MIGregB

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Happy to!!!

I want to thank My Golf Spy and their incredibly supportive forum staff, for this, my first, testing opportunity! I know it’s a substantially different test than most in that there are two phases being documented in this one thread with lots of participants: the Mindset sampling opportunity and the Shot Scope data/Mindset opportunity. I have been selected to be one of 29 for the Shot Scope/Mindset phase, and that means that my contributions will be far more ‘final Shot Scope data changes’ than you’re used to seeing with the typical testing process and protocols. Hopefully that in-depth testing opportunity will come for me. In the meantime, I just received my 2 doz Tour RXS balls so I have a lot of ground to cover quickly, mostly getting enough rounds in to complete the test. As there have already been many-many sampling reviews with excellent unboxing posts, ball condition reports and much more, I’ll try to not increase reading volume with redundant observations. But there are a couple of things that I’d like to share. I physically examined and like @buckpillar, salt-water balanced all of the balls. None of them had any surface irregularities and only two were anything less than perfectly balanced (see the circled areas below). Those two happened to come from the same sleeve, and really only rotated back to a general area and not the same spot as other out-of-balance balls have for me in the past. Toney Covey would be in a much better position to say whether that would result in any flight abnormalities, but I tend to doubt it. So those two will go into the rotation along with the others. It seems reasonable to me that considering the number of sampling opportunities Bridgestone is providing, they believe Mindset to be a tremendous concept and want to get it into the hands of as many players as possible. And since I don’t know of other Spys in my general area to share them with, I plan on sharing a few with some of my league partners to see if they find it helpful. I’ll let you know their feedback as well. I’ve got at least 36 holes planned this week, assuming rain doesn’t alter those plans. And while there has already been robust Mindset reporting and questions & answers, if anyone has a question or would like me to try something specific, please let me know. More to come….

Whoo-hoo!!! My 2 doz have finally arrived! Although in full disclosure, the last week has been on me as I had to travel away from my home mail drop until today. But I have them now and I plan on salt-water balancing at least a doz and give them all a once-over. Hopefully weather doesn't golf-block me (admit it, you thought I was going to say something else, didn't you?? ) as rain is predominately featured in this week's forecast.

I, too, have bunions. I've never bothered to have them removed as they came back on the two people I know that did. I also have hammer toe, much worse on my left foot. I haven't been able to wear big-boy shoes (leather street shoes) for more than 10 years because the leather upper rubs a blister after about an hour. So finding comfortable shoes of any kind pretty much leaves me with larger sized soft shoes; until Sqairz. I finally got tired of my feet slopping around while golfing, so I took the leap of faith and bought a pair of Sqairz sized normally. They've been a game changer for me. Because of the squared toe, I have plenty of room while securing the remainder of my foot. They are the most comfortable and stable golf shoes I've owned in 20 years. I have no clue about the greater swing speed, but they certainly have made a difference. I've never been overly fashion conscious anyway, but the squared toe doesn't bother me.

It does seem as though the survey skews toward a certain brand as @russtopherb suggests. But if I'm correct, that brand isn't the one I gravitate toward because of the purported gains, it's because I have funky toes and they provide excellent room & comfort while being a highly stable shoe.

Ah, found it!!! Thanks

I thought we should be able to pick out the last 10 rounds before Mindset, then the most recent 10 rounds with Mindset. But I don't see how to do that with strokes gained, just other performance data. Seems like SG is by round, season and prior season only. Let us know if you come up with a solution. Perhaps just aggregating each round in a spreadsheet or something.

Geez, mine haven't even arrived yet and you're getting ready to post your final review!

Yes, actually I did. I assumed it was an anomaly. Last Tuesday I played at a mid-Michigan course that I play most of the summer with little or no trouble connecting. It took so long to get a signal that I thought something was wrong, so I did a reset of the X5; it didn't help. I didn't time it, but after the reset it took the amount of time for the group ahead of me to all hit their 2nd shot, for my group to all tee off, and me to get to my 2nd shot! In fairness, the course is in a heavily wooded area. But there are currently no leaves on the trees and it was a mostly sunny day. I'm playing there again tomorrow so we'll see how it fairs.

Oops, sorry. I was mistaken. In fact, considering how knowledgeable this group of golfers are, I'm surprised that no one caught me!! It looks like the entire Tour B series is brand new (which does comprise their entire "upper end " model, but still). And they don't appear to offer Mindset on any other line, at least not yet. I apologize for the bad info.

