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forerightgolfer

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Everything posted by forerightgolfer

  1. Thank you for the kind words. It's taken 20+ years of marriage and nearly 15 years of having kids to be anywhere near the correct balance. I assure you I am NOT qualified to teach anyone about how to make this balance work. And yes, it is a funny game. $/shot is inversely related to skill level, and generally speaking enjoyment of the round. It is also a cruel cruel cruel game. How many times have you said "if not for that X on hole Y I would have shot N." And X should absolutely be avoidable. And you probably shot at least 2 strokes better on hole Y the previous week. Cruel Cruel Cruel game!!!!
  2. Really interesting topic! TLDR Version: Without SOME instruction I NEVER would have fixed myself. Budgetary restraints will limit the # and frequency of lessons, but I will probably use them sporadically over the next year or so. Slices don't just go away without good instruction. New off the rack irons have helped. A semi-fitted driver has been a HUGE improvement. HCP is 18-ish and hopefully headed down. Long Version: My journey is 20 years of playing golf <10 times per year and hitting balls at the range about the same frequency. And then 2 years ago a couple lessons. And then THIS YEAR deciding that I wanted to figure it out. The 20 years of no lessons were non-stop slice-o-rama! Most of that was pre-internet, not many friends that knew what they were doing, and no idea why I hit a slice. So I never fixed it. The lessons 2 years ago was helpful from a "why does the ball do what it does" standpoint, but it didn't really fix my slice. This year though I've done the following: 1 - Lessons! Several. From a good coach. He's not trying to put a band-aid on me. He's telling me what to change. And it's a long list. 2 - Practice! LOTS and LOTS AND LOTS of it. My Dad life worked out where I was dropping kids off for 90 minute Bible studies that allowed me 60 minutes of range time. My kids are old enough that my wife isn't ready to scream at the end of the day, so stopping on the way home from work to hit balls or putt or chip is an option. 3 - Video! Lots and lots of ugly ass swings on video and a few good ones where I can SEE what I need to be doing. 4 - New Clubs! Irons are Cobra F7 OL - "fitted" in the sense that I hit a whole mess of clubs and based on price and feel and a few launch monitor numbers I picked what seemed to fit best. But lie angle was never measured nor adjusted. But I KNOW these go farther, higher, straighter than my 10 year old Orlimar set with worn grips. Driver!!! I actually sort of got fitted for this. I went to GolfTec with a coupon and spent an hour tweeking shafts / heads / weights with the guy. At the end he said "get the lowest spinning face and lowest spinning stiff shaft you can afford." Enter the Ping G400 LST with Low Spin Shaft. I have added 20+ yards and straightened out my driver in a big way. Previous driver was off the internet Orlimar that measured out to a Sr. shaft. It's hard to measure with HCP the progress because I've never had a HCP before this year AND when I look back at old scores from the last couple years I KNOW that they aren't accurate. Penalty strokes were never really counted right, mulligans happened, foot wedge, etc. I played a few times in January and couldn't break 100 though, so I'm guessing 22+ wouldn't be a bad guess. I think I'm down to an 18-ish # right now. I've shot 90 twice in the last month and haven't been over 100 since April. (oh dear heavens the golf gods are going to punish me). Looking forward to following others.
  3. At least he can see the course sign! How often does the snow get high enough to cover it?
  4. We need to get back out and play sir! Great start to the review. Interesting that the less expensive balls seem to be working as well for you. I'm wondering if you find more touch/feel/control around the greens with the MTB the more you play them? As you say, your short game is very good so the extra spin might help? Will look forward to more info as you post it.
  5. I'm travelling to Austin, TX for work the week of June 17. I arrive early afternoon on 6/17 and fly out late afternoon on 6/20. Work has me tied up the 18th & 19th, but I'm planning to play Monday afternoon and Thursday morning. Anyone have suggestions and/or is anyone free to join me? (I'm an 18 handicap if that matters to you).
