Vernon

It's been very pleasant most of this week with temperatures making it well into the 60's when the forecast was calling for low to mid 50's. The weather guys don't typically miss in that direction! Anyways made it to the range twice and I gotta say I'm really liking the Accra. Like the PLB and others it is very easy to swing and has a great feel throughout but especially at impact. It was difficult to tell carry distance on the range as the typical landing area is somewhat obscured by a small hill and swale ahead of the target green so it's tough to tell exactly where they're coming down. That being said it was my sense that the Accra was carrying at least a little farther than the PLB and others would typically fly but it was hard to tell for sure. If so, this thing is gonna be well worth the extra expense because as Indy has mentioned it just seems to want to go straight. Out of about forty balls or so I hit one hook and everything else just flew high and straight. Probably won't be able to get back out this afternoon but I'm hoping to play tomorrow afternoon and can't wait to check this thing out on the golf course. It's still pretty wet but the warmer temperatures, sunshine and steady breezes seem to have helped dry things out more than expected. Hope so anyways.

We've finally melted a little snow the last two days which is nice but the highs have only been in the mid 30's with some rain. Still not exactly pleasant but an improvement nonetheless. Forecast is calling for 50's next week so that should at least get rid of the snow and ice but it's gonna be swamp city out there for quite some time. Needless to say cart path only will be the norm for the foreseeable future as well. Ugh.

Man January is getting me down. Haven't been able to play or hit balls since 23 December and with nearly a foot of snow (frozen like granite) on the ground I don't think I'm gonna get to anytime soon. Have had the new Accra plugged into the G430 for a couple of weeks now and I've "waggled" it and made enough air swings in the family room that it's probably gonna need a new grip by the time I see bare ground again. And NOW Ping comes out with the 10K which I'm obviously gonna have to have which is only gonna add to the misery! The life of a golfer during winter is truly a pitiful thing. I don't wanna sound desperate or anything but it's 57 days, 12 hours, 40 minutes and 30 seconds until spring..........

Well the good news is the new Accra is supposed to arrive tomorrow! The bad news is so is six inches of snow followed by five more later in the week along with single digit high temperatures and below zero lows. Looks like lots of indoor "waggling" for the next couple of weeks. At least........

Too late - The damage is done! Will Peoples has a fifteen percent off deal going so the shaft cut to playing length with a Ping G430 tip installed and an Iomic Sticky Midsize grip came to $215.58 shipped. Thought that was a pretty deal considering most other places I looked were $225 before tax and shipping (if applicable) and didn't include prep, tip and grip. And I guess I'm not really all THAT mad - it's cold and gray and boring here and now the anticipation or the shaft arriving will help keep me sane for another couple of weeks! Thanks and I hope your first experience with this thing wasn't a fluke but I gotta doubt it. I've hit a few Accra shafts that friends had a few times and always really liked the way that they felt so I can't imagine I'll be disappointed in this purchase. And if it proves to be the answer I'll have a bunch of other options to cut down for fairway woods as well as a few to sell if I want.

Well now that's just great........ And I thought I had myself talked into waiting until at least spring! To quote Maggie from Caddyshack, "Tanks fer nuttin'!"

Still firmly in the OttoPhlex camp here. Now that it's colder and the fairways are soft from melted snow and some recent rain the Pro Launch Blue and the MP5 are the only thing keeping my game relevant! Switch back and forth occasionally and it's kind crazy how when I'm not hitting one of them quite as well as I had been simply swapping them out is almost always an instant fix. Don't really understand it but grateful that it's an option that works pretty much every time. Still debating about cutting down the GolfWorks/Pro Launch that I'm not using much in the driver anymore for a fairway shaft. Have a Pro Launch in my seven wood and occasionally swap it out to the five wood and like it a lot. My other two fairway shafts are Ping Distanza's which work just fine but just don't feel as good to me as the Pro Launch. Been considering springing for the Accra M0 that seems to be gaining a following as well but so far haven't been able to justify spending $225 when the Pro Launch and MP5 work so well at less than a third of that.

Oh and I almost forgot the most important part! The Pro Launch in the G430 five wood performed magnificently! Granted it's only one day and maybe a dozen balls but I was very pleased with every aspect of how the shaft performed although I gotta say it feels really "whippy". In my hands much more so than it does in the driver anyways. Nonetheless (and similar to the PL in the driver) a nice smooth tempo and the ball just jumps off of the face. I only hit six or seven balls on the range but I hit it six times on the course and every shot was near perfect. Playing again today and hoping to get the Golf Works/Grafalloy tipped and trimmed and ready to go in a fairway wood by the weekend. This stuff is WAY more fun than any job I ever had!

