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GregB135

 
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Posts posted by GregB135

  1. 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.

  2. Here is the course lineup for the Tampa Tour 2024 Season -

    cropped3Tsched.jpg.3b3ac5d2c3f4344f33be644ca67bfb3d.jpg

    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.

  3. 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!

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

    BlackDiamond.jpg.1d24cae5c9235ca6bf406345600e743a.jpgquarry1.jpg.6918b783f682f6445a909bd3d7be3f54.jpg

    (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)

  6. 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.

     

    Ironman2.jpg.fe20716f598f9cd8d35fa3fb2c1ed7e1.jpg

  7. Okay then. If you can imagine that string of photo posts included in the review post, you'll have an idea of what I inteded my end product to look like. My apologies to the mod team and all of you for the delays caused by dealinlg with the server issues. 

    Even with all the frustration here at the end of the process, it has been great, and a lot of fun working with this group of testers and the mod team to get here.

  8. First Impressions - 18 out of 20

    Points off for packaging - A little plain considering what I've received from some other OEMs

    package.jpg.a77e0822743acadc6d710365f4eb8196.jpg

     

    Aesthetics 9 out of 10

    Clubs have that clean traditional look even with all the GI engineering under the hood (7 iron left, 5 iron right)

    7setup.jpg.b1ecc90e173e123f42e5a5eb5a57f570.jpg5setup.jpg.8058d33997a3bc56e57f7f28174e05b8.jpg

     

    On Course 20 out of 20

    I haven't had so many 9 hole scores under 40 in quite a long time. These irons are a great fit for my swing and my game

    consvtrycard.jpg.a00729a02fb24162c4d4e8d2a59ca949.jpgTPalmsCard.jpg.7da6f582ab2344a23167a545c2a4799a.jpg

     

     

    The Numbers 10 out of 10

    Once I got the swing tuned in, side-to-side dispersion looked really good

    rangedata.jpg.d0c09d21efeef3cec07e7a4fd83b8d62.jpg

     

    Conclusion - The T200s are going to be in the bag for a long time

    finalbag.jpg.3c03a207bf37bfc38db3a5dbf712187b.jpg

  9. 10 hours ago, Ben Joest said:

    Have you tried posting the words without the pictures in a new post? Or the pictures without the words? I got mine to go, but it was a lengthy trial and error process that took up a good chunk of the Saturday it was due. That most frustrating part was the parts it would take or reject were random

    I tried every possible option. With and without pictures. Copy/paste from Word. All over several frustrating days. Shout out to @GolfSpy_APH for finding a workaround to all the server issues to at least get the text of my review up. I even got rejected this morning with the Internal Server Error trying to quote the post to add the photos.

    I'm frustrated and disappointed because it all makes it look far below the level of my other review work and it puts my name on an end product that is below the quality that I would publish. Not Jamie's fault, he went way above and beyond to find a way to get it up there. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     



  10. Final Review 3 Oct 2023

    Titleist T-Series Irons (T200) – Official MGS Forum Review by Greg Barker


    First Impressions 18 out of 20

    From the very beginning the testing experience for the T-series irons was first rate. You can read more in-depth about the fitting and un-boxing in those posts. My fitter, Joe, is one that I’ve worked with before so it didn’t take him long to get me dialed in with the T200 5-PW, and the TRS2 4-Hybrid all matched up with the Mitsubishi Tensei Blue graphite shafts.


    Truthfully, the two-point deduction is only for the packaging for shipping. Given Titleist’s reputation of class and prestige, 

    And how hard they work to maintain that image, the packaging was plain and minimal, but effective. The simple carboard box with basic wrapping on the club heads and not much to keep the clubs separated in the box falls a little short of what some of their DTC competitors do to make receiving the shipment feel special.

