"New" Member intro

romeopapazulu · May 2, 2018

Hey everyone. I've been creeping around this site and had many discussions with golf buddies about stuff I've read on here. I figure it's about time I introduce myself and start ~~arguing~~ discussing with you!

I haven't gone through all the intro archives, so I'm not sure how this is usually done, but as I was thinking about it I had a neat little walk down memory lane.

I started out in the burbs of Chicago. I don't know who I owe the pleasure of the introduction this great game. There were several men responsible, and I can't picture a single one of them. I lived right across the street from a middle school, Jr. High and a YMCA that shared many open fields. These were the grounds where several neighborhood guys would bring the shag bag and beat balls. And I would hunt for anything left behind. I had quite the collection of balls that I had sorted by brand and color.

I didn't have anything to beat these balls myself, so I slowly acquired a "set" by picking up clubs in garage sales for a quarter a piece or the "free piles" after none of them sold. I had a three wood that I had to tape the hosel back together. No two clubs were the same. The favorite was my 7 iron. It must have been a Nancy Lopez with a green grip. I shed a tear or two when that head flew off the shaft one day. A friend of my parents delivered a whole grocery bag full of Golf Digests and Golf Magazines. I read every word of every one of those. Twice.

In 8th grade my sister and her husband got me a real set. It was some set of muscle back with a power bar? They had some really slick leather grips. And by slick I mean slippery. But what an improvement those were! At one point a friend and I regripped them with some lighter fluid and generic grips I got on clearance from the store. They were some tour velvet knock offs with green paint in the texture. They went on so crooked and I am sure half the color came off from the lighter fluid.

In high school I bought a set of Wilson Staff progressives. They never cooperated with me. So one day I traded with my friend. In exchange he gave me his dad's old Hogan Edges. And the love affair began there. At some point in college I got the Apex Edges on eBay. R flex shafts were not ok, so sold them to a friend and got some with stiffs. Somewhere in there I treated myself to a TaylorMade R540. I saw a Leadbetter book "Fundamentals of Hogan" at the driving range while on a co-op in AZ and I studied that and spent all that money I should have been saving for college tuition on range balls. I remember the frustration that Leadbetter said I couldn't emulate Hogan's swing, but I stuck with it and pieced together a halfway decent swing.

Several years down the road, a friend that had recently picked up golf got a TaylorMade Burner and "Walmarted" me. What? He replies, "that's when you can put a Walmart between my ball and yours". That SOB! It must have been about ten years ago because I couldn't put up with all that smack talk too much longer.

I got my first "fitting" which consisted of going into some Golf Galaxy type store and hitting several drivers in the bay. I intended on a Burner of some sort, but there was this square looking thing in a sale bin for $159, which was about half the price of the rest of the clubs I tried. And the Adams Insight XTD came out victorious (for the wallet as well).

I ended up in Peru for a few years for a job opportunity. I eventually brought the clubs down. 1 course in a city of 1 million people. I missed the sand green by a couple of years. The layout was really neat, but it was a tough course. One long par three in particular tempted me to spring for a set of Adams IdeaTech A4 forged irons with a 3 and 4 hybrid. Another friend brought them down when he came to visit. When we went out to play, he shanked a drive off the hosel of my driver. As I waggled it before my drive, the head just plopped there. As I lifted, it was just dangling off the end of the shaft. There is no golf shop around the corner in Arequipa. You can get a lot of knock off items in Peru, but golf clubs are not one of them. I entrusted my weapon of choice to one of the pros there. I couldn't sleep for the next week. But the next weekend I went back to the course, and it was back together! He cut the shaft, drilled out the hosel, resifted it and put an extender in the butt to get it back to length. And it still works. It must be at least ten years old now, but I'm still the one Walmarting the other guys, so I haven't been too tempted to replace it.

So Callaway bought Hogan somewhere in there and stole the Apex name. I vomit a bit in my mouth every time I see a Callaway Apex iron. And Taylormade gobbled up Adams and snuffed them out. I guess I have an emotional connection to Hogan for some reason. I have a "shrine" in my study here with a bunch of old hand drawn ads from Time Magazine for Chesterfield cigarettes and Pabst Blue Ribbon. With Adams, I felt they were better for me than any of my friends' equipment that I tried out. No one I played with would have ever considered them, so I just chalk that up to the big guys' advertising money working away.

Last spring I landed the irons and wedges I have in my signature. I really like them. The irons were an adjustment, but the wedges performed better than anything I had in the past right away. I don't see any of them getting replaced any time soon.

I have had a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with my putters that I will save for some other day.

I enjoy reading all the 5 ends of the spectrum that are so well represented on here. Even in the last couple of years that I have creeped on here, I think MGS has come a long way in tweaking the Most Wanted ratings. There have been some good discussions on the blog, and I value the fact that the MGS guys can look back at what they did and openly admit that some things could be better.

My favorite blog article was probably the New vs. Old Big Bertha test. Less than one yard a year for twenty years? I had a good laugh at that one. I love how this site cuts through the crap. I really enjoy the articles on breakdowns of chipping or putting and putting numbers to it. Pelz did a great job with that in his bibles. I remember Tony Covey writing somewhere about the long irons being the scoring clubs. I will get him to admit it is the wedges some day. Maybe he doesn't believe that because he plays PXG wedges that don't have a V-sole.

Well that was long winded. Hopefully I can contribute here more than creep in the future.

Cheers.

RomeoPapaZulu

ole gray · May 2, 2018

Great intro and glad you decided to become a non lurker

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romeopapazulu · May 2, 2018

Great intro and glad you decided to become a non lurker

Thanks OG. But I think lurker sounds even creepier than creeper.

DawgDaddy · May 2, 2018

Welcome to MGS! Nice intro.

fozcycle · May 2, 2018

Welcome to My Golf Spy, Romeo. This is the place where you can Learn, Laugh & Live Golf........btw, your intro was one of the best I have read in many years.

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