DrMJG

Simply put, I do not play many events. I do golf 2-3 times per week. I play for fun and the challenge of just being that much better than last time. As a result, I have actually played much more consistent golf in the past few years. I have gone to senior tees to compensate for my skills and body.

Working with the driver, primarily, slow practice in hitting 25 shots, I concentrated on full follow through to avoid sending them off to the left. Fair success. with minimal loss of yardage. Will have a full set run through early tomorrow if rains hold!

Two items will round out my list: A fairway wood, eater a 5 or 7. Not totally sure what will fill my gaps the greatest. And, finally, a rangefinder. Most of my golf life I never used one!

My name is Mark. I started golf at 12 and played munis in Milwaukee at age13. I was a single digit handicap when I was in my early 20's. I did, however, study music performance at The University of Wisconsin-Madison and my time to hit the links diminished quite a lot. By my late 30's I was lucky to play 3 to 4 times a summer. Graduate studies in Austria followed. Then life got even more hectic. Golf soon became just something my son and I enjoyed together. Life consisted of conducting high school, college and semi-professional performance groups and singing leading roles in 4-6 professional and semiprofessional operas a year in the US and Europe. I ended up in Singapore, where the cost of playing golf was just too pricey. When I returned to the States, I decided to retire, only to become involved in suicide prevention at the request of a former student. It was at the same time that I decided to return to golf, only to suffer a major injury to my right foot. I started up golf again 8 months later, only to find myself getting more modern clubs; the previous times I played I had used persimmons!! I first came to to MGS to learn about selecting new weapons!! Life today consists of range work or playing a round 2 - 5 times a week, working with various groups on suicide prevention (including talking to NPR), some sub-teaching to pay my golf addiction, and simply enjoying my life with all te energy I have. I did my first MGS equipment review this past month and loved the experience. Down to a 15 handicap, still far from perfect, yet enjoying all things golf more than when I was a kid.

Solid day working on my newly re-shafted 50º... better loft and greater distance. Made me a happy camper!

While the Tour performed as a stronger choice for me than the TourX, the bottom line is that they are quite good for what is promised in their materials and come in at a most respectable price point. My outlook and rule: all equipment in golf is personal. As well, I do not spend a lot of time with statistics and numbers; rather, I go by my course results and my comfort factor. Some comes from long term experiences with the various toys; some comes from surprise results. If I were just starting out, I would be very comfortable with both balls, though I had a bigger confidence factor with the Tour. As I have been playing Bridgestone for about 3 years now, that brand has a stronger personal comfort factor for my gamer. Does that make sense? Bottom line: I would be ok with the Maxfli in my golf life of an old guy with lower swing speeds, but not super slow, improving dispersion off the target, a good putting technique and one who plays very few tournaments. I did have great fun in testing these spheres out. This opportunity was very good for my golfing and I hope my opinions help others. I would be very hesitant condemning them to the shag bag. They will be handy in my bag. For a limited distribution ball, they do quite well. I can think of 6 or 7 balls I would feel, based on my play, I would be much more hesitant playing and perhaps 6-7 I prefer much better. I pronounce them a fine mid point ball and even fine+ considering the price point.

I found it a bit confusing at first, too. Agree with what flukes posted.

Palm Valley North/South 18 holes Red Tees 65.0/105. 5400 yards. The very best I have ever played any variation of the course. Wonderful weather and good pace of play, we zipped along quite well. Score: 88 with 30 putts, 6 Pars, 8 Bogies, 4 Doubles, 6 Penalties, 2 sand saves, with 11% GIR and 79% FIR. I put most of the of the gain in accuracy on the improved strikes with the Ping G410+ and some serious work with accuracy with my irons. Allowing for handicap, I hit a 73 and came in 3rd. First time with these guys; they are acquaintances from the range. While I was happy with straight 220-225 yard drives, these guys hit well over 260. Best 2 shots got me on to the green for a possible birdie on a par five, missed the first slightly right and included some invectives; sank the sphere on a hole I have been known to get an 8 on.