    (photo package)


    The clubs themselves look fantastic. Titleist has marketed the new T-series as more easily blended than previous sets. And, while I didn’t wind up with a blending of the T-series this time, my previous set was blended T-300/T-200. Not so much for looks, but for playability differences I went back and ordered the T-200 club heads to replace the two 300s. 



    Aesthetics 9 out of 10 


    Titleist continues to make really great looking clubs with a simple and classic appeal. The T-200s really nailed the look for taking a player’s distance design and giving it the classic look of it’s more blade-like siblings. The look at setup frames the ball nicely, and the slightly thicker top line keeps the bulkier back side of the club head out of view, which for me helps give a bit of confidence when I’m trying to shape a shot. The change in the badging, enclosing the cavity and other inner workings of the clubhead gives these that classic ‘look at me, I’m a great club’ appeal that has become Titleist’s go-to.

    (photos 7setup, 5 setup)


    Sound and feel are where the T-200s lost a point for me. The previous T200 got a bad rap for sound because the badge enclosing the back of the clubhead made a goofy, annoying, clicky sound if you happened to tap a ball with the back of the club. Granted, you would only do that on the range and not when hitting a shot, but it was still there. They improved that mightily with the new version. Comparing these directly to the original T200s, the sound of the strike tells me a little bit more than the feel. Maybe it’s the combination of the updated design and the graphite shaft but the feel feedback I get from this set feels a bit muted versus their predecessors that really told your hands when you flushed it or missed it. The sound and feel together though is more than enough to decipher the quality of the shot. The good news: Even when sound and feel say you missed it by a bit, the inner workings of the club provide a shot that stays pretty close to the one you intended.


    It took me a few range sessions to get accustomed to the feel and balance with the graphite shafts. It seemed strange to me that the lighter graphite shaft had what seemed like a stiffer, or more rigid feel to it than the steel shafts in the other irons. I got over that quickly when I saw the consistency in the numbers and the ball flight.



    The Numbers 10 out of 10


    I put these irons through a number of range sessions using the Rhapsodo MLM. I had a couple of lessons with my coach using them. I played a number of practice rounds, and had them almost immediately in play in league competition for the final event of they year and post season match play. I could see right away, consistently higher ball flight. That was identified as a target during the fitting to improve carry and descent angle. I started very consistent club and ball speeds using the MLM, and as a result, more consistent distance with each club. It was doing some impact drills that really honed in the sense of the sound and feel mentioned above. Once I get to (or at least close to) the A swing, the side-to-side dispersion seems to be A LOT better to boot. All-in-all this set of T200s with the TSR hybrid was really easy to get dialed in and ready to take on the course with confidence.

    (photo rangedata)


    I used them in a practice round on the course immediately after the hurricane passed through. So the fairways were not cut down to their usual height, and there were some soft conditions to deal with as well. These irons flowed really nicely through the deeper fairway grass and at the same time I’ve had no issues, and even hit some really good shots, from thin or other troublesome lies. The sole design seems to be working as advertised in that regard.


    On-Course 20 out of 20


    For the past several seasons, I’ve pretty steadily averaged 5-7 GIR per round and scored pretty steadily in the high mid 80-s to low 90s range. Looking back at my scorecards with these irons, including one 9-hole irons only round, I’ve seen that GIR average bumped up to 7-9, included one round with 10 GIR. Two of five rounds with the T200s in the bag had 10+ holes at par or better, with 5 individual 9 hole scores under 40. On top of those competitive rounds, was the irons only 9 that carded a 38. I managed to break 80 for the first time in something like 3 years. The last round I played was in a team match play event. Even with some early miscues in the first round, the T200s kept me competitive through the weekend. I hit a handful of difference making shots in 4-ball and alternate shot. Then in singles, with the match even after 14 holes; I hit 3 of 4 GIR coming in, including slightly mis hit layup and approach shots on the par 5 18th, but that was enough to take the match 2-up and earn my second full point for the weekend.


