TBS

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

Looks like a great experience. Hoping to see a perfect sweet spot wear pattern on the copper finish!

Haha - well its not often I get to do it but he was also graduating from grad school so he deserved it. I work at a university in student housing so let's just say nothing surprises me anymore. If you can imagine an 18 year old doing it, I've probably seen it...
Still want to work with me??

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

Haha - well its not often I get to do it but he was also graduating from grad school so he deserved it. I work at a university in student housing so let's just say nothing surprises me anymore. If you can imagine an 18 year old doing it, I've probably seen it...
Still want to work with me??

Played a few holes today - thought I had more time, but my 2.5 year old wasn't feeling well so I had to leave early and go pick him up from the sitter.
The holes I did play were very positive.  Did not hit a fairway, but had a consistent ball flight and miss and just was off to the left most of the time (fade for me).  I had a chip in on a difficult par 3 for birdie and 2 great par saves from 8 feet.  Overall through 7 holes, I was even par.
Hopefully he is feeling better by Friday and I can get out for a full 9 holes.

Haha - well its not often I get to do it but he was also graduating from grad school so he deserved it. I work at a university in student housing so let's just say nothing surprises me anymore. If you can imagine an 18 year old doing it, I've probably seen it...
Still want to work with me??

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

Background 
After I took a few months off of MGS due to some work and life things that needed my attention, I finally got some time to log back on and post a long overdue review. After posting, I found myself curious as to how I was selected and the likelihood of being selected again, especially since my product was so niche and did not receive many interactions. So I took the challenge upon myself to do a not so scientific study of how reviewers are selected and compare it to the post (https://forum.mygolfspy.com/faq/testing/how-are-equipment-testers-chosen-r11/) by the Mods on how testers are selected. While there are no bombshells, I think we Spys understand the value of data in telling our story. So, I did my best at pulling all data from the past 18 months of reviews
 
Methods 
First off, I am no data scientist. From DJ to Bryson, I’m somewhere in the middle. I mainly do very basic data analysis in my role through excel. I know, I know, SQL is much more efficient and I’ll get around to learning it. For this study, I focused on 18 months of product reviews. I chose this timeframe to get some data points outside of the pandemic. I started going through the review pages and noticed it was not as organized as I thought, so I chose to do only 18 months of reviews that were already on the “Past Opportunities” page in the dropdown menu. Like I said, I believe that there may have been a few more reviews that have not been archived to this page, but I don’t think it was significant.
I then did the manual labor of data entry and collection. I clicked on each individual “TESTERS ANNOUNCED” within the time frame, recorded the following data points 
-       date of review published
-       product
-       rough product MSRP 
-       MGS username
-       If the User has a Donor badge on their profile
-       Content count
-       Total reputation
-       Month and year MGS account was created
-       City and State
Once all of this information was input into the spreadsheet, I then added a note if they had multiple reviews and I also created an additional metric to measure the quality of the posts. All analysis comes from these data points.
 
Limitations
Overall, the main limitation is that this dataset was manually curated, so there could be a mistake, but any mistake would be minor. I have checked that there is not an additional 0 added somewhere but there could be +/- 5 units off when it comes to reputation due to fat fingers on a keyboard. Additionally, the MSRP was calculated off a quick Google search. I get that there could be sales, or the price was actually $25 higher at the time of testing. Finally, the content created, and total reputation numbers are not accurate to the time the member was selected. There is no way for me to go back and see this information, but I proceeded with collecting this because for the most part, I believe that most people’s posts grow linearly. So, the quality of posts metric should not be too far off. I will address that in bigger reviews (Cobraconnect), this ratio can get skewed. Enough with the small talk, let’s take a look at the data.
 
Data:
Let’s take a look at the data!
By the numbers-
-       48 total products
-       202 unique testers
-       ~$119,625 total costs of products tested
 
As I said in the introduction, I will be using the MGS selection criteria as a framework of analysis.
Picture – I did not go through and collect this data. This is also the easiest of all of them. Put something up there! I’ve seen pictures of the people (I assume), cartoons, their children, memes, etc. Just put something up. (Inclusive, but probably true)
Prove review chops - 71 (35%) of people had more than 1 review. If you get chosen, even for the smallest thing, a pushcart distance tracker, a dozen balls, etc. take it seriously and write a good review. This means good pictures, concise statements that clearly articulate your opinion on a product, timely submissions, and good follow ups. A good first review will go a long way to getting your second review and the data clearly backs this up. Additionally, one anecdotal note, it was very common for there to be a progression of items to review, starting with a smaller item and then growing to more expensive items. (True)
Start posting – Please remember that this category is not perfect because I was not able to pull the post and reputation numbers at the time the testers were selected. I am assuming that people post at a linear rate. I looked at three areas for this section. Number of posts, Total reputation, and third metric that I created, Quality of post score. I wanted to look at how many interactions per post the reviewer gets. This metric speaks to higher quality of posts for the forum.
 