I appreciate the input but honestly it sounds like we're going about it in pretty much the same way. I'm typically pretty meticulous in how I go about doing this stuff but there have been times in the past when I've been in a hurry and maybe didn't prep quite as good as I typically would or maybe cheated on the drying time a little bit and STILL never had a failure until recently. And in each of the cases of failure I actually did do it right and gave each one more than adequate time to dry. Just don't get it but I suppose crazier things have happened in the world in the last few weeks!

I pull the tips as opposed to "pushing" them off. Billy Bob's sells a little kit that has a variety of screws that are designed to fit each adapter tip. There's also a little washer that slips over the screw and that's where the force to remove the tip is applied. I actually find it to work WAY better and you don't ruin the the rubber ferrules that some adapter tips have instead of plastic ferrules. I just noticed the other day that Golf Works sells a similar deal that's less than half the price of Billy Bob's. In my opinion it doesn't take as much heat to get the tip off either. As a side note the tip I installed yesterday morning using the old Tour Set epoxy that I still had seems to have worked fine.

Yeah I don't get it either and I've been doing this stuff for a long time. I ain't saying I'm good at it but zero failures to this is ridiculous. Most of the reviews are positive to glowing although there are several reviews on Amazon that seem to parallel my experience. I really want this stuff to work too - it's inexpensive and easy to use. I've used predominantly Golf Works Tour Set over the years and never had a problem. I ordered a new tube with the Pro Launch but can't report on its effectiveness as I only used it on the tip that the screw didn't fit (which by the way was MY fault). I installed the wrong one by accident and I used some leftover Tour Set for the redo but I do intend to give the "offending" glue another chance.

Thanks for that. Curious as to how much you tipped it? I think Golf Works recommends 2" for fairway applications but the spec sheet is downstairs and I'm too lazy to go get it at the moment. As for the Pro Launch/five wood experiment, I'm beginning to think the project is cursed. Installed the shaft in the G430 tip adapter and on the second swing the next day on the range the head flew off. Reglued a different G430 tip the night before last and yesterday when I got to the range the screw in the tip adapter wouldn't fit. WTF? Anyways, gonna try again today. For what it's worth I DO NOT recommend the "new" Golf Works adapter adhesive. It's supposed to be specially formulated for gluing graphite to the aluminum type adapter tips. Yeah, well, I've had FOUR failures in six attempts with this stuff and although I'm pretty meticulous with my shaft tip prep when I made the most recent Pro Launch purchase I payed the extra $2.95 to have THEM do the tip prep and as I previously mentioned the head came off on the second swing. I don't recall ever having an epoxy failure in at least twenty years prior.

Haven't posted in awhile but after playing the GolfWorks/Grafalloy 55 gram shaft in my driver for several weeks and being most pleased with the results I decided to plug the Pro Launch back in a couple of weeks ago just cause and to say that the mind is a terrible thing is an understatement. I had convinced myself that the GW/Grafalloy shaft was the answer but about three tee shots later I'm back to being solidly on the Pro Launch bandwagon and have played my last half a dozen rounds with it and think I'm gonna stick with it (famous last words I know). Anyways as much as I like the GW shaft the Pro Launch is just easier to swing, has more "feel" at impact and seems to be just a little bit longer overall. Played a couple of rounds down at Big Cedar in Branson last week and got paired both days with guys less than half my age that were blown away by how far a seventy year old dinosaur could hit it past them (on occasion anyways). Hadn't had that kind of confidence off the tee on a course away from home in quite some time. In fact, I ordered another PL in Ladies that showed up yesterday that I'm going to put in my G430 five wood and think I'm gonna cut the GW shaft down to try in my seven or nine wood. Still trying to decide what to do with the MP5 but I'm sure it'll all shake out - might try it in a fairway wood as well as it's already cut down a half inch more than I have ended up preferring in my driver. Never say never but I'm gonna stick with the Pro Launch for the foreseeable future and with colder weather being right around the corner might shift my focus to fairway wood fitting for the time being. Need to figure out tip trimming next.

