Cfhandyman

Oh, oh, the secrets out. I guess I need to fess up.

Chris, @CFreddie, excellent introduction. Well done and I enjoyed reading it. We have such a great and diverse group of testers on this one. As we await the fitting results from L.A.B., this currently is my preferred option (red, white pistol grip and TPT shaft) with the 3 alignment bars. Proper alignment is important to me, so I really value putters that have good alignment aids. Fortunately, L.A.B. has dozens of option for alignment and several great colour choices. These are the next favourites. What do people think? Now if I let my wife choose, this is what I would get. Honey, keep your hands off my putter.

Good morning to all on a lovely Thursday morning. Today will be a practice day on the range. Rumour has it, that it’s someone’s birthday today. Happy birthday to Matt, @GolfSpy SAM. L.A.B. called because they heard you were dreaming of this. Enjoy your day.

Javs, thanks for sharing. Good points raised by all. Here are my 2 cents with 2 options. Option 1. 1. With respect to lessons, find a good golf coach/teacher that you can relate to. Be open to suggestions and practice those changes between lessons. Take putting and short game lessons. Make sure your fundamentals (grip, setup, alignment and stance) are solid. Start slow with slow half speed swings. 2. Go to a reputable fitter and invest in fitted equipment. Don’t forget to get fitted for your wedges (scoring clubs) as well as putter (35-40% of your strokes). You don’t have to buy everything at once. 3. Dedicated Practice (have a plan) and practice some more. Don’t play all the time. Build regular practice into your schedule. Concentrate on shots from 100 yards and in as that accounts for 65-70% of your shots. You can save yourself a bucket load of strokes by deploying a good short game by hitting the ball to within 5 to 6’ from the hole and then making 1 putt. Develop a wedge matrix where you know how far a half swing, 3/4 and full swing go. Practice your putting and develop a feel how far a 10’ goes vs a 20 or 30 footer. 4. Course management. Work from the green back and calculate which distances you are more comfortable hitting as an approach shot. E.g 75 or 100, 125 yard full swing club vs a 42 yard shot. If you don’t hit the fairway with your drive, Don’t go for the hero shot, rather hit the shot you can repeat 8 times out of ten. I.e. Play for the bogey and avoid the double, triple or worse. 5. Invest in Arccos or Shotscope - the data provided is invaluable as you will reliably know how far you hit each of your clubs and where you are losing strokes. An alternative is to spend an hour of time indoors using Trackman or GCQuad and hit 10 shots with each club and email the report to yourself. Eliminate the outliers and you will have a good idea of your carry and total distances for each club. 6. Use the winter (for us northern folks) to set goals and practice and work on your swing Option 2 - don’t take lessons, learn from your buddies, buy what’s on sale, don’t practice and then be surprised your game hasn’t improved (in 30 or so years of playing).

Michael, absolutely loved your introduction. Well done and I admit I’m envious of the tech toys you’re bringing to the party. Hack, exputt, Stack, Blast and the Edel putter. Sweet setup. I will definitely have to pick your brain on what you like best.

Hi all, as I work on my putter testing protocol for the L.A.B. test, the science guy wanted to know what does the data show and what should be our benchmarks for some of the putting metrics? So I looked at a variety of data (Arccos, Shotscope, etc) and set up a spreadsheet to look at it. I know, I'm nuts. Some of the things I will be looking at will be number of 1 putts, 2 putts and 3+ putts as well as my actual make percentage from 5, 10 and 20 feet with the L.A.B. DF3 versus my comparators (Evnroll tour, Scotty Camerson Phantom X11, Odyssey Exo 7). I have Arccos, so I have my baseline data, but if you don't know your stats, you now have a rough guide to help you. Caveats: Please note, the numbers vary slightly year to year, so this is a rough but good approximation. But it also begs the question, what's most important to you with respect to putting? What matters to you and what do you look for?

