[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

Played my final round of #CC4 this morning. It was very surreal feeling as this has been quite an experience this summer. I hit some really good shots, some really bad shots and a few in between and had a lot of fun just taking everything in. The weather has been very touch and go here already this September, so I'm trying to enjoy what little golf we have left this season.

Playing at my home course I shot an 85, which is fitting as that's what I shot during my first round with the Cobra clubs in the bag way back on July 18. That feels like not long ago, but also a long time ago!

Hole No. 7 pretty much summed up the type of play I've had for the past several weeks.

I pulled my drive a little left and smacked a tree, with the ball rebounding all the way back into the fairway. Lined up my second shot with the SpeedZone 7 iron and hit the most beautiful layup shot that was headed exactly where I wanted -- at least until it caught a lone branch and dropped straight down in the fairway about 150 away. Undeterred, I pulled 8 iron and put a great swing on the ball from the fairway and saw it bounce up on the elevated green. Walking up I had this left for an unconventional par:

And the friggin' putt lipped out. 

It's been a wild ride, and I'm looking forward to summarizing my thoughts in our wrap up posts. Massive thanks to @GolfSpy STUDque for herding us around for the past few months, and of course to fellow competitors @B.Boston, @daviddvm, @GB13, and @Headhammer, who put on a good show and made for some excellent competition!

[2020 Official Member Review: Wilson D7 Forged Irons]

Just getting up to speed on this thread. A great group of testers, for sure.

I gamed the Wilson C300s last year, and besides a few QC issues with the medallions falling off, I really liked the clubs. I couldn't tell from the pictures on the Wilson site, do the longer irons have power holes on the top or is the forged all "normal" topline with just the power holes on the bottom?

Absolutely love the brand recognition and history with Wilson, and they make some fabulous, but underrated clubs. Hope they have another winner on their hands here.

Enjoy the testing opportunity!

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

7 minutes ago, Headhammer said:

 

Interesting, I've not had any issues with low light. I played most of my rounds at first light and my 1st tee box is covered by trees and pretty dark in the mornings, but it always recorded the shot with no issues. I thought once you pulled the club it was active, hence them telling us to leave them in the bag all the time, and that the sound of the club striking the ball triggered the shot to be recorded?

Interesting. I always tried to have a few practice swings to help it along. Maybe it was a combination of my phone microphone and sensors that didn't get along as well.

Both you and @GB13 bring up a good point - there is a reasonable amount of time spent on your phone during a round. Playing by myself this isn't a big deal, but I could see how it could frustrate playing partners who are not understanding. Thankfully the last two non-solo rounds I've played my playing partners have been very understanding.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

19 hours ago, knightsofnii said:

First impression is they're a pinch heavier and stiffer than my previous version Ignite PWRADAPTs.  

As someone who has both, your assessment is spot on.

I'd recommend some additional waterproofing spray just to be safe. 

Honestly, I preferred the original, non-CAGED version a little more, but they are both comfortable shoes and they look good, too.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

5 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

Is Arccos similar to Shotscope with respect to having to take a practice swing or two with the chosen arrow in order to wake the system and capture the shot?  I'm still struggling to remember and do that.

The Cobra team mentioned that it's a combination of light and movement. For the first hole or two it wasn't a huge deal to pull out my phone after each shot and check that it was recorded.

I did try to trick the tags by shining my phone's flashlight on them, but that didn't seem to make a difference.

During yesterday's round in perfect light conditions, Arccos missed two shots the entire round. They were both sand shots that didn't go very far at all so it's totally understandable there.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

#MGSCobra2020 #CobraConnect Arccos Review - edingc, a.k.a. #TeamCalvesLikePhil

Arccos provided the “brains” keeping track of the entire #CobraConnect challenge. As a previous user of GAME Golf Live and ShotScope v2, getting to test out Arccos was one of the biggest highlights of this competition for me.

We were provided the screw-in sensors for our baseline rounds with our old clubs, and all of our Cobra clubs were outfitted with the in-grip sensors. 

On-Course Performance - 3.5/5 Stars

Arccos provides a similar experience to both GAME Golf and ShotScope from a round tracking standpoint. Arccos uses your Android or Apple phone to provide the tracking and GPS capabilities, while the other trackers I’ve used in the past utilized standalone devices.

