[How'd you play?]

Two nines this weekend. 39 on the back yesterday and 40 on the front this morning. Three birdies, 10 bogies, five pars.

Started great both days and tapered off toward the end of both rounds. Happy with how I played, but just wish I could hold it together for a whole round. Still can't complain!

[Rypstick Speed Training]

43 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

Now when I see these swing speed training threads, I immediately think of @Shankster.  I'm intrigued but at the same time hesitant.  I would be so pissed off at myself if I aggravate my left shoulder which, knock on wood, has been doing so much better of late.  

Certainly always a risk. The first season I did the SuperSpeed protocols with my DIY sticks I pulled a muscle on my left side that made opposite-handed swings for me impossible for about two months.

I'm usually not going "full tilt" right away when warming up with the Rypstick and treat it as more of a dynamic warmup. I still enjoy some static/lightly dynamic stretching, but tend to relegate that to before lifting weights now. If my goal is to swing a golf club, my warmup is going to be swinging a golf club. 

I tend to do most of my Rypstick work at night when I'm sufficiently loose from the day's activities and can go harder then. So far, so good.

[Rypstick Speed Training]

Not often I'm taking pictures of where my drive ended up from behind the green looking back on the tee box:

I knew I hit it well, but the closest I had come to this green was a 315-yarder last weekend that ended up just short of it. The tees were up maybe 10 yards today, so this was probably 315-320 (Arccos decided to be cranky this morning). All I know is that it felt amazing off the club face.

The last couple of times out I've been bringing the Rypstick with me to the course and working through nearly a full workout to warmup. It's a lot of swings but after I'm through with them, I am very, very loose and ready to go. It usually would take me 5-6 holes of walking to get warm and loose, but now I step up to the first tee and am fully ready to go.

I wish I had found this warm-up routine earlier in the season, but I'm excited to have found something that is working so well. This was only my third driver swing of the morning above, and to hit one that far with that few of swings is awesome.

Highly recommend the Rypstick if only for warming up. The variable weights in one stick make taking it to the course so simple.

[Happy thread]

I've only had four cars since I turned 16 (which was quite a while ago now). I wasn't planning on buying anything soon due to the market, but a car with the exact specs I wanted (and manual transmission) randomly came in off-lease at my local dealer. Price was actually reasonable, and I couldn't pass it up!

Downside is that my clubs don't fit without the back seat down, but I'm willing to live with that compromise.

Another downside - my golf spending will be curbed a bit this off season. Might just be some new gloves and balls!

[How'd you play?]

14 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Then I got to my car and took off my golf shoes and noticed a spike missing. Looking further it was the entire insert that ripped out. Then I saw three others ripping out. I think they are rebelling against the 27 holes. They were my favorite ones too. Puma Ignite"s

Not sure how long you've had them, but I had something similar happen to my pair of Puma Ignites last summer after about six months of use. Entire sole had started to disintegrate and spikes were ripping out. Puma replaced them with a new set of Ignite PWRADPTs and they have not had the same issue. Might be worth reaching out if they're not that old.

[Unofficial Review: Dumina AutoFlex SF505X Driver Shaft]

1 minute ago, dlow206 said:

I put the 5 gram weight in the max ls today and switched to a jumbo max xs grip (i don’t have big hands but i’ve converted to a one plane swing). This combo is so good. I hardly ever miss big right anymore. Still an ocassional ball misses right, but not OB.

One other thing to note, the autoflex is typically talked about in context of increased distance, but it has also improved my accuracy as well. Been having more of those tee shots where i’m picking up the tee with the ball still in the air.

The accuracy thing is so true. If I put a good swing on a ball, it's almost like throwing a dart out onto the fairway.

I still have a nasty habit of opening the face a bit too much on the way back and can hit wipey push slices. But that's a swing thing and not the shaft.

I had three more drives over 300 today, including driving the green for the first time ever on a slightly uphill par 4 listed at 306 on the card.

[How'd you play?]

10 hours ago, Sluggo42 said:

It’s all relative. You can shoot even par with 36 putts, or you can shoot even with 26 putts. Or you can shoot 20 over with 34 putts.

but, if you have 18 short putts, and yet you miss all but 2, then yea, you had a bad putting day. But if you’re on in reg every hole, but with long putts at birdie, and only make 2, but don’t 3 putt at all, then you had a good day putting with 34 putts. But you just shot 2 under…

make sense?  It all depends….

