Golf Thread

@booyaka

hey man, just a quick question, i couldnt remember if you said you had a Garmin R10 launch monitor?

I ask as I used the TrackMan at the range yesterday and was great! The problem is, my club im a member at (just up the road) is basic, so was considering a launch monitor to use there, as the TM was great to use for more accurate stats.
 
Played 9 this morning before work at my new club-to-be, in a couple of weeks.

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Shot a 40 on the front 9, linked above.
Only played there 3-4 times, so still getting to know the course and what clubs are best for each.

Started well,
1st: missed a birdie opportunity on the first.
2nd: missed an easy par opportunity.
3rd: missed an easy-ish birdie opportunity.
4th: chunked a chip on a steep up-hill lie.
5th: hit a good PW up onto a difficult pin on a 2 tier green and then missed a fairly easy birdie putt!
6th: Hit a great drive, but my chip onto the green ran out a huge amount more than I hoped.
7th: Bunkers here are beautful. Soft sand, got out first try and had a decent par opportunity, but again, rolled the lip.
8th: Big drive from me, slightly downhill but again, putting was awful. Need to learn to give it more pace to give it a chance instead of trying to die every one into the hole.
9th: Couldn't tell if it was an 8i or 7i, so went with a 7, completely miss-hit it and only went 100+ yards. Hit another one after for fun, turned out 8 was the club I should have used.

Lovely weather today, wish it stayed like this, but doubt it will!

Putting and chipping needs more work!

Note: Writing this out and telling you lovely people about this helps me analyse and progress as a golfer, hope you don't mind!
 
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Zeebedy said:
@booyaka

hey man, just a quick question, i couldnt remember if you said you had a Garmin R10 launch monitor?

I ask as I used the TrackMan at the range yesterday and was great! The problem is, my club im a member at (just up the road) is basic, so was considering a launch monitor to use there, as the TM was great to use for more accurate stats.
Click to expand...

yeah - Got one.

It's good, no question, hard to say how accurate it all is against say a £20k trackman.... But it's got stats for days, everything you could possible want. You need to set up it up properly / line it up proper etc.... I do like it, very useful. I don't use it all the time but its good for dialing in distances etc. How accurate the spin rate etc is I don't know but seems in the ballpark.

Good purchase - Got mine 2nd hand for around £400 I think... They seem to be dropping just under that now.
 
Zeebedy said:
@booyaka

hey man, just a quick question, i couldnt remember if you said you had a Garmin R10 launch monitor?
...
Click to expand...

booyaka said:
yeah - Got one.

It's good, no question, hard to say how accurate it all is against say a £20k trackman....
Click to expand...

Talking launch monitors, I've got a Mevo+ - nice unit, mostly use it in to a net, but I've used it at the driving range also. Accuracy is spot on when using it in full flight mode, limited flight (in to the net) seems pretty good also. Setup can be a bit fiddly, but accurate once you've got it right.
 
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So had my lesson earlier, some pretty good stuff with it reall, after a bit of a dodgy warmup with lots of thins and bad strikes :p

My path these days is so much better, not that long ago it was like 15 degrees out-to-in and now I'm much more often in-to-out, don't think I saw an out-to-in of more than 1.5-2 degrees but regularly 0.x or 1-3 ish in-to-out. Then it's just all the other stuff like closing the face and keeping that distance, especially in the backswing but also through the ball... Still hit lots of lovely shots I'd be more than happy with on the course :p

Discussed the club ideas/gapping, basically only having a 3H between my Driver and 6 Iron. He agreed a Wood might be the way to go and got me hitting a few different ones, initially I really struggled with closing the face trying the Mavrik and then he handed me the Stealth 2 HD 5W (bit of a price difference!) but same thing, oddly started to improve the swing and hit my first good-ish strikes with the Stealth 2 HD 3 Wood+ (basically a 4 wood, 16 degrees iirc), also tried a 4H which was 'ok'. Ended up going back to the Mavrik and hitting it better/closing the face and got some really nice strikes out of it, best went to 195 yards but more regularly in the 170-180 yard range pretty nicely.