Tracking is only as accurate as the phone’s GPS signal. I’ve found the signal can occasionally be off by as much as 5-10 yards with my Samsung Galaxy S10e. This is especially noticeable while putting, as putts are generally off by several feet until I go back to clean up the statistics post-round.

My home course is heavily tree-lined, and many of the tee boxes and greens are obstructed on the satellite imagery. This makes mapping the course difficult. When standing in the middle of the green on hole No. 11, for example, Arccos shows me several yards off to the side in the rough.

After playing around 25 rounds with Arccos on the Cobra clubs, I feel like the overall yardages captured are accurate as any weird outliers or mis-measured shots eventually are outweighed by the number of shots taken. Only now do I reasonably trust the Caddie intelligence’s recommendations, and even then having a limited number of shots with certain clubs limits its usefulness. For example, the system loves to recommend my 4 iron off the tee because it views it as a 200 yard club. I’ve hit maybe two good shots all challenge with the 4 iron. I would much rather take the 5 iron that also comes close to 200 yards from the tee.

I was frustrated during the Arccos Caddie challenge when the Caddie intelligence repeatedly skipped offering a suggestion for using my driver and instead consistently recommended my 2 hybrid or 4 iron off the tee even when there was plenty of room to “let the big dog eat.”

I use a laser rangefinder for distances to pins and easily measurable objects, but I found it helpful to be able to place crosshairs on the hole maps in the Arccos app and obtain distances to hazards, trees, etc. that I otherwise could not laser.

The biggest issue I experienced on course with the Arccos system is that the tags are reliant on light to “wake up” and detect shots. I often tee off in civil twilight before actual sunrise, when it is just barely light enough to track my opening tee shot. On multiple occasions Arccos would not start detecting shots until the second or third holes of my round when the sun had finally risen.

If you’re committed to using Arccos, I highly recommend purchasing the smart grips with the embedded sensors. I found the screw-in sensors to be very bulky and awkward, especially coming from the flat, low profile RFID tags of the other systems. The integrated sensors are much nicer, with the exception that several of them rattle when the club is tapped on the ground. I’ve actually had multiple people comment specifically about the rattle when handling the clubs. It sounds like something is loose in the club head if you are not used to the noise.

Off-Course Performance - 4.5/5 Stars

The beauty of Arccos lies in analysis of your golf game across all of your rounds. Shot tracking is cool and all, but the amount of information Arccos gives you about your total game in its web and mobile dashboards is the highlight of the ecosystem.

Arccos released an updated app about halfway through the challenge, adding in a strokes gained metric that allows you to compare your game against many different levels of handicaps. I really enjoy this feature because it clearly illustrates what I need to work on to play to my desired handicap target.

There is so much information displayed in the web dashboard that I cannot cover it all here. Some of my favorite information is the overall trends covering each area of my game, the club distance/gapping chart and the ability to obtain specific information about each club like fairways hit, approach accuracy and a spray chart.

One thing I’ve noticed is that with the new app things don’t always align between the web and app interfaces. It’s not uncommon for the app to list a different overall handicap than the web interface. I’ve also noticed that changes made to the web interface take some time to fully propagate through their system and are not immediately reflected on every screen. 

There is a cost to getting accurate analytics. Be prepared to spend some time after each round correcting things like first putt distance and fairway accuracy. As I mentioned above, the GPS signal and course mapping are only able to be reasonably accurate. This is not a problem exclusive to Arccos, of course, but if you want the absolute best statistics related to your golf game it is imperative to put in that time post-round. I also kept score on The Grint app throughout the entire challenge so I had something to reference.

Miscellaneous - 4/5 Stars

I had a very limited, but positive experience with Arccos support. Three of the original sensors shipped to me were DOA. Unfortunately, one was the putter sensor so I couldn’t track anything until it was replaced. I placed a support ticket on a Saturday morning and called to follow up on Monday. Replacement sensors were sent that evening, and I had them in hand by Friday.

The Samsung Galaxy S10e has fantastic battery life but the Arccos app is a battery hog. I made sure to have my phone fully charged before playing, and for the one time I played multiple rounds in a day, I purchased a portable power bank to charge my phone while driving between courses. I found the app could use up to 50 percent of the phone’s battery life during a normal length round.

I had few problems with the app itself. Once it did crash during a round which led to some extra fiddling, but overall it worked well. The app appears to have all of the local courses in my area. However, looking at the scorecard/tee boxes, many are inaccurate. This includes my home course, where the blue tees are listed at nearly 6,500 yards despite the scorecard listing them around 6,200. My plan is to submit changes to Arccos support after the conclusion of this challenge.

