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BMart519

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Everything posted by BMart519

  1. If you look at the MGS ball test results for 2021 and 2023, then filter the data in the charts by lowest spin you will see differences in Ball speed between the (soft balls) Tour BRX and RXS, Taylormade Tour Response, AVX, vs the ball speed for the Pro V1x Left Dash which is the hardest/fastest ball on the market. Those ball speed differences are from the softer ball being compressed more and losing energy and therefore distance. But if those balls drop your spin with driver by 500 rpm, that gain may offset most of the loss of lower ball speed while theoretically flying straighter from low spin. It requires on course testing to see how it holds up for your swing and equipment. I went through this last year when I was swinging close to 110 MPH and struggle with direction control. The Tour Response being notably lower spin than "Tour" level balls was also noticeably straighter. The only downside was difficulty stopping on firmer greens with long approaches. At 120MPH you will likely see significant improvements to driving distance with the Left Dash to take advantage of that speed. But those softer balls are usually another level below the left dash in terms of spin. Which may benefit your approach play and reduce spinning balls off the green.
  2. Try the AVX and see how it performs. The TM Tour Response is even lower spinning and could work if your swing speed is under 110MPH with driver (Pro V1X left dash works good for high speeds and warm temps). The 2021 Ball Test had interesting results from the previous generation Z-Star if you can find some. It was similar in spin to the AVX off driver/irons but spin on the 55 yard wedge shot it was around middle of the pack with the Pro V1. Also depends on the strengths and weaknesses of your game. If short game is a weakness, picking a ball to help there is probably a poor strategy vs something that will benefit all of your full swing shots.
  3. I have done a lot of experimenting with balls, used to predominantly play Bridgestone but also got along well with Srixon Z star as a low spin option. After the MGS ball testing I ordered some Left Dash balls for maximum potential distance (and needing higher flight) along with the Taylormade Tour Response as lowest spin urethane ball (and later the AVX). Fade/slice is also my miss with driver. The Left Dash/AVX are my main balls for 2024 with the Pro V1 as backup for very firms greens if I need extra stopping power, or the Tour Response if the greens are very slow or I am playing bad and don't want to lose expensive balls. Here's what I have found: - the low spin balls like AVX (Tour Response, especially) tend to go a bit straighter off the tee, the lower flight and/or spin also helps on tee shots into wind which can make them play a similar distance to the left dash (driver SS tops out at 107 for me, likely more around 103-105) - had my best round last year with the Tour Response - very straight, stayed out of trouble, the extreme low spin adds 5-10 yards distance to irons (which can offset driver loss in some situations), only downside is they won't work well on firm greens. Began testing the AVX last year as a small step up in terms of low spin urethane ball and saw positive results. Especially like these 2 in windy conditions where getting the ball on the ground quicker can be a benefit. - when it is hot, (over 70) you can see more separation in distance and this is where the left dash really starts to shine. They do perform well into a head wind with the low-mid spin. I have hit multiple 250 yard tee shots with 19 degree hybrids using left dash, it is definitely one of the longest balls made.
  4. Chipping practice these days consists of shots off my basement carpet as it has been -20C or colder for more than a week. Really liking the 52 for simple bump and run type shots with no wrist hinge. Working to engrain the feel of 4-12 yard chips in 2 yard increments both through ladder drills and hitting random numbers. Exciting times...
  5. I abandoned 1 course, it seemed like they didn't have enough space to finish all 18 holes. There is 25 yards of width between dense treed areas for the entire length of multiple par 4's. The trees themselves are not thick, so you don't get favorable bounces back into play or the ball dropping straight down. 90% of the time it is a lost ball for anything slightly offline. The 13th hole is 400 yard par 4 from middle tees playing straight into the prevailing wind. At 25 yards wide, I've been able to lose a ball with every possible club down to a 6 or 7 iron on either the tee shot or approach. Fairway is 15 yards wide the whole way except where it widens behind some trees so it is easier to roll behind them requiring a punch out. Average score is 6.2 (including many improper drops at point of entry)... Followed by a 90-100 yard par 3 that you could possibly tee off with a putter. 17th hole is a 270 yard par 4 down wind. Your best play is to try to drive the green next to a pond as at least that is a drop from red stakes and the fairway pinches to 10 yards wide at narrowest LOL. Widest part of hole is 100-140 yards from the tee, which is again roughly 25 yards wide between forested areas and you would hit your approach through a 15-20 yard window or over the edge of trees 50 yards in front of you. These holes combined with a couple other holes that are gimmicky and don't appeal to me when the rest of the course is a links style made me realize it wasn't worth my money because I don't enjoy my time playing there versus other places and only went because it was the cheapest course kept in good condition with fast greens in the area. Which still required a 45 minute drive.
