GregB135

Update to the post. Still going to have to wait nearly another month for my shoes to arrive, but their response to my last email was a shipping notice for a shoe bag and 3 pairs of socks. At least they are making an effort to compensate for the delay.

In at least two of my older pairs of Sqairz, there is noticeable wear inside the heel on the seam. They are still holding up, as in not torn, but the friction of walking and swinging over time has rubbed a 'hole' in the fabric along the seam at the base of the heel. Keep in mind, I'm practicing on the range once, sometimes twice a week and getting in a full round nearly once/week as well, so they've been worn quite a bit.

So event #2 didn't go much better than the opener. I played nice and relaxed through the entire round. And, truthfully, played relatively well tee to green hitting 9/14 FIR and 6 GIR. Numbers like that usually means my score is in the 80s. Full swing wise I felt like I only had 4 bad shots the entire round, unfortunatlely two of those were back to back (including a bad shot choice) and one other cost me my only penalty on the day. It was a true short game meltdown that got me a 94. I had two 2-chip greens, one semi-bladed bunker shot, NO one-putt greens, and 4 3-putts. That 40 putt total alone was enought to ruin the score, but along with the other poor short game play the number got REALLY big compared to how well I felt I was hitting the ball. For example, on a decently long, downhill par 5, a pretty good drive and pretty good second shot have me looking at the green from 45 yards, center fairway. Thin contact on the pitch goes over the green, one duffed chip, one not close enough, and a 3-putt from 12 feet. That's the answer to "how do you make a double bogey from 45 yards in the fairway." I didn't have time to hang out after the round, but it's going to be another bottom 1/3 finish, and not many points. I'm heading up to play the RTJ trail in Alabama with some of the fellas this week. Maybe playing a whole bunch of golf will get my swing rolling for the next couple of events and I can start moving up the season leader board.

At least it looks like the test is up and running. I was one of the testers in the original Sqairz shoe test. Since then, I've worn nothing but. Be aware, I recently ordered (or as it turns out 'pre-ordered') a pair of the ProS2 shoes on March 15. This order went in not long after ordering a pair of the Speed Mesh shoes for the upcoming season. The first order arrived pretty much on time. I really like the Speed Mesh shoes, but since my older pairs were starting to show some significant wear in the heel padding area, I was eager to get the ProS2s for another color option, and for potential wet weather play (summer in FL). The estimated delivery when I placed the order was March 25. That day came and went, and after a week I sent an email to inquire about the order status. Their original response was, after some shipping delays, the new models had arrived and would be shipping out in a few days and I would receive a shipping notice. Another week went by with nothing. Another email. Another response now saying they were experiencing back order, and I would receive a shipping notice. Another two weeks with nothing. Another email. This time the response is, 'expect them to ship some time next month'. I don't know what most of you would do or say at this point, but here was my response. "Since I've recently ordered another pair of shoes, I'm okay waiting for the delivery. Is there any kind of offer in the works for such an extended delay? I'll reiterate, this is far below the level of customer service I've come to expect as a long time customer. And I'll be honest, it has me thinking I may not order again. I hope you can use that feedback to make things better." Standing by for their response. For the testers, I hope your customer service experience has been up to their earlier standard.

First event didn't go so well. My very first tee shot of the season... cart path bounce into penalty area. Took a drop, played a recovery shot, then first full iron swing of the season... flag bomb to 3 feet, then yup, I missed that eason one and still made bogey. The rest of the round was the full mixed bag of good shots, bad shots, a couple more penalties, and a couple of bad breaks and bounces just for fun. In the end it was a 92 net 80 to finish bottom third in the field and earn only 11 season points. Practice round today wasn't much better. I hit a bunch of wild shots early, but reined things back in enough to feel like I have a 'go-to" feel again for my swing. Event #2 is this saturday at Lake Jovita's south course. Always a crowd pleaser, and a good track for me in the past. Fingers crossed I can earn a few more points this time.

Season opener is this Sunday. Sounds like it's going to be a fun season again. Our new committe members have instituted some changes, so it will be interesting to see how those work out. They are always looking to improve our pace of play, yet, asked us all to try and use a live scoring app this year. Not sure if that won't slow us down some. Either way, I'm a little nervous going in because my work schedule and some weather kept me from practicing this week. My only opportunity to hit any balls is going to be in a scramble event on Saturday.

I definitely recommend Westchase, it's a good mix of quality conditions and isn't going to be to harsh for the non-golfers. Plantation Palms and Heritage Isles are good choices as well, they are going to be maybe one step down on the course conditions. If you're trying to stay in Tampa proper it's going to be tougher. The only track I'm familiar with is Rocky Point, but that's not one I'd recommend highly for course condiitions. It is maybe most appropriate for a bachelor party kind of vibe because it's not a super hard track and it's not as pricey as some of the others.

I'm playing in a Master's themed scramble tournament this weekend. Which ensemble says "The Master's" more? The straight green shirt, or the azaleas? Greg With The Hat wants to know. (Mrs. Hat always picks the azaleas btw)

I keep going back and forth between the X1 and ProV1. For the most part they are similar. Performance off the driver is similar, the X1 still flies a little lower for me. With irons though, especially short irons, it seems like the X1 is shorter. I did pick up a Performance Pack in my last order, and I was VERY pleased with the way the new/yet to be released for sale Xp performed. OnCore's ball fitter suggestion for me was the Elixr, but I just don't like the feel of that one.