Well, it was good as I did a morning of final prep for the match tomorrow. 18 holes on a course where I barely break 100! Once quickly through the bag! All clubs showed an improved line of the shots over the hooks that come into play when I go on auto pilot. Being a hooker is the BIG fault in my geezer/hacker technique. I was happy, in particular, with my hybrids and 6i, which will be needed on this course. Wedges were MUCH more on target, especially in the sand trap practice time. The course I am playing has only a few pre-green traps, which are not too deep, and, not too great of a lip in the green traps. I will do my human-limited best to avoid them. The biggest accuracy gain was in my driver. While I did not measure it, my AoA seemed a bit better, longer, lower action with better post re-entry roll. On this course, if you drive straight, you are in a good position to do well on every hole. Will get a bit of pre-round putting in tonight, at home. May Friday's game not be destroyed by my slight overconfidence my technique and clubsood range from a g!

Basically, the same scuffing on the balls I used on the courses. Never saw a cut on any ball but the ended up, after 18 what I would expect after 36. Worse for the Tour X for reasons I could not quite explain.

Made the choice go with the G410+ over a G400 for many reasons, even though I could have saved a lot of money either buying new or looking on the used market at a G400 (shhh, don't tell my wife.) My particular reasons were: availability of a 12º club, ability to adapt the club to any changes in my game as I continue on my old man geezer duffer life, love of the Alta 55 CB shaft which is not available even as an up grade for the G400, and, after 2 fittings by two different fitters, this was the club that seemed best. Finally, I fell in love with the G410+ the first time I took a swing and added about 35 yards to my usual swing. It came down, really, to what I was comfortable with helping my game. I average, now, a gain of 1-2 shots from off the tee results! As to the price, I took 8 months to save up for the club with my wife's knowledge and blessing. So no real problem in the household!

Prayers sent his way, dear friend. Thank you for letting us know.

I, for one, agree there needs to be a bit more significant rough. A number of matches this past year favored distance so much more over dealing with the full nature of the course, they became somewhat boring to watch.. And, more than a few had "rough" not much more challenging than the fairway, at least from a viewer's perspective.

I, too, pull in just enough to change the impact area from fully centered on the sweet spot to a very toed one. Agreed, that even the slightest change in distance at set up seems as if I am swinging from the next county. Does not seem "normal" to me just yet; but when it is on the results are great. Best of luck to you!

It is amazing how seemingly small adjustments are able to present big results. With my irons 7i, 6i and 9i, I have been drifting left. So today I worked on three minor adjustments. 1) Made sure I had the ball properly spaced in terms if distance from he body and between feet. And I worked to make sure I can get that position 95% of the time. 2) Made sure I addressed the ball in a position to allow me to be much more likely to hit the sweet spot of the club. This includes making sure I am not overly out of good positioning for the loft of the club. 3) Making sure I have a good hip turn with solid follow through towards the target. Looked and felt good in terms of results. All irons had great flights and for the 6i and 7i good roll and with the 9i a really nice drop and stop. I also took some time with the new boom stick, a PING G410+. My ball speed is nearing 120 consistently. While my full drive results were good at 200-210, I was still capable of a great looking drive that ended up closer to 185-190. I have a few things I will try this week. But the one thing the G410+ has given me is growing confidence that I will not be hurt with the driver.

As I just got the weapon a week ago, I am starting out by leaving everything on my G410 Plus in neutral settings until I am more sure how I hit this club. Lately, I have been hitting some hooks as a result of a back muscle giving grief so that good hip turns through the drive were minimally, if at all, possible. I am getting a good sense of what I may have to adjust, but the ease of swinging this monster seems to want to make me wait for a while. So far, I am getting a bit of a strong draw, but not a lot of gawd awful hooks to sense a full pattern. To be honest, I need to work out ways to get a little more distance. But no adjustment until I feel better tuned to the clubs a whole. BTW, love the club! It not only lives up to the MGS reviews, to me, it swell worth its price.

Be well, friend. Be well!

Stay safe. I survived a fire decades ago. and my heart is with all of you in CA.

I would say it was/is my 3h. My other hybrids do what I expect and desire, but for whatever reason my 3 hybrid does not play well unless I give it a lot of ongoing care and love. Lately, I have not even been carrying it on some rounds where a "soft" 4h can get the same results. The other fragile part of my game is loading the rightsize of the body for a good hip turn lest I hack a hook.

