TBS

Before anyone starts complaining that so and so has x followers on Twitbookgram, it's not about that. I personally don't agree with it but it's exactly as TBS said below.

I've played the Tour and they spun a little too much for me and were not good in the wind. I do like the X a lot.
I just wish they made the Tour X in yellow.

The Player Impact Program results were made public today and it looks like that it is accomplishing what it is set out to do. It is rewarding the players that have the biggest impact on golf. While Tiger didn't swing a club this past year, he's still the most influential golfer on tour.
Tiger ($8 mil) Phil ($6 mil) Rory ($3.5 mil) Spieth ($3.5 mil) Bryson ($3.5 mil) JT ($3.5 mil) DJ ($3 mil) Brooks ($3 mil) Rahm ($3 mil) Bubba ($3 mil) Biggest surprises for me is that Rahm who was clearly the best player last year, although Cantlay won the award was down at 9 on the list. And also BUBBA?? I like Bubba but Golf Boys was almost 10 years ago but I guess he has a good following still.
Article here - https://www.pgatour.com/news/2022/03/02/tiger-woods-tops-player-impact-program-pip-phil-mickelson-finsihes-second.html

I think it is the nature of his comments in his interview with Shipnuck. Unlike other players, who hinted at joining the Saudi league or had someone leak their intentions to golf media, Phil has been much more vocal about his (perceived issues) with the PGA tour. If you read Phil's comments, he is coming off as unhinged and trying to justify greed as disruption. He admits to being in a group with 3 other pros that helped pay for attorney fees to draft the operating agreement of the new league. That would be like Phil getting Rahm and Kisner to help an upstart club manufacturer get off the ground. Shows lack of loyalty. Who would want someone like that representing your brand?
The PGA Tour has players rule that they will punish players for "conduct unbecoming". I believe that Phil's comments will fall under that and they could have already implemented some form of punishment. The tour is very private about their punishments.
I'm thinking that sponsors aren't worried about the Saudi league (except the ones who already remove logos for events there-DJ has had to remove RBC logos when he has played over there), they are worried about what he might say or do next. 

Maybe - but after he was quoted calling them bad MF'ers who kill homosexuals and executed Jamal Khashoggi, I would imagine they don't like him nearly as much as they did a few weeks ago. 
 
Big question is if PXG has the same bonus structure for the Champions tour ($1 mil if you win with the driver...) because Phil would love to chase that money and it would be true irony for Phil and Bob Parson to become friends. 

Maybe - but after he was quoted calling them bad MF'ers who kill homosexuals and executed Jamal Khashoggi, I would imagine they don't like him nearly as much as they did a few weeks ago. 
 
Big question is if PXG has the same bonus structure for the Champions tour ($1 mil if you win with the driver...) because Phil would love to chase that money and it would be true irony for Phil and Bob Parson to become friends. 

Maybe - but after he was quoted calling them bad MF'ers who kill homosexuals and executed Jamal Khashoggi, I would imagine they don't like him nearly as much as they did a few weeks ago. 
 
Big question is if PXG has the same bonus structure for the Champions tour ($1 mil if you win with the driver...) because Phil would love to chase that money and it would be true irony for Phil and Bob Parson to become friends. 

My guess is that this thread has just about run its course. When we have members who've bought the Stealth and can post pictures of the wear on the face as the season progresses, perhaps a new thread will be in order.

Did anyone else see this on r/golf over the weekend? Here is what the face of the Stealth looked like after the PGA show. Here is a link to the full post with more pics. 
 

 
I know that it took a ton of shots but any markings on the face concern me. There were a number of comments of people who had fittings with them already that were surprised with the number of markings. Is this something to be concerned about? I know carbon fiber can be very strong but I also know that if there is any damage to it, it becomes extremely weak and compromised. 

The word "sinister" is Latin for left handed. The superstition about left handers is ancient, and is how the word came to mean what it does today.

The left hand in many parts of the world is considered unclean and disrespectful, so maybe the "Lefty" persona will stay but mean something much different.

The left hand in many parts of the world is considered unclean and disrespectful, so maybe the "Lefty" persona will stay but mean something much different.

Well, here's the thing- they don't need sponsors. It is funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund which has $500 billion. 
$500 billion!!! Think about that that. That's 500 thousand millions.
They could just setup live streaming on Youtube with no commercials. Or build their own app. They don't need TV. The only thing they need is the players.
The biggest issue that these players will run into is that they will de facto become employees to this tour not independent contractors. Imagine the commercials, press releases, etc. 

Leveraging a hostile regime bereft of any semblance of human rights seems like a great idea.
I am going to start banging strippers and prostitutes and tell my wife it is simply to help make her a better wife.
Phil is an ******* and I am glad he is finally showing his true colors

@sixcat Great read!
From the blog - "There is blood on their hands. That is obvious. And journalism, at a minimum, demands reporting the obvious. Whether Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and their ilk are willing to sell their souls for a few million dollars is beyond anyone’s control. What remains within control is golf journalists’ willingness to portray the Saudis’ project as anything other than what it is, which is a distraction from its efforts to preserve a culture of oppression." 
I'm not a huge fan of Brandel Camblee but I believe he has made this his mission.