  6. I have my gamer - a custom fit Edel. Then I have 1 backup if I get in a slump or need a new look with different alignment. Shockingly, it usually reinforces that the properly fit putter performs better and I need to work on setup and fundamentals if I am having trouble aiming and making short putts with the Edel. Their weighting always seems to produce the best distance control and least 3 putts. I used to keep 2 backups, but 1 was more sentimental as I had sub-30 putts with it. Eventually gave up the dream and sold it off (was a cheap TM).
  7. When I read this I interpret it as only 10% of pros found this club to perform better than their gamer.
  8. I have 8 approach shots from 150-200 per round with 30% GIR according to Shot Scope. So option #1 takes me from 2.4 GIR to 6 GIR for an increase of 3.6 GIR/round from 150-200. My up/down overall average was 24%, 3 putt% was 14% ... Applying both of those would have me saving about 2.3 shots per round. 7.7 shots/round under 25 yards with average proximity of 15ft and 35% up/down rate. Assuming 6ft proximity results in 50% up and down, that is only saving 1 shot/round. Actual savings would be less as the 7.7 shots under 25 yards would shrink to around 5.7 with the higher GIR. BONUS: I could also justify playing longer tees to have more approaches from 150-200. Which would reduce my index over time on top of saving the 2.3 shots/round above.
  9. I got rid of my V2 around May or June of 2023. It was noticeably worse than the V2 at picking up shots and would miss 5-10 per round. The new functionality and better battery wasn't worth it. It does sound like newer firmware has helped others with the X5.
  10. Have you done a TPI assessment or other physical exam to see whether you can physically achieve the amount of side bend you need not to extend while swinging at full speed?
  11. Where did you find the numbers? I used to like the MGS MOI and CG report but have trouble finding hard data since that report stopped.
  12. I would be playing the 2nd tees from back at 360. The fairway narrows down to about 40 yards at 120-130 from the hole between the giant trap on right and hill/fescue on left. I'm hitting a driving iron or hybrid off the tee intending to get it out there 220-240. DI even more likely if the winds are up. Aiming directly at that knob or just right of it. Saw some stat the other day (likely Stagner) that once you are within 150 or 130 from the hole you are close enough that it doesn't make sense to take on sand. So that is my logic for not pushing driver up farther.
  13. Key thought: high hands... or following through to head height regardless of backswing length so you don't decelerate. Read the book by James Sieckmann: Your Short Game Solution Great technique in here on sand shots, I often re-read at the beginning of season as a reminder. Lots of great stuff on any aspect of golf with a wedge in your hand.
  14. My Strategy gives your tee shot width dispersion with every club. This is used to determine your aim line to avoid hazards (or possibly sand/trees) which is the main benefit. Showing whether you can carry something or not is a smaller benefit especially since it shows total not carry distance. It also adds expected strokes to finish based on whether you are in sand,, rough, fairway, etc. which can be a helpful reference. Having this mapped out in advance makes it easier to follow a planned strategy vs getting punched in the mouth and deciding you need to play aggressive for birdie after a double. Using less mental energy on this aspect allows you more mental energy for other strategic decisions (like approach shots) where the starting point and ideal target (relative to pin location) isn't know in advance. Checking the mapping as part of your pre-shot routine can help regain focus and find a target on your intended line. Especially on blind tee shots going uphill or around dog legs, that maybe you can't see on the tee... Green mapping is of even less benefit. The only help is knowing which side of the green is uphill or downhill as you're not going to be playing to specific quadrants of greens from 150 out. Your approach strategy is primarily driven by avoiding greenside sand/hazards, followed by short siding avoidance. Green mapping would really only benefit a small green with no hazards around it and a pin in the middle of the green to give you an idea of which side would leave a uphill chip on a missed GIR to favor. All of this assumes the green has areas of severe slopes that pose an actual challenge which is not always the case.
