.60 0.57 Bridgestone Tour B RXS 203.4 2.65 4.37 1.41 47 17.5 4994 2.38 -0.32 0.67 1.29 0.74 1.62 -1.74 0.50 Bridgestone Tour B XS 193.8 3.07 4.49 0.81 31 16.6 6000 -0.99 -0.82 0.58 1.85 1.04 -1.00 0.55 0.37 Mizuno RB Tour X 193.8 1.69 5.76 2.21 47 16.7 6365 -0.99 0.82 -0.36 0.55 0.74 -0.71 1.39 0.36 Srixon Zstar 196 1.12 7.38 1.98 28 17 5634 -0.22 1.49 -1.58 0.76 1.10 0.17 -0.28 0.21 Vice Pro 196.9 2.06 5.76 2.13 55 17 5619 0.10 0.38 -0.36 0.62 0.59 0.17 -0.31 0.17 Mizuno RB Tour 192.5 2.25 5.45 2.28 65 16.5 6423 -1.45 0.15 -0.13 0.48 0.41 -1.29 1.52 0.16 Vice Pro Plus 196.9 2.65 6.14 2.67 89 17.1 5510 0.10 -0.32 -0.65 0.12 -0.04 0.46 -0.56 -0.23 Srixon Qstar Tour 199.7 2.79 2.55 4.18 147 17.6 5045 1.08 -0.49 2.03 -1.29 -1.12 1.92 -1.62 -0.23 Snell MTB-X 194 2.06 6.48 4.01 104 16.6 6134 -0.92 0.38 -0.90 -1.13 -0.32 -1.00 0.86 -0.34 Titelist Pro V1 196.3 3.25 6.16 3.34 137 16.85 5968 -0.11 -1.04 -0.66 -0.51 -0.93 -0.27 0.48 -0.46 Bridgestone Tour B RX 200.6 2.93 5.07 4.39 162 17.4 5188 1.40 -0.66 0.15 -1.49 -1.40 1.33 -1.30 -0.55 Snell MTB Black 196.1 3.27 5.69 3.64 150 17.1 5691 -0.19 -1.06 -0.31 -0.79 -1.18 0.46 -0.15 -0.61 Bridgestone Tour B X 196.4 3.65 5.81 3.79 173 16.8 5773 -0.08 -1.51 -0.40 -0.93 -1.60 -0.42 0.04 -0.75 196.63 2.38 5.27 2.80 86.87 16.94 5756.73 2.84 0.84 1.34 1.07 53.68 0.34 438.65 Takeaways: I weighted six categories equally for the 7-iron test: Carry, Carry STDEV, Offline, Offline STD, Shot Area, Spin. So if you think about it, it's 2/6 distance, 3/6 accuracy, and 1/6 spin. Maybe I underrated spin a tad, and when re-adjusting it to make spin more important, nothing unexpected happened: The Mizuno balls jumped up to .57 and .44, the BStone Tour RXS dropped from .5 to .07. Frankly, I wasn't totally sure what I'm 'looking for' with regards to a longish iron like this. For me, a 7-iron is 175 yards so there isn't really too much to conclude regarding this. Good to see the V1x grade well. The Bridgestone Tour B X with the lowest ranking grade is a surprise after it was the best non-Snell driving ball. The dispersion grades on the Tour BX were all very positive with the driver but very low with the 7-iron. But the overall dispersion offline with the driver was 3.4 yards and with the 7-iron it's only 3.79. So the dispersion is similar, its just that the average dispersion with the driver is way above 3.4 while the 7-iron dispersion average is below. Interesting none-the-less. Wedges: Wedges Spin Spin STD Carry STD Offline Offline STD Shot Area Spin Spn STD Cry STD Offline Off STD Area Vice Pro Plus 8993 77 4 0.07 9.3 11 -0.92 0.60 0.70 1.67 0.45 0.68 0.53 Titelist Pro V1 9519 44 4.5 0.29 8 28 0.63 1.11 0.49 0.73 0.73 -0.63 0.51 Bridgestone Tour B X 9523 58 4 0.3 12.1 17 0.64 0.89 0.70 0.68 -0.14 0.22 0.50 Titelist Pro V1x 9524 63 3.7 0.52 8.2 20 0.65 0.81 0.82 -0.26 0.69 -0.01 0.45 Snell MTB Black 9294 72 4.7 0.45 9 6 -0.03 0.67 0.41 0.04 0.52 1.07 0.45 Bridgestone Tour B XS 9364 58 8.8 0.52 5 8 0.18 0.89 -1.23 -0.26 1.37 0.91 0.31 Mizuno RB Tour X 9887 125 5.8 0.55 12 13 1.71 -0.15 -0.03 -0.39 -0.12 0.53 0.26 Srixon Zstar 9341 168 1.5 0.62 8 24 0.11 -0.81 1.70 -0.69 0.73 -0.32 0.12 Vice Pro 9147 104 5.8 0.59 7.6 10 -0.46 0.18 -0.03 -0.56 0.82 0.76 0.12 Bridgestone Tour B RX 8886 86 3.8 0.12 10.9 36 -1.23 0.46 0.78 1.46 0.11 -1.24 0.06 Snell MTB-X 9641 103 5.5 0.58 21.5 12 0.99 0.20 0.09 -0.52 -2.15 0.61 -0.13 Bridgestone Tour B RXS 8754 143 7.4 0.36 15.3 14 -1.62 -0.42 -0.67 0.42 -0.83 0.45 -0.44 Srixon Zstar XV 9421 138 7.5 0.47 9.5 54 0.34 -0.35 -0.71 -0.05 0.41 -2.63 -0.50 Mizuno RB Tour 9554 263 11.6 0.39 15 32 0.73 -2.28 -2.35 0.30 -0.76 -0.93 -0.88 Srixon Qstar Tour 8718 232 7.4 1.05 20 13 -1.72 -1.80 -0.67 -2.54 -1.83 0.53 -1.34 9304.4 115.6 5.7 0.5 11.4 19.9 340.1 64.6 2.5 0.2 4.7 13.0 Takeaways: I just did an equal-weighting of the six factors here, which brings it to accuracy in 4/6 (carry STD, offline, offline STD, and shot area) and spin in 2/6 (spin and spin STD, though you could argue spin STD is more in the accuracy category. Regardless, the Vice Pro Plus graded out very well---but had one of the worst spin ratings. I should have probably weighted spin much higher as the accuracy numbers were so close together. There were 4 balls that graded very well in the spin category without any severe negatives: ProV1, V1x, BStone Tour B, and Mizuno Tour X. The Mizuno Tour X had the highest spin but graded out slightly negative in aggregate of the rest of the accuracy categories. The three others all had near-identical spin numbers (the V1 was the most consistent spinner) and the highest overall grade aside from the Vice Pro Plus. Questions: Before I go into the final table (an aggregate of all three shots) I'd like to pose this question: *How would you weight each category for each