[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.

[Happy thread]

2 minutes ago, B.Boston said:

sounds like you should hold open applications for your old role on here... I bet there's a few guys who would love to have built in golf time on the work calendar! haha

Also, congrats on the promotion! 

Thank you! All things considered, I'm lucky to work where I do and to have the flexibility in my schedule.

[Happy thread]

1 minute ago, Shankster said:

Good news.  As long as it gives you ample time for golf of course.

Thanks! Same boss, so it should. Pretty well known 'round these parts that you won't find me in the office at certain times throughout the summer .

[Happy thread]

Just found out this afternoon I will be getting a promotion, starting immediately, to be announced to our group tomorrow.

There have been some internal changes since the start of 2021, and it had been mentioned I might be up for some moving around, but I didn't think it would happen, and not just out of the blue.

Nervously excited. Different responsibilities moving forward once we hire to back fill some of the stuff I currently do on a daily basis.

[How'd you play?]

28 minutes ago, rbsiedsc said:

Great job to not let it destroy your round!

Thanks!

23 minutes ago, B.Boston said:

Nice bounce back birdie!  It's hard to not end up with a hole like that occasionally when you get out first thing in the morning.

Just a fluke hole. Hooded my 6 iron and hooked the first ball OB left. Second ball went left but safe. Hit back out across the fairway and lost the ball somewhere in the rough. Wasn't even long rough. Had I been playing with someone or been playing my yellow balls I think I would have easily found it.

And yes, No. 3 was a good hole. Smoked a driver and hit a nice pitch to give me a four-footer for birdie. Really, the whole front nine was quite solid after No. 2.

[How'd you play?]

"One of these things is not like the others..." 

- 40/41 = 81 / 79 ESC (+9)
- 3/15 FIR
- 8/18 GIR (2 birdies)
- 30 Putts (12 2-putts, 6 1-putts)

Erase my first quintuple bogey of the season and I'd be really happy with the round. Oh well! Bad double on 17 but was pressed for time, rushing and drenched in sweat.

Hit the ball really well for the first time in a few weeks. Couple drives 290+ again; Rypstick training is paying off. Putted well and just missed a few other birdies. Excited to get back out there.

[2021 Fantasy Golf]

6 minutes ago, blackngold_blood said:

@edingc 2 of the 3 guys you just dropped are in fact playing this week. Fantrax hasn’t updated The Who’s in or not. Higgs(69) and Hoge(48) are still playing. 

Ahahahahahaha. Well, shoot. That's what I get for not paying attention and going solely on Fantrax. Thanks for the honesty!

[How'd you play?]

Played a two-ball, nine-hole scramble this morning to evaluate the Maxfli Tour and Tour X head-to-head. Shot -3 with four birdies and a bogey. Putted well and very happy to have had choices between both balls throughout the round. There were only a few shots where one ball was significantly better than the other.

Focused on balance in my setup today and felt better than I have in a few weeks. I noticed I had been getting too much into my toes at setup the last few times out.

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

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.

[How'd you play?]

Couple of unremarkable rounds (83 and 82) earlier this week, but point together a better round yesterday:

- 39/40 = 79 (+7)
- 6/15 FIR
- 5/18 GIR (1 birdie)
- 27 Putts (9 2-putts, 9 1-putts)

Really good round for my short game and putter. I had been struggling on the greens recently and found an old Lee Trevino video that recommended "wringing the towel," with the handle. It firmed up my grip quite a bit and my speed control improved. 

I've been driving the ball OK, and my irons were better this round but cost myself two strokes by hooking a 9 iron out of bounds trying to lay up on a par 5. One of my two double bogies that I just haven't been able to avoid lately.

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

After another couple rounds of so-so ball striking with my irons, I realized I had started to push my hands away from my body to start my backswing instead of just letting them come along as a result of my shoulders rotating. It was causing me to get really disconnected, pivot poorly and either hit pull draws/hooks, thin straight shots or weak block/fades.

Went through a bucket working on letting the hands work back naturally and then "standing up the umbrella" a la Planemate and I hit the ball so much better, from hybrid down to wedges. I also was playing with the concept of getting the "whoosh" as far in front of the ball as possible (kudos to a Golf Science Lab video with Rypstick team) and that really seemed to help me put more zip on my wedges, especially.