Some (near the end) observations. I was able to impose on a local golf store and use their hitting area to hit some golf balls to make my off the course observations. I used 3 unused ball of each type for 2 rounds with the driver and one round each with 7i and 9i. None showed significant damage, even after a few awful shots with the 7i. The only noticeable scuff come from the Tour X. 1: The longest and best overall ball I hit was the Titleist Pro v1x. This was by + 10 yards on average. I did take the time to line up the ball along its line to do a fullest comparison. AoA was20º with good divergence, usually within 2 yards of line. While I am not using these for my gamers, I will consider them. Good not only for driving but with 7i and 9i as well. There was a much better bite with the 9i than with any other ball. Obviously the biggest concern is cost of a dozen. While I tend not to lose too many golf balls in a given round, it may not be that big of a disadvantage any more. 2. The Maxfli Tour was second longest by 4 yards on average. My AoA was about 21º with a nice on line flight with a soft fade, usually within 2 yards of line. 7i and 5h were ok, though I could not adjust for the CoG line. By ok, I saw a slightly weaker loft with the irons and a lot of roll after the flight, even with the 9i. Not enough to banish these to the shag bag, but something to take into consideration in how I pay them. 3. Bridgestone e12 was only 4 yards behind the Tour, though the spin off of the tee made for good loft (20º) and a very predictable roll. Again, not marked CoG line from the manufacturer but I was never more than 3 yards off of line, though some were fades some were draws. I am used to playing these balls and I have made adjustment to the amount of spin I get with my 9i. If I simply took the totality of what I look for and not just the distance, I would have to say this was my #2 ball. Not sure though how much is familiarity. 4. The Maxfli TourX were, for me the most inconsistent spheres. No significant plus in terms of distance over my gamer and ball tended to fly higher than the others, so that took away some distance as well. The CoG marking on the three that I used helped me keep a good line, though it was not as predictable as with the Tour, off by 4 yards or so at times. Way too much spin with the 9i made it tough to have a good bite on landing, tended to run a significant amount. Of the 4 I tried today, it was clearly the #4. The Titleist, Tour and Bridgestone will all find the way onto a course for me. I was able to make predictable shots and consistent results. That for me makes a gamer. I am not a deep into the numbers type of golfer. I use what works well for me; I have the clubs I like and now some solid options for balls. My goal for now is to get my handicap down by 3-4 strokes and eliminate the swing up and down I have now. I also want to lower the height in my drives. I do not plan on making any full switch away from my gamer, I simply have too many on hand at this time. But, from time to time I may play the Maxfli Tour as a change of pace. The Tour X will remain a possible, though for now, they might be used in my practice bag more than on the course. BTW, if you prefer to play a colored ball, as I do, only the Tour is an o0tion.

Took me years to learn to ,love what I now use: Driver, 3w, 4h. 5h. 6-Lw. Not many shots I cannot hit with one of these

With a very very exceptions, I play Alda Soft-regular n my clubs. The exceptions may be changed soon.

The Mighty Maximillian!

Ok, I was a bit lazy today. Last week was a lot of golf swings and I neared the ending of my Maxfli testing. To be honest, many were simply trying out my new toy G410 Plus Driver) and not keeping track of just how many swings I had taken. So, while not achingly sore, I best can describe by shoulders as tired; I can say the same about my legs and hip muscles as well. So, I simply took about 15 minutes this AM to go through the swing at various speeds. I set the timer so I would not go wildly beyond the time I wanted to do. This was primarily being done to keep the muscles active and not create physical problems in the long run. I also concentrated a lot on the plane of the swing as I have been going too far in to out and creating a hook on many of this weeks non-driver shots. This will be the concentration of the week starting with a range session tomorrow and a round on Tuesday.

Today, I took out my ancient blade putter, more for something to change up, to see if it were possible to do a better job with speed on putts, especially over 15'. My goal was to see just how much I could adapt both balls or the balls to my stroke or visa versa. I was fairly pleased with the results on those 15' challanges with the Tour. I still tended to miss on the longer putts; and I missed long. I eventually got it down to the point where I could have a much better second putt. The CoG line did appear to help, especially on the much longer puts of about 20' From within 4', I was a much, much better putter. Again, the CoG line did not fail; but, in truth, at that distance I am not sure how much impact it had. To be honest, in my whole golfing life, I have never chosen a ball based on how well it occur on, at this . I primarily register about 2 putts/whole over all. I have too many other areas I need to fix. Both were somewhat hot on the longer putts. While today, I noticed no worrisome difference between the two, The Tour X come out to have been a little bit more of a runner.