gavinski91

If your shots are weak hooks falling out of the sky, if anything the problem is too little spin, not too much. But in either case, I'd be willing to bet that mechanics are the issue, not the ball. For comparison, here's a test I did between two different Srixon balls that I was gaming. The results on the sim show a pretty significant difference between the two, but I had previously played them both out on the course and hadn't noticed a difference in ball flight off the tee (since my swing isn't consistent enough to be able to say that a 10-foot difference in peak height or 20-yard difference in distance is the result of the ball and not just a swing deficiency). So if you're seeing changes that significant from previous, it's a safe bet that a change in your swing mechanics is the culprit, not the ball. If you can get on a sim somewhere to get some ball flight info to share you can probably get better recommendations (or talk to a coach who can observe your swing). It could be something as simple as increasing the loft on your driver as well.

Matching shirts for everyone too! That's so cute

Can you imagine how much enjoyment Horner would be taking from this if Cyril was still at Alpine?!

Our trip involved lots of driving, so I would guess the average was about 1.9/person/day. So you all should have no problem beating that!

35 inches, so you can just use your putter. Unless you use one of those broomstick contraptions

ESPN saying they know of four different teams who have talked to Ricciardo in the past week - maybe teams think higher of him than we do.

Looks like this is gonna be an awesome trip, enjoy! Oh, and here's the KP benchmark from this year's PNW trip - I'm expecting at least 3 of you to best it!

I saw that Otmar said in an interview that he would be happy to have Daniel at Alpine. So maybe they are laying some groundwork to make that happen.

Well silly season has started early, and it's next level this year! It's like Formula 1 saw all the IndyCar drama and was like "Hold My Beer!"

Back from vacation and had a chance to dig in to this, super RAD of Cobra to offer this to the forum! (see what I did there? couldn't help myself) I went a little deeper into this than the instructions said (and maybe deeper than we were supposed to, but hey, Cobra prices individual irons the same as if they were in a set) and built myself a mixed set of Forged Tec and Forged Tec X irons, shown below: For the longer irons (5-7) I went with the Forged Tec X, since I could use the added forgiveness, straighter flight, and easier launch. For the short irons and set wedges, I went with the Forged Tec. With those clubs I'm looking for more spin control and workability (both flighting up and down, and cutting/drawing where necessary). The 8 iron for me would be the transition club, so I would like to actually try them both head to head to compare and determine whether I blend the set between 7 and 8, or between 8 and 9. Arccos strokes gained stats show approximately -0.25SG per shot with 5i through 7i, and -0.05SG per shot with 9i through GW (compared to a 10 handicap). My 8i falls right in the middle, at -0.15SG per shot. I'm currently playing the Cobra Radspeed irons, and the transition from the set GW to the 52° Snakebite wedge is a pretty harsh one. Going to a mixed/blended set would ease that transition and I think give me more versatility in approach shots. The club builder on the Cobra site only allows you to go 1° weak or strong with each iron, so a gapping session would definitely be necessary to make sure that the transition between irons is smooth. I'm guessing an additional 1° weak on the Forged Tec X 7i would be close to making it work. I have the Cobra Connect Arccos grips selected since that integration is so helpful, but could just as easily play standard grips with the external Arccos sensors. For shaft I went with the KBS $ Taper Lite in stiff, which is the shaft I currently play. I would have selected the 120g $ Taper (I have 125g shafts in my wedges and my swing feels way more controlled with them) but unfortunately they are currently out of stock. My current handicap (according to Arccos) is a 13.8, but that's down from a 22 at the beginning of last season, so I really appreciate that Cobra has built a players distance iron that is designed for a wider range of handicaps and gives room for improvement. And for the last few questions remaining for the entry, my name is Gavin, I live in Nooksack WA, and as you can imagine from the novel above I would be more than happy to share my thoughts on these irons and experience via written word, images, and video.

It’s nice seeing Wolff back on the top of the leaderboard. The change of scenery and no-cut format seems to have been good for him!