After a full week off due to the heat (first time in my life that I skipped golf because it was too hot - another sure sign that I'm too damn old!) I finally got back out Sunday and Monday. I had been pretty much sticking with the Pro Launch Blue Ladies flex recently but yesterday I decided to plug the MP5 back in while on the range warming up and was hitting it really, really good. Stepped up on the first tee and hit a low neck slice a massive 200 yards and just didn't feel comfortable with it for the next five tee shots although I did hit every fairway and distance was OK. Because of the time off (either that or the old age thing again) I had almost forgot that I had glued up the Golf Works Pro Launch in "A" flex to experiment with so I decided to give it a shot on nine tee and "whoolah" absolutely killed one dead down the middle about 285. Proceeded to hit every fairway the rest of the way and averaged about 270 with a short of 247, a 295 and a couple in the 280's. When I ordered this thing trying it in the driver was just kind of an afterthought before I cut it down as I was really intending to use it in my five wood. Now maybe not so much! The extra ten grams in weight seems noticeable (in my hands anyways) but not really a big deal after a few swings. It seems to be quite stable and really produces a pronounced "pop" at impact - almost kind of startling the first couple of tee shots. Anyways playing again this afternoon and really looking forward putting this shaft in play for the full eighteen holes. Man what a crazy experiment/experience this whole deal has turned out to be!

What's your take on the Distanza? Personally I really like it although I think it feels a little "dead" compared to the PLB and the MP5. Performance is pretty dang good though. Other than what I perceive as the difference in feel it's really hard for me to quantify any real discernible differences between the PLB, MP5 and the Distanza (although I keep trying to). All three are just really good. Ordered a Golf Works Graffaloy Pro Launch GWX primarily to try in a fairway wood but think I'll give it a shot in the driver first before I cut it down. Had planned on plugging the Distanza back in this afternoon since I haven't hit it in a month or more but we got an inch and a half of rain this morning and it's still coming down. Not desperate enough to play cart path only golf in the swamp......

I've got three rounds and some range time in with the Pro Launch Blue in Ladies flex and I'm pretty sure that it's in first place overall. I haven't done any back and forth experimenting with the other shafts since I got it - just been sticking with it and trying to get length and weights where I want them. I started out at 46" and with the 25 gram backweight in my Ping G430 nine degree head adjusted to 10.5 and while I hit a few (for me) "bombs" with it I also had some wild misses, a couple of topped tee shots and it just felt "wrong". Kind of unwieldily. Started out by switching the backweight from the 25 to a 22 gram which I didn't really expect to make much of a difference but I was wrong. Really changed the overall heft of the club and although I could still feel the head just fine it just seemed much more comfortable in my hands. Decided to go bold (or go home?) and cut the length down to 45" and that really got things feeling good although I was hitting it a little too high on occasion. Adjusted the loft back to 9.0 and I think I might have found what I've been looking for. Maybe....... The maximum distance of my drives isn't quite what it's been off and on with the other combinations but the overall average is really good as is the accuracy. We've had quite a bit of rain lately so the fairways have been softer than they were early on in this deal so roll out isn't nearly as dramatic. Nonetheless I've been getting lots of tee shots in the 260's and the club just feels easy to swing at just the right tempo and speed. Ball flight is a good height with a tight draw or dead straight and it's pretty easy to hit a slight fade when I want to. Not lots of movement in either direction though which is obviously a good thing. I was surprised at how much different (softer to flex) that the Ladies felt compared to the Senior but the low torque of the PLB still makes it feel very stable and I don't find it to be an issue at all. Gonna try and get back to the range today or tomorrow and will probably play the next three days but it's been hotter than Hades the last few days and with the tropical humidity it's kind tuff to get motivated to hit range balls with heat indexes of 118 but we'll see. Really want to do some more side by side comparison with the MP5 though and that's gonna require some time on the range. Regardless, suffice it to say that I'm very impressed with the Pro Launch Blue in Ladies flex.

Thanks Bonz and me too! It was only a couple of weeks but it seemed like an eternity not being able to play. However, as for the "secret sauce" I just ordered another Pro Launch in the ladies flex yesterday to try out next! I'm having too much fun playing around with this deal to stop now!

What he said! I didn't fall out of bed hitting this thing great and started out hitting low pull hooks. For me it took a few balls on the range to make the transition as I had to make some changes to my overall tempo and especially aggressiveness on the downswing and through impact. To me one of the major benefits of the OttoPhlex is how easy it is to swing fast even if it's not that much faster than your previous shaft on some swings. The effortless speed and power that it generates is especially beneficial for an old guy like me. It wasn't like I couldn't hit my Tensei Pro Orange 65 stiff at all it's just so much easier to hit the MP5 or Pro Launch equally far with much less effort and occasionally quite a bit farther with the same swing. My recent experience coming off an injury really confirmed that for me as I was hitting the OttoPhlex 250 plus consistently and over 290 occasionally literally swinging off of one leg. And at 70 years old there's no way ever I could have done that with the heavier and stiffer Tensei. And most guys seem to have had similar experiences in that it takes a little tinkering to get the length and swing weight just right but that's not anything new when you think about it. I mean you probably didn't settle on your previous setup without a little testing and experimenting as well so I say toss all previous thoughts and beliefs out the window for a couple of weeks and have some fun playing around with this thing! P.S. For what it's worth I just ordered another Pro Launch yesterday in the ladies flex to try out next as my current PLB is a senior flex - there's lots of fun to be had in the journey! And for sixty bucks what do you really have to lose?

