MIGregB

Three years ago, as a birthday present from my youngest son, I received 4-full week Greenskeeper tickets to the WMO. It included food, drinks and a special seating area along the 18th fairway reasonably close to the 18th green. I was most excited about practice rounds and the ProAm because that's when you used to be able to actually interact a bit with players on the course. Since Covid rules hit, when they wouldn't let you get within 50 yards of anyone on the course which have never been relaxed, the non-tournament days are pretty boring. The ProAm, from a spectator point-of-view, is just watching a bunch of people you don't know play mediocre golf from afar. My oldest son, who lives in Glendale, has been to a few tournaments over the years and told me that while it's pretty loud and wild in general, Saturday in particular is the worst. He described it as a giant Frat party gone wild (and he was in a party Frat!). Other than people having to occupy smaller spaces because of so much muddy terrain, though, there wasn't much reported this weekend that hasn't been happening for years. Past-out drunks on the ground and being carried out? Yep, I saw that. Drunks belly flopping down the sides of a hills and then up-chucking? Yep, that, too! Fights? Unrestricted alcohol always leads to fights somewhere. (BTW, alcohol is only restricted on paper. We quickly learned there are tons of way to get around that.) To my knowledge, though, they've never felt it necessary to close the gates and stop alcohol sales, so I guess it must have ratcheted up a notch. The giant party atmosphere does lend itself to one entertaining aspect. People watching! There are tons of people there, men and women, who wouldn't know a golf ball from a bowling ball. They are there to see and be seen in their finest club outfits. Some of which I'm almost surprised they let in to a supposed outside sporting event. That part was definitely entertaining! Being a person of a certain age (read: OLD) and a definite lightweight these days when it comes to drinking, I wouldn't ever go to the WMO again. But then again, I'm not in the target demographics so I don't think they'll lose much sleep over it.

I agree. I incorporate rkc planks into my set, part of my rationalization for not holding them as long, but it's more difficult and I thought it a bit much for anyone who's never done them but wanted to try them out. Isometrics in general aren't great for overall strength training. But they are beneficial for the core and joint stabilization, although other variations improve on core strength. My shoulder flexibility is poor enough that I can't pull off a reverse plank, which is why I said earlier that I do a half-a$$ed plank to work on balancing things out.

No disrespect intended; I agree and stand corrected.

I like using my phone timer as well. I have to admit that stopped telling people how long I do planks because I found it to be defeating when they 1st try and can't even do 30 seconds; I couldn't when I 1st started! It took time (again, tenacity!!), but I got myself up to 9 minutes. But I found that to be overkill for what I was trying to achieve. So now I do just 4 minutes, moving directly into the push-ups, and then a half-a$$ed back plank (to help counterbalance muscles). Rather than feeling beat-up the rest of the day, I feel invigorated! At nearly 73, I'm pretty proud of that.

Having bad discs puts you in a cautious frame. But like tony@CIC, I am a huge advocate of planks. I started doing them 7 years ago as a last-ditch effort to mitigate a problem I was having and saw an immediate improvement. I haven't stopped doing them since. And, oh by the way, they're great for golf!! If you've never done them, I have 2 pieces of advice. First, start with whatever amount of time you can hold a proper plank, even if it's only 10 seconds. I'm serious! (Google planks and you'll get tons of how-to videos.) But do them every day gradually building yourself up. It isn't about strength, it's about tenacity. You'll be surprised how quickly your core will improve. My issue was, and still is, my shoulders and triceps. They bother me far more than my core. I've added push-ups after the planks to help build those muscles as well. Nothing crazy, just 10 to 15 depending on how I feel; again, building up slowly at 1st (I started off with modified, bent knee push-ups!!!). The second is, doing planks becomes incredibly boring so find a way to distract yourself while still holding them properly. While I was trying to get beyond a minute or two, I had my wife talk to me to distract me. A distraction will help you do them longer thus improving quicker. Again agreeing with tony@CIC, rotation is big! I work on flexibility, rotation and balance with simple stretching before my planks and the one-foot rotation drill. All together I now only spend about 1/2 hour every other to every 3 days, but it's paid off well for me. Of course none of this is cardio, but simple walking can help that. Good luck!