Driver was much less successful, but I think I need to work more on ball position and grip. I'm finding what feels right as a grip with my longest clubs is way too weak and is causing all sorts of issues.

[What equipment are you thinking about?]

28 minutes ago, B.Boston said:

 

So here’s 10 rounds of Speedzone/Ventus Blue 6x from March until I got the Epix Max LS:

And here’s the Epic Max LS and Motore X f3 6x combo:

I excluded the one round I had with the Max LS and MMT combo as it was never going to be gaming combo, I just didn’t have anything else to use that day.

Now it’s still early and only 26 drives vs 72, but I just haven’t had any really bad contact with the Max LS and Motore combo. One of the balls to the right clipped a tree on a tight fairway and came right down. And two of the balls on the left were good shots that I’m still just getting used to being able to aim towards the right side of the fairway.  You can see that my dispersion is more left with the Max LS.  What’s interesting is they’re set up basically opposit of what you’d think.  The speedzone was set to +1.5 and the Max LS is set to -1 and the weight it all out in the toe.  It’s been an absolute bomber for me so far.  It’s had generally less side spin and I’ve had more nice tight draws than I remember ever having before.   

I’m glad that Rapsodo is in and I can start testing because I need to do some Ventus vs Motore X with good data.  The Ventus has a pleasing feeling at impact that I haven’t felt with any other shaft.  And I really believe the tech works.  Right now it seems like I can just feel smoother with the Motore X and it’s working to keep my in sync where the Ventus might be a touch too stiff.  Honestly besides two range sessions where I was switching around I put the Motore X in there at a flip of the coin to be the starter and it’s just really flat out performed on the course and I’m enjoying the feel of it.  

This got me wondering. In my 11 rounds since putting the lighter weight in the Max LS/AF combo, this is what I'm looking at:

Moral of my story for anyone looking at the AF - yes, I definitely added some distance and hit the ball better, generally. But I still have some huge misses when I'm off. (Most of those that are way right are from holes 17 and 18 on my home course, where missing that far right is in the opposite fairway and not a bad play.) 

I only bought the AutoFlex because I capitalized on the hot COVID market for trading cards that I had accumulated when I was younger. If I had to choose between $800 for the shaft or $800 to put into 8 lessons and a season pass for range balls (about the same), I'd take the lessons and range balls all day.

[What equipment are you thinking about?]

On 8/16/2021 at 6:33 PM, yungkory said:

Still pondering MMTs in my irons/wedges. I saw a post by Mizuno on IG that I can't find anymore, where someone asked them if they had plans to offer MMTs and they didn't say "no"

Admittedly, I blindly jumped onto the MMT bandwagon, but they have been excellent for me. No aches and pains in my elbows, wrists or shoulders whatsoever anymore. Dispersion, distance and feel are great.

[Cobra Connect Five-Pre Challenge Chatter-Testers Announced.]

Bags look great!

One thing I really love about what Cobra has been doing is providing excellent color ways for golfers across the spectrum. When I think of Cobra, I think of bright yellows and oranges, but I know not everyone loves that look. The more muted grey/white combo looks great, just like the peacoat/red option on the woods and the matte white "Avalanche" color from last season.

That being said, I rock my bright yellow/black Cobra-x-Vessel bag nearly every single day at the range. Have yet to see another bag like it.

[How'd you play?]

- 39/42 = 81 (+9)
- 4/15 FIR
- 8/18 GIR (2 birdies)
- 34 Putts (3 3-putts, 10 2-putts, 5 1-putts)

First round worth posting about in a while. Although I didn't feel like I played all that well, I grinded out some bogeys on the front and went birdie-par-par-par to finish the round with four straight one-putts. 

Wheels temporarily fell off from No. 9 green to No. 14 tee. Hit a beautiful drive and iron combo on No. 9 to leave a 20-foot eagle attempt. Hit it a touch hard, rolled over the edge and went six feet past. Lipped out the birdie. Three-putt par. Followed with double, bogey, bogey, three-putt bogey and double after pulling my tee shot out of bounds left.

