edingc
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Posts posted by edingc
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3 minutes ago, yungkory said:
There are times where I wonder why I even left the house to play as well. It's never due to weather, though
Yeah, yeah. Rub it in.
I'm not too upset. Even with COVID stuff and fairly typical Michigan weather, I've played at least one round per month since March, and I think this was either round 76 or 77 for the year. I'll never match that again, this year had so many special circumstances that led to that number of rounds.
Just disappointing to end the year (most likely) playing the course I did. Felt like I struck the ball pretty well (at least on the first nine), but the greens just didn't let me really close out the year on a good note.
- MattF, sirchunksalot, cksurfdude and 1 other
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This is going to sound a little crass, but played a garbage course and played like garbage
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I took some vacation time today because the forecast was great, but we got a really hard frost last night and I couldn't tee off as early as I wanted to. To kill some time I went to the heated range with great success, which carried over to about the first 5-6 holes.
Oh well, it's December in Michigan and I was golfing. As was the rest of the West Michigan population, apparently. Super slow play, and after the range balls I just started to stiffen up a lot waiting 5-8 minutes to hit every shot. I should know better than to play this particular course, it was in really rough shape and the greens were sponges, bumpy and long. I've never played particularly well there.
I'm getting a lot closer with my full swing at least. I'm now in the pull and pull hook stage with my "bad" shots, so I think that's one step closer to figuring it out. Hit a couple really great shots and I'm happy to see I'm about a club longer than I was in early summer with the Maltby PTMs. Weight training, SuperSpeed and swing work paying off.
Touch around the green was miserable. Had a lot of putts but really can't blame anything other than the greens. The one group that did let me play through wasn't even putting out, they just hit the green and picked up every hole.
- yungkory, GolfSpy_SHARK, CarlH and 5 others
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12 hours ago, Lacassem said:
I have perused there so I can’t speak to the content but there is arguably a lot here as well I definitly cannot get through the new stuff daily.
12 hours ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:I’ve said this before but it bears repeating.
When I joined here in 2016, an entire days posting was contained on one page. I honestly could read all New Content in about thirty minutes to an hour. I found myself going bsck to threads from 2-3 years to read stuff.
Now I cant even do that in one day.
It’s been awesome to see more and more new members come along and get active.
I also know from talking to them, some of our most active members have been members for years, but just started posting regularly this year. That is very cool to see
While we may not generate the same amount of content as a site like WRX daily, I'd like to think the content we do generate is more thoughtful/actually useful to the conversation than a simple shallow reply or thought. I can't tell you the number of times I've written something out and never posted it because it didn't add to the conversation.
Sure, we could generate plenty of #CobraConnect-length review posts if everyone just posted simple short answers without much depth or thought.
I looked at a lot of WRX content when deciding whether to buy the Tour Striker Planemate and also my L.A.B. DF putter since they had some official reviews. Personally, I found their official "reviews" to be pretty lacking in any sort of depth even though the number of comments on them was quite staggering. The Planemate thread was long and was more useful, in my opinion, but even so there wasn't a lot of actual feedback about how/why it helped the particular person's game.
My two cents...
- joen, GolfSpy_SHARK and Golfspy_CG2
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4 minutes ago, goaliewales14 said:
It's helped so much, especially in my short game.
Yes, I overlooked this point in my comments, but that was one area that benefited from the PM a lot. I had kind of forgotten how much better my short game got but it was night/day difference after using the PM. Lot less handsy and way more consistent.
- Golfspy_CG2, Tarheelvolvo, Cincyfish and 1 other
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28 minutes ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:
So I skimmed through this thread as I'm considering the Planemate, after hearing so much positive about it.
@edingc @goaliewales14 @rbsiedsc @sirchunksalot @Getoffmylawn
Question for you guys.
1) Would you buy it again
2) Are you still using it
3) Do you feel it has helped you or not so much
4) What's the one thing you'd advise someone on before taking the plunge.
Thanks for all your great comments in here.
1) I'm probably closer to 50/50. Like @rbsiedsc mentioned, I think I could get similar benefit (for my particular game/swing flaws) from the smart ball.
2) Occasionally. Mostly for practicing my takeaway. Combination of Planemate and mindful practice has pretty much eliminated the inside roll takeaway that I had previously. Probably worth the price of admission right there!
3) As I alluded to in No. 2, my takeaway has gotten a ton better through consistent practice and Planemate usage. My instructor always remarks how incredibly better my takeaway got in such a short time period. I think if I used it more often I would get some benefit from fuller swings as well. (Unfortunately, I'm limited by ceiling height in my basement, so takeaway work is the easiest for me to do without needing to empty the garage and deal with the cold.)