Based on this blog, I've seen a "good" number of putts be defined as:

0.45GIR + 22.5 = Target Putts Per Round

I personally think that's a little unfair, but it's a starting point that you could use to adjust to your own game.

[How'd you play?]

- 34/41 = 75 (+3)
- 6/15 FIR
- 12/18 GIR (4 birdies)
- 35 Putts (2 3-putts, 13 2-putts, 3 1-putts)

For the first time in a while, things came together for a good chunk of the round. My brother-in-law joined me for the round this morning and having a second person really helped me to spend just a touch longer visualizing shots and putts. 

I hit 11 of the first 12 greens, had three eagle opportunities and rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt on the par 3 No. 6 hole for the first birdie on that hole all season for me.

Biggest thing I did different was that I worked through nearly a full Rypstick workout before teeing off. Normally it takes a couple holes for me to completely get loose, but the 50+ swings in the Rypstick workout really gets you warmed up. Additionally, it does seem to add a few miles per hour for a bit as well. First shot on course was a 260-yard 4 hybrid and I didn't feel like I was swinging hard at all!

I unfortunately started to press a bit after hole 12, realizing I had a good shot at breaking par with the way I was playing. Driver got a little squirrelly and cost me some strokes down the stretch, including an ugly double bogey on the only par 5 on the back. Just started to play a little too tight. Oh well. Feels good to get a good round in, probably my best in well over a month.

[Unofficial Review: Dumina AutoFlex SF505X Driver Shaft]

2 hours ago, Nolan220 said:

Insane ! What do you think the shelf life is for the shaft ? 

I've wondered that. I've read a few anecdotal reports of them cracking. I've been careful with it and so far so good. Does feel a little fragile though.

2 hours ago, dlow206 said:

Do you have the lighter weight in the head right now?

Yup. I have the seven gram weight I bought from you in there. It's perfect.

[Unofficial Review: Dumina AutoFlex SF505X Driver Shaft]

Realized I hadn't checked back into this thread since getting a lesson where we focused on driver for a bit. I've been hitting the driver a lot better recently and the AF/Epic Max LS combo has been holding up really, really well. I've hit more 300+ drives in the past few weeks than I have in the past couple of years combined. Couple of good ones from today:

My Arccos "Smart Distance" has increased to 293 yards over my last 10 rounds. Absolutely incredible.

I don't think I'll be tempted to try anything else for quite a while.

[Rypstick Speed Training]

I finally finished up the "Fast Track Level 1" protocol after taking a short break around the Labor Day holiday. I put all of the data I collected into Google Sheets, and I can't say I've made a huge movement one way or another. I do think my non-dominant side swings improved a little bit.

The last swings of the protocol are dominant hand swings with two weights. I briefly saw an uptick in speed here but otherwise was as consistent as I can be with the cheap Sports Sensors Speed Radar:

I'm not terribly surprised with my results as I've been doing SuperSpeed protocols on-and-off since the winter of 2018. I've mentioned it before, but I think the largest speed gains for me are now going to be the result of improving my raw power output by lifting heavier weights and improving swing mechanics. 

That being said, I've been longer off the tee on course since restarting the Rypstick protocols. Combined with a slight swing change from a lesson a few weeks back, and dry conditions, I've hit more 295-plus drives in the past month than I have in the past three seasons combined. That included a wind-aided 320-yard bomb slightly uphill. 

I'm on to month two working with Sarah Iverson at Ryp Golf. I believe I am committed for three months. I've enjoyed having a second set of eyes on my workout plans and having access to the MyTPI portal for exercise ideas has been good. My one criticism of the MyTPI stuff is that they don't appear to have much devoted to building raw strength. I've already been tweaking programs to introduce barbells and periodization, which I've found to work well for me in the past.

I plan on sticking with Sarah and her outlines through the three month period, but will probably go back to a more homebrewed plan starting in November. Between the exercises/stretching from MyTPI, Fit for Golf and lifting weights through with the big compound movements, I think I can come up with something to help me reach my goals by the start of the 2022 golf season.

[What equipment are you thinking about?]