Biggest victory I'm taking from today is not giving up after No. 14's tee shot. Played pretty solid golf after that and even got a drive out to 303 yards with a little wind help on No. 17.

[How'd you play?]

Meh. Haven't posted much lately as there hasn't been much good to report over the last four or five times out. The last scramble I played really did a number on my swing, which I figured would happen. Some solid golf now but mixed in with some absolutely awful holes - a quadruple bogey, several triples and even more doubles. 

I'm down to the last 3.5 weeks of my main season and am bummed about the sudden downturn after playing so well all of July. Oddly enough, my driver has been awesome throughout this downturn, but everything else has been miserable.

Going to keep grinding and try to get the ship righted quickly.

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

Bucket at lunch trying to figure out how I went from hitting the ball great to miserable within about 24 hours. Ended up being a connection issue with my hands and arms getting behind me in the takeaway rather than syncing up with the turn. For me, a good feel is that my right (trail side) bicep is turning into my upper chest during the backswing. Gets me pivoting a lot better.

Once I started swinging better I went to doing some speed work trying to push my limits. Managed to crack 115 with the driver and 107 with my 4 hybrid while doing so. Hoping that by really going all out I'll see some increases in my cruising speeds.

[Rypstick Speed Training]

35 minutes ago, Getoffmylawn said:

Cody, I know you've used SuperSpeed in the past...do you find this to be superior/better?

I'm not concerned with having one stick versus three, and I don't think I know everything but I'm really not concerned with the fitness prescriptions either.  What I am concerned with is what seems like high volume from SuperSpeed protocols versus the emerging competition (Rypstick, Stack...)  Any thoughts on the training protocols specifically?

I just refreshed my memory on the SuperSpeed protocols and it looks like they may have cut down the number of swings? Looks like level one is now three swings each side. Pretty sure it used to be five?

If they have dropped the volume some, it's very similar to the Rypstick. My main reason to moving to the Rypstick was for the single club. My SuperSpeed set was DIY as well, and so I wanted something that was more "official." If the Stack system had supported Android I would have looked harder at that.

I don't believe the fitness assessment/routine is going to be much different than anything else out there, but for me, if I spend a little money on the personal training aspects I'm more apt to follow them. I don't pay for gym access and have quite a bit of equipment at home now, so a monthly fee for training in the off season isn't a huge deal.

It sounds like @WaffleHouseTour is working with Luke specifically and is getting some custom programming with the Rypstick to aid certain flaws. My swing analysis from Luke in the spring did not recommend anything custom (just recommended more hip turn) so I just started on the first programming level.

I doubt there is any magic to the Rypstick protocols in general - most of the overspeed stuff out there today is pretty similar.

My cruising speed is now 107-109 when I'm warmed up and swinging well. It was higher in the winter but Sarah said she commonly sees speeds drop among golfers as the season wears on. If I could get to 113-115 cruising speed by this point next year, I'd be ecstatic.

[Rypstick Speed Training]

I finally did my free fitness assessment with Sarah from Rypstick yesterday. I was very impressed with the consultation given it was included in the price. Sarah is very knowledgeable and even went out of her way to meet with me from a park and not her office because we got our time zones crossed up.

I'm happy to say we discovered no physical limitations. We did find that I need to work on training my brain some with certain movement patterns, especially in the hips. No surprise to me there.

Sarah is going to put together a three day per week plan for me to start this month and then we will re-evaluate once my number of rounds played per week drops after Labor Day.

[Random Thread]

Yesterday was my third scramble in the past 10 days.

One thing I never realized before is how mentally taxing scrambles are! Yesterday's was the worst of the three - big fancy scramble put on by one of our vendors at a local private club. I played well, but I was very focused all round since I was playing with three vendors I had never met before. Between all of the festivities and a six hour round of golf, it ended up being quite the day, almost 10 hours total.

It all hit me this morning on the course when I just couldn't focus at all. First time all year I've walked off without finishing the round - I stopped on No. 16 after losing my fourth ball of the round. It just wasn't fun this morning.

My goal for my next round is to really work on the mental side of it. I can play some really good golf when I get myself committing to each and every shot. Days like today I was just going through the motions and my play showed it.

