Grand Stranded

Do you recommend matching shafts in irons and wedges?

Yeah, I might be the only one from that test who didn’t get along with the LAB 2.1 (then again, I’ve just been struggling with my entire game the past few weeks. I’m up to a 14 now, and it seems like the sky is the limit…)

I just tried a 5.5 today for the first time, and it blew me away. Right now I’m thinking I might go with it instead of the Newport 2.0 or mini giant I talked about yesterday. I’m thinking a 33.5” with a black matador midsize grip. I believe that if you order under 34” you get 40 g weights? (30g for 34” and 20g for 35 and up, but I’m not sure.) Anyway, did you go lighter, or heavier, and what did the weights cost?

I went back to my old Yes! Tracy. I’ve had the thing over 15 years, and until I went off on a mallet experiment 18 months ago, never had reason to change. Ignorance might truly be bliss. All those years ago, I never realized something which dawned on me two weeks ago. The Tracy is a face balanced blade, which seems to be a pretty rare thing to find in a LH putter. I don’t know whether all my new found “knowledge” has hurt me or helped me. It seemed I putted best when I didn’t have a clue about toe hang, swing arc and whatever… Naturally I refuse to leave well enough alone. This winter will be spent trying to decide on whether to buy a Scotty Newport 2.0 or a Seemore mini giant. Why? I couldn’t tell you… BTW Happy Birthday, my friend!

The struggle is real boys. My game has completely left me, and I played terribly again today. 46 on the front, and after a double on 10, I started trying every kind of “band aid” I could think of, but nothing worked, and I spiraled completely out of control, shooting a 51 which gave me a sporty 97. That will bring my cap up to over 14 tomorrow, which means I’ll have gone up almost 3 strokes in two months. Tomorrow is our Member-Member Tournament and my 11 cap teammate shot a mirror image 51-46-97 also. Neither one of us are exactly firing on all cylinders heading into this thing. It could get ugly out there.

This game is driving me crazy… I played the Dye Course at Barefoot today. It was freezing this morning, and my front 9 was abysmal. Ball striking short game and putting. I had nothing. Put that all together and you get a 48. Then, because golf is stupid, my swing kicked in on the back 9 and I hit the ball about as well as I could. Unfortunately my putting stroke seems to have left me, and I can’t make a thing. I shot a 42 on the back with 2 pars, one birdie. The 6 other holes I could have made par if I sunk putts from 8 feet and in. Nobody expects to make all of those, but 4 were from inside 5 feet and I couldn’t make one? Ugh.

I wasn’t trying to replace it for 15 years, I started looking a year ago. It’s funny. After you mentioned women, I realized… I’ve had that Yes! putter longer than I stayed married.

That’s it!!! Is it open to the public again? I thought it went private?

I played 9 with my neighbor on a day I’d normally never consider it. It was really cold down here this morning. He plays a tee up from where I normally do, so I joined him there. I know this makes very little sense, but it drove me nuts. The first par 3 plays about 135 from the whites. According to him the green tees were moved up a bit, but it was playing 86 yards for goodness sake! I mean, what do you do there? You can’t tee up a SW can you? I hit one off the turf, and then just for fun I punched an 8 iron. The 8 iron came closer, . We had a good time though. I very rarely drink on the course, but it was in the high 40’s today when we teed off today so I made an exception. I caught a decent buzz, and found out I like pecan whiskey. Who knew? Then we went in and had a bowl of soup for lunch. Perfect prep day for NY golf, if the weather up there allows.

I played a similar course up on Long Island, but I can’t remember the name of it? Maybe someone from Long Island can recall it? It was just down the road from where the cemeteries are around Farmingdale, near the Pinelawn train station. Anyway they had a par 5 that wrapped around the lake the course might have been named after. We played the last round of the year and also the last one before it went private. Must have been almost 20 years ago. So the lake was frozen, and a light snow was falling. I teed off with a 7 iron.. It went long and high then bounced and bounced on the ice, heading for the green and going right at the flag. I had thoughts of a double Eagle and a plaque with my name on it near the green going through my head. As my luck would have it, the last big bounce it took landed right into the 6” high wall between the fringe and the ice, and wedged itself right into it. We could see it from the tee. I was crushed. My friends wanted to let me drop just forward of that spot on dry land, but I re teed and took a snowman. Which seemed fitting, considering the weather.

