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doctorgriffo

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Everything posted by doctorgriffo

  1. I went through my long-abandoned old clubs in the garage today (too old to bother about selling, but in decent nick), and hit them on the launch monitor indoors - most had earned their place in the discard pile (change in swing, faster speed now, better tech etc) - an old cobra 3 wood, a nickent hybrid, an orlimar trimetal fairway - but one club blew me away... First swing with an old taylormade rescue mid 19 deg (early 2000's - can't remember exactly) and it launched high, straight and long. It repeatedly went straight, high and the right distance to fit a gap in my bag (the awkward 220-ish carry). Can't wait to get it out on the course and see if it sticks. Anyone else discovered an old favourite and restored it to the bag?
  2. Got fitted into an Edel putter, and wasn’t able to afford it new. Found a mint, used one with standard loft and lie - it is great for me from 8ft in, but I couldn’t get used to it for lag putting (not part of a fitting!). Only used it for 2 rounds and in the garage. Need to re-sell it to finance the continued search for the unicorn putter.... $SOLD - please close.
  3. Just finished a putter fitting session - the first one I’ve had that wasn’t rolling a bunch of putts in a big box store - and it was truly enlightening. Using the SAM putt lab setup outside on the putting green with my current putter, the initial 5 putts confirmed what I had suspected about strengths and weaknesses - tempo was really good (my strength has always been speed control and lag putting) and the stroke was very consistent in all other metrics with one concern highlighted: too much opening and closing of the face around impact. If everything else wasn’t perfect, then this added a lot of variation to my putting outcomes (which explains why I am so hit and miss from 6-10 feet). I delofted the putter slightly as well, but not by much and easily fixed by adding a little loft to the putter. The fitter then gave 2 options: try to address this with a change of putter, which was option number 1, and if that didn’t work then adjust my mechanics. Basically, see if technology could fix it first, and if not then make a few tweaks to my putting action. The first putter to try was a TaylorMade truss, which I quickly rejected because it looked too weird at address. If it doesn’t look right at address, and makes you really uncomfortable just standing over it, then there isn’t much point going any further. I then tried different shapes of Edel torque balanced putters, with zero offset, and these helped a little bit. We then switched from putter fitting to putting lesson, and adjusted my grip and address position. The combination of the two, and using a shorter putter, felt odd for a while but after rolling a dozen or so putts we got the analytics into the green category and the face rotation under control. It was truly amazing to switch back to my regular putter, an odyssey stroke lab double wide, and feel how hard it was to control the rotation compared to the Edel (simply by putting down a couple of alignment sticks and seeing the amount of rotation of the putter head). Now I need to a) identify which of the Edel shapes I like the best and b) find a bunch of cash to afford one..... Anyone out these using an Edel torque balanced putter, and if so did you notice much difference between the mallet and blade shapes?
  4. They were always the weird small old balls that had gone yellow in some old guy’s bag (acknowledging that to us, old guy was anyone over 40, like my dad), and they had weird dimples (you can add the Dunlop 65 to that list). We used to try and hit them hard and thin with a wedge, to cut them open to see what looked like a mass of elastic bands inside.
  5. I just watched Rick Shiels' video on Top Flight balls, and he reminisced on the balls he used "back in the day" as a junior. It made me think back to my early years playing golf as a junior in the UK in the mid-80's. Our club had a strong junior program (25GBP a year for membership!) and we would hunt for balls when not allowed on the course at busy times. The gems we all wanted to find were Spalding Tour Editions, Titleist Tour Balata (or any Titleist we found). Wilson Ultras, Pinnacles and Top Flites would hurt your hands if you caught then the slightest bit thin, and were rocks. You were always gutted to spot a ball and discover it was a Penfold or Slazenger. Which balls from your early days of playing do you remember loving/hating? On a related note - we used to love doing this with a balata ball in front of a brick like an ultra, and you could spin it back into the bunker from the green. It destroyed the ball, though....
  6. I live 2 minutes from Pebble Beach Links and have been fortunate enough to play it a handful of times, and have never used the same putter twice...