swing? Meaning, would you keep the wedges at a 6-category average? Or would you raise the spin weighting to, say, 50% and then you have 50% spin and 50% accuracy? With the driver, is distance way more important than accuracy? Should i have 75% distance and 25% accuracy? Or maybe only 25% distance? I'm not expecting the weightings to change the overall findings too much, but I'd be happy to run different numbers. Final Table (fourth column is a 40/20/40 weighting, the last column is 33% each): Ball Driver 7-Iron Wedge 40/20/40 33 Bridgestone Tour BX 1.06 0.37 0.31 0.62 0.58 Titelist Pro V1x 0.23 0.57 0.45 0.39 0.42 Snell MTB-X 1.10 -0.34 -0.13 0.32 0.21 Titelist Pro V1 0.04 -0.46 0.51 0.13 0.03 Srixon Zstar 0.02 0.21 0.12 0.10 0.12 Vice Pro -0.03 0.17 0.12 0.07 0.08 Snell MTB Black -0.04 -0.61 0.45 0.04 -0.07 Bridgestone Tour B RX 0.19 -0.55 0.06 -0.01 -0.10 Bridgestone Tour B XS -0.19 -0.75 0.50 -0.02 -0.15 Vice Pro Plus -0.80 -0.23 0.53 -0.15 -0.17 Bridgestone Tour B RXS -0.33 0.50 -0.44 -0.21 -0.09 Srixon Zstar XV -0.45 0.83 -0.50 -0.21 -0.04 Srixon Qstar Tour 0.82 -0.23 -1.34 -0.25 -0.25 Mizuno RB Tour X -1.38 0.36 0.26 -0.38 -0.25 Mizuno RB Tour -0.26 0.16 -0.88 -0.42 -0.33 So we went over some of the potential issues within each category but generally speaking, however you weight these, good driving balls will grade good and bad driving balls will grade poor. Lets not overcomplicate things too much... Takeaways: The Bridgestone Tour BX has 'won' the competition! Right? Well, maybe. When the Snell guy comes out and says that all tour balls are good off the tee and we should be focusing on 100 yards and in, it's important to take note---especially considering Snell had the longest ball. When I miss-hit a drive, whether it's a V1x, a Bridgestone, a Snell or a tennis ball, it's missing 50 yards right. Period. So I put a lot more weighting into the non-driving stats. Because I value the iron and wedge play more, if I had to only use this data to make a decision... I'd probably be sticking with the V1x. Throughout every category across all shots it only has two slight negative grades (nothing worse than a -.3). The Tour BX had the highest iron carry standard deviation---which means the distance on iron shots is the least consistent of any ball. This is a major issue. It also had a pretty strong negative grade in the 'offline' category which means not only is there distance variance but there's side to side variance culminating in a shot area grade of -1.6, the worst of any ball. That's a major red flag. The other balls that will have me giving them a bit of consideration are polar opposites of each other: The Snell MTB-X and the Mizuno RB Tour X. One is the longest ball off the tee with negative iron and wedge grades (Snell). The other is a short ball off the tee with all kinds of inconsistencies (offline more than any ball but 2 with the least consistent launch angle and the least consistent spin numbers) but is a very accurate iron ball and is the highest-spinning wedge ball. I'm probably more interested in the Mizuno than the Snell but they both are intriguing. Lastly, aside from the Bridgestone BX and the Pro V1x, the Srizon ZStar is the only ball to grade positively in all three categories. The issue is it grades worse than the V1x in pretty much every single way. It's slightly shorter and less consistent on the tee (though slightly more accurate), slightly shorter and a good bit less accurate as a 7-iron (with less spin), and although it does have a more consistent carry distance it spins way less and is offline way more in the wedge play. In conclusion, my numbers backed up the MGS test pretty consistently. If I had to apply these balls to the grading scale MGS used it would look like this: Excellent: Pro V1x - simply no faults. The only one that can say that. Very good (would be excellent if not for one decent to significant sized fault): BStone Tour BX (7-iron accuracy is dead last), Srixson ZStar (7-iron accuracy is bad, wedge accuracy is below-average without plus spin) Intriguing (Some major faults but so good in other areas, I'd consider giving them a shot): Mizuno RB Tour (The spiniest ball in both the 7-iron and wedge category by a wide margin, very accurate with the 7-iron ... but its significantly the worst driving ball (tied for second shortest carry (though a low launch angle helps but that's offset by more spin) and very poor accuracy grades in the driver category. The ProV1 is also a quality ball but I know from prior testing I'm V1x >V1 so I didn't focus too much on the V1. Hopefully a few people got thru this long-winded post and got something out of it. Is there anything else you guys would want me to take a look at regarding different weightings or adding any other balls? Cheers!