Yeah. I bagged the Tracy for over 15 years. I can’t believe how much trouble I’m having trying to find a replacement. (and I’m also wondering why I am)

Another frustrating day. We played The Pearl today, and the white tees played a lot longer than on the card. The course was soaked after a tropical storm went through our area. My ball striking was pretty good, but because I can never seem to be firing on all cylinders, I couldn’t get a putt to the hole, much less make one on the super slow greens. I ended up shooting 47-41-88, which as it turned out wasn’t as bad as I thought at the time. The rest of the A flight struggled much more than I did today. I somehow took 4th out of 16 players and won $50. Go figure… That said, my “mallet” experiment that began with me testing the LAB DF2.1 earlier this year and then a #7 style Odyssey is coming to an end. My old Yes! Tracy is going back in the bag, and over the Holidays I’ll decide on whether to get a Seemore mini-giant or a Newport 2.0

Tomorrow I play a Stableford event, Tuesday it’s a quota game, then I wrap my year up next Saturday with our Member-Member Tournament. The following Monday I head up to Long Island, and won’t be back down until after Christmas. It seems like I’m slipping into one of my funks lately. There isn’t one particular part of the game where I’m struggling, it’s more a lack of focus leading to making bad errors either in judgement or execution. i honestly don’t feel like I’m playing poorly, but my scoring has been horrible, and that’s infuriating. It feels like this trip north is coming at the right time. I need a break from golf right now. I usually take the clubs up with me, in hopes of squeezing in a couple of rounds with my nephews and friends up there, but right now I think I’ll leave them down here this time,

I shot one of those 85’s today when nothing really stood out, good or bad. Some pretty good shots, and a few not so good ones mixed in. I’m not posting about my round though, I’m here to talk about the one my friend Dave had while playing in my 4some. He’s an 8 cap who had one of those rounds we all dream about. He rode an incredibly hot putter, and a great iron game to shoot a 3 under par 69! It was super cool to watch, and really exciting when he rolled in a 15 foot birdie putt on 18 to break 70. It was like playing behind a pitcher throwing a no hitter going into the 9th inning. We all knew where he stood on that last tee box, but nobody said a word. We didn’t even want to look at him. When the birdie putt went in, we all went nuts congratulating him.

My Sun Mountain 4 way 2.5 is a great bag, but I just got what I think is a great deal on a 2022 2.5 14 way. A place called The Golf Stop has them for $199, which is $60 less than anywhere else. I got free shipping and no tax which was a great bonus saving. I bought the black one, but they have all 4 colors in stock.

not really, but… I’ve considered selling the Rogue ST Max driver head with or without the shaft… me being LH limits the audience though… Plus, it was something I won, so I don’t really want to mess with good karma. Who knows, it was pretty darn good the few times I hit it. I just don’t want to mess with what’s working right now.

I was thinking you need new wedges and putter now also, but whatever…

Sanity(?) prevailed…. Keeping the 5-GW, everything else went back.

@azstu324 and @cksurfdude Apparently my fitter down here was way ahead of the curve on this Otto Phlex thing you guys have stumbled upon. Two years ago when the G425 was coming out, I preordered a 10.5* SFT with the Alta CB regular flex I had in my G400. It was about as blah a combo as I could’ve imagined. I brought it to his shop, and had my guy take a look. After about 5-6 head, loft, and shaft combos we struck gold. The G425 Max 9* lofted up 1* with a Distanza soft regular shaft 1/2” long. I gained SS, went from a fader with my driver to hitting a draw, and legit gained 20 yards of carry. It’s been so much fun to hit. Fast forward to a few weeks ago… I won a raffle in a tournament down here and the prize was a fitting for, and a new Rogue ST Max driver. They wanted to put me in a regular flex 55g Tensei something, but I asked to try a lighter weight and flex. After getting an eye roll and a “I’ve been doing this for years, I know what I’m doing, just look at your numbers” speech, he finally plugged in a 40g Cypher A flex. All of a sudden, he got quiet, then he finally admitted I might have been on to something. We eventually settled on a 10.5* St Max set to D/S with a NVS Orange 45g A flex shaft 46”. Here’s the rub though… I have the Callaway over two weeks now, but aside from one trip to the range after I first got it, I haven’t put it in play. My Ping is just too good right now

Not a good day. What was supposed to be a slightly overcast morning with temps going up to 70, was 57, windy and damp. Then the rain came. I made par on a very tough opening hole, then 4putted (3 from 4 feet) for a 7 on #2. It was all downhill from there. I couldn’t wait to get to the turn, get a rain check and go home. I sleepwalked to a tidy 51, and to be honest, I really didn’t care. I was wearing shorts and a shortsleeved windbreaker, and I was freezing. Got in the car with a cup of hot chocolate, put the heater on for the first time in over 6 months and drove home.

Yeah, most of us have heard the adage “ beware the golfer with very old clubs and brand new grips.

I’m a member in Barefoot, welcome to the N. Myrtle Beach area! I’ve lived here for 12 years now. PrimeTime card is the best one., but you should always tell them you’re a local when getting a tee time. Yes, you pay a little more right now because it’s peak season, but in a week or two things will be back to normal.

I don’t know, if you’re the type who looks in what’s in another players bag before you tee off, it’s pretty hard to not make an assumption (which might be a better word than “judge” in this instance) on the type of player you’ve been paired with. For example, if you see a M2 driver, a 16* driving iron and a set of blades with a 8-10 year old Scotty, you’re going to assume you’ve been paired up with a pretty good stick. The opposite can be said about a guy with let’s say an old square headed Nike driver and a set of Zevo irons. I think we all do it to some extent.

WHY DID I USE ALL CAPITALS IN THE TITLE OF THIS THREAD?