thomapa1

For clothing = You'll have to find what works well for you, but for shirts I really like the Adidas Ultimate 365 line. Their shorts are good too. I also got some Bonbos shorts - they are the best fitting shorts I have had and they hold up very well in the heat. Adidas Performance Boxer Briefs Darn Tough socks T4088 For a 1-2 knockout punch south of the border...I'll use a cream called Deez Nuts on my taint area and Formonda Powder all over the twig and berries. Titleist Breezer bucket hat Footjoy Rain glove - I use it all the time now over leather (can go thru 4 leather gloves in one hot humid round)...I can use one glove every day for a year before signs of wear and they do great in hot humid weather where you are sweating all day.

Edel E-1 And yes - I dig the round grip!

I have found that a putter fitting is the best bank for the buck fitting you can get. If you get a decent fitting, it takes variables out of the equation. With that said, I think you have to go in with some ideas of your preferences / what your misses - tendencies are. Head weight, backweighting, length. head shape, alignment aid placement, loft, hosel config....lots of variables. I really benefitted from an Edel fitting, your mileage may vary.

Gauge GAA-8 my only putter for about 15 years. Loved it. Recently got re-fitted and switched to an Edel E-1

Excited for some of the new ones...think I will add a new 3 wood, and maybe a 5 wood or something in the middle - we'll see where the fitting leads me. Most excited about Titleist Tsi and Ping 425 (never owned a Ping club), TM SIM will be in the running as well.

Old putter was a Gauge Design GAA-8. I bought it used in 2004 after spending about 5 years going thru various other head shapes, insert types, etc (White Hot, Cameron Anser, Bobby Grace, Ping Piper). I settled on mallet, no insert, double bend shaft (limited choices with hosel design). I used it for about 3 years. DIY backweighting after trial and error. Then got fitted with it where the fitter agreed that it was a good fit for me, but cut it down, added some lead tape to head and adjusted shaft bend a bit. I really love the putter and in my mind I was a very good putter with it. Last year I got frustrated after paying attention to my putting stats and mostly missing shorter putts / not feeling locked in with my aiming. The Edel is an easy transition based on all the previous effort I put in. It is really not too different but improves the weak spots I identified.

Also - the head alignment markings made a very big difference to my visual perception. Very easy when you get fit with Edel to test / customize / see what works for you what does not. Again - wish other Mfgs could offer this. And some pics to enjoy....

I was recently fitted for an Edel putter. A few words of wisdom. Their putting system places emphasis on aiming. What I found most unique about their putter fitting is that they can give you a few different hosel configs to try during the fitting. I wish other Mfgs could do this. Honestly, any putter fitting will help you. I think you benefit most when you may have already defined what head shape works best for you - what preferences you have, if you have tried backweighting before, if you know what your current misses are. They are solid putters overall. I am honestly very surprised at how much I like the round grip, it allows me to use my feel to aim vs using the grip structure as another alignment aid or detriment. I already did my due diligence prior, so I knew that the mallet shape was best for me. If I am honest, I think I would have liked the E-4 putter better due to the milled face vs pixel insert - but not available in lefty. I also found it interesting that I backweighted my old putter myself by dropping weight into the top of the shaft. My miss was a pull right (I am a lefty). The fitter explained that Edel puts the weight a bit lower in the shaft so it is more aligned to your hand position. The weight being too high up could lead to pulls (which matched my misses). In the end, my experience = my lag putting, long and mid range is the same/better as my old putter. I am making many more short putts mostly because I feel confident that I see the line, line up to my line and putt on my line - whereas I did not feel this way with my old putter. Real evidence = I looked at my # of putts with old putter and new. Over 19 rounds I averaged 32.7 putts with old putter, only 1 round under 30 putts. Over 6 rounds with new putter, average = 30.1 putts with 3 rounds under 30 putts and still getting used to it.