[Unofficial Review: Dumina AutoFlex SF505X Driver Shaft]

Over the weekend I was able to get my Mevo+ running on the course with the AF/Max LS combo. Up until this point I had only been hitting range balls. So, after getting stuck behind three groups on No. 10 Sunday morning, I decided to cut over to No. 17 and hit a handful of premium balls to gather some real numbers.

My swing was not great Sunday, but seeing Mevo+ numbers was a little disappointing. I had assumed I'd see better ball speeds and therefore smash with the premium balls, but I didn't get as big of jump as I was hoping for.

The second shot above was a draw that ended up in the left rough even with the 100 yard stake. Conservatively, that shot was 275 yards total based on my Google Earth charting. I should have had a GPS running, but didn't think that far ahead. Oh well.

[How'd you play?]

Maybe silly, but I got paired with another mid-cap at a scramble today, and combined with a pretty forgiving course, took away my first golf trophy...

Nothing in comparison to you guys who play real comps or for money games, but it's still a nice feeling. I hit the ball well, and thankfully when I didn't the other mid-cap in our group did. 

[edingc's Work In Progress]

End of July check-in. I just hit the 50 round mark on the season, plus a handful of trips to the course where I played less than nine holes as practice time. I've hit a nice little stride over my last 10-20 rounds (here's the last 10 compared to the 5 handicap baseline in Arccos):

Driver continues to be the weakest part of my game, but it has come around lately. After messing with the AutoFlex for a month and relegating it to the bench, I ended up purchasing an Epic Max LS head that is working wonderfully with the AF. I've hit some absolute bombs with the combo, but maybe more importantly I've found a bit of a fairway finding low drive that carries maybe 240 but can be hit with relative consistency. My goal is leverage that kind of shot when I'm on the outskirts of my home course where I can hit the ball out of bounds. One-and-a-half strokes of the -1.9 driving strokes gained are due to penalties from the tee box, and if I can eliminate those it would be huge for my game.

I've been hitting my irons beautifully for the past two weeks focusing on the feeling of keeping my lead shoulder in longer on the downswing. Combined with a focus on grip, alignment and posture I've never hit the ball better.

My unofficial handicap is now at 8.2. I've come to the realization that to get much lower than that there is almost no room for any mistakes in my short game. I have had several opportunities from within 75 yards that end up short of the green due to chunking my pitch shots. At this point, I just need to spend an afternoon in the short game area to build up some confidence.

[Unofficial Review: Dumina AutoFlex SF505X Driver Shaft]

Lightening up the swing weight with the 7 gram weight has made the the Max LS/AutoFlex combo even better.

I've gotten out for two rounds and a scramble since swapping out the weight, and I'm really happy with the results. As I saw during my range session, the lighter weight really seems to help keep my fades under control. And still, I have not hit a hook since putting the Max LS onto the AutoFlex. Anything that goes left is going left straight and just a bit off target. 

I'm not getting additional distance with the lighter weight, but the dispersion is better and the spin does seem to have dropped ever so slightly. On a smooth and controlled swing I'm able to to total around 255-265 yards on wet fairways.

I played in the afternoon Wednesday for my scramble on a tighter mown and dry course. I hit a few monsters easily out to 285+ total with roll. 

At this point, I'm ready to sell my Mavrik head and commit to this Max LS/AF combo for good.

[How'd you play?]

- 37/42 = 79 (+7)
- 6/15 FIR
- 8/18 GIR (1 birdie)
- 33 Putts (1 4-putt , 12 2-putts, 5 1-putts)

Another excellent round swinging the club, just couldn't hold it together through the whole back. Was cruising until I got on the green on the par 5 No. 14 hole. From 30 feet I sent my putt about 10 feet past the hole, missed the come backer about 2 feet past. As I was about to take my third stroke, my phone rang and instead of backing off, I tried to quickly finish the hole. Four putt! 

My short game didn't do me many favors and cost me a few strokes again. I just don't have a lot of confidence inside of 75 yards or around the green at the moment. But, a few putts just missed. If I get the putts to drop some round I'm going to be really, really happy.