Total number of posts
Total reputation
Quality of Post Score*
Range
5 - 14,307
3 - 26,497
0.09 - 5.8
Mean
1,412
2866
1.92
Median
513
824
1.85
Because of such a large range with bunching happening at the higher end of each category, I would suggest forum members look at the Median. The best chance for you to be chosen is to have over 500 posts with over 800 total reputation which comes out to 1.85 interactions per post. Like I said earlier, there were a number of members chosen with less than this number but most under 500 posts were in the 100-200 range. I think the biggest takeaway, is to post frequently and create posts that others want to engage in. I think an average user can get to 200+ posts in 2-3 months. 
There might be an issue that leads to inequity when it comes to being chosen. As I started reviewing some of the posts and interactions, if you are chosen for a more high-profile test, your posts and interactions will increase at a higher rate than other members. This easily leads to a boost in your profile making it easier to be selected. I don’t think there is a way around smoothing out this distinct increase, but it is something that I hope mods take notice of. (True)
 Become an MGS Donor
This category comes with major limitations. The only public piece of data that I was able to collect was if the member included the MGS Donor badge in their profile. From this information I found 59.9% of testers had a donor badge in their profile. I suspect that this number may be closer to 70-80% but these members have not reached out to get the donor badge added.
(Inconclusive but probably true)
Overall, MGS is clear about how testers are selected. For the most part their criteria is clear and the data shows that they follow the criteria for selection. 
Common misconceptions
I wanted to add a section that debunked some of the common misconceptions that I had when I first joined the forum. 
-       I have to be a member for a long time before I get anything (FALSE)
o   Over the past 18 months, members who were selected had profiles created from March 2010 – November 2020. 42 testers (21%) joined in 2020. If you’re new and are contributing to the forum, you have a decent chance of being selected.
-       Once I get one review, I won’t ever get another (FALSE)
o   71 (35%) members had more than 1 review in 18 months. I suspect if I go back even further, they had other reviews too. As I said in the above section, if you get chosen and do a good review, you actually put yourself at an advantage to be selected again.
o   No reviewer had more than 3 reviews in the past 18 months. It appears that this is the limit, it looks to be extremely rare for a member to have more than 1 review every 6 months. 
-       I have to be good at golf to be selected for a review (FALSE)
o   This idea is very much false, MGS wants members of all skill levels to be involved in testing. In order to prove this, I pulled the handicaps listed on members’ profiles. This is a limitation because it is member provided information that is most likely not updated regularly. Regardless, here is what I found.
Range – (33 - +5) Mean – 10.09 Median – 9.2 o   If anything, having an accurate handicap is beneficial to being selected because, it appears that MGS wants to have a broad range of testers for each product, specifically balls and clubs.
 
Conclusion
For the most part, MGS sticks to what they say when it comes to choosing testers but it appears that there is some non-measurables that they use when it comes to selecting first time testers. It does not appear that there is a formula or that it is completely random. There seems to be a human element which makes it hard to say exactly why specific members were chosen over others from the outside looking in. 
Shoutout to @Brian A, @jlukes, @B.Boston, @txgolfjunkie, @gavinski91, @Mtbryant01, @daviddvm for having been selected to review over $3,000 worth of equipment! These individuals were ones who had been selected for this year or last year's Cobraconnect challenge. So each of them had at least one product review in addition to cobra connect in the past 18 months. 
 
TL;DR - Overall, post quality content frequently, if you are given a chance to test an item, take it seriously, and keep posting. If you’re new and you stay involved, your time will come. 
 
Okay, I’m tired. Let me know you’re thoughts!

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

Looks like a great experience. Hoping to see a perfect sweet spot wear pattern on the copper finish!