22 minutes ago, ejgaudette said:

Also remind me you got yours to swing weight out in the D2 is range right, hoping to go slightly lighter in grip to keep swing weight close and maybe add a quarter inch to bump swing weight up a bit as I just added lead tape to my 6 iron to get it around D4 and that has felt much better than the D1 it was at. Again spit balling here.

The Sub70/MMT combo came out all around D4, plus or minus a swingweight or so on each side. Through trial and error I've found D4 to be right around the best weight for me as well, and I go up to D6.5 in the wedges.

Not sure what the 4 Utility is at. Specs says D1, but I haven't measured it to confirm. Feels OK as is. 

The 3 Utility/MMT Utility shaft combo specs out at like D6 right now and I need to trim 1/2 inch to get that down to a more playable weight. Haven't had much use for it this season as I've only played a handful of rounds where I would have wanted it instead of my 4 hybrid.

[What equipment are you thinking about?]

19 hours ago, ejgaudette said:

Elbow had been feeling a bit sure after practicing lately so if course thinking graphite. Hoping my local fitter had some options in the 110 and up range. Also think it might be a good opportunity to help me feel like I can slow down without sacrificing speed.

I know we've had this conversation before, but have some new, additional thoughts. I've been pleasantly happy with the Recoil 110 F5 in my new Cobra 4 Utility. Gets the ball up easily, especially combined with the head design. Much easier to hit than the Sub70 699 4 iron/MMT combo. Feels just a touch more active to me, I think the bend point is slightly lower and that's probably the reason. Weight is right around that 110 gram mark that I get along so well with.

Realistically believe I could play the Recoils instead of the MMTs. Has me itching to try PX Catalysts now though, too. Bonus points to the Recoils as they are almost half the price of the MMTs ($43 vs. $75 for .355). But the MMTs look better in the bag.

[How'd you play?]

This morning's nine holes pretty much sums up the last month or so of my golf season. I've been posting sporadically because I've had some miserable days mixed in with only a few decent scores.

Hole 10 - Best drive I've hit all year on this hole, 315 yards (downhill) middle of very tight fairway, chipping distance to green. Ball stopped on a dead patch of dirt/grass, left the chip well short but on green, first putt short, five footer lips out, 2 footer lips out, fourth putt thankfully goes in. Double.

Hole 11 - Dogleg right. Pull my new Cobra 4 Utility and hit a towering push draw that looks to be great and heading to middle fairway. Catches the very top of a tree that overhangs the fairway and falls straight down. Second shot runs through dogleg and stops at base of tree. Have to turn wedge around and left hand back to fairway. Wedge to pin high, chip, miss a five footer. Triple.

Hole 12 - Full pitching wedge with tees and pin both back. Overdraw just a hair left to where the cart path cuts in within five yards of green. Hit the cart path and bounces into woods. Find it, but take two strokes to get back on green, two putts. Double.

Hole 15 - Short par 4, drivable with my 2 hybrid. Hit a really nice ball that leaked right and caught one of the trees overhanging the fairway by the green. Spent a long time looking for it but presume it either got stuck in the tree or sat down in the rough (unlikely since I covered the whole area). Take my strokes, chip up, two putt. Double.

Two bogies and three pars made up the other five holes. Really, a pretty good ball striking day. I've been hitting the ball so well and just have not had an ounce of luck lately. Frustrating.

[What Have You Bought Lately? (CHA - Club Ho's Anonymous)]

On 8/21/2021 at 10:21 AM, edingc said:

Since I'm over the moon with the AutoFlex/Max LS combo, I decided to put my Mavrik in trade toward a new Cobra 4 Utility iron.

Ordered it with the Recoil 110 shaft to match the heavier weight of my MMTs. I can always order another MMT Utility shaft if I don't like the Recoil for some reason.

I've been hitting my 4 iron more often from the tee lately and thought some additional forgiveness might be nice.

This came in yesterday morning, so I slapped a grip on it today and headed to the range with my brother-in-law.

Awesome club and will immediately be replacing my 4 iron. So easy to hit off the tee and turf. Distance was perfect, too. Pretty much a drop-in replacement for the 4 iron with loads more forgiveness. Also easier to launch - the Recoil 110 F5 was a perfect choice.

First ball with it was just slightly toe side, resulting in a nice high flight from the tee. Beautiful push draw.

[edingc's Work In Progress]

The Labor Day holiday pretty much marks the end of my main golf season. I will continue to play at least once a week as long as the weather cooperates, but I'm moving into offseason mode in my training and practice.