An update for me starting with a quick recap: I wasn't in the original protocol but I bought the sticks just to tag along. My routine was a bit different (I just progressed a bit quicker than was advised but nothing too different other than that) but not enough to really change things. In my first 8 weeks or so I got my average driver speed from 116ish up to 122ish, with individual swings up in the 125-126 range. My 3w speed was averaging more than 116 before I took a break. Unfortunately a wrist injury that I had as a high school baseball player popped up again and I had to give it some time off. Two weeks of no swinging followed by 3-4 weeks of ramping back up, which is where I'm at right now. I'll get right back on the protical bandwagon but I'm happy to report that my swing speeds are still mostly in the low-120s range even after taking 5-or-so weeks off. The gains have appeared to stay and I'm hoping to improve upon them slightly. Last round was my best round with the driver ever. Drawing the ball, finally, just like my other clubs. I'd argue that if you are *changing* your swing you might want to wait until you've finished your changes and feel comfortable before you start the SS. I fight early extension and all of the slow-mo and dry work I was doing ot work on my hips, I feel was being hindered by the trainings with the SS. So over the last few weeks when I wasn't using the SS I was focusing a lot on my hips and swing. Now that I'm hitting the ball long and straight and, most importantly, I feel really comfortable with my swing (and my wrist), I'll get back on the protoocal and start working out with the sticks again. I'd like to be around 125 MPH on average by the end of the year. If my wrist doesn't give me issues, I think I'll be there.