  6. That Cougar ball -- I want that! I have a set of Cougar Irons (circa 1985?) in my garage. They were my 2nd set - hand me downs from a friend who got them handed down from his dad. I may make my son learn how to play with those awful things because I'm cruel! But adding a Cougar ball to the mix... wow!
  7. After reading this thread I'm excited for this year's challenge. I KNOW I've got some garbage between my shag bag and my "found balls" pocket on my carry bag. I'll get pictures tonight, but I think I have some Wilson Eco balls "made from recycled tires." #Can'tWait
  8. TLDR - MOSTLY Indian. At some points in development/skillset the arrows matter. I wish there was a way to actually quantify this and graph it (because I am a nerd like that). My best guess is that at a 20+ handicap it is 99% Indian. Swing is so wrong and non-repeatable that perfectly fitted top of the line clubs will make almost zero difference. AND older/smaller sweet spot clubs might be better because they would get better feedback on mishits during practice. Somewhere between 19 and X HCP the player improves enough that fitting clubs and picking a single ball will help improve play. But a duffed/fatted/thinned/bladed/OTT-ed ball/iron combo will not make a driver go 240 down the middle no matter how perfect the fitting. Somewhere between X and Y you get players that are good enough to surf on doors and can play any clubs well (plenty of YouTubers who play rounds with old school clubs under 80). At that point, moving to higher quality clubs and balls that allow more workability.... blah blah blah... I'm rambling. But I think there's some areas where the arrow provides decent return and some places where it wouldn't matter a bit and I'd love to see data and see it graphed.
  9. Great looking setup. Love the wear on those wedges - like trusted old friends! And as many others have said, the bag is AMAZING! Good luck this season.
  10. Yes. I think I saw that in the info somewhere too. So, take my 35% down to 15% and it's not as bad. It's still not good.
  11. Congrats on the new driver! What a fantastic experience. I'm looking to get a new driver (and fairway woods/hybrids) and have a fitting scheduled for June. Hopefully it will be as enjoyable an experience as yours!
  12. Not to nitpick, but I'm going to nitpick just a touch here. YES, the STD is important! YES it points to quality and consistency of the ball and its performance. BUT 1.00 isn't a magic number. The size of the STD will be relative to what the average value is. If you are ONLY referring to the STD of compression, then yes <1.00 is very good. But I still wouldn't draw the line at 1.00. As an example - I'm a little surprised that everyone is jumping all over the Snell MTB-X. The STD OffLine from driver at 115mph is 21.5yds. Unless I'm missing something in the data (i.e. they had one complete outlier), 1SD includes about 65% of data points. So about 35% of the balls off the robot were >21 yards offline. That is HUGE. The Bridgestone Tour B X is only 3 yards shorter than the Snell and the STD offline is half of the Snell. The Vice Pro is 10 yards shorter (yikes!) but the STD Offline for the Vice Pro is 6.6. That baby is STRAIGHT!!!!!!!! (it performs VERY poorly in the spin categories off the 7I and Wedge though). So YES! Look at the data tables. YES! Look at the STD info. But don't use 1.00 as your dividing line.
  13. I'm working on looking at the standard deviation (z-score) for each of the balls in each of the categories and conditions. Once I have it in some sort of usable format I'll share it here as well. I did drop some of the balls from the list though (the Cut brand / Volvik (based on price, if I'm paying that much I'm buying ProV1 or B-stone) / Vice below Pro). I originally was doing this for myself and knew those balls were all out for me. The information and discussion here is fantastic!!! Thanks.
  14. Seeing this and hearing the HQ guys talk about fitting a ball to the irons and a driver to the ball.... where do I go to get a golf ball fitting?
  15. I'm just about out of my stash of "new" golf balls (many varieties received as gifts over the last year) so I'll be buying soon. I'm cheap (well, I have limited golf $) so ProV1's are not going to work. I was looking at getting a bucket of used for basically $1/ball, but as the boys at HQ pointed out yesterday in their YouTube feed, $1/ball for Kirklands!!!!! I'm not sure that I'm going this way, but knowing that's an option will keep me out of the used market.
