Hamachi Style

How do you like the Hogan 3 wood? Have you compared it to anything?

wow!!!!

Yes, I guess this like so many things is agree to disagree. I think Finau has been playing great golf the past 2 years. His warm personality has been a welcome presence and he's played well on the last Ryder Cup and Prez Cup teams. He is clearly making minor swing tweaks/ mental changes, evidenced in the Farmers through his pre-shot routine, putter grip, etc. I think he will continue to evolve, get better and get worse, probably get couple wins and miss some cuts. I think if and when he does win again, a lot of fans will celebrate it, because of his strong personality and consistent play. It reminds me of the Washington Capitals a few years ago. They were repeatedly the best/ most consistent team in the regular season, and would always lose in the second round of the playoffs. After a few cycles of this, they won it all, and it wasn't a huge surprise. Even people who weren't caps fans were happy for them. Professional sports often come down to minor and subtle differentiations between great consistent play and the big trophy. I don't think it's clear that Finau needs to see a sports psychologist or get more of a killer mentality as some have suggested. I think one day he's just going to win, playing the same game he's been playing for the past few years.

Can you guys not tell the difference between a bounce forward and a bounce in place? Too much visual information to take in? If Reed's ball bounced forward (did not embed, impossible, Reed himself said so, not that it matters), then how did the 'pitch mark' get there? It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out.

Yeah that's exactly right! I think it's really sad that so many people on these forums are 'on his side' on this discussion because they want to appear intelligent or on the level of the PGA rules officials. Reed very obviously pulled a fast one over on them, and by choosing to ignore basic facts, you're letting him pull a fast one on you too. He is an incredible golfer and a terrible person. What we try to avoid as a community is cheating, but the cardinal sin is cheating and having it be accepted, which is exactly what happened here. I am 100% that this is having an impact on the way that thousands of people think about the game. "If he can get away with it, why can't I?" "Maybe cheating isn't such a big deal after all?" "If everyone else is doing it, I'm doing it too!" Reed won the tournament today, and seems like he would have won without moving the ball in question, but golf as a whole absolutely lost.

It's sad that Reed continues to cheat, and sad that the PGA continues to look the other way, but the worst part is normal people turning off their brain for some reason just to 'go along' with the official ruling. It is physically impossible for that ball to have been plugged. The reason Reed brought up the notion that 'no one saw it bounce' about a thousand times in his post round interview, is he knows, like everyone with a middle school level of physics education, that after the initial hit the ball will have lost most of it's velocity. Especially seeing how short the bounce was on film, there's simply no way. The only way a ball with that little velocity would have broken the surface of the ground is if they were playing golf in an actual swamp, in which case it clearly would have 'plugged' on the first hit. The sky is blue. Grass is green. The sun is bright. Please don't turn off your brains people. We have to be better than this.

Pretty happy with this setup going into the year. Ping G400 Max Driver (10.5*, Stiff Matrix Shaft) Tour Edge Exotics CBX Fairway Wood (13.5*, Stiff Matrix Shaft) Callaway Epic Flash 5 Wood (18* Stiff) Taylormade Burner 4 Hybrid (22* Stiff) Miura Neo Genesis Passing Point Irons (5-PW, GW, Stiff) Taylormade 56* Milled Grind & 60* MG HiToe Wedges Odyssey Stroke Lab Seven Putter

Only down by 9 with most of a half to play.. I wouldn't even say long shot. They just need to keep running the ball!

My point exactly. Who else is going to make them 'show up and play' other than the head coach. The system just wasn't there.

This is exactly what I was trying to say. Smaller dispersion area on good hits with blades. And I guess I just made the leap that 'good hit' equals 'straight', so then mostly looking at distance control.