Awesome! Enjoy and keep us updated!

Yesterday I hit balls with all my clubs with my butt against the back of a chair. I'm a half cm in front of the chair so I need to 'feel it' hit my right cheek on my back swing. Then on my down swing I should feel the weight of the chair in my left cheek right before, as and slightly after I make contact. My right arm is so sore today because it's such a different motion. Firing my left hip back while dropping my club (opening hips to the left while keeping shoulders closed and dropping my right arm) is such a new move for me. Normally I'll do some chair hits and then move the chair but I'm using you as motivation to fix my ailment instead of using bandaids. I'm hoping to get a few more chair sessions before I even think about hitting balls without it.

My biggest swing fault is that on my down swing, like you, my hips dont stay thru the wall---as I approach contact my hips go towards the ball. When I focus on my hips and 'ripping' or 'pulling' them left--- either my swing plane becomes very over the top and I slice, or my swing plane is fine and my contact is bad. So I'm debating just focusing on contact and improving with my swing default vs. focusing on the default and taking some short-term steps back in my ball striking. Have you seen any improvement in your hips? And how so? I take dry swings in front of the mirror with a video camera on me and my swings are fine. But when you put a little white ball in front of me I just cant focus on my hips and the ball at the same time---not possible so I either make good contact by my hips are way too right or I focus on my hips and everything else falls apart. How have you begun attempting to correct your fault?

Update: I've been doing my protocol relatively regularly (2-3x/week) and am in like month 3 of 6 of doing the same thing. I've decided that I'm not going to measure my speeds until I'm done this protocol. While I'm still having some trouble controlling the driver live (when I find a rhythem in the simulator the carry distances have been over 300 as of late) the success I've had with my 3w on the course of late is pretty remarkable. I was out there in the cold for 36 each of the last two weekends and have hit fairways at over a 50% clip and had only 2 penalties over those 4 rounds---which is astounding considering that in as recently as September I was good for 3+ OB's a round. My best round I hit 8/10 fairways with the 3w. I've never had a round where I was even close to 70% fairways. Everything just feels more fluid and the ball striking, for whatever reason, has improved drastically. My miss-hits before were slices 50 yards to the right, tops that might go 50 yards total and duck-hooks that go OB left before I can even pick my head up to track the ball. Recently, my miss hits are getting slightly under the ball---hitting a 225 yard pop up (opposed to 270-280 yard bombs) and slight fades that leak 10-20 yards to the right of the fairway. Ironically its the improvement on my miss-hits that I think help my score more than anything. 2018 we saw massive improvements on distance and accuracy. Hopefully by this time in 2019 I'll have the same confidence and results with my driver as I did with the 3w this year! Happy New Year to all!

Yup! Definitely seeing improvement on the course which is the reason for all of this! The best part is now that my tee game is improving pretty significantly it's freed up some more practice time to focus on my mid & long iron game which has been lacking. The ball striking has been down and over the past few weeks I've been able to put a ton of focus on that. Also, my dad who's had some health issues over the last 10 years (he's 58) has been swinging the set of sticks I got him for the holidays semi-regularly. First time in ages he's been sore from real physical activity. Really cool.