Played Reds last year, have a few rounds under my belt with MTB-X As others have said, MTB-X is a better all around ball than the Red was. Best parts of the MTB-X = Long off driver, noticeably for me (on a great hit, any premium ball will get out there...but I am finding great distances more often with MTB-X) I find the MTB-X is still very spinny off of scoring clubs, which I like. I compared vs Bridgestone Tour BX and XS - no comparison, MTB-X checks up much better. I feel I can carry more to my intended target - a good feeling of confidence. As spinny as Red? maybe not, but it is not far off. Putting - oddest thing for me, at first it felt to firm and clicky off the putter...but after using it for awhile this does not bother me. In fact I find that I am getting the ball to or past the hole more often. Past soft balls seemed to routinely come up short for me.

Aliens...must be Aliens.

Just played a round with Bridgestone Tour B X. Prior, I played Snell Red last season (lots of spin, suspect in wind or off driver at times) and was testing MTB-x and Black. Prior to that, Chrome Soft. During 'off' season time, I admit that I play a wide variety of found balls, but usually all in the premium category. I am a 6-9 handicapper, 95mph driver SS, solid all around game. I don't care so much about ball costs. First, I would echo the previous posters comment about the firm feeling of the Snell MTB-X, not as noticeable on woods, irons, but yes on the putter. After a round or two with it - I actually preferred that feel (had preferred a softer ball in the past) off the putter...it felt 'brighter', found that I had less 'dead' putts. I was ready to make MTB-X my ball for this season. Anyhow - the Bridgestone Tour B X. Wow. It did everything very well, found no weaknesses. The most noticeable thing for me was how incredibly well the ball held its line. Slight push/pull is on me, but the ball still (noticeably better than past balls I have played) held its line very well. I hit more dead straight ropes than I had in a long time, more frequent 'as long as I hit drives' in a long time. Overall distance off driver or other clubs was what I would expect (not getting everyone's +10 yards). VS my past balls, I felt that I got slightly more height off of good drivers and longer iron shots. Balls checked up predictably as my good approaches normally hit and go forward 3"-12". Felt fine off the putter. When I putted the MTB-X vs the Tour BX back to back - I did prefer the MTB-X feel, the Bridgestone felt heavier. But playing a normal round, not doing a back to back test - the Tour BX felt fine. Your mileage may vary, but the straightness of the Tour BX really impressed me and it does everything else very very well. May try the Tour BXS for kicks - but I am converting to Bridgestone. Would have never tried them if not for the MGS test results. And I am done playing found balls (except in the winter)

The end result is that we now have another excuse for hitting a ball into the woods....or being 8 yards offline on a 7 iron shot. "My ball has to be irregular"

Great...I was pretty well sold on stocking up on Snell MTB-X...now I should really test Bridgestone Tour BX. ProV1 as a solid catch all if I get frustrated. It figures that the longest is also the most offline - can't have everything I guess! Not so concerned about a driver being 4 yards offline when most of the competition may be about 2 yards off....more concerning that a 7 iron is a similar offline distance to driver...that's getting a bit more significant for me. Nice stats!

Loaded question. Some people can hit a 45"+ driver consistently in the center. Most would benefit by getting to 44.5" or so. My last few fitters said consistently that 44.5" is about the max people should play for consistency. With that said, I got an F8+ at 44.5" and absolutely loved it. Hit the F9 vs my F8+ on a launch monitor, same exact shaft and got increased ball speeds (just a few mph which was equating to about +5 ish yards) but the more surprising was the consistency of strike and dispersion vs the F8+....and the F8+ was really really good during my 6 months with it. Just had a few range sessions with the F9 but I would say that it is incrementally better than the F8+ (for me) and was worth the cost to upgrade. I felt that feeling the head during the swing was more vague in the F8+ vs the F9, even though actual head weight totals were identical. My son hits the F8+ and has much higher swing/ball speeds (in the 160+ ball speed area) - 44.5" for him as well. He nuts it.

Got fitted for an F8+ late last year. After a number of rounds, it is a tremendous driver. Last time out I hit a few shots either low or high-toe - they should not have gone anywhere...but ended up with better than expected distance. Like for like perfect hits, prolly not much difference among most of the tier1 drivers...but the forgiveness factor really really impressed me. I ordered my F8+ at 44.5" then replaced the 2g weight with an 8g weight to get swingweight back up. I have an F9 on the way as well, more curious than anything else as to how it performs vs the F8+. For my relatively low swing speed, I likely won't see much benefit - but we'll see.