    (photos T palms card, Consvtry card)


    The Good, the bad, the in-between 20 out of 20


    The good – with my previous set, I dreaded pulling the 4 or 5 iron for approach shots. I had just about zero confidence in either of those clubs. Interestingly, it’s been the 5 iron and 4 hybrid that have generated some of the best, and most clutch shots I’ve hit with this new set.

    The bad – with the very slight increase in carry distances, this set managed to stretch out what I already thought was too great a gap between my PW and lowest lofted wedge. That’s left me without a club in the bag for the 105-115 distance. 

    The in-between – going into the fitting, I told Joe, “everything is on the table” as far as set makeup, shafts, etc. I’ll admit I was a little skeptical when he grabbed the first graphite shaft option. The performance of this combination though was just too hard to beat and the Tensei blues got the nod over the Nippon Zelos lightweight steel shaft.

    The only other negative to all of this? If I keep scoring this well, I’m gonna wind up in the A Flight and one set of tees further back (at least the 4h and 5i are pulling their weight now)


    Play it or Trade it? 20 out of 20


    If you’ve read this far, you can probably guess the answer to that one. These irons are definitely in the bag to stay. Giving props to Joe for yet another really good fitting and further testimony to the value of that in selecting clubs, I’ve played some of my best golf in years with this set in the bag. I’ve regained some lost confidence in using the longer clubs for approach shots.  Seeing my GIR number on the rise, and looking at score cards with 10 and 11 holes played to par or better has me more excited about where my game is, and where it could get to, than I have been in a long time.


    (And the Gap Wedge to work into the bottom of the set to fill in that yardage gap is on order)


    Conclusion

    What does Titleist claim for the T200 irons? They call it a Player’s Distance iron, so it should be the middle ground between the workability of a muscle-back/blade design, and the forgiveness of a cavity back, perimeter weighted game improvement iron. In other words, the sweet spot for my mid-handicap game. Even comparing these directly to their original release predecessors, I got improvement all across my iron game using the new T-200.

    Titleist also claims:

    Enhanced Feel – If by enhanced they mean softer, I can concur. If you’re accustomed to the more distinct feedback to the hands of a forged blade or muscle back, these will feel “muted” to quote myself and another tester. That doesn’t mean they don’t tell you enough to know when you nailed the sweet spot, or got one a little thin. I also felt like I had a little better club head awareness through the swing and transition with these.

    Clean and Confident Shape – Titleist has changed their mindset on whether or not they want you to blend their iron sets. The T-series is designed just for that. While I didn’t wind up with a blended set after my fitting, the lines and appearance at setup frame the ball nicely. Closing the back of the clubhead and making it more of a hollow body cavity back makes the look consistent when you do blend the set, and, at least for me, gave me a little more confidence up and down the set.

    Effortless Turf Interaction – Definitely a Check! I got to play these in a variety of conditions, and from a variety of fairway and off-fairway lies. My divot shape had been a little shallower, but definitely more consistent on the range. I’ll also testify to seeing far less distance given away on shots where I said “caught that one a little heavy” while the ball was in fight. Also very consistent performance for me through the set in this category, helping to restore some lost confidence in the longer irons.

    Better Tungsten for Better Scoring – Also Check! I’ve carded some of my best scores in years during this test period. The upgraded tungsten in the new design generated higher ball flight and better descent angle than my earlier version T200s. My GIR numbers improved along with my number of par-or-better holes each round. 

    Final Score 97 out of 100
    At least for this mid-handicap, self-described “B-Flight hack”, the Titleist T-200 irons more than fit the bill, and proved out just about every detail Titleist claims. If you are in the market for a new set of Players Distance type irons, I am more than a believer in these.