From my understanding, you are correct! There could be a new ball model in there somewhere that happened to drop recently, but it looks like they have the Mindset option available on most, if not all, of their upper end models. So, I agree that the MGS Ball Test reports would be a great place to start. Like you, I find it interesting that Bridgestone is giving away so many boxes of Mindset balls. You could be right that they aren't being accepted nearly as well as they expected and that they need to get them out there to try build a following.

I'm not sure you know, but nothing in the Shot Scope system (or any shot tracking system of which I'm aware) provides carry, spin and spin control (I'm assuming you mean spin consistency) values, so we won't have any way to provide those unless someone has a launch monitor they can deploy while playing. Carry numbers is the one thing I wish any of the shot tracking systems could provide as I believe they're more important than total.

@nupezb @PhilM75072 @Golf2Much Well of course the 2 doz are finally starting to arrive, I'm away from home for about a week. Sheesh!!

If I understand the official Shot Scope test, it's all about the Mindset feature, not just the usual ball performance. It's obviously difficult to separate the two. But if you've chosen a Bridgestone model by using the Find My Ball app or at least a model that somewhat compares to your current gamer, the non-Mindset stuff should be minimized. Hopefully that can isolate whether Mindset helps you aim and execute a shot better than those without Mindset. IMHO, Mindset will better help those who don't have a solid pre-shot routine than those who do. Is it a helpful feature or simply interesting graphics? But again, that's what I think they're trying to determine.

The balls haven't arrived just yet for those of us in the Shot Scope testing group. Hopefully soon.

Terrific pre-Mindset comparison & review! I, too, am interested to see how the ball compares to my gamer(s), but the Mindset/Shot Scope test is more specifically about whether it can result in more shots in play with hard data to prove it. I'm concerned that my before & after "data" will be unfairly skewed as I have worked hard on my sequencing over the winter, and I got a new, more forgiving driver, both of which have already pretty substantially improved my shot data. I only have a few rounds under my belt this season so I'm still in the honeymoon phase of my changes; old habits have a "habit" of cropping up at the most inopportune times! Maybe I'll have enough 2024 rounds in before the Bridgestone's arrive to establish a new baseline. I'm anxious to see whether Mindset makes a difference, I just need to figure out how to establish that.

This should be interesting. Can't wait for some results. Congratulations all!

Another good group, congratulations all!!

A terrific spread of testers, congratulations to all!

Hmmm, sounds like market research to me. But yes, they are for me. The alternative is to fiddle with your smart phone, or some other such device, to let the app/tracking system know what club you're using and at what place on the curse course (that started out as a typo, but it seems far too appropriate at times to correct!!!).

@GolfSpy_BEN, I did think of one rookie question. But since I am, I'm not too embarrassed to ask . How contemporary should the rounds be for posting? Those played just that week? Up to the week prior? I can imagine there's more leeway for the 1st week, especially for those of us in the north who have to dodge rain/snow/cold in the beginning. But what's the guidelines? Thanks,

This is an incredible amount of work you're doing so that we can have a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to participating this year. Thank you!!!

I was waiting for that to come out, thanks for the heads-up! Let us know what you think after tomorrow's round.

I've been a Shot Scope user since the V1. I've had the V2, V3, H4 and now the X5. Each one has gotten better, but I agree with @tony@CIC that it felt like the X5 was beta tested on us early users. The X5, while still not flawless, is now pretty darn good. I'd still like much better battery life, though, so it could also be worn as a watch without daily charging. Or alternately, a more convenient method such as wireless charging. I tried Arccos in the past, well after it should have been stable, but had a lot of trouble with missed shots. And, of course, there's that annual fee for its use in any form. I also have tried the SwingU app. It seemed to work very well, but it took more user input during the round than I like. It also has an annual fee for any of the advanced level tracking info, but not for handicap calculation (at lease the last time I checked) which is the reason I still have it. I don't have the need for an official USGA HC. Also, it's a PITA to register legitimate rounds since no one in my golfing group partakes either, and the club I generally play doesn't make it any more convenient to post rounds. I simply use HC as one way to track progress. According to SwingU, the only thing missing in their calculation is the newly added weather factor so it's pretty accurate.