As in past years, one of my offseason goals is to continue to get in better shape. I have been working with my Rypstick and also with one of the Rypstick trainers to develop an offseason plan. My hope is to shed a few pounds and add some weight to my max lifts. Between working out and the Rypstick, I want to develop more club head speed.

I got out on the range today to get a general baseline of where I am currently at throughout the bag. I didn't hit every club, but hit the following with my Mevo+ running:

• Driver
• 5 Iron
• 7 Iron
• 9 Iron
• Gap Wedge (50 degrees)

After lightly warming up, I hit seven balls with each club (eight with driver). I removed outliers and took averages from the Mevo+ software. I did not remove any balls from the 7 iron, 9 iron or gap wedge. I removed one smother hook from the 5 iron and removed four balls from the driver that the Mevo+ registered as 5,000-6,000 RPM spin. 

I hit fairly poor quality range balls. My experience with the Mevo+ and range balls is shorter clubs tend to spin less than normal (therefore recording longer carry distances), mid irons are pretty accurate and the driver can be a mixed bag of both. Club head speeds are also a little variable depending on the club and distance from the radar. I'm usually looking at ball speeds and general shot shape.

My honest assessment tells me these carry numbers are a little too high, though I was swinging well today (but slower than Saturday when I had my lesson and did my Rypstick workout before hitting balls).

I will need to repeat this test throughout the winter and next spring to see if I've made any progress.

[Sub70 golf]

20 minutes ago, KurtActual said:

Without rereading all 32 pages, is anyone gaming the utility irons, or 699/699U combo?

I have a 699/699 Pro combo set, but ran into someone with a Pro Utility at the range the other day. Looked like a nice club. I took a few air swings with it - he had a HZRDUS Black shaft in it.

I think the 699 Pros are quite forgiving themselves. The difference between the 699 and 699 Pros really comes down to offset, I believe. My 4-6 699s have considerably more offset than the 7-AW 699 Pros.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd go Pro 4 Utility, 5-AW 699 Pros. 

[Yellow Ball Roast's]

Let's just say I could have used that axe this morning...

[How'd you play?]

- 40/40 = 80 (+8)
- 4/15 FIR
- 8/18 GIR (1 birdie)
- 31 Putts (13 2 putts, 5 1-putts)

Lucky to be playing at home (parkland style course). Hit one very nice drive and a few others that were just fine, but also hit five that were just miserable and off the planet to the right. Was able to save them from adjacent holes for par/bogey somehow.

Hit one ball OB on the back par 3 and had a couple good looks at birdie or par saves that just missed or lipped out. One of those rounds where how I feel I played is much worse than the actual score. So weird!

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

11 hours ago, mikeanthony said:

Nice Cody! I’m sure it’s been mentioned before, but are you still playing the Cobras from last season? Any clubs eventually get switched out? 

I'm currently only playing the wedges, which I re-shafted with Mitsubishi MMT graphite shafts to match the Sub70 699/699 Pro Combo set I built over the winter.

I never did feel all that comfortable with the irons. I was going to split set some Maltby PTM cavity backs and the long irons from the SpeedZones, but I started to develop some shoulder/elbow/wrist pain over the winter from swinging on mats. So I decided to build myself a graphite shafted set, found the 699s for a good price, and did the work myself. I love them.

I didn't ever use the 3 wood, so I dropped it for a Callaway Super Hybrid that I actually can hit, and then that made the 2 hybrid gapping weird so I dropped that for a Callaway Epic Flash 4 hybrid.

I've cycled through two drivers since then, settling on the Epic Max LS and AutoFlex combo.

I do love the wedges though, and I'm entertaining the thought of ordering a second set this winter to build and use only on course while keeping the original set for range time. I also have a Cobra 4 Utility on order that will be here this week!

Long story short, typical club ho'ing.

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

Got out for a couple buckets to work on stuff from my lesson Saturday. Man, when I get things right, it's awesome. Still a ways to go on the consistency, but I pured a handful of irons and drivers with the new feels. Had to scale back the drivers as there was a slight breeze behind me and I put a couple over the fence. 

With irons, my goal is to get my downswing path more left. Right now it feels like I'm trying to hit a massive cut but with a closed clubface.