Play It or Trade It  - 4/5 Stars

I currently play enough golf to justify the $99 yearly subscription. If I was a casual player or someone who practiced more than played, I’d probably lean toward something that did not have a recurring cost.

I also have no issues with my phone in my front pocket, so I have no need to upgrade to the recently-released Arccos Link which would otherwise be an additional cost. 

No tracking system is perfect. Arccos is an improvement to ShotScope v2 for me because I disliked the bulky wrist watch. I still enjoyed the manual tagging of GAME Golf Live, but the platform was stagnant and buggy. It is obvious Arccos is constantly improving their offering and they are inching closer to a “perfect” platform.

As much as I hate to have another subscription service, I do plan on renewing my subscription next year.

Overall Rating - 4/5 Stars

There are plenty of small annoyances with the Arccos system, but overall there is little doubt in my mind that the product is the “best of breed” in the shot tracking and analytics world.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

Great day to play a new course! Even had a beautiful slight downhill par 3!

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

On 9/9/2020 at 2:22 PM, GolfSpy Stroker said:

Needed some good and comfortable waterproof kicks and these seemed good...

Always been intrigued by center shafted putters and this one seems to be a decent one...

 

Reshafting my irons with a set of these... can't wait!

 

I have a hard time finding gloves that fit 'decently' and don't fall apart after 5 rounds.
I have had one of these Zero Friction gloves in white for a long time and it is always in great shape. I really like the way this fits and my first round with it I shot 78.

Those Pumas are so comfortable, however, I recommend getting some additional waterproofing on them ASAP. Mine were waterproof for about 10 rounds only. They do have a waterproofing warranty, I believe. Also, my pair developed cracks in the sole mid-season. Cobra replaced them without question, but I just want to bring that up.

A full review of those and the PWRAdapt "Caged" versions is on my list to do after #CC4 wraps up. 

(Also, C-Taper Lites are fantastic. Enjoy!)

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

Just now, Lacassem said:

Was there not multiple strategies where you could choose different options off the tee? 
curious why strategy yesterday was different, assuming the tee boxes weren’t off by much.

but hey 87 on a first tome course is great well done. Do you think the benefit would have been flag hunting and if you missed the green oh well?

Yeah, so that was the crazy thing. Multiple strategies and none of them were driver or 3 wood? Basically, every hole was 2 hybrid or 4 iron. I thought it was going to be driver or 2 hybrid. Oh well. I have to go back through Arccos, but I know I hit a handful of 2 hybrids in the 230 range again so I'm happy. 

Regarding flag hunting, you hit the nail on the head. The first four holes I was not aiming at flags but rather playing for a 2 putt par. After that turned out to be a really bad strategy, I started going right at the flags with much better success. No. 12 comes to mind because I had the distance to pin in my head and just knew it would slide a little right off the slope. Hit my distance on the number, it had a little right kick and spin and it trickled to 18 inches for a tap-in birdie. Unfortunately on 13, 14, and 16 I hit leaky tee shots that didn't let me attack the pin very well, if at all.

I'll definitely be back next year for my free birthday round armed with all of this knowledge.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

18 hours ago, ncwoz said:

I've only heard good things about it, best of luck and looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

As far as the course goes, it costs what it does because it's located so close to downtown Grand Rapids. With my free birthday greens fee I ended up paying $21 for a cart and a small bucket of range balls, and I spent $6 at the gas station beforehand to grab some Coke Zero and a snack. You need a cart, it's not really a walkable course at all.

The course was in very nice shape, although the greens on the first few holes were pretty thin. They were rolling OK, but you can tell the long stretches of heat and dryness we had this summer did some damage to them. Despite all of the rain we've had the past few days there were only a few wet spots, a major plus.

The design was fun, very challenging but fair, especially off the tee box. It's a par 70. The par 5 on the front was very underwhelming. The hole's difficulty comes from a very narrow landing area if you wanted to hit driver. I hit 2 hybrid, 5 iron, and then and bad approach shot that left me with a short chip and a one putt for par. Probably the only hole on the course I didn't like. On the back nine there's not a lot of flat spots to hit from, so you better be comfortable with different types of lies. I really struggled out of the rough. It's a very thick Kentucky bluegrass that kind of raises the ball up and I kept sliding the club face under leading to weak, high toe shots.