There was a lot of talk a few weeks ago around here about tempo. I played last weekend with one of my most common partners over the summer and after ripping a few three woods right down the middle to start off the round he made a comment about how smooth my tempo was. Tempo is not something I actively think about *at all* but it was good to see him make that comment considering how much stock everyone in this group puts in tempo. We were out to drinks a few days later and he made another comment on how much smoother my swing looks and how good my tempo was. He's a high-70s/low-80s guy and has been golfing for much longer than I have so I'm taking his word for it. I'll probably post my next speed updates when I finish my "protocol 2" (I have another few months of 5 kneeling swings each hand each stick, 5 regulars, 5 step thrus--- elaborating because my protocol 2 is different as I'm not an 'official tester'.

I talked a lot in prior posts about accuracy, if you've read them you know I hit it far before the SS sticks---but now am hitting it even further with increased accuracy. I was able to join a new course and get round one in yesterday. It's a tight course that only has 2 holes I could realistically play my driver. My 3-wood was 4/7 fairway with the 3 misses ALL being within 10 feet of the fairway and having good looks at the green. My two other shots were 'misses' that I didn't count for my tracking purposes--- the shot was gorgeous I just mis-read the alignment. I hit 3 drivers. Two as "second shots" after my 3-wood, both were long and straight. The one I did hit for real was a gorgeous, drawing, accurate bomb. Add up all of my woods and drivers and you get 12 shots: 9 of them were either in the fairway or would have been in the fairway had the fairway been longer. 3 of them were barely in the rough. None went OB. None even went into the trees. Easily the best tee-day of my life, not even close.

Just bought a set of these for my dad for the holidays. These SS Sticks increase your swing speed---pretty non debatable. They are a great workout, regardless of golf. And they are great for your golf swing. So thrilled I bought these for myself, cant wait to give them to pops.

I plan on doing the full 72 weeks and beyond for a few reasons. First and foremost, the results. My swing speed went from 114.5 to 122-124ish in roughly 6 weeks (Today I did the protocol, then lifted weights and then hit balls 2 hours later---which I've never done. I recorded a personal record single speed of 126+ ) so my results are consistent with others that have seen at least a 5% jump. Secondly, from an workout standpoint this is a full body, symmetrical workout. Granted, it's not going to help your cardio or your overall physique----but as far as functional golf strength goes... how's it possible to do any better than the SS Sticks?! Thirdly, as I'll touch on down below---I feel as if doing the workouts on days that I do not swing is a 'kinda/sorta' decent replacement for hitting actual balls. I feel like I am becoming a better, stronger, faster and *more accurate* golfer every time I use them---especially when the comparison is simply not working out at all (hitting balls, lifting, running, etc.). Even after the protocol ends, I will continue to use them---while I might max out as far as not being able to see tangible results over a short-to-intermediate standpoint... If I have the sticks and they've helped me increase my speeds then why not continue using them for maintaining the speed gains I've built (and, as I alluded to in the above paragraph, it's a quality workout and helps my swing!)? When you say 'max out' I think "peak"---which is true to an extent. But you are either moving forward or moving backwards. When I "peak" I tend to "move backwards" slower---thanks to the SS Sticks. Now onto a few other things I've noticed over the past few weeks, one tidbit on the accuracy gains I keep talking about and another note on how this translates to other clubs that aren't your driver: * I track my stats: driving distance, accuracy, approaching (broken down by distance and whether I'm hitting off the fairway, rough, tee box), and putting (putt % from every distance, ditto 3-putt %). Because of this I have a really good baseline for my driving accuracy before and after I started the protocol. I also didn't play my driver in rounds until roughly a month after I started to give me a clean before and after. On a decent 62-swing sample ending in August my results were the following before the protocol: 22% Fairways and 33% Shanks (hooks, slices and tops). Since 9/15 I've had 7 rounds and sent the driver 67 times: 37% Fairway and 40% shank. Sure, I'd love the shank numbers to go down but it is logical that with another 8 MPH of swing speed it would be tougher to control--- but a 77% increase in fairway % is more than enough for me to call the slight increase in horrible shots a pretty big win. 1-in-5 to 1-in-3. Pretty cool. My 3-wood since August is at 34% fairways with 25% shanks (this is what I was primarily hitting off the tee in the month that I bagged the driver)! * I mentioned the 3-wood above and need to elaborate. Throughout the spring and early hit the driver sporadically (mostly in scrambles when my misses didn't hurt the squad) but really played the 3-wood up until a few weeks ago. Since the protocol, I've flipped those two--- I hit driver pretty much every time even when I shouldn't just because I'm prioritizing working on the driver over scoring for now. I did not have a baseline set of data for the 3-wood like I did for my driver in August so I can't make an apples-to-apples comparison for the speed and distance improvement there but from memory, 105 MPH swing speed and a 260-270 yard shot with the three wood sounds about right from 2ish months ago. I don't recall ever hitting a 3-wood on the simulator beyond 280ish, 285 definitely. Today on the simulator I decided to do a 10-swing sample with the 3-wood just to see where that is at---how much distance did I gain there and do I feel more accurate? Original Driver Sample Data (8/8---with additional info not in my other tables): Distance Carry Speed Degree Offline 295 282.5 116.5 -0.27 268 237 116.8 4.2 303 291 116.3 -3.2 294 287 115.4 0.2 289 282 116.4 -5.5 298 291 117.1 -3 293 285 114.2 3.2 284 273 115 0.97 299 288 116.4 -1.49 291.4 279.6 116.0 0.44 (3* offline either left or right is a bad shot, I use that as the accuracy guage. the .4444 at the bottom is 4/9 were on target, that's all.) Distance Carry Speed Degree Offline 268 263 116 1.7 281 267 114.8 -3.7 289 276 112.9 1 245 240 113.1 2.1 261 254 118.3 -7 291 281 114.06 0 273 265 115.4 -3.3 294 288 116.4 3.3 294 283 114.7 2 277.3 268.5 115.1 0.556 3 of my 3-woods, hit today after a full protocol workout and a weight lifting session, went further than my AVERAGE DRIVE of just two months ago. My highest single swing of the either sample was from today's with the 3-wood (118 MPH)! The reason I took the 10-swing sample with the three wood today is because I hit a bunch last night for the first time in a while---and a few went over 300 yards. In two months I've gone from hitting 280 yard drives and 265 yard 3-woods to 310 yard drives and 280 yard 3-woods.

