#CobraCONNECT Challenge 3

[russtopherb]

Once again, another killer thread and challenge thanks to Cobra and MGS. I'll echo what a lot of others have said - there's no way I could have done this challenge justice the way the competitors this year have done. Amazing, amazing job fellas. 

[MattF]

You all suck did a great job!! There may be winners and not winners with a points system, but you're all winners in this challenge.

[Reesedw]

Guy you all did amazing. I hope you found this a very enjoyable adventure. @Bucky CC you have played a great challenge. Bravo. Now lets wait to see the final tally. Again you all have done a great job..

[Wedgie]

You all suck did a great job!! There may be winners and not winners with a points system, but you're all winners in this challenge.

Saw this on my phone and could only see “you all suck”. My first thought was Bardle doesn’t suck....or the other guys.


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[THEZIPR23]

Congrats @Bucky CC!! Well Done! 

All testers did an incredible job on this thread and reviews. 

[MaxEntropy]

6 hours ago, GolfSpy STUDque said:

Congratulations to @MaxEntropy for earning yourself the power of data!!!

Awesome! Can't wait to see if @Nunfa0 is correct in his assessment of Shotscope vs Arccos. 

[Bucky CC]

1 hour ago, Reesedw said:

Guy you all did amazing. I hope you found this a very enjoyable adventure. @Bucky CC you have played a great challenge. Bravo. Now lets wait to see the final tally. Again you all have done a great job..

 

8 minutes ago, THEZIPR23 said:

Congrats @Bucky CC!! Well Done! 

All testers did an incredible job on this thread and reviews. 

Thank you both but I still feel like this was just the first 72 holes and we still have a sudden death playoff to go with our personal bests, rounds played, and MGS tiebreakers to factor in.

[JohnSmalls]

9 minutes ago, MaxEntropy said:

Awesome! Can't wait to see if @Nunfa0 is correct in his assessment of Shotscope vs Arccos. 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

Great job everyone. This was a blast to follow along with. I am glad I didn’t even bother putting my name in the hat for this challenge as I would have been divorced and unemployed trying to put in the work you guys did. You guys rock!

I would also like to thank MGS and Cobra/Puma Golf for the sweet swag myself and others have manage to win over this challenge.


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[fozcycle]

Congrats to all the challengers for a job well done! I refrained from voting for the lowest combined improvement in Arccos. Why? Because I already have it! It is as awesome tool for your golfbag. Currently I am having issues with the iWatch interface as my last four rounds have locked up at hole #14 for some reason. However, the basic Arccos is terrific. Congrats to maxentropy, you will enjoy the benefits. BTW, way to go robertson153, you won the last competition.


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[JohnSmalls]

I forgot!  Congrats @robertson153 for going low this past week!   Congrats to @MaxEntropy for the combined investigative and math skills.  DeChambeau would be proud

[Bucky CC]

I really don't want to write this post but I feel like it is a good day since I just played yesterday and the clubs are still fresh in my mind.  Without further ado here is my Cobra Connect Challenge 3 wrap-up post.

After six baseline rounds in very wet conditions Arccos had me pegged as an 8.8 handicap golfer.  My USGA handicap at the start of the year was 5.4, so the swamp like courses definitely hurt my baseline stats.  As a reminder this is what I was dealing with:

The areas that suffered the most during my baseline rounds were driving (no roll) and putting (terrible greens).

After 22 grueling rounds over the eight week long CCC3 I ended up here:

• Overall Handicap 4.7 down from 8.8
• Driving 9.5 down from 14.0
• Approach 7.9 down from 10.7
• Chipping 6.0 down from 7.9
• Sand 7.1 up from 2.3 (baseline was from a total of 2 shots)
• Putting +2.7 down from 4.7

At quick glance someone could look at my USGA index of 5.4 at the start of the season to my current index of 5.1 and said "meh, the Cobra clubs are pretty good but nothing special."  That statement would be wrong.

Living in a cold weather state like Wisconsin my game always starts off slow from the 4-6 month winter layoff.  True to form this year I struggled during my limited rounds in April and May.  But something happened once I got used to the Cobra clubs.  If you look at the start of the competition to today my scoring average is a full 1.5 strokes better than last year.  As someone in the 5-6 handicap range that's a huge difference in overall play.  I also tied a personal best (+1 73), won my first ever tournament, shot eight straight rounds in the 70's, and now have my lowest index ever at 5.1.  All of that and I still have a solid two months of great weather left to keep going lower.

Thanks to Arccos I also know that I should be spending extra practice time on driving and approach shots and not worrying so much about my putting.  I never thought I was anything special with the flat stick but now I know that it's definitely a strength in my game.

I've already gone through all of the individual club reviews so here's a quick one sentence summary of the last 8+ weeks of my life:

Cobra is legit.

Before I get into my Arccos personal bests I just want to give a huge thank you to MGS, Cobra, Arccos, @GolfSpy STUDque and the rest of the moderators, and all of the people that followed along and peppered us with questions during our journey.  Also thank you to my fellow competitors @bardle, @Nunfa0, @palvord, and @robertson153 for keeping this fun and engaging all summer long.  And @revkev, sorry I couldn't earn you some awesome Puma gear during the 4-club challenge.

Back to business.  I ended up setting personal bests in 18 of the 22 Arccos categories during the challenge.  Here's the full list of everything that is tracked by the system.  My favorites are the lowest score, lowest all-time handicap, and fastest round.