Tomlin is a players coach, but the Steelers really don't have anyone 'masterminding' or 'putting all the pieces together'. The guys are great but it's up to them. When they all got down when Bud got hurt, there was no strong system to keep things in place, and it had a much greater negative effect than it would have on most other teams. The Steelers almost remind me of a group of mercenaries. Skilled and dangerous, but needing planning, organization, and purpose. You can't expect to go too far in the playoffs without those core qualities. Just my two cents..

Yes, almost like a mini hybrid, or a crossover as Ping calls it. I feel like this goes back to my original hypothesis however, that they are not afraid to play whatever works. All those game improvement technologies in the beefier three irons outweigh having more distance control. Just as people want the longest driver, not the driver that's going to have the most distance control. But once you get into the mid and short irons (scoring), distance control becomes increasingly important. Maybe 'The Real Reason Pros Play Blades' wasn't the most accurate title.. something more like 'The Real Reason Skilled Golfers With a Consistent Swing Play More Stable/ Less Springy Irons' (Not the catchiest thread title ). But the crux of my argument is that distance control is the number one reason. Other reasons like turf interaction, workability, form factor are probably not far behind. Again, just one man's opinion. But interesting discussion!

All good points, but I'm not trying to draw distinction between very similar clubs, ie 'pure' blades vs 'modern blades vs 'tour' cavity backs. More a blade style vs game improvement style.

Their defense was incredible. They could go far, even though next round in the AFC is very tough.

Love those irons. Loud and proud superman colour scheme on the bag!

I guess I'm more of an AFC fan but the only game I really got into yesterday was Colts v Bills. Pretty lackluster performances by Seattle and Tampa Bay if you ask me. Very excited for Ravens and Titans to kick off in a few minutes though. I predicted it would be the best brawl of the weekend and I think that should hold true.

That's a good point. I also think it's just the tech factors of game improvement irons.. the thin, springy faces. They do launch farther but only when you get maximum springiness. If the face is not so thin and easily movable, you take that variable out of the equation. Just my two cents..

Great looking putter. I like the light color sole. The crown logo in dark color really stands out and looks good. Is that a production model or did you have it customized?

The wide blade is the only style of putter I have yet to experiment with. I just really like the way it looks. I have to try one out soon. How are you feeling about the Browns first playoff game in a while?

So... pretty much every 'justification or explanation' of the benefits of blade style irons I've seen/heard/read seems to refer back to the same old boiler plate: Workability. No doubt workability is part of the equation, but I'm not convinced it's the whole story, or even the main reason. In my personal experience with different styles of irons, the main difference I've noticed is this. Bigger, game improvement or super game improvement style irons do have a longer maximum distance. But to achieve that maximum distance, it must be hit properly (square, flush..) The 'forgiveness' people talk about is the distance on mishits. But those two numbers are always going to be different, depending on the nature and severity of the mishit. And I'd say that even minor mishits clearly do not go the maximum distance of those flush hits. This is a known fact for those of us who play game improvement irons. This is true with all clubs of course, but during my testing of blades (I'm not good enough to game them, yet, but I have some old Nike VR's and Mizunos that are fun to practice with) blades have a more reliable total distance. In other words, when you catch one nice and square, it's not going to take off like a rocket. So everyone says the reason pros play blades is workability, but I think it might be more distance control. When you factor in front to back as well as side to side in dispersion and accuracy assessments, it does seem like blades are more accurate. Otherwise, pros would play game improvement irons. Sure there would be a little bit of pride at stake, but if they were really better, and once someone was clearly using them to get a competitive advantage, the field would soon follow. Thoughts?

That putter looks incredible. Any chance we can get a few more pics of it? Thanks!

Love that putter. Nice bag!

Beautiful putters. Thanks for sharing.

A few more pics

G400 Driver (9* stock, Stock Stiff Shaft -.5 in) CBX 15* Fairway Metal MCGB Rescue T-MB Utility Iron Neo Genesis Irons (5-Gap Wedge, KBS Stiff Shaft Stock) Trusty Rusty 55* & 59* Wedges Zing Putter (this is the one thing that can rotate)