I don't disagree with anything you're saying. My own personal significance that I place on your statement above, though, is probably the biggest difference. For ME, if a ball CAN go wonky on me but I don't know whether it's my poor swing or the ball that caused it, that's bad in itself since I can't fix what I can't identify. Maybe it's only 5-10% of the time, but which 5-10%? The fact that we consumers never had objective quality information before MGS and were forced to assume we were the screw-ups, doesn't mean we should knowingly continue to reward companies who make poorly constructed balls. So buying the best ball for the category in which you play (at least within a reasonable range) should be, IMHO, a goal. But also, just because a ball is highly rated in this study, doesn't necessarily mean it's one you should use (a point I was trying to make, albeit poorly, in response to someone saying they should try a ball because it had a high-quality rating; try it because its performance characteristics are what you're after AND it's a high-quality ball in that category). I know we're saying much the same thing with a little different emphasis, and has a lot has to do with what you want out of golf. If you're just socializing and knocking the ball around with friends, most anything will do from both a performance and quality prospective. But trying to be competitive and get better at the game (which I'm assuming any MGS member is), quality within your category is important. I guess another way to look at the MGS Quality Rankings is that unless you decide that your error rate is so much greater than that of the ball that you don't care considering what you want out of golf, buying the best constructed ball in your category could help.

First, I'll admit that I'm too impatient to read through both pages of responses. But based on the 8 or 9 that I did read, it seems to me that there is confusion about what this category means. This has nothing to do with how a given ball performs; other than whatever the playing characteristics of that ball are for your swing, the higher rated ball will do that same thing more often than a lower rated ball. So the fact that the Tour Response is rated best overall just means that you can depend on that ball reacting to your swing more consistently than the others, not that it's necessarily even close to the best ball for your game. And the fact that the Kirkland is the top-rated ball under $20 isn't so much praise for Kirkland as it is criticism for everything else below it. That's just scary!!!

I'm pretty sure it was #3, sucky tape! I bought new and used the same brand/style grip on the club (driver) and it's been fine ever since. Thanks!

That had me baffled, too! So, I dug down into the comment section of an older McGolf's regripping videos and someone commented that the tape dispenser he uses automatically removes the backing and wound it around a separate wheel. I've had problems with old double-sided tape not working well which allowed grips to twist. I couldn't imagine leaving the backing on and not having the same issue.

There's more than a couple of us eagerly awaiting your thoughts!!

Sorry for being absent. Bad storms in the area got me sidelined with traveling back home and some clean-up work. Thank you all for your suggestions, they've been very helpful!

Seriously, that's why I need help! Good idea!

OK... so I wanted to be sure you guys took a look at my question. My golf league has an annual end-of-season banquet where everyone has to bring a golf gift worth no more than $10 to use as prizes. (I suppose "gag" gifts are OK; but after my topic title, I'd rather not go there!! ) Most of us already have sleeves of inexpensive golf balls (that we mostly re-gift), tees/ball markers/divot tool packages and assorted trinkets. I'd like to come up with something different than the usual. Considering how vast the MGS community, I thought for sure there'd be some great suggestions. BTW, I have NO objections going over $10, but the league president wants to keep a lid if costs so no one gets embarrassed. But a little over isn't a big deal. So, what about it? Anything different come to mind??

I've left questions for Tony after his Q&As that happen to involve graphite shafts, but I guess it wasn't of sufficient relevance to be included in other Q&As. I asked whether there was still a (supposed) joint benefit of going graphite as the shafts become more stable as indicated by the fact that so many are now more accurate providing less dispersion than their steel counterparts. In my addled mind, if graphite is more accurate because they've become more stable, could they also still be less jarring on your joints? I literally don't know and would love to see some sort of test to demonstrate either way.

Well, at your swing speed your needs are very different from mine. But from what I understand from a recent article about the proliferation of 7 woods on tour (for the life of me, I can't remember whether it was a MGS, Golf Digest or Golf Mag article... sorry), if your goal/need is to hit greens from a distance, then a fairway wood is a far better choice than either a long iron or a hybrid. Neither of those impart enough spin, at least at an amateur level, to stop on a green; a fairway wood does. The article goes on to say that most struggle with the 3 wood, but 5/7 woods are easier to hit, provide substantially better height (for a steeper decent angle) and spin more for stopping power. They said that Pro's often shorten the shaft length on their 7 wood for gapping purposes. They surprisingly said that many (alluded to most) people struggle hitting hybrids. I've always struggled with that myself and have given away 3 different hybrids that frustrated the crap out of me. But my 7 wood, in particular, is relatively easy. Oh! And you may notice that I also carry a 4 iron hybrid. I generally use that for hitting into the wind instead of my 7 wood, but I still don't hit it as well.