Amusingly I then thought I should really try and hit my 3H, which I've been dissing and saying I don't like it/get on with it and first strike I absolutely pure it ~175 yards :cry: But more realistically it's a comfortable ~160 yard club, which kinda fits. I can/have hit it ~180 yards in the real world (178 on Sunday for example), but to try and get those numbers I'm having to really go at it and the number of duffs I get is the issue, whilst if I back it down to a more controlled swing but not as fast I get that 150-160-ish numbers.

So, of course, I went with the Mavrik 5W, should give me that ~20 yards extra over the Hybrid to fit between it and my Driver, it also stops quicker/carries more quite noticeably it seems, probably quite good for those longer par 3's with my distances.

I think that's it with new clubs till next year, but I might be tempted with a newer 4H depending how the 5W goes in the real world to replace the 'old' 3H, probably won't drop much distance and might gain some forgiveness, but really not sure that's worth it, if any of these new clubs are :p
 
Well just got my 40 used Srixon AD333 balls from ebay today, in good nick too, (just some pen marks), and there were 42 aswell! :D

Only thing is, when I came home, and had the RoyalMail slip saying it was in the back garden, and sure enough it was there, but it was supposed to be 2nd class recorded, RM delivery man, naughty, naughty! :cry:
 
booyaka said:
Titliest ain't happy!!!

Titleist responds to golf ball rollback news
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Seems at least a couple of pros aren't particularly happy either, seen headlines from Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau...

Kinda curious as to what it really is the organisers are trying to actually do? As a spectator the ridiculous drive distances are kinda cool to see, and if it's making some holes 'too easy' isn't that a job for the course managers, no real need to make the ball itself worse? I dunno...
 
booyaka said:
Titliest ain't happy!!!

Titleist responds to golf ball rollback news
Click to expand...
Seems the pros are now having their say on the matter too.
Not one is happy about it.

It's a stupid ruling IMO. The joys of a professional sport are being able to play with or have the same equipment as the Pros. It's the driving factor behind all professional sports.
 
magicroundabout said:
Seems the pros are now having their say on the matter too.
Not one is happy about it.

It's a stupid ruling IMO. The joys of a professional sport are being able to play with or have the same equipment as the Pros. It's the driving factor behind all professional sports.
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I echo this.
I'm envious of the pros smashing the ball 350 yards down the fairway, knowing they are using the exact same specs that I am.
Once they start changing the ball and it's only going 320 instead, you can't really compare yourself against them, which ruins it for you, in my opinion.
 
I'd kinda expect given Titleist (and others) will spend all the money trying to get the best ball for these pro tournaments that that's what we'd get as the top end ball sooner or later... So I'll be struggling to hit 200 yards :p

In other news played a quick 9 at lunch today, not great overall but first time trying my new 5 wood in anger and generally pretty good even off the deck, I hit a couple that were absolutely lovely with it as well which is always nice after splashing the cash :D
 
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Well..had my lesson today (1 hour). I must say that the pro was so sound! Really was a straight up guy!

Was happy with most of my stance, grip, address etc just said the main issues were, not going to straight back on my swing and then transferring weight and pushing left on the downswing..

It all feels so unnatural, when doing things right! :cry: Im going to book a 30 min next week, and see how it goes..

He said a the end of the lesson, "Alex, i dont think your going to need 8-10 lessons" etc. Which is great, he wasnt shoving lessons down my throat, so really gonna work on what I was told and get some good practice before the next session.

I was also half expecting to go in and be told my custom fit or something wasnt good and "advise" me on changing shaft or whatever..? But no, he had a few shots with the D9's and loved them! :cry: Gave me a bit of confidence in one that he liked them, plus his honesty on them.
 
WARNING! Incoming long rant.

Re the potential new ball for elite level golf competition:

There are different tennis balls used at Wimbledon than other tournaments
Pro baseball uses wooden bats with metal used in other levels

Is it "bifurcation" of the rules? Yes
Do you play the same game as the pros now? No

How many of you can hit without worry about a lost ball? Pros have ball spotters at every tournament so the long rough has a totally different impact on them than it would on you. How often do you see a lost ball on Tour compared to every round you have?

How many of you play on immaculate golf courses with fairways that run 50 yards? Greens without a pitchmark, bunkers without footsteps? A caddie who has spent days with a greenbook? Two to three days of practice before your round with advance warning of where the flags will be on each green?