4) I think the Planemate is a great training aid for two types of people:
- Those who have never swung a golf club before and have no "bad habits" or preconceived notions about the swing.
- Those who have a pretty good grasp of what their swing faults are and can "self-coach" a bit.
I know you fall into the second group @Golfspy_CG2.
The reason I believe this particularly point is because of my own self-reflection. When I started using the Planemate in July, I had really good results with the early protocols but absolutely bombed out when trying to move to the full-swing band. I know now why that happened (my concept of the backswing turn, left side bend and weight shift), but I really didn't figure this out until very recently. I've tried a few of the full swing drills since making this "discovery" and they turned out much better.
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4 hours ago, edingc said:
I'll keep that in mind. Looks like it's 18 degrees. Could work if I shortened the shaft a 1/2 inch or so for gapping purposes... Not something I'll probably move on until after the holidays.
It's just too easy in cold weather to sit inside and ponder bag changes.
Ah, heck. YOLO.
21 degree 4 hybrid. Planning on lofting down to 20.
Now, no matter what iron set I'm playing, I'm covered.
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3 minutes ago, rbsiedsc said:
I may be willing to part with my sub70 3H if you'd like. Its either 18* or 19*
I'll keep that in mind. Looks like it's 18 degrees. Could work if I shortened the shaft a 1/2 inch or so for gapping purposes... Not something I'll probably move on until after the holidays.
It's just too easy in cold weather to sit inside and ponder bag changes.
- sirchunksalot and Rickp
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I've had various Epic Flash hybrids in my carts on multiple sites. So far have resisted the impulse.
Regardless of whether I play the SpeedZone irons or my Maltby PTMs, I have a gap around the 19 degree mark. I'm all in on the Callaway Super Hybrid replacing the 3 wood, but that compresses the gap between it and my 2 hybrid. Ideally, I'd rather find something that stops a bit better than the 2 hybrid, so a 19ish degree hybrid makes sense.
Liking the Epic Flash because it's adjustable. I do have the SpeedZone 4 iron or the Tour Edge 3 iron that both fit in at 19 degrees, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am from the deck with them.
Just thoughts. Realistically, I think I'm staying put. The major advantage of switching to a hybrid would be that I could go to a 52/56/60 wedge setup in the future if I wanted.
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7 minutes ago, Shankster said:
How’s this for dispersion from 65 yards?
The close ones are all within my shoe length apart. The stray one was 3 shoe lengths from the others...
Obviously really mucky, gives good feed back for landing the ball.
You make me reminisce about growing up with 40+ acres on a farm. Always plenty of things to aim golf balls at. I never did put in that par three that I wanted to do as a kid... would love to have that kind of space now.
- Shankster, GolfSpy_SHARK, cksurfdude and 1 other
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1 hour ago, sirchunksalot said:
Took a trip to the range today to see if I could keep somewhat of a similar swing to last weekend, especially with the irons. I had thought about playing, but with my work schedule lately, I need all the practice I can get.
I started out shanking several wedges and wasn't feeling too good about the prospects of a good range session. I then decided to move on to full shots with my 56 and started hitting the ball good. My suspicion is with the wedges I start out decelerating on the downswing then figure out my tempo with the full shots. I went back to the wedges later on and was hitting them good. I need to remember this.
For the most part, my irons were good. I'm still sending them a little left of where I want, but it's getting better. I had taken the foot spray out of my bag and remembered to pick it up and put it back in. After hitting about 40 balls and feeling I was somewhat dialed in, I sprayed some on my Wilson 6 iron.
I don't know how the mark high on the toe got there. I hit my second shot and there were three marks there.
I then moved on to my Cobra 6 iron for comparison and saw the dispersion of strikes was a little more wild, I even shanked one.
I pulled driver and the pattern got a little wilder, but all but two shots would have played nicely. One was a duck hook and the other was a push to the right.
With the exception of the low and low heel, I'm feeling better about driver contact than earlier in the year when I was all over the place. I'm working on shallowing the club and this is only my second session concentrating on it.
Finished off the day by bringing the clubs home and giving them a much deserved cleaning.
Foot powder spray is the best.
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Two buckets at the range yesterday morning. First time out with the DownUnder Board and it was pretty cool to see my swings with and without the board. I think it will be a very useful training aid.
So-so session, really struggled with my path getting left which led to a lot of pulls, toed shots and the dreaded quackers. Couldn't get my weight moving around without the DownUnder Board very well, just ended up starting the downswing with all of my weight into my left heel which led to the path issues.