As part of the process, all the testers have submitted their fitting videos and we are awaiting our results. The process is as follows: Remote online fitting – L.A.B. requires you to send in a very short video of 5-10 seconds recording you in your golf shoes, making a putt with a vertical wall or door jamb in the background. They will also require your height as well as length of your current putter from the centre of the putter face to the end of the grip. I have included my 5 second clip. LAB putter fit - short Trim.mp4 Send in your video to L.A.B. and they will use their video fitting software to analyze your stroke and calculate your ideal length and lie angle. They will then send you an email confirming your specifications. https://labgolf.com/pages/remote-fitting Now the fun begins, selecting from the various colour options, alignment aids, shaft, grip, etc. To follow.

Good morning to all on a fine but wet Wednesday morning. Forecast is rain, rain and more rain. So no golf today. As a result, the Espresso machine is working overtime. Plan B is installing some pot lights in the basement or maybe heading to the indoor golf facility. Liking that much more. May everyone have a wonderful day. Welcome to the forum, @Jazzdrummer420 and @Jessica Adams

If we don't knock it out of the park, there will be hell to pay. But seriously, we want to make this fun, informative and answer all questions people have. This is a very intriguing putter and test. The testers are currently awaiting their online fitting results before we can order and proceed. Be prepared to see some great putter combinations. And now a bit of humour.

@sirchunksalot thank you for your very kind words. The DF3 testing group is very excited for this opportunity not only to thoroughly test them, but answer any questions you may have about them and share our thoughts, insights and comments with you.

Congratulations to a very well chosen group of testers. The Ghost bags look simply gorgeous. Curious to see how they hold up under day to day use as well as their every day functionality. Looking forward to the insights and thoughts from our testers.

Good morning to all on a lovely Tuesday morning. Up early with the dogs and thoroughly enjoying my morning espresso(s). I’m absolutely thrilled, overjoyed, honoured and very grateful to MGS for having been selected as one of the testers for the L.A.B. DF3 Putter and what a great group of testers I have to work with. We are all looking forward to this, not to mention the comments and suggestions from people on what they would like to see. Have a great day. @sirchunksalot hoping you get the BP sorted out and you get the all clear.

Back from my fitting at TXG (Tour Experience Golf – Club Champion Canada) with the man himself, Ian Fraser. All I can say is what an awesome and thoroughly fun experience. He really knows his stuff. Incredibly knowledgeable. I learned so much. Best fitting experience I've had so far. It didn't just meet expectations, it far exceeded them. A few observations, in Canada, Tour Experience Golf (TXG), is now rebranded as Club Champion Canada. While the name on the door has changed, everything else from the staff, Foresight launch monitors, Quintic putting monitor, shaft matrix, build shop all remain the same. Ian Fraser is the GM of the Canadian operations. Mike Martysiewicz is the Director of Club building and fitting. Ian and the quality and excellence of his staff remain consistently superb. I know exactly what to expect and what I’m getting when I come to them. A very very happy customer.

A good morning to you all on this beautiful sunny Monday. Enjoying my morning coffee. A fun day planned. Off to see my friends at TXG (Club Champion Canada) and a fitting with the man himself. Hopefully, I don’t leave my swing in the parking lot. Have a great day everyone.