  16. An 11 claiming to be a hackster. Golfers are funny. I'm an ~18. If you're down playing golf in the IE on a weekend and looking for a partner to play with drop me a line. Goose Creek is one of my favorite courses in SoCal.
  17. Interesting thread. I would love to have the option of a single rider cart. I play as a single often enough that having my own ride around the course would be a welcome change. I do not generally enjoy sharing a cart with someone I've just met. I would hope that the 2 person cart never completely dies though. As was mentioned many times in the thread, for many people a huge part of playing golf is the social part of it. My dad's only reason for playing golf is 4+ hours of us hanging out and catching up. As noted, the cover from the elements is a big reason for the carts as well. For me, one of the hardest things about walking is that I don't really get to sit for 5 hours and I'm always in the sun. The 2 person cart solves both of those. For those course that have a lease program, would it be an option to blend some single person carts into the lease and test them out for a year or two? Wouldn't single rider carts make sense for groups playing late twilight rounds chasing the sun? I hope that we see some of these make start to break through soon.
  18. Great picture! Thanks for the report and feedback. Would be interesting to see an on course comparison between your current driver and the test driver. Hit both on driver holes. Switch between which you hit 1st on each hole. It won't be perfectly scientific, but it might indicate if the accuracy is a swing/aim influence or a club/spin influence. Looking forward to more feedback on the driver.
  19. My daughter saw me marking balls (3 green dots below the number) - "ohhhh, coool! Can I draw on your golf ball dad?" Sure, why not. For those that know.... you know. For those that don't, its the TriForce from Legend of Zelda games. (I mark my balls when she's not around now)
  20. I was looking for new irons as a Christmas present in Dec '18. I hit a LOT of clubs and decided on Cobra One Length irons. I bought the last set of F7 OL's in the store at ~35% of their original price. I'm in the process of upgrading everything in my bag as it's all nearly 10 years old. I'm not afraid to buy last year's model if it works. I'm also bringing my current club(s) to any fitting/shopping outing so I can test the new against the current.
  21. I'm assuming that the performance of the club is included in your "feel" comments, but were there any clubs that gave you added yards / added accuracy that surprised you? Thanks!
  22. Ah yes, the ever elusive "good"! Reading the thread is a reminder that Golf is completely unbeatable. 5 handicappers saying "I'm not good, but..." And I'm not knocking that thought. I think that's just what golf brings out in most/all of us. We want to CONQUER THIS BEAST!!! For me, I'm 46. I have hit golf balls since high school. 20 years of banging balls around 5 to 10 rounds per year with a 1 or two range sessions ahead of the rounds to "brush up" before I played. Golf was always at least 4th in line for things to do. Fishing, hockey, poker, golf. 10 years ago I moved to a new town with a range 5 minutes from my house. After we got the kids in bed I'd head over to the range twice a week. No lessons. No reading. Just trying to figure out how to not hit a 40 yard slice. SUCCESS! It was only 20 yards after 10 months of that. Ugh! 2 years ago I took a couple lessons. In hindsight, they weren't very good. The solutions offered were band-aids, not repairs. BUT, the ideas that the teacher provided about how and why the ball goes where it goes got me to thinking.... And then life happened and my attempt to get back to weekly practice disappeared. Enter 2019. I've given up poker and hockey. I will still fish, but that's rare these days. The kids are old enough that I can get out of the house more frequently. So THIS IS THE YEAR! I've taken lessons that are GOOD lessons teaching me fundamentals. I'm practicing putting and chipping on a regular basis. I'm LEARNING. And I'm getting out and playing. Am I "good" - oh heavens no. But I've posted some decent scores (for me) this year and I see my ball striking getting better on the range. My GIANT slice is gone. It's been replaced by a hook that I need to control. I see hope that by the end of the year my 17 will be down to a 15 and at that point I'll say "no, I'm not good, I hit 6 balls that screwed my round! Some day I'll be good!!!" The quest continues. Enjoy the ride!
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