Just got back from Florida and got those two rounds in. There were positives and negatives. The courses were definetely tight and relatively short. They weren't ideal for me to bomb driver on every hole---so much damn water. So, naturally, I bombed driver on every hole, lol. First round: 15 drives, 7 OB, 5 were gorgeous 300-plus-yard baby cuts. All I wanted was one of these and I hit 4. So forget my 100, forget the 7 that went OB (a few were good but just misaligned), I was happy. I'm 5'11.5 and when someone asks how tall I am I say 5'11---no need to exagerate. I used to say I drive the ball about 280 on average---now I can say, with confidence, that I am a legitimate 300-yard driver. Now... we just need to figure out how to hit it a bit straighter (though 5/15, or 33%, is better than the 25% I was at over the course of the season). Round 2: 7 drives, 3 OB, 2 bombs. I was a bit more tactical here, trying to score, where round one was just about wacking it. Shot of the long-weekend: 400-yard dog leg right par-4 with water to the right. I aim straight down the fairway, hoping the natural ball flight will cut it right down the dogleg. Unfortunately I started it right---but it didn't have cut on it, it just went straight. It had to carry about 285 to clear the water and another 15 yards to clear the bunker. It carried, got the nice bounce & roll after the bunker and my approach was 40 yards to the green with the pin in front. I was a bit short with my approach, tried to finesse it a bit but got up and down for par. Nothing cooler than hoping you carry the water/bunker and then you see that gorgeous bounce beyond!