Haha - well its not often I get to do it but he was also graduating from grad school so he deserved it. I work at a university in student housing so let's just say nothing surprises me anymore. If you can imagine an 18 year old doing it, I've probably seen it...
Still want to work with me??

Looks like a great experience. Hoping to see a perfect sweet spot wear pattern on the copper finish!

Looks like a great experience. Hoping to see a perfect sweet spot wear pattern on the copper finish!

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

Maybe after I retire from my engineering career? haha yeah I have my hands full with my 2 children at home...and I have been 18 living in university housing and don't need to deal with them too xP

Haha - well its not often I get to do it but he was also graduating from grad school so he deserved it. I work at a university in student housing so let's just say nothing surprises me anymore. If you can imagine an 18 year old doing it, I've probably seen it...
Still want to work with me??

Haha - well its not often I get to do it but he was also graduating from grad school so he deserved it. I work at a university in student housing so let's just say nothing surprises me anymore. If you can imagine an 18 year old doing it, I've probably seen it...
Still want to work with me??

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

83 - 44/39 - Oxmoor Valley Ridge Course (white tees-6150yds)
7 FIR, 9 GIR, 31 putts, 13 chips, 3 dumb penalties (either a tee shot through the fairway or half committed second shot OB).
I took someone out who does not get to play often as a thank you for working for me. I suggested we play up because he was kind of nervous playing the course. I took it as a good opportunity to practice hitting safer fairway finder shots. It was great practice and I came away with a lot of confidence. 
I only hit driver on 4 holes. Those were holes that fit my stock shot shape and were wide open. The other holes were either an iron or a hybrid. Overall, I suggest other MGS members move around to various tee boxes. It's a whole different course.

I finally got a Cobra Rep out to get me fitted with the help of a guy I take lessons from, Neil Thompson (plug - he qualified for the Senior PGA Championship next week! Pulling for Neil and hope he crushes it).
Here is what I decided on and thoughts from the fitting below. 

 
Fitting worked out great as it was just me, Neil, and the Cobra rep. See pictures at the end. We had a Foresight Gamechanger (trackman was being used elsewhere) on site that helped hone in the distances, total spin, and launch angle. I had a lot of options to choose from in terms of shafts and heads. The one thing I did not get to try out were the MIM wedges, but there were brand new Snakebite wedges there to try out. 
Going into the fitting I knew I wanted to find a shaft that works for my irons and figure out what I wanted to do with my 4 iron through driver. 
Driver: My miss sometimes is a left pull/ when its really bad, it is a left hook, so I knew I would not be going with the XB or XD driver. I really just wanted to find a shaft that would fit my swing. I started out with the Motore X F1, but kept having a lower ball flight than what I was used to even with a +1 setting. I ended up gaming the Smoke RDX Blue as the ball flight, distance were better along with a much lower spin rate of around 2000. The matte blue finish didn't suit my eye online, but I actually preferred it once seeing it in person. I included one of my swings with the driver at the end. Roasts are acceptable if desired.
Fairway/Utilities: I decided to game the Big Tour 3 wood as a mini second driver off the tee for those tight fairways. This club was hot off the face and lower trajectory as the weight is all up front. I plan on using my 5 wood and 4 hybrid as those longer second shots in the fairway as needed. The club face for the hybrid does appear closed at address, but I didn't have any problems with a big draw. I did go the heaviest shaft as I could fine to make sure that doesn't happen. I tried to like the Utility iron but only caught it flush 3/6 times. When I did though, it felt and sounded awesome. Ultimately I think I could control the hybrid more than the utility iron.
Irons: Like @txgolfjunkie, I am going with the Copper finish on the MIMs with a black KBS tour shaft. Hoping they will look as slick as I'm hoping. The Cobra rep did warn me about sand based ranges as those will be the ones to really wear off that copper finish. The irons I game now are KBS Tour 90S and I bought them right off the shelf not thinking about much 6 years ago. Now I realized I probably needed a heavier shaft, hence the 120g. I really did love the feel as it felt like I was puring every shot. Since we are throwing out 7 iron numbers, mine was in the 175-180 yd range.
Wedges: I have had my eye on the Snakebite wedges ever since they were released. I got to try the full face groove around the green and out of the sand and loved it. Looking forward to seeing how the full face compares to the SM7 60 I typically use around the green.




IMG_1318.mp4