ChitownM2

it shouldn't affect the strength of the shaft as it's just rubbing the paint off. Unless you're bag has sandpaper on it then there is nothing to worry about as it won't actually eat into the graphite. Surprised to hear people saying that wax actually helps with this....wax does not tend to be very abrasive resistant so if your shaft is rubbing against the divider i would bet the wax is gone within a couple of rounds. The bigger impact I think is what the dividers are covered with, a really stiff nylon ripstop type material is what i've seen do the most damage.

I tested the Precision Pro NX10 for the forum back in 2022 and it's been great for me. The extra battery isn't a huge deal. I'm not 100% certain but I think I'm on my 2nd battery now so I got well over a year on the first one and the shelf life on them is several years so easy to keep in the bag. Also, the battery indicator is pretty accurate so it won't surprise you and just stop working.

Somehow I missed the December announcement that they were scrapping the model local rule proposal from March and just rolling back the ball entirely, that makes pretty much everything I said above incorrect. Oops

Worn these G/fore drive shoes about 2 dozen times mostly just casually but they've seen maybe a half dozen 9 hole rounds. They are still basically like new, but I'm outside G/fore's ridiculous 90 day warranty period so they won't fix or replace them. They gave me a one time good will store credit of $125 which is half the price of a replacement. Needless to say I will be sticking with adidas and other brands that use genuine boa components in their laceless systems since they provide a lifetime warranty. I'm a big fan of boa and my code chaos shoes are still going strong but I'll consider this a lessons learned to avoid all the copy cats out there.

Yes but there is a huge difference between being named non-conforming and being not eligible for high level play where a model local rule is in play. I don't see those being the same at all. The fact that left dot and left dash existed in the first place without being on retail shelves kind of proves the point that they weren't playing the same ball right? They were making small runs of these balls just for those half dozen or so pros and now they make small batches just for custom orders since left dot still isn't in retail stores. No reason to think they don't have the ability to continue producing a small run of balls for the pros and others competing in these events where the model local rule is in effect. I definitely agree that this isn't going to matter to most golfers out there, but that isn't the way advertising works. One of these manufacturers is going to decide it's worth it to distinguish themselves by selling balls that don't meet the requirements of the model local rule and they are going to test that at the swing speed limits of the test and show the maximum possible distance advantage. My point was that once one company decides to do that, the rest are going to be forced to follow suit because as you point out, most golfers don't care or dig deep enough to understand the nuance / trick the mfr is playing. After seeing that TP5 is 20 yds longer than ProV1 plastered in front of their face for 12-18 months and it will start to stick with them when they are picking up a new box of balls at the store.

I still don't understand why people are getting so upset about this still. Why do people think that the balls that most amateurs are playing is going to disappear from the market just because the pros can't use them? A lot of the pros are already not playing the same balls that we can buy on the retail shelf and this would just be a continuation of that. The balls they play will continue to be the small batch "prototype" balls that manufacturers make for them and the balls rolling off the big assembly lines and ship to PGATSS will be the same. I suppose one could argue that there will be less innovation/updates for the mass market balls but I'm not sure that will really matter for most golf balls since we were already talking about very minor improvements to begin with and I'm sure some of the things they develop for tour balls will find their way into retail products. It's kind of like auto racing, car manufacturers develop new tech and it gets put on race cars and eventually some version of that ends up in production cars a decade later. When it comes down to it, I don't believe for a second that golf ball manufacturers are going to stop producing and developing balls for recreational play. How long do you think Titleist is going to let Callaway run ads in every PGA tour event and magazine that shows their ball being 25 yards longer than ProV1 with some barely legible fine print in the corner saying it can't be used in tournament event? No brand is going to be able to let that happen because retail sales make up 99.999% of the revenue for the manufacturers.

Anything abrasive should get the job done. I would start with the least abrasive option and then work your way up as needed. Simichrome paste works well on very light oxidation and other small blemishes in the finish

From my experience, second guessing what the SW scale was telling me was the driving factor in me upgrading from an old golfsmith SW scale. I would say you should get the best scale your budget allows or you might end up in a similar boat where you don't trust the numbers you are seeing

I think there is far too much correlation between results and driver skill comparisons in here. You can really only compare drivers within the same team for a given race / season since the performance levels of the car are just wildly different. Merc has had a terrible car for all of the ground effects "era" so it's probably a reach to say that Hamilton is washed up. I think it is safe to say that Russell is better at driving trash cars than Hamilton is, whatever that is worth I don't know. He certainly extracted the most of anyone recently out of what Williams had to offer and rolled right into Merc which turned out to be more of the same, albeit at a higher level. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Hamilton compares to LeClerc next season and also how Russel fares against Lewis' replacement, whomever that may be. Ideally though it would be nice to see two top teams produce cars that are similar performance so we can have a real competition. As of right now, Red Bull's car is so dominant the only real questions are A) will Max have a reliability issue and give someone else a chance or B) will Max lap cars that are in the points.