Here is the course lineup for the Tampa Tour 2024 Season - If you are familiar with any of these, it feels a lot more like we are the "Tampa" tour again, after ranging out sometimes 3 hours drive or more over the last two seasons. We are back to playing a few member favorites, and there are a couple of new tracks for me in this years lineup. Me personally, I'm excited to have the Innisbrook courses back this year. Copperhead gets more publicity for hosting the Valspar Championship each year (i've got my Friday tickets). IMO, and many agree, the Island course is the better/more challenging track. If is had more room to facilitate the spectators they would host the pros on that one. Both of the Orange County National tracks are crowd pleasers. Juliette Falls is a hidden gem in Dunellon that quickly became a favorite among the league players. I'm looking forward to TPC Prestancia as a new site for me, I'll just have to qualify for that one. Once we get the season rolling, I'll queue up the course reviews under 'Greg-with-the-hat's Tampa Course Reviews' or something similar.

Rather than change the thread name and start again, I'm just goingt to pick up here where we left off. I'm getting ready to start my 6th season playing on The Tampa Tour. It is a stroke play, full handicap, amateur league. We play usually 14-16 regular season events over the summer season, then there are two qualification based post season events. The field of 40 players in each event is divided into two flights based on the mid-point of the handicaps for that weeks players. Last season the cut line was usually around 10 or 11. After barely missing qualifying for both post-season events last year, my goal is to earn top-20 status on both leader boards and be an auto entry for both. I played in both last year thanks to being selected as a captain's pick for the Tampa Cup, where I was 2-0-1 for the weekend in match play. It may be a little harder this year as I am starting the season with my number at 11. If last year's pattern holds, that will make me one of the 'bubble boys', and I'll wind up bouncing between the A and B flights each week depending on who enters. The struggle for me will be playing back one set of tees when I'm in A flight. They tend to put the A's at about 6600 yards, while the B flight plays about 6200. I've been working on my game through the off season with lessons and practice rounds. I've seen scores get more consistently in the mid-80's range, even when it feels like I'm not hitting it well. I've putted pretty well so I'm a lot more confident once I reach the greens. We had some changeover on the league committee, and they did a great job setting up our schedule. I'll cue that up in another post and start working on my course review format for the year. Hang on folks, and here we go - Life on the Bubble 2024!

The T-200s are still going strong, and got some new friends in the bag over the holidays (Christmas and Birthday). Cleveland CBX ZipCore 52 and 56 degree wedges went into the bottom end, and there was enough cash in the holiday cards to upgrade the driver and 3 wood to PXG 311 XF Gen 5 Driver ang Gen 6 3 wood. I'm definitely ready for the new league season (at least as far as equipment goes). Hopefully I can get my swing dialed in and make a better showing this year.

Went to Black Diamond Ranch this past Saturday and played the Quarry Course. First visit back there in about two years. New management has changed the dynamic a bit. In the past they were (if I'm using nice words) 'inhospitable' to guest players. This time they were more than welcoming and we had a great time. Also fired off my best round there yet. 39-43-82. The T200s are getting me in a groove of sub-40 nine hole scores. (It's only 180 yards and about a 40 foot drop to the green from the tips - par three opener of the 5 quarry holes)

Date 10/28/2023 Course Name Black Diamond Ranch Quarry Course Gross Score 82 Course Handicap 13 Gross Strokes over/under par 10 Net Score to Par -3 Net Score 69 Net Birdies or better 5 Longest Drive 250 Best round on that course by a long way. New management is much nicer to guest players.

Played another 9-hole Iron Man challenge earliler this week. The base where I work has two courses, and the North course is much less busy, so it's usually not a problem to play multiple shots or something like this. It isn't the best conditions-wise. Not all the fairways are mown closely, and the green speeds are a little inconsistent. It's fun though recalling the days of my H.S. team using it for practice and learning the game with my buds there. This time the scoring was relatively even. It was 75 and sunny, but the breeze was a steady 15+ through the round. I am a little disappointed that it took me until the 7th hole on either ball to finally hit a green in regulation. Iron Man's only missed fairway was costly. It was a bit of a pull on a shot where I was trying to make a forced carry, and didn't, adding a penalty to Iron Man's score where Bag Boy pulled it off with the driver. Iron Man also had one 3 putt bogey while Bag Boy made a long birdie after making another high risk tee shot pay off. Those two strokes were the difference this time, and Iron Man took the loss by 1 stroke. Once again, even though I didn't have a great ball striking day into the greens, both scores were 40 or better on a day with challenging wind conditions. I had a much better than average day off the tees though only missing three fairways out of 14 tee balls. And only one of those needed a recovery shot to get back into the line of play and get a short game save for par. The T200s are solid and predictble. I'm sold on the results. I'm still trying to get accustomed to the change in feel. While you can really tell when you get a pure strike on the sweet spot through feel and sound, the feel feedback on the off center hits is less telling than the sound. The good news is those slight mis-hits don't seem as costly as anticipated on distance.