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Great lighting during this morning's round. Tugged a 4-iron pin-high left of this green and sadly carded a bogey.

** Checks notifications, surprise face ** Woo! Thanks, everyone! This has been a great thread to follow. Loving everyone's posts. Keep up the great work.

- 44/41 = 85 (+13) - 9/15 FIR - 8/18 GIR (No birdies...) - 37 Putts (2 3-putts, 15 2-putts, 1 1-putt) - 2:45 Round Time - Walking by myself very leisurely, teed off at 6:53 AM. Another great ball striking round (feeling so good about my swing at the moment), and awesome driving round for me. So why didn't I score better? 1) Weather. My last two rounds have been the most windy rounds I've played all year. Struggled to account for the effect on both distance and direction this morning. 2) Two specific tee shots. Pulled my tee shot on No. 3 left out-of-bounds (absolutely crushed my second one though!). Hit a massive block on No. 16 the required me to punch backwards to the fairway. Probably four strokes gone between those two shots. 3) Wedge play. Just don't have a great feel for getting my wedges precise distances. I've been practicing a lot lately on this, but it hasn't come around yet. Leads to a lot of long first putts for me. Thirty-seven putts is too many! Nine holes tomorrow morning. Trending handicap is now below 14 for good, hopefully!

I have not. I considered it for a while, but recently I've made a few more changes to my setup and swing that have resulted in more consistent contact near the center of the face.

I DID IT! First round with the new HZRDUS Yellow (thanks, Callaway Pre-Owned!), and I smashed my personal best drive twice! On the opening hole I nearly drove the green, smashing it 280 yards (landed exactly where I wanted it to and got a great bounce. Hole No. 3 is a long par 5, and I let her rip! Couldn't believe how far I had to walk to get to my ball! View from my where my drive ended up on the first hole:

- 43/41 = 84 (+12) - 7/15 FIR - 7/18 GIR (1 birdie) - 34 Putts (2 3-putts, 12 2-putts, 4 1-putts) Oh, the round this could have been. Struck the ball out of my mind tonight, unfortunately the score doesn't reflect it. This could have been my all-time low (82, currently) and might have even been sub-80 with just a few yards here or there. I am so unbelievably happy with my ball-striking today, and I really hope I've turned a corner with my game. I was cruising along through 12 holes with no one in front of me. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind a threesome and a foursome of two adults and two young kids. After playing the first 12 holes in under two hours, it took another 1 hour and 20 minutes or so to play the final six holes. I played 18 holes in the time it took the foursome to play nine, as they were teeing off 10 when I was walking to the first hole. Sorry for the sidetrack - moral is that I couldn't mentally stay in it while the sun was setting both literally and figuratively on my round. Hit poor drives on the last three holes and three-putted 18 from 15 feet after hitting the green in regulation. Boo. Can't wait to get back out there on Monday and keep grinding!

Since everyone was on a book buying kick, and I had a $20 eBay coupon that expired soon, I picked up the following for $2.44 delivered: Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game by Gio Valiante and Mike Stachura The Art of the Short Game: Tour-Tested Secrets for Getting up and Down by Stan Utley Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Dr. Bob Rotella Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game by Joseph Parent Putting Out of Your Mind by Dr. Bob Rotella The Seven Laws of the Golf Swing: Visualizing the Perfect Swing to Maximize Your Game by Nick Bradley I'm obviously very much on an, "Improve my game mentally," streak.

Essentially what Golf Sidekick advocates. Visualizing the results seems to have a massive impact on what actually happens. I agree with both of them. Went to the course Tuesday saying I was going to go low (for me). Opened with a great drive, great wedge and a no doubt putt from 10 feet for birdie. Kept that same "I'm going to go low" mentality throughout the round and really was only about 4 yards (needed to carry a greenside bunker) from seriously threatening my best nine holes ever.

Yeah, I rolled a lot of putters before I settled on my Spider. I just loved the feel of the insert compared to the milled faces of the Evnrolls and Bettinardis I tried.

Hah. Good to know for next time. Glad I was only practicing on an old club!

Since your irons are steel shafted, as @TR1PTIK said, they are mostly for cosmetic purposes. The other reason I can think of would be to keep dirt/debris from getting down into where the hosel and shaft meet. If they've slipped up too far they might not want to come back down without a little heat. A dab of epoxy and light touch from a heat gun will probably fix you up. Be careful with the heat gun, I got a little overzealous with mine and definitely melted a ferrule on a practice club a few weeks ago.

I get the approach of not tracking and just playing golf. I really do. But, I don't believe that statistics collection and just playing the game are mutually exclusive. @GolfSpy MPR, have you ever watched Golf Sidekick on YouTube? Whether you find him entertaining or not, his mental approach to golf is solid. I find myself applying more and more of his thought process to my rounds, and I truly believe it works wonders. Just really visualizing and committing to a shot before hitting it really helps me. I collect round data with GAME Golf and also track with The Grint or on a scorecard, capturing the same amount of data for either (strokes, putts, fairways, greens, penalties, etc.) I love that I can easily reference a round months later when I'm think about a certain shot in my mind. I practice almost always with my Swing Caddie SC200 or swing radar (sometimes both) because I find the immediate feedback is invaluable to grooving good tendencies in my swing. My favorite part of the Golf Sidekick mentality is just the reinforcement that once you hit a shot, you're done and must move on. You can't go back and fix it, so the only reasonable approach is just to figure out the best option for the NEXT shot, and how you can get that closer to ending up in the hole. Not letting a bad swing or a bad hole ruin the rest of my rounds has been huge for me this year. Of course, I still struggle with it at times as well. But as I continue to practice maintaining that mental approach, it has become easier.