This picture gives a good idea of the type of stuff you'll encounter there. I hit my tee shot on the the par 3, No. 8 hole into this waste area. It took two shots to get out and then three putts as my second shot ran all the way back to the very front of green (left side of this picture).

My biggest complaint was that they let a group of five out, which I had to play through. Overall pace of play of play was good though, I teed off at 11:45-ish and was done just after 3 PM. Pairing up with the other single helped to speed me up a bit.

Also, they are not open on Sundays so Saturdays are generally packed. With the pace of play being what it was today with minimal people out, I'm not sure I'd be interested in playing the course when it was packed.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

First, a few pictures because the course was looking mighty fine even on this overcast and dreary September day.

I shot an 87 on the 69.4/123 tees.

Honestly, although the score wasn't earth shattering this was a very clean round for me. Never playing here before really, really hurt. First, as far as the challenge is concerned, I didn't disagree with the Caddie once. More on that in a paragraph or two.

These may have been the most undulated greens I've ever played on. I had 20 putts on the front nine, and the crazy thing is that I wasn't even putting that terribly. Basically, if you were not within eight feet of the hole, you were better off the green. On more than one occasion I was just happy to escape with a three-putt and not something worse. I understand the course is not long and so its difficulty lies with the greens, but it is also frustrating (as someone with no local knowledge) to hit the fat part of the green and then be faced with either a huge uphill or slippery quick downhill putt. Now that I've played here once, I know that off the green isn't necessarily a bad miss.

I was majorly disappointed in Arccos' strategy. After doing the Caddie preview last night, I expected to hit driver on almost everything that wasn't a par 3, since that's what the app was recommending. On the course, the app recommended an entirely different strategy. Only twice did it recommend driver, and instead it had a love affair with my 2 hybrid. I had a reasonably effective day with the 2 hybrid, but there was a two/three hole stretch on the back where I started losing the ball right with it and that led to a couple double bogies that hurt. 

On the bright side, Arccos absolutely nailed the strategy on the first par 3 on the front. A big downhill par 3 (one of my favorite hole designs), with the wind whipping up at the tee box (wish I had snapped a picture).

A threesome let me play through after they hit their tee shots and with the audience I stepped up with the 9 iron and hit a perfect, beautiful tight draw that landed and stuck about four feet from the pin.

The birdie putt lipped out.

I ended up joining another single that was visiting from Washington, D.C., area on No. 10 tee box. It was very nice chatting with him throughout the rest of the round (socially distanced, of course), and he was very interested in the Arccos Caddie challenge and MyGolfSpy. By the end of the round it was a running gag that Arccos would recommend the 2 hybrid even when there was plenty of room to hit driver. Thankfully, the 2 hybrid kept up with his driver pretty well and we were really evenly matched the whole nine holes.

I did end up pulling driver on No. 17. I assume that's what Caddie would have recommended on the par 5, but this is the screen I received. I actually got this on the first par 5 on the front as well, and ended up pulling 2 hybrid (which was actually the right club choice).

Any day spent on the golf course is a good day, and a round in which I play the same ball the entire round, have two birdies and nearly a hole-in-one is a great day in my book. Very fun round to start the wrap up of #CC4.

I did end up getting tomorrow afternoon off as well, so one more shot at besting this effort comes tomorrow. Stay tuned!

[2020 Forum Member Review - SuperSpeed Training System]

Great reviews everyone! Awesome to see some big numbers from all of you.

Out of curiosity, I pulled out my SuperSpeed-C club tonight and was really happy with the few swings I took. I then grabbed an old driver I keep around and hit 120 with a dry swing on the radar.

With #CC4 winding down this week, and my golf playing as well as the weather turns, I can't wait to get back into the sticks over the winter.

I've had some monster (for me) drives this summer, and SuperSpeed definitely had a huge role in helping me to get to this point.

 

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

2 hours ago, Lacassem said:

What are the other competitors choosing for courses this week and why? Also have you played it before (saw @GB13 choice and looks incredible) curious what everyone else is going for and reasoning 

I'm lucky because I could have my pick of probably 20-plus different courses that I haven't played at all/recently within an hour drive or so.