Bright spot for me was the Callaway Super Hybrid. It's an absolute monster of a club. Off the tee the FlightScope Mevo recorded a few ball speeds in the mid-upper 140s. It's going to be a 3 wood replacement for me, and I can even crush it off deck. It also doesn't seem to have the draw bias so many hybrids have.
The weight shift issue bothered me all night and after some reflection this morning I realized I wasn't getting enough front side bend in the backswing. Hit probably 200 9-to-3 whiffles outside in the yard today and am liking some new feels. Excited to get back to the range next weekend to give it a go with full swings.
(I'm glad I'm working almost exclusively with my longer clubs this offseason. With shorter clubs I think I could get away with the left path and the misses wouldn't be as severe. I am going to get my long game fixed this offseason. I cost myself way too many strokes with long clubs last season.)
- bens197, cksurfdude, sirchunksalot and 4 others
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38 minutes ago, rbsiedsc said:
Thinking about getting a 3i since I struggle with hybrids and woods but hit my 4i well. Just need something for the 220-230 yard gap. Maybe a DHY?Thinking HMB or pxg 0311p or xp.
Sub70 Utility? Cobra SpeedZone 4 iron (19 degrees) with graphite shaft? Probably cheaper than the HMB or PXG options.
EDIT - Should say I have flirted with the concept of a "driving iron"/3 iron for two seasons now and probably shoot myself in the foot with it more often than not. When it's good, it's good. But it's bad a lot. Working on it. Currently with the SpeedZone since it's super forgiving, but I also have a Tour Edge CB Pro Tungsten 3 iron kicking around that launches low bullets. Just unfortunately my misses are way worse.
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20 minutes ago, Chip Strokes said:
which i think is important in golf. being that golf is largely populated by older guys, there’s a lot of stigma and misinformation about working out that gets thrown around.
”you can’t have muscles and swing the club right, squats are bad for your knees, don’t deadlift you’ll hurt your back...”
i think the introduction of smart fitness protocols for golfers is hugely important. we all want to play a lot of golf long into our golden years. that’s not gonna happen without working out like an athlete. case in point: my dad.
hes 66, looks like he’s in his early 50s, had strength trained and kept up with mobility and cardio his whole life, and he’s out walking 18-36 holes almost daily
I'm glad that "modern athletes" have started to remove the negative stigma around lifting weights. Baseball had the same thing for a long time. Golf is just a few years behind most other sports.
I work in a sedentary industry (IT). Weightlifting is critical to staying healthy. I want to be hitting the ball further/just as far at 50 as I do now in my early 30s.
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3 hours ago, daviddvm said:
Interesting to hear yawl talking about the same spots in the bag I'm having some trouble with. I love the 5w (190 - 200 yards) and the 21* one length hybrid (175 - 185) in my bag. But I'm having trouble with the one length 6i and 5i. I am very erratic with both clubs and have trouble with getting them high enough to stop on the green. The 7i is money (145 - 155 yards). I've got a 24* speedzone ONE in my shopping cart on Cobra...thinking about pulling the trigger for X-mas. My hesitation has been I've had a little trouble getting enough height with the 21* hybrid ONE to stop on the green in firm conditions. So 160 - 175 range is my kryptonite right now.
In the interest of transparency, I've been evaluating and changing everything in the bag (which is implied by my signature changing around several times over the past few weeks).
The SpeedZone Xtreme is safe. It would take something super special for that to get knocked out of the bag. I bought the Callaway Super Hybrid with the intent of replacing the SpeedZone 3 wood. I never loved the sound, and I never hit it off the deck. It's just a mini driver for me in that sense. So the 17 degree Super Hybrid (lofted down to 16) is going to fill the 3/4 wood spot for me and be much more versatile since I've already hit it off deck with success.
I've used my Maltby PTMs for all of my winter practice so far. I love the forged feel and the stiff C-Taper Lites have a more pleasant feeling than the x-stiffs that are in the SpeedZones. Yes, the PTMs are about a club shorter in the long irons, but the gapping is much more manageable in the lower irons than the SpeedZones.
For example, I played nine holes last Friday with the SpeedZones. Hole No. 2 was a 155ish-yard par 3. With the SpeedZones I had to decide either to step on a 9 iron or really lighten up an 8 iron. In October I used 8 iron and went long by about 10 yards. Long story short, I ended up coming up about a yard short of the green and the ball trickled down into a pot bunker. I walked away with a six after butchering the rest of the hole.