Who I am – MGS Tester Introduction My name is Chris and welcome. I am a 65 year old male and I live with my artist wife Sue and two huskies in Oakville, in the greater Toronto area in Ontario, Canada. To put things into perspective the province of Ontario is 1.5 times larger than the state of Texas and 4 times the size of the U.K. Why I am testing: I am very grateful to MGS and L.A.B. and excited by this opportunity. I am keen to see if the L.A.B. DF3 and its lie angle balance approach to putter design works as claimed. It was designed to eliminate torque and produce a repeatable swing. The DF3 is the smaller, sleeker version of its bigger brother, the directed force, DF2, but does it deliver the goods? It has gained significant traction on tour and begs the question of how it stacks up to my fitted reference putter(s). VERSUS But this is no ordinary Evnroll. It has been fitted and modified with a stability tour shaft and an Evnroll gravity grip. For more information on this and my putting statistics, see, What am I looking for in the L.A.B. DF3: I gave a lot of thought on how I would test this if given the opportunity before applying. I am a fairly decent putter averaging 31 to 32 putts per round based on my Arccos data. If it proves to deliver the putter more consistently to the ball and results in more one putts, less three putts and overall, less putts per round, it will be a candidate to go in the bag permanently. I am particularly interested in how it performs from 10’ feet and in. Does it offer good value for the money? My putter testing protocol including testing on Quintic to follow in a separate post. Moreover, thorough testing of the L.A.B. DF3 will focus me on improving my putting and working on my putting drills. So thankyou MyGolfSpy. Making those short putts is critical. Who I am: I am driven by challenges and the constant need to learn and improve and I’m passionate in what I do. I am also data driven and analytical in nature. Needless to say, I am a golf, data and equipment junkie. I have had many careers. After graduate school, I did medical research looking at factors involved in preterm labour. I then moved onto organ donation and transplantation, eventually running the organ donation program based out of Toronto General Hospital. Toronto General hospital (TGH) is one of the premier transplant centres and hospitals in the world. They pioneered both successful single and double lung transplantation in the eighties. I had the distinct pleasure of working in multi organ transplant in the early days (80’s/90’s) and worked with many brilliant and incredibly smart people. Where the driving principle was you do what’s best for the patient and what does the data show. What is the source of that data, is it evidence based, is it fair, balanced, and non promotional in nature. You had to know your stuff and be prepared for anything. Back then it was routine to work 24-36 hours straight procuring and transplanting organs. Think of the guy getting off the Lear jet in OR greens with a cooler. I was that guy. I’ve been in every teaching hospital and most ICU’s (intensive care units) across Canada and many in the US. No frequent flyer miles I’m driven by the need to learn, push myself and enjoy what I do. I then transitioned to career 3, moving to the “dark side” starting with Wyeth and then Pfizer in their Rare Disease group and the launch of Rapamycin for organ transplantation. So, I stayed in transplant, interacted with all the people I worked with for many years, although now in a different capacity. If you’re going to go to industry, it’s the best way to go. Over time, bleeding disorders (hemophilia) and growth disorders were added to my portfolio but the same guiding principle of doing what’s best for the patient and what does the data actually show, guided me. Career 4, presented itself during the pandemic and the opportunity to take early retirement with no more Zoom calls and the opportunity to be a full time golf aficionado and pickleball player was too irresistible to pass up. My other passions are building, home renovation and cooking. When I was young, I bought a water access shell of a cottage as my first property. Not being handy at the time, I proceeded to take courses in construction, carpentry, electrical and plumbing. I then proceeded to completely wire the cottage, plumb it, insulate it, drywall, install flooring, build the kitchen, bathroom, etc. I’ve built and rebuilt docks, decks, so hence the handyman moniker. There’s not much I can’t do, although with age comes wisdom. Golf: I have been playing golf on and off for 40 plus years. After not playing golf for 10+ years, I got back into golf at the age of 60. I was inspired by a friend who once said, golf is the only game you can play for 30 years and never improve. When I thought about it, it is rather true, so I was determined to do it right the second time around. At the time I was about a 25ish handicap. Hence lessons, fitted equipment and diligent practice. I was inspired again when I went to Tour Experience Golf (TXG) 5+ years ago and came out not only with expertly fitted and built clubs, but many new friends. I now go at least twice a year to tweak my setup. My current handicap is 6.3, but I have been as low as 4 or high as 8.5. Most of my rounds are in the 78 - 82 range. My home course is TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley featuring 3 courses all ranked within the top 60 courses in Canada and all 3 in the top 20 public courses in Canada. TPC Sawgrass, I’m the guy in the middle in the blue and black. I love scenic, challenging courses, especially mountain or coastal courses. What drives me is hitting good shots and being consistent. My philosophy is if you hit good shots the score will “usually” take care of itself. If you don’t like the score, play better. I am competitive, however, I play more for the joy of the game. I strive to improve each year and keep father time at bay. Now, my day job is golf, pickleball and my two huskies. Myah (front) and Hazel (rear) Thank you for your patience and understanding in reading my introduction.