  7. I tried left hand low at home on the practice mat, and while it felt weird and uncomfortable the ball rolled really well. I tried it out on the course and could never get comfortable, and as others mentioned, tension is a killer and I pulled everything. For 35 years I gripped the putter with an overlap, traditional grip because it felt normal. In the last couple of months, I have tried out a baseball-style grip with the putter: index finger of my left hand barely touching the little finger of my right. For some reason, this totally stabilises my hands and takes any wrist out of the stroke. Using a training gate, my putts start on line far more often for putts of all lengths. Setting the gate on my chosen start line on the practice green has, however, revealed how crap I am at reading greens....
  8. I’ve been playing for 35 years now - now I have a few more resources than when I was a kid I can be sucked into impulse purchases compared to when I had to make do with whatever I could get my hands on, which makes the frequent switching more possible. I’ve never found something that does it all - I used a Rossa Monza spider for a good while (probably the longest in recent times) and it was awesome for 5-6 footers, but had to be because I really struggled with long putts with it and this often left a lot of cleaning up to be done. The one in the bag right now (odyssey double wide) is great at lagging/speed control but shakier from closer range. I picked up a cheap, used Ping sigma Tess a few years back because it reminded me of my favorite putter as a kid (an 80s knock-off) and I holed everything for about a month then started missing from close in, so into the garage it went.... The thing about those 8-10 footers is probably emotional - they are usually for birdie or a sand save, so you remember missing them. And my regular playing partner sprays it all over the place then pours in putts and it drives me nuts. The strokes gained analysis on Arccos says my weakest putting distance is 10-25ft. The dream scenario is to find something that, as you say, is good with speed and distance on longer puts and feels super-solid inside 10ft. I haven’t found anything that sustainably ticks both boxes.
  9. I seem to have a pattern of behavior that may well be common out there - I test out new putters and find a “magic wand” that holes everything at a demo day, or on the practice green. It goes in the bag, and seems to work really well for a while, but it doesn’t take long for me to second-guess performance (and things like Arccos aren’t great with putting stats, only measuring the length of the 1st putt, but suggest any uptick in overall performance is negligible). I invariably start trying out old putters and replace the magic wand with one of the others and have a revolving spot in the bag. One might be great for lags and long range, others for those ticklish Sloan-up putts, but I’ve never had a putter that has earned a long-term spot (and I’ve had fittings and tons of tips from very good players/teaching pros). I’m a good but not great putter, and am so jealous of playing partners who make a ton more 8-12 footers that I always seem to fail to convert. Does this sound familiar? If you have found that putter that has stayed in the bag long-term, how did you identify that it was “the one”?
  10. I thought folks might enjoy this photo from last month - playing at Pasadera in Monterey the day the wildfires started, and we got this photo on the 15th (highest point on the course) as the River fire spread in the background. Huge thanks to all the firefighters who risk life and limb to get these fires under control - they do an unbelievable job in awful conditions.
  11. Fun thing to think about - ranking fun and wow factor over what “technically” are the best courses: 1- Cypress Point 2- Pebble Beach 3 - Bandon Dunes (Pacific is probably the better course, but Bandon was more fun - Pacific was so tough with the wind blowing!) 4 - Pacific Dunes 5 - Spyglass Hill 6 - Pumpkin Ridge (Witch Hollow) 7 - Wailea Emerald (again, the gold is probably a better course but the Emerald is so beautiful) 8 - St Enodoc, Cornwall 9 - MPCC Shore course 10 - (wildcard, for the fun factor) Narin and Portnoo, Donegal
  12. You could try something I did when everywhere was closed during the spring - I bought used clubs from the Callaway preowned store, and they have a 15 day playability guarantee - for the cost of shipping them to you and back again (less than 20 bucks, I think), you can try them out and send them back if you don’t get on with them. They have frequent sales with great prices, and they also have an eBay store that has free shipping and free returns. It also has the benefit of letting you try more than just a 7 iron off a mat in a store - you can take them out on the course in real conditions.