Although my hip has gotten considerably better and much faster than I expected it's still a little tender and while I've actually started playing some again I'm still pretty tentative through the ball for fear of reinjuring the damn thing. That being said our place had a 4th of July scramble that my wife and I had signed up to play with another couple quite some time ago and I didn't want to miss out on what's always a fun day so I said I'd just ride along and have a few beers and chip and putt. Well I couldn't help myself and stopped at the range on the way to lunch before the event just to see if I could manufacture some sort of a swing that would at least allow me to be a more active participant. I hit a dozen or so nine irons and while far from great they were in the air and in the direction of the target and since my wife and the other couple aren't really very good I figured what the heck maybe I could contribute at some point even swinging off of one leg. I had the MP Ladies flex in my G430 and cranked the loft open to 10.5 thinking that might help me get it up in the air some. The first three tee shots were completely smothered hooks but I still somehow felt like I was close to being able to hit it OK. On the fourth hole I timed it perfectly and hit a nice high draw down the middle of the fairway that rolled out to 292! I can't even begin to explain how exciting that was after not being able to hardly walk much less play for a week and a half. Long story short I went on to hit four more drives over 285 on the day and all but one of the others were 250 or so and more than serviceable since I was playing the old man's gold tees. Then on the eighteenth I caught another one dead square and drove the green at 313 yards to ten feet for eagle! And it felt like I was only hitting it with my hands - just a short little backswing, load the shaft and then smoothly throw the head of the club at the ball from there. Needless to say I had a blast since I had no expectations of even being able to hit a full shot and then to hit some that were easily equal to my best previously was off the charts rewarding. Anyways I've played twice since then and shot two 79's albeit from the shorter white tees incorporating this new "method" of simply feeling as though I'm holding quite still and minimizing body movement and just focusing on hands, arms and wrists to "throw" the head at the ball and I think I might be onto something. In fact both of those scores should have been so much better had I not missed at least eight birdie putts inside ten feet and had three or four swings per round that were cold tops or some other sort of disaster that each cost a shot or two. Fear and the mind are a terrible thing........ Regardless I'm convinced that overuse of the big muscles in general and the lower body in particular might well have been hurting my distance more than helping and was largely responsible for getting hurt in the first place. All I know is this method of swinging the club seems rather natural and effortless and a perfect match for the softer flex Ottophlex. At least for now.......... Moving back to the blue's this afternoon!

I've been playing the Srixon Q Star Tour, Bridgestone Tour B RX and the Kirkland V2 for the last couple of years and primarily Bridgestone and Srixon prior to that. For more "serious" golf I always played the Srixon or Bridgestone and only had the Kirklands for the multiple weekday rounds that we played more for fun and because we're old and retired and just can. A couple of months ago I picked up some of the new Kirkland V3's and after considerable switching back and forth and comparing I'm a Kirkland guy for the foreseeable future. I honestly think it's the best ball I've ever played regardless of price which for me at least makes it a no brainer. Feel, spin, trajectory, distance and durability are just perfect. Again - for me. I know some guys think I'm crazy and that's OK and if I still had 115 MPH clubhead speed I might feel differently. Or not who knows? At $27.99 for two dozen sometimes I don't even bother looking for them if I hit one in the woods or tall grass. I've still got several dozens of the Srixons and Bridestones left and don't even pull them out for "serious" golf anymore - I like the V3 that much.

Played four times in the past week and was just kind of all over the place. The MP was not behaving at all and I was losing distance as well. Something was way off with my swing and I just couldn't figure it out. Tried a little bit of everything including swapping shafts and weights back and forth about every third or fourth hole but it obviously wasn't an equipment malfunction as my irons were terrible as well. Felt like I was trying to swing a rattlesnake out there. After all four rounds in the 80's and hitting five or fewer greens four times in a row I finally had a chance yesterday to get to the range for some much needed reevaluation time and practice as the course was closed for a tournament. It had just been too long since I'd actually practiced and worked on some stuff instead of just hitting balls to warmup before playing. Anyways, after taking a few videos it was quite apparent that my right hip and knee were moving out towards the ball in the downswing leading to some serious early extension issues. Focused on keeping the hips back and right heel down throughout the swing and it was like magic! Crisp impact, nice high draws and distance returned instantly. Got back ten plus yards easy on my wedge, nine and eight irons and was getting super excited to get the driver back out see what was what. Then on the very last eight iron something popped in my left hip at impact and I about went to the ground. Don't know if I pulled, strained or tore something but it felt pretty deep and the only thing I can relate the sensation to was when I blew my achilles. Limped back to the cart and came home to get some ice on it but needless to say I'm done for a while as I can barely walk and putting weight on the left leg is damn painful. I can't even imagine trying to hit a golf ball. So bummed to have gone from being so excited one minute to wondering how long it will be before I can even play again the next. And of course we had a half a dozen road trips planned the next couple of weeks to go play some different courses that we haven't visited in quite some time. DAMMIT! Looks like I'll be counting on you guys to keep me entertained for a while so don't let me down!