It's possible that they were both built correctly since each manufacturer measures length differently. I believe Srixon measures their clubs using the raw shaft so that the built length of the club is not affected by the butt thickness of whatever grip you choose. I believe Ping builds their clubs such that the length is measured to the line on the butt cap if you go with their standard grip, regardless of what grip you actually choose.

I think it definitely matters. For Alonso / AM in '23, AM developed the car in the wrong direction. They started out well and when they brought upgrades they made the car worse and they didn't understand why. Spent the entire rest of the season trying to figure it out. McLaren did the opposite, every upgrade they brought basically made the car better and better, by large chunks in some cases. As for LeClerc in '22, my opinion is that he just isn't that great of a driver. He's good, but he just can't perform under the most intense pressure moments, he seems to always find a way to screw it up by spinning, crashing or just making poor decisions on when to try and overtake. It will be very interesting next year when he is alongside Hamilton in the same car

Responded. Will be curious to see what others think

great to see more people getting the opportunity to test and review....too bad the season is over here in Chicago. Played yesterday and it was way too cold and sloppy so I'm officially done for 2023, only simulator golf now until the temps start creeping towards 50 now

Not a fan of the rollback. I don't care how much it will affect me personally, losing distance even if it's just a few yards is dumb for 99% of golfers. I also could care less about the pro game and whatever perceived distance problem they have as it pertains to sustainability. The entire idea of golf being sustainable is completely ridiculous. Golf courses are inherently not sustainable and the idea that lengthening a few dozen private or outrageously priced public courses 700 yards is going to have any negative impact is laughable. If golf wants to be sustainable then it should ban irrigation and watering of courses. I'm curious as to how far the manufacturer's and pros really want to take this. I don't think it's totally out of the question that the major brands get together and just say, "we're not going to make conforming balls". Pros don't want them and neither do amateurs. the PGA tour and/or the PGA can just create their own identical rules sans the ball roll back and that can be adopted by all amateur/junior/etc tours and organizations. The only real net effect would be the US open and "The Open" would have to figure out what they wanted to do, either find someone to make balls for use in their tournament or relent

Reporting back, overall things went fairly well. After 2 sessions my dad is going with a mixed set of Cleveland Launchers a new Callaway CB sand wedge and staying with his current hybrids, fairways and his Rogue driver as nothing else really beat them out. They did not have all the shafts for all the brands but we did find something that did work and he was able to place an order for clubs that they will build for the same price as retail. Should take a few weeks to get everything and then can verify gapping and make any adjustments necessary.

Club length varies from brand to brand as the way they all measure differs so that is likely the discrepancy. I think Mizuno and srixon measure length to the end of the actual shaft before putting a grip on. Ping measures to the line at the end of the butt cap on their standard grip which results in a different shaft cut length and means that the measured length in a shop would vary based on the grip you choose. Callaway, Titleist, TM all have their way of measure as well....

I've got a couple other options my father can go to if need be but the fitting is more expensive and they're ~ 1 hr away instead of 5 min so that was the real driver in him choosing CC, plus his unfamiliarity with all of the above pitfalls. Honestly though there aren't as many options as your would think even in a major city. True spec and cool clubs have a similar business model to CC and then after that you're looking at PGATSS where you risk getting a guy who watched a 1 hr video being your fitter. Most of the courses that have pros who offer fittings only have affiliations with one or two brands so you can't get a full brand agnostic fitting. And even then I haven't gotten great responses as to who the good ones are when I've inquired before. At this point I'm hoping this goes well today. I spent a lot of time this weekend going through each mfr site and making a list of the shaft options that each offers in the budget of what my father is willing to spend. I don't expect the fitter to have memorized the list of stock options for each mfr so that's why I am going so I can help with that info if necessary. He's playing a senior flex now and even in his prime only ever played regular so that helped narrow the lists substantially.