Now that this is over I've already found myself missing the weekly challenges we had to go through.  Playing at the same course for 90% of my rounds can be very tedious when things are not going well.  Having something new each week was a shot of adrenaline during even the worst rounds.

The thing I'll miss the least is definitely hashtagging everything on social media.  I'd much rather be on the course playing than on my phone tweeting about it.  Yes I know I'm getting old.

I'm sure there were some bumps along the road and a few people wondered why the hell the five of us were selected for the most prestigious challenge MGS has to offer.  I hope everyone could see that we were all trying our best each and every week to give the most open and honest feedback we could possibly provide.  This challenge was far from easy but I think all five of us would say YES in a heartbeat if we had to do it all over again.

Although this is my last official responsibility for the CCC3 I'll still hang around the thread if anyone has questions about the contest, Cobra, Arccos, or anything else.  Feel free to PM me as well.

Thank you.

[sirchunksalot]

Congratulations to @robertson153 and @MaxEntropy for your wins this week. @MaxEntropy you're going to enjoy Arccos, it's such a great tool for tracking your game. @Bucky CC great job with your final official write-up and awesome job on your improvement. 

 

 

[Wedgie]

Nice wrap up Bucky and I’d also like to throw in a thank you to Studque for holding this all together for 8 weeks.

So Bucky you are the one guy I thought,based on your initial feedback, that was ready to drop the Cobra irons first chance you got. Are they staying in the bag or are you going back to your old setup?


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[Bucky CC]

43 minutes ago, Wedgie said:

Nice wrap up Bucky and I’d also like to throw in a thank you to Studque for holding this all together for 8 weeks.

So Bucky you are the one guy I thought,based on your initial feedback, that was ready to drop the Cobra irons first chance you got. Are they staying in the bag or are you going back to your old setup?
 

I have an iron fitting scheduled for later this week though I will not drop the F9's if I can't find a clear upgrade (mainly shot dispersion and repeatable distance).  I will also make a point to try out the Cobra Forged Tec irons so even if I switch I may stay in the family.

[Nunfa0]

1 hour ago, Bucky CC said:

I have an iron fitting scheduled for later this week though I will not drop the F9's if I can't find a clear upgrade (mainly shot dispersion and repeatable distance).  I will also make a point to try out the Cobra Forged Tec irons so even if I switch I may stay in the family.

Mmmm forged tec are soooo pretty

[MDGolfHacker]

Well done to all the testers!

 

 

[Wedgie]

I kind of feel like we have been playing together all summer and someone just lost our ball so we all have to go home.

[JohnSmalls]

 

[Nunfa0]

I should really post my wrap up but I don't want to and you can't make me

[Bucky CC]

Only one post so far today?  Are you people trying to make me do my actual job and not spend all day in this thread?  After 8+ weeks I'm not sure I know how to do that anymore.

This is a sad day.

[palvord]

15 minutes ago, Bucky CC said:

Only one post so far today?  Are you people trying to make me do my actual job and not spend all day in this thread?  After 8+ weeks I'm not sure I know how to do that anymore.

This is a sad day.

You and me both.  This has been me the last few days:

[JohnSmalls]

This is all of us waiting anxiously, hoping the thread will start back again. 

[robertson153]

How many Sandlot GIFS can there possibly be


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[palvord]

9 minutes ago, robertson153 said:

How many Sandlot GIFS can there possibly be


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[JohnSmalls]

35 minutes ago, robertson153 said:

How many Sandlot GIFS can there possibly be


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[sirchunksalot]

How many Sandlot GIFS can there possibly be


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The Cobra Connect challenge is ending?

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[edingc]

Say I know a guy who was interested in purchasing a set of Cobra wedges. Would the versatile grind suffice for average to soft conditions, including wet conditions? This guy takes mostly shallow divots, miss is more thin than fat, and will use the 52 degree for full shots, while the 56 degree will be for mostly touch and feel shots, flighting up/down, including chipping and pitching around the green.

Or would the widelow grind be better for the 56 degree?

Should have asked this during wedge week, but this guy is now in the market. 

[Bucky CC]

40 minutes ago, edingc said:

Say I know a guy who was interested in purchasing a set of Cobra wedges. Would the versatile grind suffice for average to soft conditions, including wet conditions? This guy takes mostly shallow divots, miss is more thin than fat, and will use the 52 degree for full shots, while the 56 degree will be for mostly touch and feel shots, flighting up/down, including chipping and pitching around the green.

Or would the widelow grind be better for the 56 degree?

Should have asked this during wedge week, but this guy is now in the market. 

I'm also a shallow divot taker who misses more thin than fat.  I had an issue blading the versatile grind Cobra wedges when I first got them but after 8+ weeks of the challenge I'm hitting them as good as or better than any of my previous wedges (including Vokeys).

If "the guy" can't get fitted to find the best option I'm sure he would do just fine with the Cobra versatile grind option.

[edingc]

26 minutes ago, Bucky CC said:

I'm also a shallow divot taker who misses more thin than fat.  I had an issue blading the versatile grind Cobra wedges when I first got them but after 8+ weeks of the challenge I'm hitting them as good as or better than any of my previous wedges (including Vokeys).

If "the guy" can't get fitted to find the best option I'm sure he would do just fine with the Cobra versatile grind option.

Thanks. Good feedback to know. Temptations, temptations.