With the PTMs I would have been able to hit an almost full 8 iron and hit that gap easily. I have much narrower gappings from 7-GW than in the SpeedZones.
The MIM black wedges aren't going anywhere. They are great around the green and with a few swing tweaks I've been working on in practice they are starting to really sing on full shots as well.
Regardless, I have a gap between the 16 degree Super Hybrid and 21 degree SpeedZone 5 iron/22 degree Cobra F8 hybrid I use with my PTMs. The SpeedZone 17 degree hybrid is a great club, but it really rolls out a lot and isn't something I use much other than off the tee. The SpeedZone 4 iron with the graphite shaft is super forgiving but it launches really high (which kind of defeats the purpose of using it as a "driving iron" on windy days), and it's a touch too long to use from the rough.
I'm debating about two new hybrids in 23 and 20 degree lofts. Something like the Callaway Epic Flash line. They would replace my Cobra F8 22 degree hybrid and the 19 degree driving iron slot. That'd leave me with 13 clubs so if I ever wanted to go to a 52/56/60 setup, I could.
Decisions, decisions... I'm just trying to get rid of single use clubs while still giving myself all of the shots I need to hit to score well.
- Nunfa0, GolfSpy AFG, daviddvm and 4 others
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1 minute ago, B.Boston said:
Still thinking about this Hybrid and options I could try out.
Cody, did you ever get to installing a graphite shaft in the speedzone 4 iron?
I have to get myself to somewhere I can test out the utility.. but a YouTube video got me thinking about potentially using a Speedzone 7-wood in that slot. Maybe shortened a half inch or so depending on where the gapping worked out. I’d just be curious to see if the stopping power was still there.
Thinking that might be a viable option since I love the 5-wood and feel comfortable hitting a draw or fade with it. We shall see.
But for the time being the Speedzone Hybrid is sticking in the bag versus the Titleist 818 H1. They both had a tendency to move left about the same, and I prefer the feel of the KBS Hybrid Prototype shaft in the Speedzone.
Yes, I have the X-Caliber 75 gram Rapid Taper shaft in the 4 iron. Playing out to 39.75" with the Cobra Connect grip.
Solid, although the 75g shaft feels a little light. It launches very high, which isn't necessarily what I wanted out of that spot. But it's incredibly forgiving.
Based on some range numbers it's probably a 210+ club off the tee. Haven't tried it off the deck yet, it's not something I'd probably ever try.
I'm interested in demoing the Cobra Utility. Probably a little more purpose built than my Frankenstein 4 iron.
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34 minutes ago, dlow206 said:
Trying to get less inside with the takeaway. Felt like I was taking the club super outside on the takeaway, but guess it actually wasn't. Went across the line at the top which is not optimal. But good to feel what it feels like to take it away less inside.
So I'll chime in on this specifically because it's something I worked on a lot last winter with my instructor. I had to practice the takeaway a ton for about a month straight before it started to move in the right direction, and then it started to move too outside.
This is one area where I'm a huge fan of the PlaneMate and the short green band. If you keep tension on the band up to hip height you've nailed the takeaway.
- Micah T, GolfSpy AFG, sirchunksalot and 2 others
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13 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:
A Golf Lesson With Kirke
So last night, Kirke pulled a little plastic toy golf ball out and was taking some cuts at it in the basement. I took some video of his swing and learned something that opened my eyes a bit, and I thought I'd share it here.
Here's Kirke's swing:
He's certainly not going all out here. But the motion is still typical of him: very smooth and very clean. He tends to have an abbreviated backswing, especially on his iron shots (he's learning with the speed sticks that for him, a longer backswing=more speed).
Here's what struck me: for a long time, I worked to get to an impact position in which I wasn't raising my hands high through impact. In other words, if I drew a line on the shaft at address (DTL view), I wanted to get to impact with the shaft more or less on the same line. To get my hands high (as was my pattern) would raise the shaft and, by necessity, bring the clubhead into impact with the heel up and the toe down (which will point the face to the right).
But my method of keeping my hands low has ended up creating its own issues. From the top of my backswing (which looks fairly textbook), I drop my hands quickly (which steepens the shaft). I'm then moving my hands on a tight arc back to their address location.
What I noticed with Kirke's swing, taking it frame by frame, is that as his hands come down, they are well outside the line established at address. But as they continue forward and left as his body pivots, by the time the club drops into impact, they have essentially returned to the original position (but now forward, into the frame from a DTL perspective).