Tuesday was a major bummer because of the rain; I had been planning to play a course that shifted to $1/hole with cart on Tuesdays after Labor Day with my brother-in-law, and it's one of my favorites that I've played twice before in 2015 and 2019. All bentgrass, nice mix of terrain, holes with trees, open holes, water and downhill par 3s. But it wasn't in the cards for this challenge (or probably this golf season).

Tomorrow's round is scheduled for The Mines in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's another Mike DeVries-designed course (same designer as Diamond Springs where I played a few weeks ago). The course is located on top of old gypsum mines, and on top of that, basically a big sand dune. I've never played there before. They send out a free birthday round once per year so I'm only on the hook for a cart fee tomorrow. It's been a "must play" course for me for quite some time.

There are a lot of elevation changes and some cool features I'm looking forward to, including a shared fairway between No. 5 and No. 9. The routing is a bit interesting with back-to-back par 3s on the front nine. It is a par 70, and I'm planning on playing from the blue tees unless I change my mind when I get there (unlikely given the length of some of the par 4s on the back).

I did choose this course partially because the Caddie preview seems to favor my driver on a lot of the holes. I'd much rather be hitting driver than irons for this challenge, and I think this course will be conducive to that strategy. I'm the underdog heading into this challenge anyway, so what do I have to lose by bombing it out there besides golf balls?!?

Weather looks to be good tomorrow and Friday. I'm still not a 100 percent go for Friday, I have a tee time scheduled at another course I've never played but am pending approval on vacation time.

[2020 Birdie Every Hole Challenge]

Was so close to checking No. 11 off the list on Sunday. It's not listed anywhere near the hardest handicapped hole on the course, but it plays 405 yards with a dogleg right, and over the years the trees have grown up such that you really can't cut the corner. I don't know when the holes were last handicapped, but I'm guessing when the course was built in the 1960s that long hitters simply flew the ball over the dogleg.

I got away with a very high, faded 2 hybrid that sat down about 150 from the green but with tree trouble above. I pulled the SpeedZone 7 iron and hit a great low runner that hit a ways in front of the green and rolled to about six feet just past the pin. The greensmower was out and stopped me to say it almost went in when it rolled by! Unfortunately, I hit a really good birdie putt but it turned just right at the end and left me with a three-inch tap in par.

I haven't been that close on this hole all season, and it hurt to not convert that opportunity.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

8 hours ago, Nunfa0 said:

My question to you all is, now that you are all well into this challenge and knowing how it has gone, would you have had a different set make up? Would you have approached the challenges differently? 

I would have replaced the 4 iron with the 21 degree 4 hybrid. That is the only regret of my club choices. 

Based on the gaps I'm seeing now, I have nice a progression of distances from driver, 3 wood to 2 hybrid, but then there is very little difference between my 4 iron and 5 iron. Some of that is because I rarely hit the 4 iron, but I so rarely hit the 4 iron because I've really struggled with it. The 5 iron is much more consistent and I can carry it upwards of 200 from the tee when struck well. 

The 2 hybrid is a 230 club from the tee when I hit it well, I think the 4 hybrid would have filled that 210-220 gap better than the 4 iron does currently. Unfortunately there are two holes in particular I'm thinking about where the 2 hybrid is too much from the tee but the 5 iron is too little, and that's where that 4 hybrid would fit in so well.

As far as the challenges go, I wish I could have some "do overs" but I'm not sure I'd change the way I played them at all. My golf game typically has peaks and valleys, unfortunately the peaks didn't necessarily align with the challenge weeks during the competition. 

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

2 minutes ago, B.Boston said:

the arms that lock the top in place are either too loose to prevent twisting, or squeeze the sides in too much.

Is it a really lightweight material? That's my major complaint with my Sun Mountain Sync on the Caddytek. To get it "secure" you end up squeezing the bag a lot.

No issues with the SpeedZone x Vessel bag since it has a lot more structure and heft to it.

[Injury Thread]

1 hour ago, JohnSmalls said:

In the name of injury prevention---For all you fellas that have been around the sun a time or two and have a serious stretching routine, what do you do?

For a golf specific, pre-round stretch I take a lot of the stuff from Fit for Golf's warm up manual. Really solid way to get loose before a round, especially if you can't get to the range beforehand.

His other workouts have a lot of golf-specific mobility in them as well and are very good.

Yoga is also great and readily available on YouTube. Just need to find something that you like.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

It's crazy to think we've already reached the final week of the challenge! What a fun and crazy summer.

