gavinski91

I usually play with the same group (my 2 brothers and brother-in-law) so we have it pretty much figured out. First key off the tee is to get one in a good spot in the fairway, so my brother C almost always goes first with a hybrid to get one in a good spot. If he gets one in play then the rest of us will just try and bomb one on the most aggressive line possible (cutting corners, forced carries, playing a different fairway for an advantage, etc). If he misses, then we'll make less aggressive plays until we have something usable. For approach and short game, same general idea, but order doesn't matter as much. We will typically have the better iron and wedge players go last, so that the first guys can just focus on getting on the green, and if they accomplish that then the better players can fire at pins. Putting is usually the guy with the best ability to hit his line (usually me) goes last, other than that most of the work is communicating together on line and pace. If you have a guy who is a poor putter, then the above advice about having him go second is probably useful.

I agree that the Chrome Tour hasn't been super durable, although it seems better than the Chrome Soft X LS that I played last year. Will add that it feels comparable to the Chrome Soft X LS off the tee, but better spin on iron shots and around the green. Need to get on a sim at some point to confirm those feels.

I'll use 9-hole mode if I'm playing with some friends, but I find it's not as useful because I can't read the greens the same as I would on the course. Just getting speed control and start line dialed in has been super useful, and I can get a little Bryson on the green and mentally adjust putt distances based on it being up or downhill.

I think the more visible you can make the putter face the better. I don't use stickers, but my putter is an Odyssey with a white insert, so I get face read on about 99% of my putts with no stickers. I agree with cnosil that overhead lighting with a higher camera angle is probably best.

Played from the white tees at the local 9-hole course with just my irons today. Improved in strokes gained (compared to past 10 rounds) on both driving and approach play despite feeling like I wasn’t hitting the ball very well (which is a good indication of how poor my driving has been lately). Cleanest iron shot was my 4 iron off the first tee that somehow found the water 250 yards away. Greens were pinball-machine bad, and putting reflects that. Generally ok with the fact that I was +10 on a 9-hole round where I felt like I played pretty poorly - a good indication that my game is headed in the right direction.

Winner gets an all-expenses-paid trip to play Pinehurst No. 2 the day after the US Open. Good luck to everyone who enters! https://randomgolfclub.com/pages/experience-pinehurst-no-2

Great group of testers here - excited to see how the DF3 works for you all!

Another range session over the weekend. I've been hitting everything well lately except for driver, which is consistently off the toe. A relatively small dispersion, but in the wrong spot of the club face! Gonna try adjusting my setup alignment and messing around with some lead tape this week and see if I can bring that in closer to the center.

Folks who picked Bryson and Scottie are looking good so far.

Ordered a GrooveIt brush with the MGS discount. My old brush was dying, and this should be significantly nicer than having a soaking wet towel hanging off my bag at all times.

Bigger issue for me is how some golf pants/shorts have mesh pockets. Nothing like reaching into your pocket for your ball mark repair tool and it's tangled in the pocket material.

I have one that I found on the course a few years ago. The magnet is a really nice feature, but I can't say that it holds water or cleans grooves any better than my basic Club Glove grid towel.

I’ll often force myself into that P3 position and hold it as part of my warmup with a wedge. Focus on getting width in my takeaway (putting a ball behind your clubhead and pushing it straight back is a good drill for that) and then pause for a second or more at that position (sometimes even look back at the club to double check) and then swing straight down, really focusing on making sure I’m shallowing the club head and getting a full hip turn. Once I’ve done that a couple of times I’ll then go back to that position, but then keep my hips there and turn my shoulders further to feel the muscle tension in my back. I’ll bounce back and forth between those two positions as a dynamic stretch and after three or four bounces then pull into a slightly harder partial swing than what I did before, and repeat that process a few times as well. That basically rebuilds the muscle memory for me so I can extend it to a full swing.

Cut line at +3 Low am Lamprecht.

Had a really good range session this afternoon working on mid and long irons. Focus was on feeling shallowing out the club in transition, and really happy with the results. Was seeing 185 carry numbers consistently with the 6 iron, 205 with the 4 iron, and 220 with the 3 iron. P1 - happy with what I’m seeing here, just need to be aware that I struggle with consistently standing the correct distance from the ball on the course. P2 - good takeaway, I don’t usually have issues being inside here. P3 - looking and feeling pretty planted. P4 - happy to see that I’m pretty close to being right on the line. P5 - this is my favorite shot of them all. My biggest swing flaw when my game is off is coming way over the top, so for me this is a pretty much perfect P5. P6 - can tell that I’m coming out-to-in, but I’m ok with that as I like playing a fade. P7 - could maybe get a bit more hip turn here, but overall ok. P8 - happy with the forearm roll here. P9 - a little bit of a chicken wing here, something to work on next time. P10 - arguably the most important of all (at least if you want to look good!)

Watching the Homa group, and there is definitely some slow play out there. Seems like these guys are waiting on every tee and approach shot.

I'm a big fan of Cayce for premium headcovers that don't break the bank - I have one on my 3 wood that I love. Don't know that they have anything right now that fits your requirements, but they seem to regularly add stuff. https://www.caycegolf.com/collections/mallet-putter-covers

I use Arccos and don't find that it slows me down. It usually gets stuff right, and if I need to update putts or correct shots I'll do it while I'm walking between holes or up towards my next shot, or while someone else is teeing off.

These wedges are the one club I'm thinking about buying this year, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they work for you all!

I just can't do black shoes for some reason, and already have a pair of white golf shoes, so I figured grey was a good middle ground.

Splatter pack 1 Low Gs arrived today, looking forward to getting them out on the course.

Got out for nine holes after work. First time out with the newly reshafted irons. Putter sucked, so I didn’t score great despite 6 GIRs (finished with a +7 41), but the 3 iron with the MMT UT shaft is an absolute rocket launcher!

Yep. I will say that regardless of whether you do everything with one wedge (which is my preference) or have different wedges you use, mixing up your practice from shot to shot (rather than block practice where you practice the same shot 30x in a row) will get better on-course results.

The draw vs. fade in the different settings makes sense. Loft sleeves pretty much universally move the lie angle more upright when you add loft, and flatten out the lie angle when you remove it, so a driver set to -1° will normally tend to fade more than that same club set to +1°.

Don't know if it counts as "practice", but I've been reading this book: A lot of stuff that I already know and may be obvious to people who track their strokes gained and follow some of the advanced stats out there now, but still some nuggets that are useful. And I can think of a few playing partners who could really use to read it!