Halloween Update (Swing speed MPH; all speeds taken from the same exact simulator) 8-Aug 17-Oct 31-Oct Average 115.9 120.2 121.9 Median 116.2 121.5 123.0 Some more detail: 8-Aug 17-Oct 31-Oct 118.45 123.89 125.09 117.07 122.39 124.76 116.8 122.22 124.68 116.7 122.21 124.58 116.55 121.69 124.53 116.51 121.63 124.33 116.38 121.58 123.16 116.37 121.54 123.03 116.28 121.53 122.92 116.05 121.49 122 115.96 120.41 121.35 115.58 120.39 121.13 115.37 119.47 120.47 115.04 119.42 120.1 114.82 119.24 117.13 114.44 117.8 111.6 114.21 114.2 114.15 112.39 Takeaways: Over the six week period from 8/8 to 10/17 I increased both my average and median swing speed by roughly 5 MPH. My slowest non-mishits of the 10/17 sample went further than my hardest hits of the original sample. I was thrilled with those results but was expecting to hit the plateau with most of my shots coming off around 122 MPH. Unexpectedly, and fortunately, the plateau is yet to hit. Last night my first swing was a career long 329 yard bomb that carried 324.6 yards, coming off the club head at 185 MPH with a club speed of 124.53. Woah. Was that an outlier? Nope. I only crossed 122.5 one time in the prior two sample sets. Last night over half of my swings were over 122.5, the median was 123 and if you call the 111.6 MPH a miss-hit and eliminate it from the data it would bump the average to 122.6. Before last night, I never hit the 124 mark... I crossed that barrier 6 of my 16 swings. I'll be down in Florida this weekend and have three rounds lined up. Really interested to see what the accuracy is looking like out on the course. I was about 30% fairway percentage throughout the summer and am coming off 6/7 fairways in my last round (25% of my drives this summer were OB). I think a reasonable goal for myself is 42% of fairways (would be 6 of 14) with a max of one penalty per round. If I'm keeping the ball in bounds and making good contact I should have a ton of wedges into the greens. Cant wait!!! Looking forward to giving y'all the update by next weekend!

This is intuitive, in my opinion. I don't think SS is advertising an immediate increase in how fast you swing the club and how precise you make contact. It's about learning to swing harder and then learning to control it. I don't put smash factor into my posts but the data is there. 8/8 Sample Test: 116.1 MPH, 167.54 ball speed = 1.443 Smash Factor From my 10/18 post: 120.38 MPH, 174.5 ball speed = 1.449 Smash

No, the radar is not mandatory, but you need to have some sort of system for tracking. I use the simulator, which is great for my practice, but also keep detailed stats of my rounds. For example, before I had my break thru on the course, my last round I was like 0/8 in hitting fairways with an average distance of around 250. I'm now 6 of my last 7 fairways in my last two rounds with 3 balls over 300 yards. I didn't have one of those all summer. The trick to improvement is tracking---how you track is up to you.

My simulator had me at 116.5 on a 15 swing sample the day before the swing sticks came in. topped 119 once If I recall correctly. My last session I averaged 120.5 and had one over 123.5---and even more importantly, after having a 25% fairway percentage and a 25% penalty percentage through my last 70 driver swings---My last two times out I hit 6/7 fairways with 4 of them bombs like I've never really been able to produce on the course. There is a reason that tons of tour pros (350, I believe they say on their website) use these sticks. They don't only help people go from 90 to 95, they definitely help people take the jump from higher speeds to way higher.

I deviated because I am not in the official MGS testing group. I'm very physically fit and just felt that I was ready for sets with 5 swings in each set opposed to only 3 swings in each set. After doing 6 of the initial workouts with only 3 swings per side per set---I wasn't feeling much of a 'workout' so I jumped it up to the 5 swings and now I feel as if I'm on the right level.

As someone who started off with rhythm and timing on my irons, but none with my driver---I'd argue the opposite. It's significantly helped. Now if I had good rhythm, timing and accuracy to start---I'd imagine there's a 'take one step back' phase before the 'couple steps forward' though. My biggest fault in my swing is my hips come off the line---so when I practice with the SS sticks I have two main thoughts (three if you include--- "Dont let go of the freakin club again"): 1. Swing really hard 2. Rip my hips to the left to really try and feel that "pulling" motion So it's a bit of both---the training is like 85% 'swing really hard' with a little bit of a focus on ripping my hips open and having a good inside-to-outside swing path. When I actually hit balls my focus is just on the back of the ball looking for good contact.