I know I'll say it again before the end, but a massive thanks goes out to MGS/Cobra/Puma/Arccos for arranging this awesome opportunity. And it's been great getting to know more about each of the competitors and commenters in this thread.

I unfortunately had to cancel tomorrow's tee time because the weather is not going to cooperate with rain and thunderstorms forecast all day. But my Thursday round is looking good, and I'm going to look around for a tee time Friday if I can find one as well. This last week is a good opportunity for me to get out and explore some of the other great courses we have in our area.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

18 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

Regarding the "tour length" (shorter) driver shaft most of the testers opted for, I've been playing around with a choked/shortened grip on my G410P.  Thus far I think it is helping to reduce dispersion a wee bit and don't think it has adversely affected distance.  I'm wondering whether choking up on a traditional length is a fairly direct comparison?   I should probably look for a used, tour length shaft (gaming the Alta CB Red Stiff, 63g) - suggestions?

I was never comfortable choking up on a driver, and only recently have practiced more choking up with my irons and wedges to hit those "in between" distances. So for me the tour length shaft was more about allowing me to grip to the end of the club comfortably. In turn it has helped me to swing more freely and my driving has improved since switching to the shorter length.

I would assume choking up provides a similar effect. Depending on how sensitive you are to swingweight, I suppose there is a small difference between a D4 44.5" driver and a D4 45.5" driver choked up. That's probably unnoticeable for most people and debatable as to whether it would effect your swing at all.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

 

Played a solo round this morning and put up numbers right around where I've been all challenge:

Just another round where the putter let me down a little bit with 37 total putts. Didn't get a few to drop from inside 5-6 feet, and looking at the first putt distances, I didn't give myself a ton of opportunities from that distance anyway. 

I've started losing the 2 hybrid a bit right off the tee and it hurt me some today after I had been reliably going to it since after the irons only challenge. Tree trouble on holes 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 14, 15 and 16 really didn't give me any chance to shoot a lower score today, so all in all I'm happy with the result.

I did string together a couple nice shots that made for some really solid pars.

No. 7 - By far the hardest hole on the course. Hit a fantastic drive (I think the longest I've hit on this hole ever? It runs all uphill.). Followed up by a really solid 8 iron to the perched green that left me an east two putt par.

No. 10 - Made the turn right in front of a group that was playing the back nine only, smoked a perfect 6 iron from the tee with the audience and then hit a wonderful choked up pitching wedge that landed right where I wanted and rolled out to about 5 feet down the sloping green. 

No. 11 - Got away with a bit of a cut up 2 hybrid that cleared the trees guarding the dogleg and sat down about 150 out. Had to navigate under tree limbs on the right side of the fairway, so I pulled a 7 iron and hit a low runner. When I got to the green the greensmower stopped me and said I almost holed out and missed by just inches. Unfortunately, I just missed the birdie putt by about 3 inches. (Would have been a great hole, I have not birdied this hole this year.)

No. 13 - My best 2 hybrid shot of the day followed by a really nice full 58 wedge.

No. 18 - Beautiful push draw drive with the SpeedZone Xtreme uphill and into the wind left me a full 54 degree wedge into the green. Got a little chunky with the wedge but still hit the green and two-putted for par.

I have tee times scheduled this week on Tuesday and Thursday but right now the weather does not look like it's going to cooperate for either of them. Hopefully the forecast changes a bit. We are now at the very tail end of summer in Michigan as precipitation has picked up a little and the temperatures are dropping. I wore a long sleeve shirt for the whole round this morning and it was somewhere around 53 degrees when I teed off.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

40 minutes ago, ncwoz said:

I think if I'd have trusted the straight flight I was seeing on the range and lined up accordingly, Cody would have been putting for Eagle pretty easily.

He's not exaggerating here. Nate was about as far back on the box as you can get, making the hole play every bit of the 341 yards downhill listed on the card. We were just shy of hole high on the right. Unreal.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

Shoot! @ncwoz beat me to the thread.

I had the pleasure of competing alongside (but still socially-distanced from) Nate this morning for the #CobraConnect alternate shot challenge. Neither Nate or I had ever played the alternate shot format, which truly puts a lot of pressure on your shots because you're responsible for your partner's next opportunity! Nate had the "luxury" of about 10 minutes and 12-15 range balls worth of practice with the Cobra clubs and off we went this morning just after sunrise.