    (photo final bag)



    Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

  11. On 8/14/2023 at 11:44 AM, Ben Joest said:

    The averages shown below show my concerns over this being too big of a loft gap proved unfounded. However, as this is the blend point for this set, nowhere is it more apparent that what is gained (distance & forgiveness) in the T200 line, is done so at the expense of feel. The T150 irons are among the best feeling irons I have hit. Where as the T150 8 iron feels fantastic, the T200 7 iron feels muted by comparison. The chart below shows the performance of the 7 iron is there, but the feel isn’t the same. So much so, that I will be ordering a T150 7 iron to swap out with the T200. The 5 & 6 are clubs that I traditionally struggle with, so the loss of feel isn’t as jarring, in the interest of consistent performance.

     

    Something that will appear in my review as well regarding the feel of the new T200s. Comparing them directly to their orignal T200 ancestors the feel of the new ones is as you say, "muted". That's not to say they don't give good feel feedback, it's just not as harsh on the mis-hits as with the prior generation.

  12. On 8/14/2023 at 11:44 AM, Ben Joest said:

    The averages shown below show my concerns over this being too big of a loft gap proved unfounded. However, as this is the blend point for this set, nowhere is it more apparent that what is gained (distance & forgiveness) in the T200 line, is done so at the expense of feel. The T150 irons are among the best feeling irons I have hit. Where as the T150 8 iron feels fantastic, the T200 7 iron feels muted by comparison. The chart below shows the performance of the 7 iron is there, but the feel isn’t the same. So much so, that I will be ordering a T150 7 iron to swap out with the T200. The 5 & 6 are clubs that I traditionally struggle with, so the loss of feel isn’t as jarring, in the interest of consistent performance.

     

    Something that will appear in my review as well regarding the feel of the new T200s. Comparing them directly to their orignal T200 ancestors the feel of the new ones is as you say, "muted". That's not to say they don't give good feel feedback, it's just not as harsh on the mis-hits as with the prior generation.

  13. My last three rounds were all at the league Team Cup event at the Hammock Beach resort. (Great place for golf. Course conditions beat PGA National hands down, for less than 1/2 the price per round - just sayin'). 

    The first two rounds were partner rounds, best ball and alternate shot respectively. So, I didn't keep detailed stats for either round.

    Saturday morning four-ball was tough. I was struggling with a bad pull during warmup, and that eroded my confidence once we got on the course. It took me a bit to get going, epecially off the tees. Once I started hitting the ball in play though, the irons continued to come through. Wierdly enough, it's the longer clubs that are showing the biggest improvement. The 6i, 5i and 4h all earned their money during the round, but my partner and I just had too much ground to make up after the early struggles, and we lost 3 and 2. Shot of that round was a 180 yard hybrid, into the wind, at an uphill green that gave me a chip and putt par, while the rest of the foursome all missed the green and had much more challenging up-and-down opportunities. 

    Round two was a bit better, even though my partner and I didn't have time (due to tee time intervals) to talk too much about strategy. So, even though I struggled a bit with my irons in the morning, I was left as the tee-shot player on three of the four par 3s. This time I was paired with a player who has a very similar game to my own, so it was easy for us to ham-and-egg our way around a few missed shots. I was a bit sharper all around, but hit I think 6/9 GIR on my approach shot holes. Shot of the round this time was a 146 yard 8 iron that landed middle green and rolled down the slope to give us a good look at a back left pin. That shot put us in position to win that hole and take the match 3 and 2.