Yesterday I finally remembered to try the heavier weight in my G430 (25 gram vs. 20) while warming up on the range. I thought it felt noticeably heavier in my hands as well as when swinging. I hit about a dozen balls and my first thought was "HOLY CATS - I'M ON TO SOMETHING HERE!" Each drive just felt super powerful and the ball seemed to just explode off of the face - even the sound was different. The guy I was playing with that was hitting balls next to me even said, "What the hell are you doing over there?" As best as I could tell visually it appeared that I was carrying it at least fifteen to twenty yards farther than previously with the 20 gram weight. Now I usually don't believe that little tweaks like this are capable of providing such significant gains but I was seeing it with my own eyes. Anyways I obviously couldn't wait to get to the first tee which is always the kiss of death and this was no different. Hit a low block into the right rough on one then cold topped it on two. On four however I got one to 288 and on five I thought I absolutely killed one but get up there and it was 247 which made no sense. 265 on the next hole then another one that I thought would be 290 plus and ended up at 248. It was kind of back and forth like that until I got to sixteen when everything just felt "right" and total was 312 albeit a bit downhill. Eureka! Followed that with one on eighteen that was 292 and was really getting excited - figured I'd head to the range and really give this thing a go! But guess what? The range had closed at 5:00 for picking and mowing......... Oh well - back at it this afternoon. As I think I said before the mind is a terrible thing.......

Man this "scientific" experiment stuff is tuff business! My brother was wanting to try the MP on Saturday so I stuck the Distanza back in my G430 and drove it pretty dang good. The Distanza didn't offer up any of the 290 plus tee shots that I've been getting with the MP and Pro Launch but was very straight and in the 250's up to 280's pretty consistently. My brother hooked his first few tee shots with the MP but then found a rhythm and was hitting the thing easily fifteen to twenty yards farther than usual. As for the Distanza it's also a very stable feeling shaft - in my hands anyways although more muted at impact - not as "crisp" feeling as the Pro Launch or MP. I've not tried any other shafts in my G430 fairways and really like the Distanza in those but have a suspicion that the MP might make a great fairway wood shaft. I still think I'm gonna cut an inch off of the MP just for giggles and if I don't like the shorter length in the driver then I'll try it in the five or seven wood and just order another one for the driver. If I can get it back from my brother that is........ Kinda tempted to try the MP in a Senior flex as well. So many options yet so little time........ Got rained out Sunday and didn't play or hit balls yesterday but will be back out there this afternoon.

Well the MP behaved itself much better yesterday. Distances weren't quite as long as they were in round one but we've had some rain and they've also been watering quite a bit this week so the fairways have softened up considerably. I had two drives that were slight pulls but nothing like the pull hooks that screwed everything up previously. Only hit six fairways but that's a little deceiving as two drives were through the fairway on doglegs and only a couple of feet into the rough and two others were in fairway bunkers that aren't typically reachable so that's kind of a plus sort of negative I guess. Averaged around 260 which is pretty good for me these days. Highlight was a 297 yarder on the last hole that left a nine iron to fifteen feet and a birdie to finish with a 75. Both of the "good" rounds with the MP produced a couple of those strikes that have the guys in the group (all ten to fifteen years younger than me) going "wow". High, long tight draws that just seem to go forever. If I could bottle those swings up I could die a happy man! At this point I still think that the Pro Launch is more reliable and forgiving overall (and still plenty long) but I still prefer the feel of the MP and the top end of the distance potential is greater with the MP. If I was teeing it up for money today I think I'd probably go with the Pro Launch but if I was playing in a scramble it'd be the MP for sure. Really wanting to cut a half inch off of the MP and maybe even an inch but I'm afraid I'm gonna screw it up if I do although for fifty five bucks I could always then try it in a fairway wood and just order another one. I'm at least gonna try the five gram heavier weight some today on the range with both shafts and decide from there.