To help explain this, check these frames from Kirke's swing compared to mine:
Anyway, I've been toying around with the hand path Kirke creates, and there's a lot about it that makes sense to me, things that I think would be an improvement on my current swing.
Forgive me for my musings as a non-golf professional/10-cap, but have you looked earlier in the swing to see what kind of match ups Kirke creates that you don't?
This is one screen cap that I love:
Followed by:
- Nolan220, mpatrickriley, JohnSmalls and 1 other
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7 hours ago, Mattz said:
This code still works; I just bought this today. Really appreciate all of the feedback from this thread!
Do you roll it up / put it away each time or generally let it sit? I'm trying to decide if I want to put it in the bedroom or living room.
I roll it up. The material unrolls perfectly flat.
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Two large buckets this morning. I ordered a set of various height rubber tees so that I could practice tee shots with my long irons and hybrids from the mat. Also brought along the 1967 Wilson X-31 6 iron that I cleaned up last night after I got the set, and my new 17 degree Callaway Super Hybrid.
Spent about a bucket comparing and contrasting my two 19 degree "driving irons" - the Cobra SpeedZone 4 iron I reshafted with a graphite shaft and a Tour Edge Exotics CB Pro Tungsten with a graphite shaft. The SpeedZone was by far the most forgiving club, but it honestly launches almost too high for windy days. The CB Pro Tungsten is less forgiving but launches almost a degree and a half lower. Carry is about the same, with more roll for the Tour Edge. I guess I'm going to be keeping both around and swapping in the TE on windy days.
The Super Hybrid feels amazing, and it launches rockets. I turned it down to 16 degrees and in the draw setting, and hit mid-140s ball speeds. It looks to be a 230+ yard carry club from the tee and about 210-220 yard carry from the deck. Suitable for a 3 wood replacement as it was just so easy to hit!
I had a blast hitting the X-31 6 iron. Being the loft and length of a modern 8 iron, it flew about what I would have expected - upper 150s, low 160s. With the fluted regular flex stock shafts I really needed to make sure my swing was nice and fluid, otherwise if I get too aggressive in transition it's hook city.
Anyway, I'm going to spend a lot of time with these longer irons because they really expose the flaws in my swing. It took me quite a few balls to get my swing right today. As the clubs get longer I have a tendency to get too inside on my backswing and really tense and pull from the top, which led to all sorts of pulls and toe strikes until I got the tension out of my swing and figured it out.
Quite the novel ... another day of progress.
- ncwoz, cksurfdude and sirchunksalot
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2 hours ago, rbsiedsc said:
How did you decide on what shaft to use? The up charge sucks because I think the stability shaft has neat tech.
I wanted the softest feel possible. I basically asked Matt what he thought would achieve that and went with it. I originally thought it would be the LAGP, but Matt warned me the LAGP is very grip end heavy and would make the head feel lighter. I didn't want that (also why I wanted the lighter Press II grip).
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46 minutes ago, rbsiedsc said:
After my putting performance today idk how I can pull the trigger on this. Maybe this putter means less three putts and better long putt consistency??
That's been true for me so far. Distance consistency has really improved. Even today when I didn't warm up at all and the greens were firm, wet and pretty fast.
I'm finding less "horrible" first putts and lots of tap-ins for 2-putts.
Full disclosure, I did nuke one from the fringe that went a good 9 feet past the pin and also left my 42-foot first putt on No. 6 at least 8 feet short (I hit the the second putt, thankfully). So there is still plenty of room for user error!
I'm excited to get this out on my home course next spring. I'm much more familiar with those greens and can't wait to see some improvement there because I was awful this season with distance control.
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After my range session on Wednesday morning, I snagged the last few things I've had on my "need to buy list" from the shop. The owner is always great to me, figured I'd spend my money there instead of online (and his prices were actually better!).
- FootJoy WinterSof Cold Weather Gloves (used them during today's round)
- FootJoy Rain-Grip Rain Gloves
- Titleist Cart Mitts
And to recap my earlier Black Friday purchases:
- 5 Dozen Snell MTB-X in Optic Yellow (arrived today)
- 17* Callaway Super Hybrid (arrives Monday)
I've now spent enough for a while and need to stop. Also need to start cleaning out the basement which is slowly accumulating "extra" golf stuff...
- Rickp, sirchunksalot, Nolan220 and 8 others
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36 minutes ago, dlow206 said:
What do you guys think this is?
Let's see the new irons!
- Rickp and sirchunksalot
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Unofficial Review: L.A.B. Golf Directed Force 2.1 Putter
in Member Reviews
Posted
Eight days from order to shipment for mine.