I've line up the ball for many years as I, too, have trouble aligning myself otherwise. I tried over-writing the mfg model designation but found little difference from just using the printed line/model designation. I loaded up on Maxfli balls last winter that has a distinctive line (parallel lines above & below the model designation) that also matches the direction of the spin balanced equator, so they make it easy. But I try to go one step farther by picking out a small divot/grass clump/dirt patch to align behind the ball to provide a longer and easier to see line. To no one's surprise, that doesn't always work!

As a club builder, you can cut the shaft to the appropriate length from a raw shaft and glue the proper adapter in place. But is it reasonable to cut down a shaft that it already tipped and fitted with a shaft adapter? I guess I'm asking where you make the cut; the butt section so only a new grip is needed, or the tip end where a new adapter needs to be installed? I have a spare Motore X F3 65R shaft that I'd like to experiment with, but I don't want to hose it by doing something stupid Thanks!

He is dead on with this suggestion, although I think it was PhilM75072 who 1st convinced me to give it a try. It is eerily similar to the Windows restarting trick to clear up various performance issues. Hopefully it won't have to be done periodically; it's a bit of a pain. You'll have to reinstall the latest firmware update and set up the X5 again as if it were new. But it worked wonders for me!

I couldn't agree more! I've not found a wood style hybrid that I can hit consistently, but I use my Srixon 23 deg Hybrid Iron when I need to keep the flight down, whether in the fairway or on the tee, and fairway woods (5 or 7) when I want it elevated.

Whether I'm being quick and efficient or just plain lazy, I often use the narrow end of my blade putter for a mark when I'm just realigning the ball. Since I never move it and I'm replacing the ball at that moment, no one has ever challenged me. But I always wondered whether it was technically legal. Then a few months ago, one of the many email newsletters I receive linked to an article addressing that very issue. According to them, it is legal (sorry, I really don't remember, but it was probably either Golf Digest or Golf magazine). Again, assuming you're not moving the putter head before replacing the ball.

I agree! I decided to give it a try and found it to be pretty darn accurate and (so far) fast in settling on a distance. I also really like that they provide an unofficial handicap calculation, even on the free version, based upon the rounds you have in the system. I asked if they follow the USGA handicap formula and they said they don't adjust for weather conditions, but imply they otherwise do. That works for my needs, so it's great! They have also been extremely responsive to questions and requested edits. I asked for tee-box, slope and course rating updates on two different courses and they got it done in a day. Pretty terrific! As most subscription apps do, they offer a solid discount on 1st year sign-up of which I've taken advantage. There's a LOT to it and I'm just scratching the surface, so no usability opinion yet. BUT... the one thing that I really hate, you'll start receiving tons of spam emails from their "partners". I think I've been able to successfully unsubscribe to most, but I hate having to go through that. There was probably a choice to opt out when signing up, only I never saw it.

Agree! My only remaining disappointment is battery life. I commented a couple of pages back that I thought with some careful planning, one could get 36 holes of battery life. Today, I don't think that's easily done. My last round was played in 1 hr 50 mins on the front nine, a 45-minute period between where the X5 was on watch mode only, then the back nine taking 2hrs 10 minutes. The battery was at 44%. The course is heavily wooded and there were occasional thick clouds which, I think, causes the X5 to work harder to maintain a connection. But those aren't conditions over which I have any control and the X5 should be better at performing in those kinds of routine conditions. I think they need to take their statement, "Long battery life in golf mode lasting over 2 rounds" out of the product description as I'm willing to bet that 2 rounds of life is the exception rather than the rule. They have enough challenges without setting up unreasonable expectations for prospective buyers.

Should anyone have a lot of time to waste, they'd find that I've said the same thing while in the throes of X5 frustration. And I still believe that to be true even though my X5 has settled down to a very solid performing device. We ALL had a hand in making that happen! I'm also sure that the G5 directly benefited from our experiences, but I don't deny SS the ability to launch new products. Heck, you could say the same thing about any product; improvements on newly launched products always benefit from the previous generation. So, I would have felt much better if SS had asked for beta testers (there'd have been a lot from this forum alone!) even if we still paid for the device, new products only help us in the long run, IMHO of course.

I echo his comments regarding performing a factory reset vs hard reset. After doing so just over 2 weeks ago, my X5 has settled down to a excellent performing device; and I had all sorts of goofy things occurring prior to doing that. My battery life still isn't the greatest, but I think with a little careful attention and reasonable time per round, I could get 36 holes out of one charge.

I ended up not doing it because I ran out of time, but that's exactly the method I was going to try when I was back home for a longer time than expected and wanted to play but left my regular set up north. Seems fairly easy to set up and use. I'll be interested to hear your experience!