On the flip side, with my driver i'm needing to get more flat and swing more out to right. I found that I really need to stretch my arms out at setup or else I tend to pull back left and hit hooks. Feeling like I'm fully extending my arms got me hitting some awesome shots.

[How'd you play?]

After having a lesson yesterday morning, I inevitably played a little too much "golf swing" and not enough golf this morning but still walked away happy. Playing with a new driver swing I hooked one OB left on No. 3 and then for the second time in a week lost a ball in the rough just off the fairway on No. 11, both leading to triples. Left myself some gigantic first putts not accounting for how straight I started hitting my irons and led to a number of three-putts.

- 43/41 = 84 / 83 ESC (+12)
- 7/15 FIR
- 10/18 GIR (2 birdies)
- 30 Putts (3 3-putts, 12 2-putts, 3 1-putts)

Big takeaway is that by the end of the round I really started hitting the ball well throughout the bag after getting a little squirrelly midway through. The new driver swing (much more rounded and flatter after my lesson) was money. I picked up a bunch of distance and accuracy - recording five drives of more than 295 yards and a new personal best 320-yarder on No. 18 with a bit of wind help. 

[edingc's Work In Progress]

I was finally able to get another lesson in this morning - my first lesson since early June. I have been working diligently on getting more hip turn in my backswing over the past few months. 

The good news is that my backswing is much improved. But now my focus has to shift to correcting an underplane iron swing and overplane driver swing. My iron swing has developed a large "drop under" move, which results in the club moving too in-to-out. This leads to thin shots, blocks and hooks. I worked today on feeling my hands move more left and down, which helped steepen my downswing a little bit. There is still a lot of work to be done.

My coach has me placing a range basket slightly in front and just a bit right of the ball to help cement the idea that I need to be exiting more left.

You can see on the right I was successful in getting my hands moving a bit more to the left on this swing, which results in less clubhead rotation through the swing (i.e. less timing of the hands).

With driver, I actually need to do the opposite. I need to feel like I'm much flatter coming back and swing out more to the right. My coach said this is atypical. He usually sees iron swings too steep and driver too flat. I made a few changes with the feeling like I was coming back very flat and around. This actually resulted in a near perfect look at the top:

Working on getting flatter dramatically improved my launch conditions. I typically hit a high slight fade, but I started to hit piercing draws/straight balls with the changes. It also improved my speed. I still need to work on this more, but I did have my Mevo+ going and the early results were promising:

I have a week left in the main part of my season and will then drop down to playing much more infrequently. But I'm excited to get back out on the range to work on these things. I love seeing progress; it's such a great motivator.

[Rypstick Speed Training]

I am seeing some results from the workouts and renewed commitment to using the Rypstick three times per week.

My Arccos "Smart Distance" for my driving has increased to 279 yards, with a "Smart Range" of 269-296 yards. At the conclusion of #CobraConnect4 last summer, I was somewhere in the mid-260s. While we've had firmer conditions this year than in past, I am definitely longer both off the tee and with my irons.

I've even had a handful of 295-plus drives, which had previously been a once or twice per season occurrence.

I have a few more workouts left in the level one protocols and then will continue on to level two. Following the Labor Day holiday I am planning to have another session with Sarah to set a higher intensity program for the offseason.

[Post Your Swing]

53 minutes ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

• I'd like to see the club outside my hands on the backswing and then shallow. It's not awful or unplayable, but my path is still inside on the backswing and out-to-in on the downswing. The path results in either a playable cut or (if the face closes) a nuclear pull. You can see this on the first two DTL swings: the first is a pull, the second a push-fade.
• On the face on: I think it would be beneficial if my entire upper body and head didn't slide down the line into impact. On iron shots, it tends to be reasonably playable: it gives me a sharply downward AoA. But I suspect that that move is part of the explanation for my driver woes.

If you're like me, the sliding tends to be the effect of the inside back swing. You know that you need to shallow on the downswing and not be "over the top," so you move forward and drop the hands. If my timing is good, it's good. Poor timing ends up with hooks or blocks with irons, and push slices with the driver.

(Disclaimer: I almost never do this, and I'm a mid-cap with no teaching experience.)

What happens if you feel a little more stretched out in the setup, with a little more knee bend? If you can get that club head coming just a touch more from the outside, you might snag a little more hip depth which can get you more space to let the arms/hands come back though.