  13. I would add that it is just as important to factor in what makes you feel confident when you stand over them. I hurt my back a few years back, and my swing was a mess. Standing over my usual irons (that I loved and hit well for years), they suddenly looked like teaspoons and anything longer than an 8 iron filled me with dread. I got a set of used Callaway rogues after hitting a few GI irons at a local golf store, and they gave me back a bunch of confidence (even a pretty poor strike got the ball up and going). After a bit of physio, lots of stretching exercises and a lot of Advil, I got full range of movement back, and my speed came back. Suddenly, the Rogues were going up to the moon to the extent that my regular playing partners got stiff necks following the flight of a 5 iron (not always a good thing when playing by the sea). I went back to the more "player iron" look, and they launch and spin better and they don't scare me any more. If I hadn't switched to more help for a while, I might have quit.
  14. I go down to the beach with my son and we go golf ball hunting - we give any ones in decent condition we find to the local middle school, and I keep the premium balls that look in good nick. We find 70-80 balls every time we go down and I have dozens of pro v1s in the garage. I tested them on my launch monitor and the ones that look good perform exactly the same as new ones - you can tell if they have been in the water a while, and these ones get discarded. a local high schooler fished thousands of balls out of the ocean -
  15. It all depends what kind of help or forgiveness you are looking for - I can only speak to my experience, but I tested out a bunch of player distance irons last winter and was seduced by the length of the p790s (who doesn’t want to see a 7 iron fly 180, and come in at 48 degrees?). When I took them out on the course, I couldn’t control the distance and it created gapping issues throughout the bag. The misses were fine, but spin disappeared and I flew greens too often. I took them back and got some mp20 mmc in the mid-irons and they are really consistent with distance and spin (my miss is catching it a bit thin, and there is little distance variance and they still hold). When I really miss, with a brain-fart swing, no club in the world is saving that shot. to be honest, I hit the mizunos on a launch monitor against the oldest irons I own (a set of Nike vr forged pro combo) and the Nikes are as forgiving and consistent as the new mizunos. If I hadn’t shelled out the cash, it is tempting to play them again (with a 35deg 7 iron).
  16. Are you tied to going in July/Aug? Sept or early Oct are the best time for both - the fog can be bad in Pebble Beach and is a complete lottery in June through Aug - strangely, Pebble Beach avoids the worst of it but Spanish and Spy can be unplayable (though it usually clears up enough to be playable by late morning). By mid -sept the weather is awesome. Before moving to CA a couple of years ago we lived in Portland and spent a lot of time on the Oregon coast - early fall was usually the most reliable weather. In terms of the golf, it goes without saying that you can’t go wrong at either. Pebble is special, though - the kind of course where you remember every shot you hit (except maybe for on 11 through 13, which are probably the least memorable holes in my opinion - 15 and 16 also get a bit lost in the anticipation of 17 and 18)
  17. I also found that the dashboard data is different from the stuff on my phone - handicaps for each aspect of my game are different, and it even puts shots in different places on the course when you review a round on the dashboard (I marked a drive into a fairway bunker, and on the dashboard it showed it on the fairway - I tried to move it, but there wasn’t enough of the hole on the screen to drag it into the bunker). I’m not that bothered about data being accurate to the very last shot, but the discrepancy is annoying.
  18. Played in thick fog this morning at Spanish Bay for the first 6 holes and the gps was very helpful. The wind switches up from morning to afternoon here and Arccos doesn’t seem to update, so I go back to throwing some grass in the air and hoping for the best. Between the fog and the smoke, visibility hasn’t been the best for the past week so the gps has been invaluable. Annoyingly, I used the Arccos caddie on Pebble last week and I was having the best round ever there - the app helped on a bunch of yardages. It gave me a yardage on 18 that didn’t feel right (the wind seemed to be different), but I trusted it because it had been spot on to that point, and I hit a gap wedge straight at the flag, got very excited and my heart sank when it flew the green into the bunker behind.