Lovely day to be playing golf. Unfortunately the course was very wet, I should have brought my hip waders. Hit more mud balls than I can remember. Greens nice and squishy and slow, slow and even slower. Bunkers were small lakes. But I was playing golf. Priceless. Congratulations to Scottie Scheffler for winning the Masters. He put on a ball striking clinic in a masterful performance. So what will be next year’s Masters dinner.

For good reason. Tease away. Besides I love the golf courses in BC and Alberta. Only a 4 - 5,000 Km commute.

This is for our esteemed director and the moderators. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this and please read the instructions

Lol. Only certain people (politicians?) from Toronto think they’re “the centre of the universe”. Fortunately and thankfully, I’m not one of them. Some of the courses have opened up, most opening up later this week. Playing today, pending the rain. My home club, TPC Toronto, most likely another week to 10 days.

Good morning to all on Masters Sunday. So who shall reign supreme today? Will it be: a) I’m just getting it done, wait until you see my Masters dinner menu, Scottie b) It’s my time, move out of the way, Max c) Not so fast there, Morikawa d) Move over for the young bucks, Ludvig or Nicolai e) I’m just going to Krank it, Bryson f) I’m going to Schauffele you all, Xander It should be an exciting final round. Who are you picking? Have a great Sunday

Good morning to all on a windy, blustery day. Moving slowly this morning waiting for the quadruple espresso, aka caffeine on a stick, to kick in. Pickleball this morning, then some range time, then back home to enjoy watching the Masters. Should be fun. @GolfSpy_APH I have to go for option 1 (LAB + Ghost bag), although you really can’t go wrong with either option. Autoflex is probably the most intriguing option. Callaway and LAB the most lusted for and Ghost, downright gorgeous. So how can you possibly go wrong. Have a wonderful Masters Saturday.

I have to sincerely applaud and congratulate Jamie and the Forum staff for the superb job you have done. You didn't just hit a homerun, you hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth this year with all the wonderful testing opportunities. That doesn't come by chance. It comes from a lot of planning, hard work, diligence, follow up and vastly increased social media exposure. What I really liked is how you've increased your reach by not only featuring the major companies, but also a lot of little ones as well as unique products. So guys, stand up take a bow. Very well deserved and thank you. Just don't do this

Good morning to all on a wet Friday. Rain, rain and more rain. Thankfully, it’s Friday, espresso is delicious and it’s The Masters weekend. Can Tiger’s leg and body hold up to make it through the day. Will he make the cut. I’m hoping yes and yes. @cksurfdude see good things happen when you ask for help. Glad you got it sorted out @GolfSpy_APH great write up on the monthly recap. That should be a regular feature moving forward. Well done. Todays, daily chuckle is

Good morning to all on a wet dreary rainy Thursday morning. Thank goodness coffee is hot and delicious and I got my first round of the season in yesterday. Driver and irons were in reasonably good shape, but putting and short game were right out of the good, the bad and the ugly. But overall promising start. So today while it rains, back to practicing indoors under the benevolent eye of Dr. Trackman. Will enjoying watching the Masters in all its wonderful glory over the next few days. Have a great day.

Good morning to all on a sunny and beautiful Wednesday morning. Thoroughly enjoying my morning espresso with the knowledge that today is the Par 3 contest at the Masters and it starts tomorrow. I'm also heading out shortly for my first round of the year. Can't wait. Hopefully, the golfing gods have remembered how to instill in me how to swing a club and make a putt. Have a wonderful day.