That's very possible, it's not my decision to go there. On the surface it shouldn't be unreasonable to go to a quality fitter and ask to be fitted into the clubs that will provide the best balance of performance vs cost for them but that is not the way CC operates apparently. I'm a firm believer that there are almost no scenarios where a player shooting in the upper 80s or 90s would see substantially better results from exotic upgrades vs a properly fit set of "stock" offerings. I'm hoping it doesn't go south and there is no reason it has to but it should become apparent right away if this location prioritizes bilking every last dollar out of their customer or if they would rather earn a nice fitting fee and a healthy margin on selling some clubs. I'm hoping for the latter.

That is what I told my father. Tell them at the beginning he is looking for only OEM offerings in the $15-20 range that the OEM charges and that he plans to have the OEM build the clubs. No $60 steelfibers or Fuji Axioms, etc. If they say they don't have them then the plan is to walk as it's pointless to be fitted into anything else because he isn't going to pay an extra $100/club for th eexotic options and extra build fees. We'll see how it goes, I plan to go with just to ask questions and take notes so he doesn't get talked into something different but I'll probably be arriving about the time he finishes warming up as I'm supposed to be working

This was our plan all along, but my concern is that they won't have the OEM graphite shaft offerings to actually hit. When you're buying steel it isn't that big of an issue because most of the major manufacturers offer the most popular steel aftermarket shafts (Modus 105, 120, KBS Tour, tour lite, etc), but when it comes to OEM graphite shaft offerings at the "no upcharge or $12-15 upcharge" the options are much more limited and in some cases are shafts that aren't available at retail which makes me think they won't have such niche offerings, especially in senior flex. FWIW, I called CC but got directed to the national call center and they said they have all the offerings from the major OEMs but as Jnoble said above, that wasn't the case for him and I'm guessing all the stores have different options depending on who the fitters are and what they tend to recommend most.

I don't think there is anything formal out there but there are some general rules of thumb. You can shift the weight to compensate for your typical miss in order to help minimize the distance loss. Heavy weight on the toe for a toe miss, etc. Can also place the weights similar to what you do with driver, placing it out on the toe will promote a fade, on the heel will help the face close a little bit faster

Couldn't pass up the opportunity to add the Edel divot tool with the ferrule that matches my iron set and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was delivered inside one of the high quality zipper bags that the weights also come in. This is a great little bag to keep my tool and markers in and prevent them from getting lost. Definitely a quality touch from a true premium brand.

So my father has a fitting at CC booked for monday and I'm planning to go with him and am trying to do a little more research before we go. He's 71 and has always shot in the 80s-90s and continues to do that albeit now from 1-2 tee boxes up from where he used to play. He still plays 2-4 days a week but is pretty much done with lessons and any major swing changes so things are what they are at this point. He's never played anything other than stock club options and I'm pretty positive that he has zero interest in any exotic or aftermarket options unless there is some voodoo magic that is going to give him 30-40 yards of distance back. Reading around on various threads I've got the following questions: 1) Does club champion have standard fitting carts from most of the manufacturers? My dad is currently playing OEM graphite shafts and may elect to go that route again but he is only going to be willing to pay the ~$10-15 up charge per club for the OEM stock graphite options and not the $40-60 it will cost to get the aftermarket graphite shaft options like MMT, steelfibers, etc that CC typically pushes. I'm concerned that they really won't have any of these "standard" options to even try, meaning there would be almost nothing for him to get fitted into without incurring large up-charges. 2) Does CC charge a build fee on an "all stock" club purchase? As in we order iron heads with a certain loft/lie and no-upcharge "stock" shaft and grip offerings. Will CC charge more than retail for this because they are going to re-build it? Part of the reason he is doing the fitting there is the 20% gift card bonus they are currently offering but that becomes moot if they are going to charge $30-50 build fee per club.

We did receive an extra set of weights as @ejgaudette mentioned. I ordered 4-10-6 (H-C-T) and had an extra 4 & 8 set to play with. I did move them around in a few range sessions but ended up back where I started. I may still mess around with them again this off season now that I'm striking the ball more consistently again. I may still order another set of 8 so I can try out 4-8-8. One thing to keep in mind when ordering is that you need to tell them the weights you want, where you want them and what swing weight you are looking for. The weight configuration you request will affect what tip weights they put in during assembly and will ultimately control what swing weight adjustments you can make by moving them around or ordering extra weight sets. You can move the weights around to help with your miss but you can also raise and lower swing weights by going up or down across the board.

Getting close to putting things away for the winter and want to report back that the range finder is still going strong on the original battery. Still at 3 of 4 bars....I played about 25 rounds this season plus I use it at the range to get more precise distances to the targets.