@sixcat Great read!
From the blog - "There is blood on their hands. That is obvious. And journalism, at a minimum, demands reporting the obvious. Whether Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and their ilk are willing to sell their souls for a few million dollars is beyond anyone’s control. What remains within control is golf journalists’ willingness to portray the Saudis’ project as anything other than what it is, which is a distraction from its efforts to preserve a culture of oppression." 
I'm not a huge fan of Brandel Camblee but I believe he has made this his mission.

@sixcat Great read!
From the blog - "There is blood on their hands. That is obvious. And journalism, at a minimum, demands reporting the obvious. Whether Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and their ilk are willing to sell their souls for a few million dollars is beyond anyone’s control. What remains within control is golf journalists’ willingness to portray the Saudis’ project as anything other than what it is, which is a distraction from its efforts to preserve a culture of oppression." 
I'm not a huge fan of Brandel Camblee but I believe he has made this his mission.

I would encourage everyone to read this...............
https://www.lyingfour.com/conversations-blog/2022/2/3/zmvtkq7npo3njfimn8uwpx9977h3k8
 

If you haven't listen to an interview Jason Kokrak gave on the Five Clubs podcast on Jan 20 of this year. Paraphrasing, he basically said, I'm trying to make the most money in the shortest amount of time in my life... who cares who its from. He goes on and talks about how he is sponsored by Golf Saudi and loves their grow the game initiatives. I did a little digging on the Golf Saudi website - https://www.golfsaudi.com/en-us/ I encourage you all to really dig in.
Particularly excited about the "No displays of public affection" (https://www.golfsaudi.com/en-us/event-information/) rule during tournament play. I guess Harry Higgs and Joel Dahmen might have been black listed after their scandalous show on 16 this past Sunday.
I would much rather these guys come out and say that they are doing it for the money and that's all they care about rather than say something about growing the game or how the PGA tour treats them unfairly. Competition is good and I hope a better product for the viewer comes as a result but this could be a spectacular failure. 

If you haven't listen to an interview Jason Kokrak gave on the Five Clubs podcast on Jan 20 of this year. Paraphrasing, he basically said, I'm trying to make the most money in the shortest amount of time in my life... who cares who its from. He goes on and talks about how he is sponsored by Golf Saudi and loves their grow the game initiatives. I did a little digging on the Golf Saudi website - https://www.golfsaudi.com/en-us/ I encourage you all to really dig in.
Particularly excited about the "No displays of public affection" (https://www.golfsaudi.com/en-us/event-information/) rule during tournament play. I guess Harry Higgs and Joel Dahmen might have been black listed after their scandalous show on 16 this past Sunday.
I would much rather these guys come out and say that they are doing it for the money and that's all they care about rather than say something about growing the game or how the PGA tour treats them unfairly. Competition is good and I hope a better product for the viewer comes as a result but this could be a spectacular failure. 

Did anyone else see this on r/golf over the weekend? Here is what the face of the Stealth looked like after the PGA show. Here is a link to the full post with more pics. 
 

 
I know that it took a ton of shots but any markings on the face concern me. There were a number of comments of people who had fittings with them already that were surprised with the number of markings. Is this something to be concerned about? I know carbon fiber can be very strong but I also know that if there is any damage to it, it becomes extremely weak and compromised. 

Quick question - @GolfSpy_APH Will the submission form be the same as it was last year? Asking about number of rounds played, strength/weakness, etc?
If so, how does that information factor into the selection process?
 
Thank you for this update! Very transparent, mod team!

The i500s were a love/hate relationship for consumers. Didn’t seem to be a middle ground. To me they offered the same thing as the p790 in a better looking package. These imo follow in the same suit.
Some of those who claim about jumpers are either because they hit one on the screws when that’s not normal for them or they have a lie that produces flier lie. There’s reports of that being the case with the p790 but there are plenty of low handicap good ball strikers that have never seen that with them. In my time with the i500 I didn’t experience any it with the p790 or pxg. 

I know this has been talked about before, but likely is some other thread somewhere. So definitely worth repeating. 

The form will be the same, or similar. Again from the new player profile there will be categories that autopull from that. Depending on what we select. That being said it will be similar regardless. 
As for how it impacts the selection process. I'll try to give as definitive answer as I can, but it does depend. Example being Connect Cobra- if someone only plays 1 round a month they will be a real difficult sell because it requires a lot more play. In some cases the strengths and weakness' (I'll take the fuji/evnroll putter as example) we wanted to find 2 who had putters as a strength and 2 as a weakness to give members a good balance and variation in the reviews. I do recall the OEM also requesting we find a few local to fuji to do a fitting, but nobody fit that criteria. 
OEM's can request say variations on swing speeds or handicaps to get reviews a bit more targeted towards their needs, but mainly those options help us get a range of different testers for products and not 4 testers with the same strengths/weakness/handicaps etc which would make for 4 very similar reviews and not necessarily benefit the membership as a whole. 

Hope that makes sense!

Quick question - @GolfSpy_APH Will the submission form be the same as it was last year? Asking about number of rounds played, strength/weakness, etc?
If so, how does that information factor into the selection process?
 
Thank you for this update! Very transparent, mod team!