Rain ruined my chance to play Sunday, so I finally got to get out an play nine holes this morning with the MTB-X. Some quick thoughts as someone who has been playing the MTB Black all season before today: The MTB-X definitely feels firmer. I actually like it more this way. Off the driver it just feels better for me. Seemed to be lower spin off driver, though I didn't put too many good driver swings on it. I did have two 250+ drives, which isn't above or below average for me. I say it's slightly lower spin because my mishits seemed a little better than with the MTB Black. Probably slightly less spin than the MTB Black on full iron shots. Had a couple that took a big bounce before settling down about 5-8 yards from the ball mark. Had a surprising amount of spin around the green on chips and pitches with my 54 degree wedge. Visible spinning and slowing on a 45-yard pitch into No. 9 green. Durability seems fine. I hit parts of five trees, a couple tree roots, but no cart path or gravel. There are a few marks on the ball (played all nine holes with it), but it will easily go another nine or more holes. I did wipe a little of the Optic Yellow finish off with a full 54 degree, but no damage to the cover that I could really feel. Overall, very happy with the ball. The MTB-X will be gamer for the foreseeable future as I now have 3.5 dozen to play with thanks to @yungkory!

Finally got back out after storms ruined the chance for a round Sunday morning. Usual nine holes before work. - 40 (+4) - 4/7 FIR - 5/9 GIR (1 birdie) - 17 Putts (8 2-putts, 1 1-putt) Considering my range session yesterday was absolute trash, I'm ecstatic about my round. Hit a bunch of good iron shots, some great approach shots, putting was above average for me and my driver didn't ruin the round (though I only had two good drives out of six opportunities). Tested out the MTB-X for the first time and was very impressed. I'll add my thoughts in the review thread.

I only have been to the Lynx once, though I grew up not far from there. I played nine holes in 45 degree and rainy weather one fall in high school. I seem to remember it being pretty nice, and there's a par 3 that goes way downhill. I'm a sucker for elevated tee boxes on par 3s...

Awesome! Congrats! Was that Lynx in Otsego? Glad you got to enjoy some West Michigan golf. I'd love to get down to Gull Lake for a golf getaway.

Dumb weather. Storms rolled through Friday night and we were lucky to have power Saturday morning. Spent all morning Saturday trying to get housework done in preparation for my Sunday round. At 3 p.m. another brief storm rolled through and knocked out our power. Spent the rest of the evening babysitting our generator, and most of today, too. No golf this weekend because of that. Otherwise gorgeous day today. Our neighborhood is tree-lined with red maples planted some time ago by the city. It's like no one ever thought they would grow! They are all woven through the lines now and they don't trim at all. Very frustrating.

Very cool. Thanks, man. Good to compare. I'm not far off from you, always trying to improve. I'd love to sniff 350 like @THEZIPR23, but that's probably not in the cards for me.

What kind of swing speed are you working with the days?

Very applicable test, @Shankster. I'm placing the over/under on trees hit during my Sunday round at five. Durability will definitely be tested.

Interesting. I've found the MTB Black to be extremely durable, both in yellow and white. I'm planning on gaming the MTB-X for the first time this weekend and will have to see if they show the same wear as what you're seeing. I had 40-ish full holes on one of the Blacks and besides my Sharpie marks wearing off, the ball was essentially new.

Should be. Just switch to the club you want to change and then hit "Loft" button on the remote to cycle through the degrees.

Nicely done, man! That's awesome.

Took the day off from work today, and along with my brother-in-law, went up to The Links at Bowen Lake in Gowen, Michigan. Quite a drive for us, but what an awesome course and a steal of a deal on Tuesdays. We managed to play a full 36 holes and grab a quick lunch in less than nine hours. Only $54 for 36 holes with cart, a small range bucket, five hot dogs and two 20 ounce Diet Pepsis. Incredible price for a fantastic course with bentgrass tees, fairways and greens. Well worth $45/18, let alone $25! Played the middle tees, par 71, 6,239 yards. Round 1 - 48/42 = 90 (+19) - 7/14 FIR - 9/18 GIR - 37 Putts (3 3-putts, 13 2-putts, 2 1-putts) We started both rounds on the back, so the scores are reflective of that. I struggled with hooking my driver, which led to a quadruple bogey and triple bogey after hitting balls out of bounds left. If only I could have kept them in the fairway the score could have been much better. I'm typically a two-putt per hole type of player. I'm not used to firm greens, so I anticipated there would be a few three putts. Not upset about the way I putted considering I didn't give myself a whole lot of close looks for birdies or pars. Round 2 - 47/45 = 92 (+21) - 5/14 FIR - 5/18 GIR - 38 Putts (4 3-putts, 12 2-putts, 2 1-putts) Round two started in a steady drizzle for the first hole and a half. I got off to a bad start. After hitting a good drive in the fairway on No. 10 (par 5 starting hole), I hit a very poor 5 iron, and then shanked a 54 degree wedge hard right from 90 yards away. Followed it with a duffed chip and my second round started with an awful triple bogey. Couldn't get the driver to cooperate at all, lost a lot of balls right, I assume from trying to overcorrect from my earlier hooks. Oh well. Struck several good middle irons, easily the highlight of my day. Putting was average, just like the first 18 holes. Remarkably consistent! Was an awesome day. I've scored better, but I had a lot of fun and realistically, I am overall happy with the way I played. I just wish I could get some consistency with the driver. I know my scores would go down significantly if I could.