Needs to be a Notes app screenshot to be sincere, everyone knows this...

But you know that if I do that the ball will bounce left …

Or as is more the case for me, if the ball is going a little bit right of where I aimed, why does it always bounce further right? Why doesn’t it bounce back to the middle? I mean, you would think it would be 50/50, but that hasn’t been my experience

Had a decent front nine, felt like I was striking the ball well but was getting lots of bad bounces and kicks. Still managed a 41. But my round fell off the rails on the back nine, started missing my lines and was still getting bad bounces and went on a run of bogeys and doubles. Somehow though on the last few holes my driver started straightening out a bit from my usual cut, so I decided to take a very aggressive line on the last hole. Started directly over the houses on the left of the hole, with a baby fade to cut the corner. Normally I play this hole safe with an iron into the fairway, since a short drive is in the first pond, and too much fade finds the second pond, but I hit a near-perfect drive and managed to birdie the hole for the first time ever. Ended up with an 85, which is right on my course handicap. If I had managed to avoid my 6-hole blowup on the back nine (I was +9 on holes 11-16) I feel like breaking 80 was in the cards. Alas, it will have to wait until another day!

Weird, I just went back into the app store and manually updated the app (it wasn't showing up in the available updates list) and it now shows that it went back to version 4.11.8 and the new putting screen is now showing up. Something weird going on with the app updates for iOS devices, because it's not the first time that I haven't gotten new features via an update when they were released.

I'm the opposite - I chip with the ball closer to my feet (so that the club head is toe-down and less likely to grab the turf) so that points the face a bit to the right with the lie angle adjustment. Pitches though I'm addressing more like a normal wedge shot, just with my feet closer together, so they tend to go in the same direction that my feet are aligned.

Anyone gotten the new putting stats in the app yet? I upgraded to version 4.11.9 on iOS this morning (after seeing the email about new putting stats) but the app looks exactly the same.

Got a tee time booked today for the first time in 2 weeks. Last time I played 18 on this course I went 48-38, so I'm hoping I can clean up the front nine and recapture some of that magic on the back nine and maybe break 80 for the first time. It would be a tough course to do it on though - none of the par 5s are really attackable (either a forced layup off the tee, water around the green, or both) so if I drop any shots I'll have a hard time making them up later.

Spent an hour on the sim today at my local course. Wanted to work on some stuff with my 5 wood, since I was having issues with a pull-hook last round, and also wanted to compare the Srixon ZStar ◊ with the ZStar XV. Both balls were pretty comparable throughout the bag (a slight spin advantage to the ◊, since I struggle to generate spin with my mid-irons) but ultimately it was driver numbers that made the decision for me. Maybe that explains some of my poor performances off the tee lately while I've been gaming the ZStar ◊!

Technically true, but they do more than just impact the user's swing with different weight and feel. Although switching to a different shaft will normally impact the way the golfer swings, changing kick point and torque value (even at the same weight) will impact club head delivery even if the swing remains the same, which among other things will change spin levels. The direction and magnitude of those impacts will depend on the swing itself. @JP13 welcome to the forums! Without more data it's impossible to give you a good recommendation, other than getting fitted for your clubs! But for sure even without taking roll-out into account you are leaving distance on the table with 4000 rpms of driver spin at clubhead speeds capable of 300+ yards of carry. I would guess that if through a combination of equipment (club head, shaft, grip, ball) and technique changes (might be worth spending some time with a coach) you can get those spin numbers down below 2500 you could get an extra 40 yards of carry, plus more roll-out.

@GolfSpy_BOS City of Champions, huh?

Do you think that will reduce the potential range that you can use the club from, or do you only anticipate using it inside of 15ish yards? I can't imagine a 40-yard pitch shot with a club 3" short.

I think each ball is going to perform differently for everyone, so without getting on a sim and actually checking spin rates they may not perform as advertised on the box. If you're playing the Z-Star though, I would recommend giving the Z-Star ◊ a try - I've made the switch and love it.