    consvtrycard.jpg.f6cfb5adba177e63e50cccfbd4e02cf7.jpg

    This was my singles match score card, on the more challenging Conservatory course (absolutely fantastic btw). I had the one bad four hole stretch where my entire swing took a vacation. The rest of the round, iron play and putting had me out-pacing my opponent. I had 4 GIR on each side and a bit better than my normal share of up-and-down pars. Again, I putted really well, so every one of those 8 GIR turned into a par or better. Notable shots were a 185 yard hybrid from a flower bed lie that set me up for a hole winning par/net birdie on number 7. Then, on number 10, I nailed a 5 iron to 20 feet to set up another par/net birdie that gave me a 3-up lead thru 10. The next four holes got the match back to even up though. 15th was a 9 iron GIR that I won with a conceded par. 16 should have been a playbook par, but I had my only 3 putt of the day at a bad time and lost that hole to a par. 17 was an uphill par 3 that both of us missed a bit short and I made a clutch putt for par to take a one-up lead to the 18th tee. My tee shot on the par 5 18th was in the fairway but the green complex did not warrant attacking it in two with a one up lead. I made a nice layup with a 7-iron that I didn't strike well, but the forgiveness factor of the T200s sent the ball to just about it's intended landing area anyway. Same for the PW approach shot from there that left me a nice little uphill 9 footer. The match was conceded before I got a chance to putt though, but I did clean up the par to make it academic, and won 2-up.

    So out of those three rounds I saw an increase my GIR average increase from 4-6/round to 7 per round. If I look back at all three of those score cards and throw in my weekend prior's 77 (😲) where I hit 10 GIR, I've got 4 out of 8 nines carded under 40. I haven't seen numbers and scores like that since more of my hair was brown than gray. Needless to say it has been a welcome change.

    As I am crafting my final review over the next couple of days, you can expect the play-it or trade-it line to read PLAY IT!!

    As usual, this testing experience has been a lot of fun. This group of testers certainly made sure of that through both this thread and the private message chat. Look for the final review maybe late tonight or on Monday. I'll also try to update the thread with one more irons only round now that I've gotten the feel for them to maybe see what they can really do.

     

  14. Not sure I'll get another chance to get the T200s out on the course before we craft our final reviews, but here's how the weekend went with them in my league 'ryder cup' event.

    I didn't really have my A swing going in the Saturday morning round. I struggled off the tees, and that really impacted my number of GIR. My well struck irons though provided good consistene distance, and continued to give that nice high ball flight we saw during the fitting. The Saturday afternoon alternate shot round was a little better. The higher ball flight did make the breezy conditions a little more challenging. But, I hit a little better than 50% GIR on my approach shot holes. That's better by a few than my previous average.

    I had a bit of a Jekyll/Hyde round in Sunday singles. Started strong and got away with a few misses on the front 9. With a birdie and only 1 double bogey, I carded 39. My entire swing took a four hole vacation and I had a run of big numbers on the back nine, but I rallied and reigned things back in to finish with just one bogey and three pars over the final four holes. 

    On both days, I got some pretty strong performance out of the longer irons and 4h, where I'm still getting a feel for the shorter irons. It's now pretty clear, the stronger PW stretched the gap out between that and my current gap wedge enough it warrants looking into the set GW and adjusting my other wedges to match. I just don't have a club to fit the 100-110 spot.

    Weekend headline: Greg With The Hat goes 2-1-0 for the weekend earning two points to help "Team Europe" retain the Tampa Cup in 2023. Ole Ole Ole Ole... Ole... Ole

     

  15. 20 hours ago, Ben Joest said:

    As this test is nearing the end, it occurred to me that we haven’t done an irons-only round yet. Since the make-up of each of our bags is quite unique, perhaps it would be more accurate to say the “7 clubs you’re testing for Titleist” round. What say you, @bens197 @ole gray @GregB135@Golfspy_CG2 @GolfSpy_APH ? 
     

    Also, the invite goes out to all that follow this thread or swing by to see how things are going. The more the merrier! 

    I did get one 9 hole round in using only the 4H-PW and managed a 38 with just the "irons"

    I just had a really good practice session getting ready for this weekend's Team Cup event. Coming on heels of a round where I hit 10 GIR with the test irons in play, and came two yards of carry short of carding my best round ever, I'm feeling really good about the makeup of this set of irons. In practice today I was hitting the ball really solid, and I'd say 8 of 10 shots were right down the line. The miss was about a 5 yard pull. Ball flight was straight and high, even with the longer clubs.

    I might be able to sneak in one more 'irons only' round next week, but my work schedule is going to make that tough to manage.

     

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