  15. Having played this a month and a half ago, I will second the comment about needing a caddie. The tee shot is completely blind and uphill. If you hit driver more than 250 you don't need that much club as the final 80 yards is straight downhill and can be played with a putter (see below ). If you hit 250+ straight you will run through the fairway and into the long fescue as there is minimal rough along the fairway on this links-type setup. Playing this for the first time without a caddie would be extremely frustrating as you have no idea where to aim and walking up to the fairway, then back to the tee would take a ton of time. The gimmicky layout takes away from the amazing views which was unfortunate and breaks up an amazing finishing stretch between 15-18. I used 19* hybrid which plays 220-230 at sea level, didn't hit it great and still made it to the fairway from the tees at 277. IMG_7730.mp4 pin high
  16. The Ryder Cup holds little interest for me, it has become a beating for the home team most times. Not much drama
  17. My season ended unknowingly October 10th at Copperhead on my Florida trip. When I got back to Canada the weather turned and courses closed a few days later. There is one goat track that will open on and off over the winter on temp greens. But I don't foresee being desperate enough to get out and if I did it would be in dry, dormant conditions as they don't let you play if its wet. Won't be many updates from me in this post over the next few months as I also sold my MEVO+ monitor. Next season will start with a comparison of the Indi 60 with my PING Glide 58 that produced better stats this season. But there is some bias in the sample size due to multiple golf trips to new courses/grasses which disadvantaged the Indi's. Indoor work will be on speed training, driver/hybrid full swings, and 40-100 yard wedges on my SC200 launch monitor. The latter is primarily using the Indi's but I don't plan on comparing to previous wedges as they outperformed at the onset of testing already.
  18. Hard to tell scale, but to my eye looks like 1.5" wide spread begins around 22 index. Maybe an odd one after 12. But there also appears to be 30 index players that have less than 1.5" lateral dispersion. Callaway is using a 15 point face map according to their promo material, would be interesting to see the details on the distance that covers across the face. If it is 2+ inches wide, there's limited benefit to be gained in real life off the number of balls hit on the edge of the insert for most players. Also interesting the distance variation is much less in the insert model vs milled version putter. "*Ai-ONE Urethane delivers putts up to 21% closer to the hole from 32’ and Ai-ONE Milled up to 7% closer compared to a Scotty Cameron® Super Select Newport 2. Based on robot testing with a 15 point face map."
  19. Interesting study, especially with all the different face inserts. I saw the worst reported loss as 14% on a blade and average of 10%, not 20% however (that was a comparison of the "fastest" putter hit out of the middle vs the putter with the largest drop on a low heal miss). The heel and toe miss are 2cm or over 3/4" of an inch each side of center which is a pretty big contact patch at 1.5" wide. Not sure what skill level that would correlate to for an "average" putter. This was why I gave up on heads up putting, after I fatted a 60' lag putt I figured there was no possible benefit that could offset the occasional miss like that.
  20. Pretty sure there is research from Dr. Sasho Mackenzie that effect on speed/distance of impact location on putter is minor that he discussed on some of the golf podcast circuit visits he did, which was a large surprise to me. These putters brought that up in my mind. His general conclusion was to avoid practicing impact location and work on speed/start line instead unless you plan to practice many hours per week on putting. And even in that case, there would be other golf skills that would benefit your game more than getting your impact location as close to centre of putter everytime. Should be enough putters on the market now for an MGS robot test striking the ball across the clubface and see how much distance is lost on various inserts, vs flat milled and different milled groove putters.
  21. Hitting a 6i or Driving iron to 200 with wedge in. Looks like 50 yards or less of width between the fescue and hillside for most of the hole. Also totally blind, so trying to find a ball that makes its way into the fescue is going to be difficult going for the green. Hitting something where the weak fade miss stays short of the right side FWY bunker at 200... So more thank likely 6i
  22. I found the setup for the MEVO+ to be a deal breaker unless you can leave it in a fixed position the majority of time. Editing distance from unit to ball down to the inch as well as tee height was a pain. If you hit the ball from the same spot and changed these variables, it would give you different outputs for attack angle. I'm not sure how the MLM2PRO compares in terms of sensitivity, but it seemed like a better option for less cost. But MEVO+ is still the only unit that allows you to play 6 courses free on iOS and have all of the practice functionality with no subscription. When I used MEVO+ you could either use standard sea level conditions or current local - which I need for altitude, but doesn't help when its -20 outside... I believe the MLM can have altitude adjusted on its own and stay around 70F standard conditions.
  23. Largely agree with your points, especially if you have access to hit premium balls outdoors then there is no reason to do an indoor fit. I asked this question to the best player I know - my instructor (pro) who continues to qualify for RBC Canadian Open on tour most years... My focus was on using range balls outdoors to see flight and avoid swinging all out on a sim vs indoors with gamer balls for more accurate numbers on launch monitors. The response: "I take the clubs out on the course and see if the ball is hitting the proper trajectory I want" that's how he knew it was a good fit LOL I realized it will not be possible to compare approaches with someone on another planet in terms of skill level and a sponsorship to get clubs to any spec they want
  24. Bushnell Pro XE rangefinder with Slope and "Elements" - factors in atmospheric pressure which combines temperature and elevation into the slope reading... Really gives you something to think about when its 80-90F outside and it's telling you a flat shot plays 5-10 yards shorter than usual when often playing around 60-70F.
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