  19. I’ve had the Arccos sensors for a while, and like the tracking and stats, but am a little skeptical about the virtual caddie. In the last 2 rounds, for example, it gave the wind direction wrong (said it was in completely the opposite direction) and added yards. Just to test it out, I played the true yardage and the caddie yardage, and flew the wedge through the back (I’m pretty tight on my numbers with wedges). Playing the yardage from a rangefinder was spot on. Arccos seems to be solid on slope, but the conditions adjustment seem a little sketchy, and the gps doesn’t seem to be the most accurate - what are your experiences with this? I’ve found myself using Arccos and a range finder, and this “belt and braces” approach seems to defeat the purpose.
  20. Bought this to go along with my mmc and mb combo 6-PW, but hit the mmc so much better so am going to replace this one with the mmc 5 iron. Barely used (never hit outdoors just on simulator in garage). KBS Tour 90 shaft and golf pride MCC align grip. $135 shipped anywhere in lower 48.
  21. They arrived - took over 4 weeks (looks like Mizuno have quite a backlog). Had a bit of a hit into the screen with them, but will tear them out fully this weekend. They feel awesome off the face so far!
  22. Just started engaging with the forums here after a couple of years enjoying the site - thanks for all the great content and for the kind replies to my early posts. How long have you been playing golf? What’s your handicap or normal score? Been playing for about 35 years - started as a kid at the local course back in Cornwall, UK. Dad used to drop me and my brother off in the morning then go to work, and pick us up at the end of the day during the school holidays - 25 quid a year for a junior membership! Stopped playing during college years, then started up again when I worked at a school with a little 9 hole course in Dublin about 15 years ago (built as a labour of love by the long-standing Chemistry teacher). HCP is currently a 5, and anything in the mid 70s is a good day. What do you love about golf? As most others say, the challenge is what keeps me coming back - it is also good for working on your resilience. That day when your swing feels off and everything is out of sync, you either have to resign yourself to 4 miserable hours, give up, or commit to figuring out a way to get the ball in the hole. It is also the perfect mix of social and personal time - chat on the tee box and between holes, but plenty of time with your own thoughts in between. What brings you to MyGolfSpy? Do you already know any other Spies? I really like the reviews and data-driven approach. I don't know anyone else on the site, but I'm guessing I've played with a few without knowing. Where are you from? What is your home course? I currently live in the Monterey area, and play whichever public course has a tee time at a good price (lots of good options, but lately it has been absolutely mobbed down here). What are the best and worst things about golf in your region? Lots of options, but can get very crowded and the prices are high for the better courses. Some fantastic public golf (Bayonet-Black Horse, PG muni, Poppy Hills) and I've been lucky enough to play all the private and big-name courses in town. The worst thing is the slow play and the crowds, particularly this summer, and the lack of a reasonably-priced private club option. What do you do for a living? I've been a teacher for 25 years. How’d you pick your user name? Old college nickname that became my email address a long time ago.
  23. Second this - you can get one used from the prowled website for $200 with their sale right now. I have bought a bunch of stuff used from them and it is always in great condition. Their eBay site is often even cheaper and has free shipping - if you know the shaft you want, it is a great way to get a great club at a reasonable price. If you register with the preowned site, put a club in your cart and don’t check out, they usually send you a free shipping code if you wait a day or two to close the sale, I bought a used epic flash sz with the Tensei blue 65g shaft and it goes for miles (but as juspoole says about forgiveness, it is not necessarily always in the right direction...)
  24. I can’t emphasize enough now much difference the right shaft makes - I was late to this realization, always searching for the magic driver head, but while waiting for a couple of clubs to be regripped at a Golfmart I messed around with the drivers on their launch monitor. Some of them went nowhere (the cobra speedzone, which I was keen to try, was giving me low flight and no distance with the stock stiff shaft), but the epic flash sz was going miles. Out of curiosity, I asked the guy there to put that shaft in a couple other heads, and got the same great numbers (and not a great deal of difference between low spin and regular models). Picked up a used epic flash with that Tensei blue shaft and I am hitting longer and straighter than ever. On a side note, I also found out that the ball you use makes a lot more of a difference to distance that I ever thought (the tp5x adds 5-10 yards to all but my short irons, and spins comparably with wedges)
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