So let the pros have the same rules: no practice rounds, no ball spotters, courses that have been in daily use before the tournament, no professional caddies, only allowed ten minutes on the practice green, no pre-round range time, no swing coaches allowed on the range.

If you don't want them to have all those same disadvantages as us, then consider whether the new ball is the least worst option.

Consider what has often been said as a better solution: grow the rough and narrow the fairways. This was tried at the US Open and Bryson won it anyway. His drives went so far that as long as he found the ball he was still close enough to the greens that he was hitting short iron/wedges to the greens. OK, so remove the ball spotters as well? TV will hate it as it will slow the game down even more. And the driving distance is not the only problem!

The distance issue is across the bag. The old great courses were designed for balls coming in at certain trajectories. A 440 yard par four would have required a good drive and a 3w in the 1890s when many of the great courses were opening. The green would have been large and relatively flat. Today it's a drive and a sand wedge so the green needs to be completely redesigned to be smaller and much more contoured. Every tour course would need to be built especially for the way the pros play. That's bifurcation again.

Or we do nothing, the pros continue to play darts with the approach shots, spray the drives wherever because there's no real harm. Isn't that boring to watch? For me, I really dislike watching the PGA Tour because there's rarely any real challenge for them. It becomes a putting contest only. Look at the TV coverage and it's all putting, putting, putting. Dull, dull, dull.

EDIT: This is a "Model Local Rule". There are already 80 other LMR's that have already set different optional rules in place so bifurcation is not suddenly happening.
 
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Anyone use or used an Odyssey Toulon putter?

Was at Golf Bidder today eyeing one up whilst I got my new sticks but at £229 for a secondhand putter I'm not sure I want to splurge that for a 14HC golfer lol
 
MikeTimbers said:
Is it "bifurcation" of the rules? Yes
Do you play the same game as the pros now? No
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I see where you're coming from, but, don't you think that when we start using different equipment from the pros, in golf (we're talking golf here), then there's a much bigger disconnect between you and the player you're watching.

The disconnect is what ruins it for me. Using different equipment is the disconnect.

I love watching the PGA, I know you don't, but are you expecting the new ball to start making it much more enjoyable to watch?
The reason you find it boring is probably because these players have such great accuracy and they're always hitting fairways and are close to pins when the risk is low.
The drive and approach shots is the most fun part of any game to me, it's where the greatest risk comes in, due to how far they hit it. If they can't hit it as far off the tee due to a ***** ball, then there's even less risk off the tee, even more boring to watch.
Irons into the green will still be very similar to what it is now, as there's not a big different between them pin hunting between a PW and 8i
 
MikeTimbers said:
WARNING! Incoming long rant.

/snip
Click to expand...

Hate to say but I disagree with everything.

If you compare all professional sports, football, tennis, cricket etc. What really has changed? Technology! Why? Because we all strive to be better. We want a longer drive. We want a faster shot, we want more spin on a bowl. The size of a tennis court hasn't changed. The size of a cricket pitch hasn't changed. But technology has but what is great about that is we, the mere amateurs, are able to use the same equipment. To try and simulate the Pros. To try and achieve the same shot as they do.

Difference being is they are an elite group of super human athletes. I take my hat off to them. To now try and hinder them is a travesty and stain on the sport millions enjoy.
Instead of trying to spoil their achievements in the sport they should be pushing them further. How far can they hit a ball. How much spin can they bowl. How fast can they serve?

The next level will be longer grass on a football field with a heavier ball so shots aren't as fast and passing is slower. It's just complete nonsense.
 
Golf is different to almost every other sport.

The comparison with football for example saying they will grow the grass longer? Football is person against person, golf is person against course.

Are those against the ball change, either a) happy for the courses to be overwhelmed resulting in scores getting ever lower for the pros or b) for the courses to be lengthened or tricked up to keep the scores the same?

You already play with equipment different to the pros. They have thousand dollar shafts, do you? They play on courses that you will never play in conditions you will never see.

Wimbledon changed the ball to ensure they actually had rallies in the men's game, else it was simply server wins until the tie break :yawn:

Watch the interview with the USGA / R&A

www.youtube.com

USGA, R&A propose model local rule to address hitting distance | Golf Today | Golf Channel

The USGA and R&A propose a model local rule requiring the use of golf balls tested under modified launch conditions to address hitting distance and The CEOs ...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
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