Iowa Hacker

How do you use it? Indoors or Outdoors. I am looking to make an outdoor setup with a net.

I will say Cobra. I played Cobra irons for a long time. When I decided to upgrade last year, they got the first look My wife has a bag full of Cobra clubs that work great for her. Cobra can also be a good value in the used club market.

My biggest pet peeve is the player that isn't willing to play to the actual level of his game. Stop making tee box choice a Johnson measuring contest. I know my game. I moved up a tee box a couple of years ago and golf is much more fun. Unless, I'm stuck behind 4 yahoos playing tips and losing 2 balls/hole.

I've got 2 trips on the calendar and still eyeballing a possible 3rd trip. We are heading to Myrtle Beach in mid-May. We already have rounds booked at Caledonia, True Blue, and Blackmoor. Our son will be coming up from Atlanta for this trip. At the end of August, my son and I are trekking out to Landmand for a couple of rounds. I am still eyeing a trip to Wisconsin possibly in September. A lot of good golf to choose from. It should be a fun year. If I can finally find that extra stroke to break 80, it might be the best year ever!

My son and I started our trip in May at Fortrose and I highly recommend it especially if you are driving from Edinburgh to the Highlands. A very unique course that is squeezed into a tiny peninsula. It was also our first course on our dream trip.

I am down to just one, a 4 wood. Typically, it hides in the bag except for a couple tims a round on par 5's and long par 4's depending on the lie. I started playing with a 3 and 4 Hybrid last year and they became go to clubs that I hit consistently. The 4 wood is kind of a feast or famine club for me.

Considering the exclusive nature or out of the way locations of the US courses listed, it is not surprising that I had to travel overseas to knock out my first 2. My son and I visited Scotland in May of 2023. We were able to play 2 rounds at Royal Dornoch, thanks to Chris from Alberta (international member) who hooked us up for the 2nd Round. Iowa nice paid off that day! The course sits in a small town and you see quickly why Royal Dornoch is not in the Open rota. Amazing course and definitely worth the trek to the Highlands. Our last day was spent marveling at the masterpiece that is Kingsbarns. Every hole is a visual treat and I can't imagine I will ever play a course that is so stunning and where the variety of shots I played will be matched. As my awesome caddy said more than once, "I've never read that putt before!" We managed to play 3 additional courses in the 6 days. I highly recommend Brora, about 30 minutes north of Royal Dornoch, cattle and sheep roaming the course and some views that can't be matched almost anywhere else.

I set my alarm for 7:30 on New Years Eve day with one mission in mind, score a couple of rounds at Landmand for 2024. You had to be quick and know what you wanted because it seemed like they went fast. However, luck was shining on me and I was able to get tee times for the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day. My son will be coming home from Atlanta to play with me. In 2023 we played Royal Dornoch and Kingsbarns together in Scotland this year we trek to Homer, Nebraska. Might be easier to get to Scotland.

This one is easy. The tee shot after the slow poke fivesome in front of you finally let's you play through!

Does anyone here know how far out they are on tee times? I am about 4 hours away in NE Iowa and would love to get over there. My son in Atlanta wants to put together a meet up and play this amazing looking course.

I have been kicking around the idea of upgrading my irons for the last couple of years. I have been playing Cobra Baffler XL for about 10 years and they are still very usable irons. I hit them well and I know exactly what I can and can't do with them. My son has suggested upgrading the tech to see if I can get more forgiveness and maybe a little more distance. Over the past few weeks I went through a couple of fittings and hit several different irons. I hit the newest Mizuno Gi iron, well let's say I tried to hit them. They were out of the conversation pretty quickly. I was then handed the Ping G430, I hit those better and found some ball speed, but I was just not consistent enough with them. I also thought that if I spent that much money I should hear angels singing when I hit them well. I then gave Global Golf's U try program a whirl and demo'd Cobra LTDx. The good ones were real good and the okay ones were not good. I was running out of patience and ready to fall back to Plan B which was keep gaming the Baffler's. Saturday, my demo 699v2 irons arrived in the mail. I took them to the range tonight and I was amazed at the way I hit them, no angels, but much better than anything else I had tried. I found myself making consistent ball first contact, I am a sweeper/picker typically, and the shots jumped off the club and the mishits or my usual sweeper shot still carried far. I love the very clean look of 699v2 and they have a great sound on impact. The demo clubs came with medium size grips which I have never played before and I might go that way with the new ones. I did not want to buy new irons for the sake of getting new ones. I think I have found irons that I am excited about buying. I will be taking them out to the course this weekend before I pull the trigger. Thanks to all of you that have reviewed Sub 70 clubs, your reviews gave me the confidence to give them a try.

My son and I are headed to Scotland in May. We will spend 3 nights at Dornoch playing Royal Dornoch and Brora. We are then headed to St Andrews for 3 nights, we are playing at Crail Balcomie Links to be off the beaten path. We are having to play the Daily Ballot game for Old Course tee times, but if we don't score a tee time what is the next best, I am thinking the New in St Andrews and Kingsbarn. Anywhere else we might want to look at?

We have been going to Hilton Head in early October for the past several years, but this year we are going to North Myrtle Beach the first week of October. I have played many of the top courses on the South end: Caledonia, True Blue, Heritage, TPC and several others. Looking for a few good courses on the North side. The group will be myself 18 handicap, my son a 12, and my wife a 25. Looking for fun, scenic, and playable for golfers of our abilities. We are thinking of playing World Tour for the experience realizing we might throw up some big numbers. I have played a couple of replica courses in Dallas-Tour 18 and The Tribute and they were a fun experience. Outside of that, we are pretty flexible. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks for your time

I have made several buddy trips to Myrtle Beach. The 2 courses that are always on the itinerary are True Blue and Caledonia Golf & Fish Club. Caledonia is a beautiful course and is consistently in the Top 100 Public Courses in America. True Blue is across the street and is a different challenge, more open fairway, but some crazy deep bunkers and an island green Par 3. Heritage is ok, I just thought that the housing infringed a little on the course, just personal taste. I never cared for the TPC course personally. If you do head down to Pawley's Island to play Caledonia or True Blue make sure you check out the Pawley's Island Tavern, one of my all time favorite places.

I love Jordan Spieth's game because at times it can look like mine. Crazy inconsistent! I can appreciate hitting 3-4 solid drives down the middle and then stepping up and slicing one over the road. He misses a lot of short putts and mumbles to himself just like I do. We hackers often can't relate to the game the pros play. I need 2 shots to get as far as a DeChambeau drive. It is nice to see something that occasionally I can relate to. I am also cheering for him to get back in the winner's circle again. He has some demons clearly, I don't want him to become Anthony Kim or David Duval.