Before I cover the round, let me just say @ncwoz can smack the cover off the ball. I'm not short or slow by most measurements, but I fully realized how fast he swings in comparison by hole No. 2. After I hit a good 7 iron from the tee to about 162 yards from pin, I told Nate this would be a pretty full 8 iron or even a soft, choked up 7 iron to the green for me. He proceeded to pull the SpeedZone 9 iron and hit one of the highest, most towering iron shots I've ever seen, ending up pin high left of the green. Jaw dropping...

So we got off to a great start, rolling three straight pars to open the round behind three pretty good tee shots from myself and some great short game and putting from Nate. We were feeling really good after No. 3, after a fantastic drive from me and a booming 6 iron from Nate led to par (I chipped up with the 58 and we two putted - obviously Arccos is not very accurate when we're socially distanced and using different putters).

And then we just couldn't replicate that magic over the next 15 holes. A few balls were lost, and few trees were hit. We walked the course, but had we been in a cart I imagine it would have looked something like this:

I appreciate Nate's willingness to do whatever it took to complete this challenge, even pulling off an impressive left-handed Tiger-esque punch out from some bushes that I found by pulling my 5 iron off No. 6 tee so far left that I was over No. 7 tee box.

The scorecard with all of the gory details:

I'll draw attention to the putting because I absolutely murdered the round with my awful distance control today. The only hope we would have had for scoring better would for me to have not needed to putt at all. I left poor Nate so many bad second putts, as evidenced by the staggering number of 3 (gulp, and 4) putts. 

So while Nate might say it's his fault, I'm not so sure. This was my worst putting round of the year by far, I could have probably used a wedge to putt more effectively today.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting/playing a round with another Spy in real life (small world, by the third hole Nate and I realized that we lived less than a quarter mile apart for the past two years), and it was fun to see Nate give the SpeedZones a shot. They certainly weren't a great fit for him, he's probably in the 60TX/70X driver shaft category, but I'd be curious to see if he has any thoughts to add. As for me, aside from the putting I actually put together a reasonably good ball striking round and still feel pretty good about all of the clubs, but especially the driver and wedges.

[#COBRACONNECT Challenge 4]

I haven't had the same resounding overall improvement as @B.Boston, but I'm really loving the improvement at the top of my bag with the SpeedZone Xtreme, 3W and 2 hybrid:

Off the tee, the 2 hybrid is good for 230 total a good majority of the time, but there are a few fairway shots that are dragging down that number some. 

My last round was a great example of the consistency I've been enjoying with the SZ Xtreme (I hit a tree on No. 13):

[What/How Did You Practice Today?]

Have burned through a couple hundred range balls since my lesson last Thursday, plus two rounds. I just cannot for the life of me stop my shoulders from overtaking my downswing. Heading into my lesson I had basically grooved an inside takeaway followed by a drop of the club to the inside further with a hard shoulder turn. Led to all sorts of issues (pulls, pull draws, massive uncontrollable push draws), so during my lesson Thursday we worked on getting on plane during the backswing and then my focus was to let my hands beat my shoulders back to the ball. 

I actually had a pretty decent range session on Saturday, but really struggled during my round Sunday and for the first four holes on Tuesday (went +10 on the first four holes and then +3 over the last 14), but my lunchtime range sessions just have been a huge struggle. Today I think I hit about four "good" shots in a bucket of 48 balls. 

My biggest frustration with my lessons right now is that for the past couple of lessons, after about 5 minutes of making a small change or tweak, I start doing things "right" and get fantastic results for the remainder of the lesson. But as soon as I go out on my own I just cannot get the same feels/results. Right now it just feels like I'm playing about the same as I did last fall following my first lesson (grip change), with exception to the driver which has been pretty OK. 

I guess another way to phrase it would be that I feel like I focus on making one change and then everything else I've changed up until that point just falls apart. So each month's lesson is just fixing everything I've broken trying to fix something else. Frustrating!

I'm still playing slightly better golf than I did last season, so that progress is there, but this is all starting to wear a bit on me mentally...

[Show us your Maltby!!!]

On 8/28/2020 at 11:42 PM, Popeye64 said:

Ptm chrome in the new Rapid Tapers. These are all 95 S shafts. Customer loved them.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
 

What's the list price on a rapid taper? Interested in trying one or two of the 95 gram model in some spare PTM heads that I have kicking around.